FC meetings and Community Discussions

[bodhi.zazen]

As an update to the community, the FC and staff are soliciting community discussion both here and on irc.

The forums irc channel is #ubuntuforums

You can use the above link for a web client or an irc client such as xchat.

So if you are interested in giving input to the staff and FC you have three options.

1. This forum (Forum Feedback & Help).

2. FC mailing list posted here - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ForumCouncil

3. IRC - Staff are available on an ongoing basis on #ubuntuforums and FC meetings are open to the public.

We also have monthly FC meetings

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ForumCouncilAgenda

The general goal is to discuss items of interest to the community on an ongoing basis and use the FC meeting as a time to make decisions.

When making changes we will make announcements in the FC monthly reports and in the respective forums.

[bodhi.zazen]

As a FC member, I would like to set a "fixed" time of FC meetings.

For example, Third Tuesday at xx:yy GMT

The goal is to have the decision process be more transparent and, as much as possible, open for staff and community comment.

Please keep in mind, with a community this size, it is rarely possible to make a decision that will make everyone happy. We need to be able to make decisions that work for the majority of the community and not allow a vocal minority to obstruct progress change.

There are 2 problems.

-= US Time Zones are most popular =-

Yes, we have users across several time zones. However, most users are in the US. We are simply going to get better participation scheduling with US time zones in mind.

It has been my experience in the past, meetings scheduled outside the US comfort zone were poorly attended.

-= There is no time everyone can make the meeting =-

-= Best times =-

1. GMT 23:00 or 00:00 - Depending on daylight savings time. This time worked best in the past.

2. GMT 06:00-09:00 is a second window of opportunity.

-= Meetings are for decisions =-

Meetings are most productive if they are used to make decisions. The time for discussion is between meetings - You can use this section of the forums, Forums Council Mailing list, and IRC #ubuntuforums for discussion of the FC agenda at any time between meetings.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ForumCouncilAgenda

Please take an opportunity to express what time works well for you, as well as any other suggestions the FC can do to improve communication with the community.

Understand that, for meeting times, priority is going to be given to FC members as it is we who need to make decisions.