BCP Collective Volunteer Updates - April 2024
Published on July 1, 2024 by Joe Taylor Jr.
First, Thank YOU for Volunteering!
Thanks for volunteering to help us run BarCamp 2024. You're getting this email because we found your contact info on the Signup Spreadsheet. If volunteering no longer makes sense for you at this time, remove your information from the spreadsheet. You can always re-add your contact info if you'd like to help later.
How to Stay in Touch
We'll periodically send out calendar invites and meeting notes by email for everyone listed on the Signup Spreadsheet, and day-to-day communications and decisions are made on Slack. See https://phillydev.slack.com #bar-camp-philly-organizers for more info; if you need access reply to this email.
Winter Technology and Communication Changes
Several volunteers (thanks Samira, JM, Joe T, Harper, Michael, Jess, Tim, and Mo) were busy this winter making changes that could be disruptive if we tried to do that now. Here's a summary:
- Domain/Gmail: A vendor acquisition had made us consumers of GoDaddy services, and we wanted to be off that platform. We're now working with NameCheap.com.
- Fiscal responsibility: Previously we were set up as an LLC, which had tax and liability implications for a couple volunteers. We now have a sponsor organization, the Open Source Collective, to manage that responsibility. This means we've moved away from a 'company' credit/debit card towards submitting expenses for reimbursement. The process is that volunteers will get approval from one of the Admins before incurring expenses, and submit receipts through them. Admins/ expense approval comes from Joe Taylor, Michael Rizzo, or Jess Victor.
- Slack is still first: We decided to stay with Slack over other communication options. Zoom will be used for live planning ("General Meetings").
- Status Updates: We adopted ClickUp to track tasks.
Organizing Principles
We believe that small working groups ("Departments") are the most fun and empowering way to get things done around here. So go ahead and join what Department(s) you want to make BarCamp 2024 great, as long as you abide by these principles:
- Do your best to replicate the 2023 vibe and experience.
- If you firmly believe it's time to do something different / better than 2023, confer with the rest of the volunteers in your Department first. If you're aligned on making a change, poll the rest of the organizers by making your suggestion in the #bar-camp-philly-organizers channel. Give them a week to reply. If there are no major objections, more power to you!
- We named several "Departments" to divide & conquer the work that lies ahead. Join one or more by letting us know in Slack, and meet or work asynchronously in whatever way works best for your Department.
- We'll hold General Meetings more and more often as BarCamp 2024 approaches. You don't have to attend them all, but send someone to represent your Department each time.
BarCamp 2024 and AI
If you'd like to know more about our last planning session, here's the latest AI-generated meeting notes!
Next Steps
- If not already connected, join https://phillydev.slack.com #bar-camp-philly-organizers ("Slack")
- Join one or more Departments before May 6 by posting on Slack that you'd like to join a Department
- Connect with other volunteers in your Department (via Slack) to determine:
- At a high level, what do you plan to do by when?
- What will you need from the other Departments by when? (E.g., Schwag needs graphics from the Marketing team by mid August.)
- Send someone from your Department to our next Zoom meeting, May 6 at 4:30pm.