Marketing

failing to add Bubli, Miklos and Stephan as watchers - they are not in the marketing group and not in the list people that can be added there..

Upon request, Jan Iverson is so kind to send an overview of contributions (of non members) to libreoffice-git, so that we can actively invite.
This however hasn't been done up to now...

Cor Nouws wrote:

failing to add Bubli, Miklos and Stephan as watchers - they are not in the marketing group and not in the list people that can be added there..

Added them now. Worked fine for me, not sure if that's limited to admins though.

About benefits, some shameless self-advertising, a couple of articles/slides I produced for that:
https://blog.effenberger.org/2015/11/06/wie-die-stiftung-hinter-libreoffice-funktioniert/
https://blog.effenberger.org/2015/10/26/libreoffice-vortrag-auf-der-ubucon-2015/

Feel free to pick content from that if it's helpful :-)

Upon request, Jan Iverson is so kind to send an overview of contributions (of non members) to libreoffice-git, so that we can actively invite.
This however hasn't been done up to now...

Pls don't limit this to git, iow to code & (subset of) documentation contributions. There's also pootle for translations, ODFAuthors for documentation, bugzilla for QA and testing, user MLs for user support and all those Telegram and other fashionable social media Sophie and Italo are following, where mostly locally active non-code contributors gather.

I agree we shouldn't limit this to git - we need to improve attracting new volunteers in many other areas (e.g. marketing, documentation and infrastructure, just to name a few), and I love the idea of promoting TDF membership. So the task IMHO is two-fold:

• identifying existing contributors, and convince them of membership
• make contributing to TDF more attractive, and aim for converting contributors into members eventually

A separate landing page for that sounds good to me (e.g. tdf.io/contribute and tdf.io/member). The calendar should be done anyways (see #1333) and independent from this ticket IMHO, but of course provides means of when and where to reach out to people in person.

Gabriele Ponzo is attending Akademy and may give a talk about TDF membership. He's asked me to write some text about the reasons for becoming a member, to use in his slides. I'll work on this and post updates here.

I'm leaving soon... are there any news?

OK, here's some text you could use or break up into slides. I can expand this later for a more detailed page on the TDF website, for instance, or make a shiny flyer out of it:

What are members?

Members – more formally known as the "Board of Trustees" – are a crucial part of The Document Foundation. They are people from across the globe who contribute time, effort and skills, whether on a voluntary or paid basis. All members are equal, and as they come from a diverse set of backgrounds and locations, they provide The Document Foundation with a rich set of talent, experiences and ideas.

Why become a member?

As well as showing commitment to the goals of The Document Foundation, and contributing time and effort, members can also vote for the Board of Directors (aka BoD). Because the BoD handles strategic planning and funding allocation in The Document Foundation, this voting process is important. Members can vote for Directors they believe represent their interests and those of the project as a whole.

How do I become a member?

First of all, if you're interested in becoming a member, thank you! To become a member, you need to show some commitment to the foundation, such as three months of previous contributions, and the intention of carrying on contributing for another six months. These contributions can be in code, design, documentation, marketing and other areas. The main thing is, you've invested some time into the foundation and want to maintain its success! To apply, see here:

https://www.documentfoundation.org/governance/members/application/

Any proposals/objections before Mike proceeds?
We can review the first design draft then again, of course
I'd like to have in e.g. pointers to contributor interviews and various events, to illustrate what the community is doing

Lacking any further comments, I propose to move forward :-)

Some last minute suggestions:

Mike Saunders wrote:

.. Members can vote for Directors they believe represent their interests and those of the project as a whole.

Members also vote for the Membership Committee, and nominate themselves for a position in the BoD and the MC.
And last but not least: members can get a @libreofice.org mail address.

.. is, you've invested some time into the foundation ...

you've shown involvement in the foundation or it's projects

Maybe we can work on this page too:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/TDF/Membership#criteria_for_membership

Klaus-Jürgen Weghorn wrote:

Maybe we can work on this page too:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/TDF/Membership#criteria_for_membership

Clarification or changing of the content/meaning :) ?
But hey - it's a Wiki and you're a (worthy) MC member..

When I first read "Why be a member", I don't know why but my mind made an accent on WHY, and in particular I thought that it would be important to let the membership become appealing somehow.

