Working Group Minutes/MWG 2016-05-23

From OpenStreetMap Foundation

Participants

  • Alberto Chung (AlbertoChung)
  • Steve Friedl (SJFriedl)
  • Milo van der Linden (milovanderlinde)
  • Paul Norman (pnorman)
  • Clifford Snow (Glassman)
  • Michael Spreng (datendelphin)
  • Jonathan Witcoski (jonwit)
  • Ilya Zverev (Zverik)

Introductions

Introductions of everyone present

Scope of WG

Discussion on including attracting more members as part of the scope.

Interim scope decided as

  • Administering the membership database
  • Answering routine membership queries
  • Working on increasing OSMF membership

Removing memberships has not ever been done (except for lapsed memberships) and that power remains with the board

membership@osmfoundation.org email

This email is the point of contact for questions (e.g. why didn't my membership renew). Two ways to set up email would be to forward membership@ to the whole group, or to have a different email for internal communication and have membership@ be a shared mailbox. The first is what the DWG does, the second is sort of what the LWG does with legal-questions@ and legal@

Estimate of 1-2 emails per week with questions, plus whatever internal discussion there is

Should we send from CiviCRM? It's what was designed for, keeping customer contact information in one place.

Paul to look into CiviCRM access

Corporate memberships

Corporate memberships have to involve the treasurer since the billing process is quite different. The board is also working on some new stuff with corporate memberships. Long term I don't know if this is something the WG could pick up, but I wouldn't worry about it for now.

Decision to focus on regular membership.

Promoting membership

Decided to defer promoting membership and growing the membership until the WG is setup

