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Weekly Meeting Minutes
Let's keep all the meeting minutes here. It would be good not to start a new page, but always append on this one, so that we can have an easily browsable history (top post).
We heard Rizopoulos proposal. He suggests 14 talks. 10 CFP + 4 ours. He suggested requesting for originality (because of the 20 years anniversary). Keynote = 1h (talk 45 + 15 questions + break) Every 2 talks we have coffeebreak.
Rizopoulos's important notes :
- He proposed that we decide on the CFP until Sunday (closing CFP date : end of Feb or mid of March).We decided to vote
- Decide about the 3 other speakers to prospose to
- Should the subject be around a specific pattern (e.g. ruby and not specific frameworks etc.)
@nikosd said we need two talk about it first (and then decide)
@chief noted that the schedule as proposed has for 4 coffee breaks not 3
@nolamesa said to put a threshold on the voting (above which the proposal is valid)
Decided to talk about the proposal until next Wednesday and decide then
TODO : @rizopoulos will make some additions to the issue. We will review and decide
EXTRA TODO : for Rizopoulo : he will contact Matz to ask if Heroku will cover his expenses
@vvatikiotis send 4 emails and eventopra and eventpride responded. He said the Eventora is the most suitable so far. eventpride, amianto do not give the money before the event so we ruled them out
We put the numbers down and voted for Eventora (all of us)
TODO : to check if we need merchant account or a simple company bank account (although stated in the email)
@chief informed us that on Friday (11/01/2013) we will have a first version of this site (lorem ipsum, mockup photos). He proposed that he needs 1-2 people to put content (copywriting).
@chief wants specific roles (dedicated people) for the content. All agreed in the end.
@nikosd suggests to use pull resuests to fill the content
TODO : @pagojo and @chief will do it (content) and the rest will review it
Possibly tomorrow, the lawyer will submit the paperwork (as informed by @nikosd)
@nikosd asked him to tell us the costs + the costs for some extra help. He said he will for the start/end (of AMKE) as long for other legal tasks are concerned he said 2 things :
- For something simple he will not charge us
- For something bigger he will charge less than the official lawyers's association prices
Voting results :
https://docs.google.com/a/euruko2013.org/open?id=0B14ApBv2m3DMZUJoUHEwSmlTMk0
We discussed if the committee would have a say in the sponsors picking.
We all agreed to an extend that it should. We agreed not to put certain public restrictions, but do it internally.
Some (especially @vvatikiotis, @pagojo...) suggested to have a certain period after the pdf is published and before the start of the offers.
Others don't want such a period (@gfotos, @nikosd)
TODO : @apantsiop will apply the notes we made on the sponsors draft. Hand it over to @gfotos to pass it to the designer.
@gfotos said that his accountant needs 184.5/month. That is 2214 for one year.And 600 for the company start. Total : 2814 (VAT included)
DECIDED : Decide next week (LOL). Some other offer might come up until then.
Stefanos told us about another guy who can make the iphone version of the app.
Panos talked to Vodadafone (his insider)
His contact doesn't recommend buying the wifi spots (it's 300-500 euros per access point and each one supports 50 clients).
He proposed to lease them. Price not available yet.
HOL line upgrade : 2000 eur for 40Mbps (rough estimate)
The total rough estimate for the line, setup and wifi should be around 10000 euros, give or take.
TODO : Panos will contact the companies and his contact to get more details.
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About the bizzare techcrunch tweet:
@vatikiotis said that we need to respond ASAP but be carefull.
@john said that we need to set hard limits for response times. An that we need to have dedicated people to do it. All the others need to monitor a little bit and call the media team to handle any soc. media emergency.
@gfotos said that the media team needs to confer before twitting.
@nolamesa believes that none should take it upon themselves. Always ask another one before responding.
@nikosd suggested not to feed the trolls -
@nikosd made 2 proposals : 1) stick to the agenda, the meeting leader should insure that, 2) choose the proper tools and stick to them (google docs from the EURUKO account, as we all agreed)
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@nolamesa asked if we need a contract for sponsorships
@apostolos : finish the sponsorships pdf and hand it over to @gfotos. confer with the designer if needed.
@gfotos : give the sponsorships pdf to the designer. manage the whole process
@chief : handle the site content and the site progress
@pagojo : handle the site content and prepare the soc. media issue (from last week)
@pxinos : get more details/prices for the venue networking issues
@rizopoulos : finish the RFP. contact Matz
@vvatikiotis : ask about merchant account
@nolamesa : I forgot! Help!
- Media (same as previous week)
- RFP procedure finalization
- Sponsorships acceptance policy (the discussion that we left in the middle)
- Accountant final decision
Nick gave us a quick update on the NFP. Tomorrow ( editor: 03/01/2013) the contract with Colab will be ready. We are kinda late with the inauguration of the company ( editor: by the time these minutes were written the contract wasn't ready, hopefully it will be by Monday 07/01/2013). The lawyer will need a couple of days to perform the required bureaucratic processes with the business registry and the tax office. One day, hopeful next week, Nick will take a leave from his work and go with the lawyer to start the process.