So, surely it deserves to be mentioned the importance of the formal part of membership, it's influence on governance and so on, but I'd like also to highlight the FUN part of being in our community first and (possibly) membership after.

My idea would be to show some of our "backstage" for each one of the activities that entitles to membership. I think to people having fun and joking while talking about UI (for example), as well as me speaking wrong while recording audio speeches, and so on with some pic or footage from our conferences, dinners & parties…

That could be part of a talk (format) for our conference and, possibly better, to other's ones (such as has been in Almerìa).
And it could become a second video of the "Join the Community" series.

Do you like my idea?

Gabriele Ponzo wrote:

...
So, surely it deserves to be mentioned the importance of the formal part of membership, it's influence on governance and so on, but I'd like also to highlight the FUN part of being in our community first and (possibly) membership after.
..

For sure an important thing. Maybe the first line of the page can mention it explicit, something as "of course there is a lot of fun [maybe link to...] in working in our community. And by becoming member..."

Hi Gabriele,

Gabriele Ponzo wrote:

Do you like my idea?

I do indeed, and I think you're totally right that the fun part needs to be emphasised! I'm just thinking of things we can show that are exclusive to members. Like, we can show fun from the conferences, dinners, hackfests etc. but you don't need to be a member to take part in those. What do you think we can show?

Do you think this would work best as a video, or as an image (infographic)? We can do both of course...

Mike Saunders wrote:

I've made a certificate (in Draw) that we can send to new members – see the PDF. What do you think?

• Do we really need that? I personally can't imagine that that would be considered "of value" by any member, but I may be totally wrong of course.

• Who would create those and send them out?

• I think "Member of The Document Foundation" would read better than "The Document Foundation Member" (it not being about "The [...] Member" but about "[a] Member of ...").

It's good to look at all reasonable ways to do something for members. For example the @libreoffice.org email address, is something that members can proudly use in a visible way.
And indeed, in the past we (the MC) have been thinking about digital signs for members. But we found some practical issues. For example that they have to be withdrawn after a year. Or must carry the start/end date. Since our membership is for one year, it has to be renewed every year.
Also in that discussion, looking at the current tasks of the MC, and what those practically involve, there was little enthusiasm in the MC to pick up the work involved..

More members has various good aspects. One of them being that it shows that we have a vital community. So am I optimistic to think that when we continue our work, with focus on serving the needs of the (wider) community, this will result in growing membership in a natural way?
And yes, of course it's important that we show in a accessible manner the why & how of membership. Hence I'm very glad with all the efforts done from this ticket to work on that.
Maybe we can do more with the fact that members have libreoffice.org email-addresses?

Cor Nouws wrote:

Also in that discussion, looking at the current tasks of the MC, and what those practically involve, there was little enthusiasm in the MC to pick up the work involved..

Sorry about that. I'm personally tired about this task. I wanted to strenghten the members by exclusively voting for marketing stuff and design stuff and some other stuff. The responsible people were opposed to this. I no longer have the strength to fight it.

Seeing the discussion - just to re-state the obvious, in that of course TDF resources are available for MC tasks, too.

So if workload is the blocker here, several things come to mind, from scripting pdf generation into mcm, to dedicating staff time to it.

Thorsten Behrens wrote:

Seeing the discussion - just to re-state the obvious, in that of course TDF resources are available for MC tasks, too.

So if workload is the blocker here, several things come to mind, from scripting pdf generation into mcm, to dedicating staff time to it.

One might read more nuances in my text ;)
But I think it's good that we discuss this at our MC meeting in Rome. So AFAIAC: to be continued..

Klaus-Jürgen Weghorn wrote:

Sorry about that. I'm personally tired about this task. I wanted to strenghten the members by exclusively voting for marketing stuff and design stuff and some other stuff. The responsible people were opposed to this. I no longer have the strength to fight it.

Sorry to read this Klaus-Jürgen.
I see various items that I'd like to look at. 'responsible people' in our community is one. Or maybe that should be broader: look at the processes that took place.
Then look at the - as such - good idea to give membership priority/advantages. OTOH, for some topic getting as much input as possible, might be just a bit more important?
Would you mind to prepare this (with details, examples) for our meeting in Rome?
Thanks!

