[Board] monthly outreach update

[rogan.hamby at gmail.com]

As most of the Outreach efforts are directed to the conference this month
the bulk of our efforts are reflected in Andrea’s report.

Update on the RedBubble store being down:  I have made repeated efforts to
talk to support via chat, email, form and phone, directly and asking for
escalation.  We received no notification about the cause of the account
being suspended.  The automated response we get from filling the form
request references a DMCA take down.  Since we have no notification we lack
confirmation but I attempted a DMCA appeal anyway.  We have gotten no
response.  The three reasons they list for an account being taken down are
a) adult material, b) vaguely defined malfeasance and c) copyright
infringement.  Given the nature of the two graphics I can not imagine they
fell into the realm of being defined as inappropriate for minors and I saw
no behavior that would fall under some kind of account manipulation so a
DMCA takedown request is the most likely cause.  At this point I see no
path forward on reactivating it given a complete unwillingness on
RedBubble’s part to respond to any support request.

Planning for the Hack-A-Way is in progress.  Currently we are looking at
dates in early November.  Our hope is that by then we will be at a strong
enough place with vaccinations to make an in person gathering viable.  As
we discuss plans to safeguard attendees we are being conservative in
regards to health  concerns.  The small number of attendees are likely to
fall well under any state or local guidelines requiring masks or distancing
by that point.  We are working with the hotel to confirm the dates and look
into what the local rules regarding meetings and density will be.  We are
using the number of responses to the survey to estimate the size of
attendance and are evaluating possibilities that include capping attendance
and requiring masks.  We are also looking at the availability of equipment
to make a robust hybrid event using Hopin and would like the board to
consider allocating roughly $200 US for this.  This would allow us to set
up the event and have preparatory events the month before as well as the
main event the month of.   Furthermore, should the public health situation
not improve (or worsen) by then it would put us in a strong position to
move to a fully online Hack-A-Way again with minimal disruption.

Additionally,

A press release is in the works for the most recent release.
The annual report is being proofed and almost done.  The plan is to release
it online the last day of the conference as has been done in the past.
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