Transcript

--- Log opened Mon May 23 13:00:00 2016
13:00 <@pnorman> I'll chair this initial meeting I guess, although I'm hoping to step back from the WG once everything is running
13:00 -!- jonwit2 is now known as jonwit
13:01 <@pnorman> The three items on the agenda are the scope of the WG, how to handle membership@osmfoundation.org, and CiviCRM access. But it's best if we start off with introductions
13:01 < Glassman> paul - who is going to buy beer - you are the only one witha budget
13:02 < jonwit> i want pizza, but ill take beer
13:02 -!- AlbertoChung [~oftc-webi@187.226.192.152] has joined
13:02 < Zverik> I'm Ilya Zverev, a board member and a developer from Russia
13:02 <@pnorman> I'm Paul Norman, on the OSMF board as secretary. I'm here to help bootstrap the WG.
13:03 < Zverik> I was on the last membership WG, it didn't go well (everyone got bored and left)
13:03 < SJFriedl> Hi there. I'm Steve Friedl, Southern California USA.
13:03 < Glassman> I'm Clifford Snow, Washington (state), USA 
13:03 < jonwit> Im Jonathan Witcoski, from Virginia USA
13:04 < AlbertoChung> hi! i'm Alberto Chung, from Veracruz, México
13:04 < datendelphin> I'm Michael, I'm usually active in the Swiss OSM chapter
13:06 < jonwit> hopefully this will be more exciting than last time Zverik.
13:06 < Zverik> Thanks everyone. On to the scope?
13:06 < SJFriedl> I've never been involved in OSM other than participating in talk lists and editing the maps. 
13:07 -!- milovanderlinde [~oftc-webi@a80-101-119-9.adsl.xs4all.nl] has joined
13:07 <@pnorman> So, the scope of the WG. You can see some examples of scopes at http://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Operations_Working_Group http://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Data_Working_Group
13:07 < milovanderlinde> Hi there, good evening from the Netherlands
13:07 < AlbertoChung> Me too... in Mexico we are trying to open a Local Chapter, beyond that, nothing
13:08 < Zverik> pnorman: so basically 2-3 lines of whatever we come up with
13:09 <@pnorman> Yes. Which need to include handling routine queries from people about their membership
13:09 < Zverik> I see one point is managing membership@ address, but I don't know what's it used for now: I assume most things havebeen automated with civicrm
13:10 < Zverik> So that would be managing membership database, answering questions and requests
13:10 < jonwit> Would there be any involvement in trying to "sell" the membership to folks, no idea how we would do that
13:10 <@pnorman> Most things are automated with CiviCRM, but people still have questions, not everything works perfectly all the time, etc
13:11 < datendelphin> I used that address to announce my bank transfers. So people not paying by paypal were encouraged to write to this address for example
13:11 <@pnorman> jonwit: depends if the group wants to
13:11 < Zverik> jonwit: I guess this WG is mostly for day-to-day operations, and strategic decisions, like how to attract more members, are on the board
13:11 < Glassman> jonwit - I basically signed on to the wg to find a way increase membership
13:11 < milovanderlinde> Glassman +1, me too
13:12 < jonwit> I agree that this working group should be a way to present ideas to the board on how to drive up membership
13:12 < Zverik> okay, this could be put down too: researching ways to increase membership
13:12 <@pnorman> if the group wants to, working on increasing membership can be within the scope of it.
13:12 < milovanderlinde> But I do not mind getting my hands dirty helping with day to day
13:12 < Glassman> pnorman is there a wiki page for the smembership system?
13:13 <@pnorman> Glassman: it's a CiviCRM instance (wordpress)
13:13 < datendelphin> that's great. I don't really fancy that part (organizing of increas of membership) so if some people do that, very well :)
13:14 < jonwit> I imagine the most membership queries are the times when people are trying to buying tickets to the conference
13:14 <@pnorman> so, the three points are
13:14 <@pnorman> Administering the membership database
13:14 <@pnorman> Answering routine membership queries
13:14 <@pnorman> Working on increasing OSMF membership
13:15 < datendelphin> sounds good
13:15 <@pnorman> If there's no other tasks to be added I can add some wrapper text around them like on the other WGs and circulate a final version then send to the board for approval
13:15 < Glassman> pnorman - can you change the last to increasing osmf membershio
13:15 < jonwit> sounds great. This group would not be involved with removing memberships
13:16 <@pnorman> removing memberships because people have lapsed in their payments for long enough would be part of administering the membership database, but CiviCRM should do that automatically
13:16 < jonwit> i meant for members who are to be kicked out of the organization for whatever reason
13:17 < SJFriedl> jonwit - that sounds like something the Data Working Group would be more involved in?
13:17 <@pnorman> We've never done that and that power is reserved with the board
13:17 < datendelphin> when the reason is not paying, then yes. but they are welcome to join again at any time
13:18 <@pnorman> # membership@osmfoundation.org
13:18 < jonwit> Should all members of the group have access to the CiviCRM tool and email address? or should this be rotational?
13:19 < Zverik> who's receving membership@ emails now?
13:19 <@pnorman> I'll come to CiviCRM later, coming to email right now
13:19 < Zverik> and should they be forwarded to the whole group?
13:20 <@pnorman> This email is the point of contact for questions (e.g. why didn't my membership renew). Two ways to set up email would be to forward membership@ to the whole group, or to have a different email for internal communication and have membership@ be a shared mailbox. The first is what the DWG does, the second is sort of what the LWG does with legal-questions@ and legal@
13:20 <@pnorman> It's easiest to give the whole group access
13:21 < datendelphin> I like the forward
13:21 < Glassman> to start emails to everyone seems simple, we can fine tune later
13:22 < Glassman> keep the irc channel open for discussions.
13:22 < SJFriedl> If everybody gets a copy of the email, it seems like there could be multiple answers.  Coordination on IRC would be really helpful.