OK, here's a draft of the script for a video I'm planning to make. @Gabriele: I can use some clips from the short interview we did at LibOCon in 2016. If people are happy with this, I'll work on the video itself later next week. Square brackets show what I'll put on screen during the narration.

[ LibreOffice logo ]

In the LibreOffice community, we often use the motto: free office suite, fun project, fantastic people. And it's important that our contributors have fun...

[ Pics from hackfests, guided tours and dinners at conferences ]

...especially when we get together at events, hackfests and the yearly LibreOffice Conference.

[ Pic from TDF website about members ]

While all contributions are greatly appreciated, if you want to get more involved with The Document Foundation, the non-profit entity behind LibreOffice, you can join us as a member of the Board of Trustees.

[ Spinning globe ]

TDF members are across the globe and contribute time, effort and skills, whether on a voluntary or paid basis. All members are equal, and as they come from a diverse set of backgrounds and locations, they provide The Document Foundation with a rich set of talent, experiences and ideas.

[ Ballot box ]

As well as showing commitment to the goals of The Document Foundation, and contributing time and effort, members can also vote for the Board of Directors. Because the Board handles strategic planning and funding allocation in The Document Foundation, this voting process is important. Members can vote for Directors they believe represent their interests and those of the project as a whole.

[ @libreoffice.org on screen ]

Oh, and as a bonus, members get a libreoffice.org email address as well!

[ Clip of man typing on keyboard ]

While many members are LibreOffice developers, all contributors are welcome to join, as Gabriele Ponzo from the Membership Committee explains:

[ Gabriele video interview clips from LibOCon 2016 ]

"This is really a beautiful community, and there are many, many tasks you could do. This is not a community of only developers. This is the most important thing, as sometimes people are scared and think - why should I join this community when I'm not a developer, or a power user? But sometimes it's enough to translate some text, for example, or make speeches, or videos, or documentation. We have so many tasks you can be useful for, and we are open to new ideas as well. You could join the community just to say: hey, why don't we prepare a banner to show on beaches, for example! Why not? And we say: OK, are you taking charge of that? So there are many reasons to be a member of this community, which is really a happy community. We have fun. So we say the best reason is: to have fun!"

So join us! If you're actively involved in LibreOffice or the Document Liberation Project, and plan to contribute for at least six months, visit tdf.io/beamember. We look forward to meeting you!

Stephan Bergmann wrote:

Mike Saunders wrote:

I've made a certificate (in Draw) that we can send to new members – see the PDF. What do you think?

• Do we really need that? I personally can't imagine that that would be considered "of value" by any member, but I may be totally wrong of course.

For example we issued one for Giuseppe Vizziello since he needed it to apply for a public administration employment.
About that specifically, I didn't check it again, but we could compare with Mike's one and try to take the best from both.

For the rest, I'm honored to be a testimonial with such an interview (which I didn't remember :)

Here's the video, unlisted for any final feedback / changes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7fVYxIPy0M

Fantastic job, Mike, I love it!

If you haven't, I propose to share with marketing-priv

And on the you@libreoffice.org - actually keen to see if someone writes
there. Can you poke Sophie so she sets up a forwarder that goes to you?

Can't hurt to ask Gabriele if he wants to be featured - but I love his
line! :-)

Good job, Mike, good job!

The Document Foundation Redmine wrote on 2017-09-06 at 18:52:

Here's the video, unlisted for any final feedback / changes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7fVYxIPy0M

Provide an acknowledgement "certificate" for new members, welcoming them

• I'd like to add a reference to the statutes, similar to "As per § xyz of our statutes, membership lasts one year etc. pp."
• TDF's team can help with producing these, but the MC needs to support the idea, as the signing should be done on behalf/in the name of TDF. So let's discuss this in Rome, we need the MC in for the idea to make it fly.

identifying existing contributors, and convince them of membership

Something we all should do regularly indeed, I think that is actually not a task specific to Mike.

Add a page to https://www.documentfoundation.org/ under Governance – "Why be a member?"

Any update on that?

Florian Effenberger wrote:

Add a page to https://www.documentfoundation.org/ under Governance – "Why be a member?"

Any update on that?

