DASA the Who What?
At the last DASA meeting a few topics were raised that need addressing. Thanks to Monique and Richard for highlighting them for us. Here's some of my take on these matters, feel free everyone to jump in with more explanations or questions and to correct me if needed and/or with your own take on these matters:
What's DASA?
It's the Drupal Association South Africa... since we're in the commonwealth here in South Africa, we can expect to be able to freely "associate". That is, without even registering. That's right, tomorrow you can gather a few friends and, well, associate. If it pleases you you can even give it a title, say the F U DASA ;-) or "FUD" ;-)
But of course we wanted something more worthy and long lasting for this association. We wanted it to serve a purpose. Something bigger than our self interest and immediate needs. For something like that, you have to get people together and check if there is a meeting of minds for an ethos and ideals. So you keep the founding elements simple, participation easy and open and try to generate consensus...
To give it a name, we tied two basic things together: that it will be Drupal related and that it will be in/for South Africa. So that part may sound easy: Drupal Association South Africa (DASA). And then we start regular meetings...
What's with this "governing" board?
We wanted something under fundamental control of the community it should serve, we added a constitution to define the terms of association. For something a little more formal, we're also in need of formal structures and some people need to fulfil certain roles with fiduciary duties. This is essentially called the "governing board" (called that by definition, not by us deciding on a cool-sounding name for ourselves (we'd have chosen a much cooler name)) ;-)
Throughout the year we invited, every now and again here on GDoSA, on regular monthly meetup.com postings and directly at meet-ups and phoning some times down to Durbs and CT if people want to join us at the meetings. For more openness, we chose to share all our Google Docs which we'll also make available (the historic ones too) on the DASA site, meetings with minutes.
So yes, but who are you guys?
Well, to sign the constitution, you have to refer to the governing board. We needed an initial one and simply took the group meeting to put one together. It was by simple discussion and consensus with minuted shared documents that this happened.
Yes, this does mean we've got less democratic legitimacy than you will have once you vote for a board for DASA in 2014, but we also have a lot of legitimacy: I can definitely recommend the people you have now for their positions. If they are prepared to stand for those positions for the first term, I'd publicly support them. They gave their time and effort for a long year to get much more done than the initial commitment: 1 meeting a month and 1 hour per week. They will all support the Drupal community whether they are voted to be on the board or not. You're welcome to join and take on a portfolio at any time yourself. The only thing the governing board has that is different is "votes". We've also never used them. So far everything came down to discussion and consensus.
Don't like this governing board?
Remove us. We made it possible to remove us, but even more important: we're simply irrelevant without your support. We're bound by the constitution: https://groups.drupal.org/node/309448
We're also still coming about though. We know we have to start showing value to the community. It will take time. Remember, we're just like you. We work our asses off all day and just manage to make it to the meeting. Then we hope we have something that we can contribute to the DASA workings and so another month goes past. So simply pitch up at a meeting or pen down some ideas for what DASA can do for you and the community at large. Every bit helps. Make your voice heard.
For the far-flung Drupalers, we haven't forgotten you. We were really just, well, even non-existent until we singed that constitution at the end of the year ;-) We'll be sure to put out feelers to bring national areas into control and governance of the DASA as they need or want to and to support local Drupal as we're able to.
So this was all to get Willem from eConsultant to give up drupal.co.za / drupal.org.za?
Truly yes! After lunch with Willem at the time (early 2013) where I asked if he will give the domains to Dries, the DA or a future DASA in order of preference, I was discouraged by his refusal.
Then we had that very hot topic here on the South African Drupal group and I was much more encouraged by the community perception and views on the matter.
My own opinion on this, being quite strong, energised me and initially provided a lot of impetus for me towards the bits that I did to bring the first meetings about.
That's where the initial "yes" of my answer fades into the background order of business of DASA that barely recognised the issue this year.
From the beginning it was apparent that a DASA can be a lot more useful to the community than simply exist to fight for those domain names. As you'll see from minutes of meetings, we did touch on the domains two or three times, usually as one item in a list of many and we devoted very little time to it, mostly writing such matters off for the future in the hopes they will be solved more easily and/or amicably then.
My personal views on this will remain very strong and I'll keep putting them forward. But I also have much more to do than to focus on this one matter. With so many people involved and with you yourself being able to jump in and be from and off DASA or make demands of or support DASA, we have many things to do. If the community ever does insist or demand, that community being you too, we have to act on the domains too, but I'm sure even you know there's more we can do for you ;-)
Riaan, Riaan everywhere
Yeah - I sure post a lot. But somehow we were facing a worse problem. A lack of communication. We're all just so busy that we're not always getting a moment to post here. So I put it into my actual daily task list to do so and here we are: You have me and the little blue tree all over the place ;-) I can tell you for sure I'd appreciate some participation. Even just a "keep going" or "keep quiet" here, via IM or e-mail, anywhere. Keep in mind, posting in here will encourage others to also participate. Which is also why disagreement in public is important: so we can get the quiet opinion heard. Disagreement isn't the same as fighting and it can be very constructive.
But Riaan's Burtronix and it just feels like eConsultant all over again
Yes. I agree. It does. We're (Burtronix is) in the market with the other Drupal firms. It's not ideal. In terms of DASA, I'm only one guy there among many representing many companies. On here though, I'm loud, post everywhere and it just feels like another damned take-over...
Best I can do here (unless anyone can see some additional solutions I can put in place) is to confirm that Burtronix is both small (more like a Boutique shop) and still bills the majority (by far) of it's work outside of South Africa (the East, Europe etc). We also primarily function as a back-end developer for agents. By our nature we are therefore less competitive. We did try half a dozen tenders this year in SA, but our pricing and service offering really does not seem to match our public sector needs, so we're less likely to do so other than casually for 2014.
Back to DASA
DASA, really, is you. It's nothing if you don't make it something. You need you to make it worth something, to make it something good for you. Without you it is simply irrelevant. Together we can make it something better, bigger and worthy. Something that helps us all enjoy our Drupal more. That sets Drupal free and supports Drupal all over SA.
If DASA ever misbehaves, is hijacked or just doesn't work for us, we can vocally denounce it (go ahead), which may make it come right or we can identify it as dysfunctional and let it die a horrible death ;-) I'm always one for positive hopes though: DASA will turn into something awesome, it will take too long to do so, but it will be worth the wait and worth our continued support.
DASA requires only marginal input from any and all of us. Less communication and clear demands than to a significant other, less maintenance, less love, just a very little bit of each and it will be a value add back at you for a long-long time.
In Closing
Thanks again to the two eConsultants for raising some questions that perhaps, sitting in a board room once a month in Johannesburg, we didn't see clearly. If these questions were peculating in the minds of many South African Drupalers, maybe this post will help. If some were already concerned, perhaps they will only gain confidence in DASA once it starts delivering value, or perhaps only once it has a community-elected board, or once it's been around for a while...
I sure hope to see all of you sooner rather than later.
Any and everyone interested in putting in some time on the DASA, our next meeting will be on the 15th of January: http://www.meetup.com/drupal-association-south-africa/
PS
Please excuse my grammar and English above, day four of quitting from three packs a day and just barely managing the time to quickly write the above up. Work and deadlines for the holidays ;-)