[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Minutes of the resource allocator summit

[Galen Charlton]

Hi,

Here are the minutes of the resource allocator summit that took place
on Tuesday.  The EOB invites feedback from the broader community.  I
would like to thank Ben Hyman and Kathy Lussier for organizing this
and to the folks who attended for their participation.

I apologies for any infelicities of formatting; I converted these
minutes from a Word document.  I will be posting the original document
on the website in the next day or so.

Evergreen 2014 "Resource Allocator" Pre-Conference

March 18, 2014

a) Attendees:

Dan Wells, Calvin College
Ben Shum, Bibliomation
Joan Kuklinski C/W MARS
Grace Dunbar Equinox Software, Inc.
Ron Gagnon NOBLE
Amy Terlaga Bilbliomation
Anna Goben, Indiana
Ben Hyman, BC Libraries Cooperative, EOB
Kathy Lussier, MassLNC, EOB
Galen Charlton, Equinox Software, Inc., EOB
Shauna Borger, Indiana State Library, EOB
Chauncey Montgomery, EOB
Rogan Hamby, York County, EOB
Yamil Suarez, Berklee College of Music, EOB
Elizabeth McKinney, GPLS, EOB
Andrea Buntz Neiman, Kent Library, EOB
Cindy Roach, Facilitator

Discussion of the role/responsibilities of the Evergreen Oversight Board

b) Learn of common cause - growing Evergreen together

Discussion of recent successful pooled development approaches as
examples of the reciprocal benefits achieved through shared funding,
focused on co-created Statements of Work for Evergreen's development.
Examples explored:


-Acquisitions Joint Funding
-Kids Pac
-Grants research update and potential parallels
-Merchandising update
-Hack-A-Way update
-Developer Hackaways
-Merchandising T-shirts are available

c) Moving forward; "shared, coordinated approaches are both possible
and essential for the future:"

- Identification of key institutional/jurisdictional/conceptual/legal
impediments to shared funding approaches
- Identification of dis-incentives if not already identified
- Identification of low hanging fruit
- identification of best practice models to emulate

General consensus from all that this approach is needed; much
discussion on what "coordinated" should be. Majority believed that
summit was important - that forward momentum is desirable.

Discussion on pooling money - how this has worked successfully so far
- and discussion of the role of the Software Freedom Conservancy

Discussion on strategic approaches available to the Evergreen
Oversight Board; e.g., targeting critical developments with matching
funds

Equinox's Idea Lab subscription model was also discussed -
participants can what they can afford to contribute putting these
resources together, making projects possible.

The Evergreen Oversight Board must not control development - rather,
as a representative extension of the community, work effectively with
developers and others.

FUNDS discussion in more detail:

- Is a location to pool funds a good idea? Consensus seemed to say it was.
- Should the Board have a place where the community can pool funds?
- Should the board solicit funds for pooling?
- Should there be an "emergency fund"?
- Should the Evergreen Community have a membership fee structure as a
way of getting funds for pooling? What are the benefits of membership?
Equinox's idea lab a potential model? Should there be a tiered model
of membership, higher the tier the greater the benefits?
- If there were "pre-conference" events added to the annual
conference, should there be an additional charge for an added day
- Tutorials--ways to use these to raise community funds?
- Use Patreon model?

Needs identified:

-Volunteers
-Time
-Predictable Resourcing
-Projects meeting needs of members (control meme)

Brilliant ideas identified:

-coffee fund for developers (incentive)
-community testing of software upgrades

d) Wrap up & next steps

ACTION (Ben/Kathy): Report out to the community
ACTION(s) (Evergreen Oversight Board):

- Discuss at next Evergreen Oversight Board meeting
- Develop Conflict of Interest Policy
- Strike a group to review its relationship with SFC with specific
attention to strategic community funds, and the application of the
existing 10% revenue allocation; meet with the SFC to discuss
- Explore the establishment of an "emergency" fund for the Evergreen
Project, under the auspices of the Evergreen Oversight Board / at what
rate?
- Explore grants; what level of support could SFC provide / at what rate?
- Conduct an environmental scan of other SFC initiatives WRT
variability of revenue allocation agreements


Regards,

Galen
-- 
Galen Charlton
Manager of Implementation
Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
email:  gmc at esilibrary.com
direct: +1 770-709-5581
cell:   +1 404-984-4366
skype:  gmcharlt
web:    http://www.esilibrary.com/
Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org &
http://evergreen-ils.org