I think it makes sense to finish the video first, so that we can embed it into the page (with some text). I'm done with my editing of the video, but Gabriele is making some small changes, so it should be ready to go live very soon. Then I'll add the page to the site, and with the certificate, video and page done, we'll be able to close this ticket.

I think it makes sense to finish the video first, so that we can embed
it into the page (with some text). I'm done with my editing of the
video, but Gabriele is making some small changes, so it should be ready
to go live very soon. Then I'll add the page to the site, and with the
certificate, video and page done, we'll be able to close this ticket.

Sounds great - my order of priority would be video, website, and
certificates last, because advertising for membership can also be done
without these.

Here's the final video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g54FPnBmvOs

And script for subtitle translations: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Videos/Become_a_member_script

I'll now create a "Why be a member" page on the TDF website, embedding the video (and providing a WebM alternative).

Mike Saunders wrote:

I'll now create a "Why be a member" page on the TDF website, embedding the video (and providing a WebM alternative).

Done: https://www.documentfoundation.org/governance/why-be-a-member/

The "Become a member of TDF" now has subtitles in eight languages, thanks to our localisation community:

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Videos/Become_a_member_script

I will add more as they are made available. Meanwhile the video itself has almost 500 views.

Do you want me to work more on the new member certificate? If you don't plan to hand those out, I think my jobs for this ticket are done and we can close it (unless you want me to create anything else, of course!)

Mike Saunders wrote:

The "Become a member of TDF" now has subtitles in eight languages, thanks to our localisation community:

Thanks so much!

Do you want me to work more on the new member certificate? If you don't plan to hand those out, I think my jobs for this ticket are done and we can close it (unless you want me to create anything else, of course!)

For the new member certificate, I'd like the MC's buy-in, and IMHO last time we talked there were doubts (I have no hard feelings one way or the other). Maybe the MC members can give some feedback if they consider it worthwhile to pursue this right now with the support of staff time, or if we shall defer to later.

Wrt. this ticket, can you update the calendar with member-relevant dates? Only thing that comes to mind for the moment is the election: https://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/msg04006.html

That being said, is you@libreoffice.org already set up?

Florian Effenberger wrote:

For the new member certificate, I'd like the MC's buy-in, and IMHO last time we talked there were doubts (I have no hard feelings one way or the other). Maybe the MC members can give some feedback if they consider it worthwhile to pursue this right now with the support of staff time, or if we shall defer to later.

No feedback yet -- anyone from the MC have an opinion on the new member certificates?

Wrt. this ticket, can you update the calendar with member-relevant dates? Only thing that comes to mind for the moment is the election: https://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/msg04006.html

Done.

That being said, is you@libreoffice.org already set up?

Yes, done.

Mike Saunders wrote:

No feedback yet -- anyone from the MC have an opinion on the new member certificates?

Looking at comment #20-#27, AFAIAC nothing is changed.
Are there specific questions or new ideas?

I noticed some initiative to invite attendees from LibOCon for membership. That's pretty direct and effective, I hope anyway :)

Cor Nouws wrote:

Looking at comment #20-#27, AFAIAC nothing is changed.
Are there specific questions or new ideas?

No. Then I propose to close this ticket if nobody feels otherwise by end of this week, I think the job is done. :-)

Florian Effenberger wrote:

No. Then I propose to close this ticket if nobody feels otherwise by end of this week, I think the job is done. :-)

Well, as such, the topic may/should never be closed :)
@mike: maybe have a video chat (with the MC) to freely discuss ideas?

Cor Nouws wrote:

@mike: maybe have a video chat (with the MC) to freely discuss ideas?

We can do that, but it might be best to come up with some ideas here first, to discuss in such a chat. So far we've had:

• Video (done)
• Extra page on website (done)
• Certificate (done but not currently in use)

I could also make an infographic showing the benefits of being a member, like for donations: http://www.libreoffice.org/assets/Uploads/donate-infographic-large.png

Any thoughts or proposals from other MC members?

Mike Saunders wrote:

Any thoughts or proposals from other MC members?

As there's nothing else now, shall we close this ticket to keep Redmine nice and tidy? :-) If the MC wants me to create / work on something else in the future, to attract new members, we could start a new ticket and organise it from there...