When and Where: Wednesday the 24th of April, 18:30, at Adcorp Holdings, 28 Sloane Street, Bryanston (first building on the left when entering at the gate).
Hello Everyone,
Over the past month there has been a lot of movement in the Drupal community of South Africa. Discussions have been held on Democratizing Drupal, forming an Association, and how to bring the various groups into contact with one another.
After much consideration between various individuals and myself, I would like to invite anyone and everyone interested, to the first meeting of Drupal Association South Africa.
The decision has been taken to hold this meeting, on an alternate evening from the casual Drupal meet-ups which happen on the first Wednesday of every month, for the following reasons:
-
The first meet-up is a very casual meeting, focussed on introductions to people in the community, individuals and their work with Drupal, Show and Tells, etc. This meeting is the spring board for new members, who do not know the people, or much about Drupal. We took the view that these people would not be interested, at least not immediately or without purpose, in the day-to-day running of the Drupal Association, and therefore this would create too much of an unnecessary distraction to the work that is already being done there.
-
Many people who are currently active in the community do not feel a need to be part of the organising, and just want to be part of the community for the learning and social side. Having this as a separate evening will enable them be part of the community, without feeling as though they will have half their evening wasted.
-
Another reason was focus. We would like to have a set agenda every month, which focusses on the core aspects of organisation that the Drupal Association of South Africa is empowered (by the community) to tackle, such as organising Drupal camps, Creating additional training spaces (if required) as well as other tasks the Association feels it can handle. The focus should be on planning, managing, and organising the various aspects of driving the Drupal South African Agenda, which will allow meeting times to be kept to a minimum.
Initial meetings, while we sort things out, will be every third Wednesday of the month but once we settle into some portfolio groups and work, we'll probably take a more measured approach and move more of the tasks and information online too. The idea would be to also work towards more formal meetings, with agendas and minutes that we can publish to include the wider community in the doings and opportunities (those that do not attend).
So feel free to add to the agenda if you want to address anything specific.
I've only served as trustee a few times, so would really like to see someone attend that know how to run meetings like this.
Agenda:
- Introductions
- Elect someone to chair the meeting, take minutes etc.
- Requirements and Expectations of the Association
- Limitations
-
Constitution
-
Future
- Near
- Next Meeting Date
- Far
- NPO and Options
- Voluntary Association
- Trust
- Section 21 Company
- Suggestions:
- Portfolios
- Training People to use Drupal
- At Schools
- At Universities
- Grants
- Promoting the use of Drupal
- MBA Sub-courses
- Assisting the Drupal Association in it's tasks in SA.
- Accountability
- Portfolios
Comments
If you're not associated with
If you're not associated with the actual Drupal Association, (https://association.drupal.org/) I would strongly advise picking a different name! They will almost certainly be against this usage of their name and you may face a letter from a lawyer.
The drupal.co.za domain should also get explicit permission to use the trademark.
Otherwise I think that something like this can do good if it doesn't get mired in bureaucracy.
Name can Change
We'll make sure not to do anything official without getting permission. This is a very informal meeting right now. But if there's community buy-in, we can ask if we can get permission to use the trade mark for a national organisation.
Most of the other national (and even regional where countries are large) associations or organisations have used such naming. Still, only once we have something to show in terms of community buy-in do I think it is worth asking the Drupal Association what name we can use.
Location
Am I right in assuming that this would take place at the same venue as the Monthly Meet-ups? Or is it taking place somewhere else?
Knew I left something out ;-)
I just knew I left something out... yup, same venue.
[Edit] Updated the main article.
My notes for the meeting.
I thought I'd share the notes I'm keeping for the meeting in the hopes to prepare people better and facilitate a quicker, more effective meeting. If you have any of your own, sharing them will allow others to formulate their ideas better for the meeting too:
Introductions
Elect someone to chair the meeting, take minutes etc.
Requirements and Expectations of the Association
Portfolio: Community Accountability
Association of South Africa or just drupal Association South Africa.
participation in the DASA.
Portfolio: Training & Education
Portfolio: Promoting Drupal Use in SA
Portfolio: Community Communication
functionality of the DASA.
keeping information up to date, informative and neat.
Portfolio: Brand Building
Portfolio: Events Support
Limitations
Constitution
Portfolio: Administrative Requirements
Portfolio: Drupal Association (international) Liaison
existence and how we may tie-in with them and support them.
Future
their respective portfolios and report at the next meeting.
Same agenda for DrupalCape
Nice thinking Riaan, just wondering if this agenda is being coordinated with DrupalCape meeting also happening this evening?
Hope they discuss
I'd hope they would discuss anything they would need from a DASA, but my hour-a-day devoted to g.d.o. for this didn't allow me to get to any such planning.
Since this is still early days, I'd also like to see what the hosts can do in terms of connectivity for when things get more formal in coming months to see if we can live-tie-in the Capetonians.
Meetings are pretty much just administrative and points in time where reporting drives a schedule and progress, so another option would be to just have someone at the meeting take a national portfolio to represent other local areas' interest at the physical meeting. Was thinking of adding such a portfolio above, but was too worried that it, as a second-best option, mentioned alone, would not sound right. So here we go then, a better thought out idea ;-)
Most of the work and progress will be real-world online and out of meetings. As open, here and where needed, as possible. So if CT wants things a certain way or a service to be available from a DASA, they just say so as much as the JHB guys do. But we do face a geographic disparity that we'd have to actively address. If you're at the CT meeting tonight, maybe look into connectivity options and interest there too.
Quick Questions on GTalk/Jabber & IRC
I know this information is implicit in the wiki and contact options all over, but...
...if you have a quick question or just want to keep a line open, feel free to add me on Google Talk / Jabber as riaan.burger@burtronix.com or prompt me with "Nightwatch" in your message on #drupal-za on Freenet IRC.