13:22 < datendelphin> how do we manage which questions have been answered? BCC to membership so everyone sees all replies?
13:22 < SJFriedl> "Hey, I got the email from bill@wiggy.com"
13:22 <@pnorman> As an estimate, I'd expect 1-2 emails per week with questions + whatever internal discussion traffic tehre is
13:23 <@pnorman> datendelphin: on the DWG we cc data@ for each email, and track stuff in OTRS. 
13:23 < Zverik> reply to all, so membership@ is in cc, everyone sees that
13:24 <@pnorman> OTRS is a support tracker that no one really likes but no one on the DWG has found an option sufficiently better to want to switch.
13:24 < datendelphin> otrs would be great. But if the traffic is so low, probably cc is enough
13:24 < jonwit> so the emails would pop up in my personal email account or a osmf email account?
13:25 < datendelphin> I guess your personal, but you can always create another address if you want
13:25 < Glassman> We are using the a broadcast of questions for people registering to sotmus. so far no problems. Get a few questions a week.
13:25 <@pnorman> osmfoundation.org email is handled through google, so it's a Google email "group" which forwards to your email, and you can set up filters on your email if you want
13:26 < jonwit> thanks for the clarification @pnorman
13:27 <@pnorman> Okay, I'll set up that up after the WG is formalized by the board
13:28 < jonwit> would we be doing anything with the corporate memberships? or just individual?
13:28 < SJFriedl> good question
13:29 < jonwit> i imagine they both get put into the CIVICRM
13:30 <@pnorman> # corporate memberships
13:30 < SJFriedl> and when we reply to a member, would it be from our personal email address, or should it appear to be from membership@ ?
13:31 <@pnorman> SJFriedl: It'd appear from yours. to appear from membership@ it'd need to be a "delegated mailbox" like legal-questions@
13:31 <@pnorman> # back to membership@
13:32 < SJFriedl> got it. I suppose anybody who didn't want to use their personal mailbox could just make a second one. 
13:32 < AlbertoChung> We will have a colaboration with Local Chapters WG? i think will be great if the members of the LC are also members of the foundation, what do you think?
13:33 < jonwit> Local Chapter work independently of OSMF? no?
13:34 <@pnorman> AlbertoChung: the LCWG is inactive. The WG can collaborate with other WGs if it needs to - probaby mainly the CWG. For the specific point, LCs are legally separate from the OSMF and membership operates independently'
13:36 < milovanderlinde> Shouldn't we send from Civicrm? That is/was what CRM was originally intended for; to mail from one address and keep customer contact and messaging in one place.
13:36 < jonwit> I think all my questions are answered! anything else to discuss?
13:37 <@pnorman> # civicrm access
13:39 <@pnorman> We're probably not using CiviCRM as much as we could or should, but I'll look into access. We might need to have everyone agree to a short agreement because there's private data in there
13:40 -!- jonwit [041c993c@107.161.19.109] has quit [Quit: http://www.kiwiirc.com/ - A hand crafted IRC client]
13:41 < AlbertoChung> Sure
13:41 < Glassman> seems reasonable.
13:41 < SJFriedl> What kinds of questions typically come in? What resources might we have to get answers for the members? 
13:42 < AlbertoChung> Yup, are some FAQs? or maybe we should create an article on the wiki ?
13:43 < Glassman> Can we get access to the old membership emails to help create a FAQ?
13:43 <@pnorman> so, I have a to-do to check granting civicrm
13:44 < Zverik> making a FAQ is a great idea
13:44 <@pnorman> It might be easiest to generate a FAQ as new ones come in. I can probably get the last month or so
13:45 < milovanderlinde> Is anyone here familiar with working with CRM from the non-technical side, I mean as user? Because I see no need for FAQ when we have a good working CRM. But perhaps I am just a fool on a hill.
13:46 < datendelphin> no, not familiar
13:46 < Glassman> pnorman - that works for me. having a faq might help members answer their own questions.
13:47 <@pnorman> # corporate memberships
13:48 <@pnorman> Corporate memberships have to involve the treasurer since the billing process is quite different. The board is also working on some new stuff with corporate memberships. Long term I don't know if this is something the WG could pick up, but I wouldn't worry about it for now.
13:49 < Zverik> I agree to focus on a regular membership, at least initially
13:50 < SJFriedl> +1
13:50 < AlbertoChung> +1
13:50 < Glassman> +1
13:50 <@pnorman> # promoting membership
13:51 <@pnorman> It's probably best to defer promoting membership and growing the membership until the WG is setup
13:52 < SJFriedl> that seems fair. No harm in individuals personally spreading the word, but not as a formal task of the WG.
13:53 -!- milovanderlinde [~oftc-webi@a80-101-119-9.adsl.xs4all.nl] has quit [Quit: Page closed]
13:53 < Glassman> maybe a subset of the interested individuals of the wg could work on increase membership
13:53 <@pnorman> yes, not everyone needs to be involved with all aspects of the WG, just so long as everything is covered.
13:54 <@pnorman> Okay, so the next steps are all mine: do minutes, circulate scope, after that send scope to board, after that set up membership@ and civicrm
13:56 < Zverik> Right. Thanks Paul!
13:56 < datendelphin> sounds like a lot of work for you. After this is started, could we agree to short, monthly meetings?
13:56 < datendelphin> I mean without pnorman, just the WG members
13:58 < SJFriedl> I presume that we'd  generally hang around here on our own, help each other.
13:58 < Glassman> monthly meetings to figure out our process makes sense
13:58 < AlbertoChung> I don't remember where i read about some people would like some kind of e-card as members (to show off or share, serve us as mkt), would it be possible? 
13:58 < datendelphin> of course, I will lurk here
13:59 < Glassman> AlbertoChung membership cards is something we can work on. 
14:00 <@pnorman> okay, see you all on email
14:00 < Glassman> bye
14:00 < SJFriedl> thank you all
14:00 < AlbertoChung> cya!
14:01 < datendelphin> thank you, bye
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