By the time we are ready to open a bank account we should have decided on which members will fulfil which roles (President, VP, Treasurer). The bank will ask such info.
We should create a new issue for nominations and vote until Sunday about the roles. Vassilis will open the issue.
Vassilis is informing us about ticketing. Amiando and Eventbrite keep the income until the event and pay out when the event is completed. They do that in case the event is cancelled in order to pay refunds.
We are thinking about excluding Amiando and Eventbrite for this reason. We can move forward either with Eventora or TicketBud.
Vassilis will send tomorrow emails to Amiando, Eventbrite, Ticketbud. By next Wednesday, hopefully, we will have all required info and vote on the ticketing company.
The emails will contain:
- Validate our assumptions on money calculations
- Ask for a discount / special price
- Ask whether we can get the money up-front or only after the conference
Vassilis will share the demo accounts so we can see the flow on all sites.
Talking about the sponsorship packages. Apostolis is absent and we will discuss the topic next week. Apostolis should close the issue and sum up the situation. We should create the PDF and the web material. Apostolis should upload the document to review the texts (or if already done, remind everyone once again).
Apostolis should get in touch with George and move forward with the sponsorship packages leaflet. Provide the designers a design brief document (previous speakers, overall feeling, layout).
Nikos Dimitrakopoulos want to help with the media master plan. He will get in contact with John and help organise / provide feedback to the media plan.
We need to ask the EuRuko 2011 (Amsterdam) guys the list of members from the previous event so we can send a newsletter. We should get the list until the end of January. Fotos will take care of this JIT.
Fotos will ask the accountant:
- Clarify the issue with the taxes
- Clarify whether the offer was for a 6 month plan / does it include a discount
Nikos Diamantopoulos will communicate with Vassilis with regards to the CFP and see how we can speed up things a bit. Damphyr might be overwhelmed and we have to find ways to help him move forward with the CFP.
We discussed briefly about the TechCrunch event. Fotos proposed we sit down and write some points that we could use / pitch at the event. This is a great opportunity to show off some of the ideals of the Ruby community while reflecting the values of our mission statement. We wrote about 10 sentences / points that could be used in the event. Vassilis will go over the list, upload it somewhere and ask for comments.
We should also budget the Internet line as well as the WiFi coverage costs. Panos (who was absent) should send us the document that we have to send to Vodafone / HOL for review.
- @fotos should email the accountant, update the action plan, catchup the ladies :P, upload the minutes, write the agenda, cleanup issues
- @nolamesa should contact @damphyr about the CFP, help @fotos with the action plan and the issues
- @vvatikiotis should email the ticketing companies, get ready for TC, open a ticket for nominations, share the demo (ticketing) accounts on KeePass
- @pagojo should be prepared to present a media plan
- @nikosd should get the document for Colab, contact the lawyer and help @pagojo with the media plan
- @pxinos should sent us the document we have to send over to Vodafone / HOL
- @apantiosp should wrap up the sponsorship packages and prepare a design brief
- @chief should start designing / implementing the website along with Skroutz's designers
The next meeting will be on 09/01/2013 20:30 sharp.
At the meeting we had the latest and final version of the legal documents for the NFP. After we read them we found there were a couple of mistakes that needed to be changed. Since there was no printer available at CoLab, the signing will be done tomorrow. Vasilis will most likely pass by and collect the required signatures
In order to conclude regarding the sponshorship packets we needed a good estimatation of the expenses we will have to cover. We tried to fill the budget excel made by Apostolos, with as much info as possible.
Some of the costs that were added were:
- 10.000 € for wifi coverage
- 10.000 € for speaker expenses (tickets, hotels)
- 5.000 € for t-shirts and gifts
- 4.000 € for filming and streaming
- 4.000 € for coffees + 2.000 € for refreshments
- 10.000 € for event management
One of the costs that needs to be investigated is of the installation of sufficient power outlets.
Regarding the expected income from tickets, there was a suggestion that the price should be less than the last euruko, so something between 50 - 60 €.
There was an extensive discussion regarding the number of slots and cost of each one of them. Some of the ideas that were on the table:
- Should we have unlimited slots for the lowest packages
- Should we have a fixed of flexible amount of slots for the gold sponshorship
- Everyone agreed that the biggest packet should have only one slot
- Maybe we should not state from day 1 all the available packages e.g. announce the smaller packages later
Since the issue is crucial and we believe we have sufficient data to decide the following were decided:
- Until Friday we should be sending our proposals to Apostolos regarding the appropriate combination of price and slots
- Until Sunday we should all vote for the most suitable combination
A few the proposals that were mentioned:
- @nikod was in favor of: 1 x 10.000 | limited (3-6) x 5.000 | unlimited x 2.500
- @pagojo proposed that we don't communicate how many slots we have available for the tier-2 and tier-3 sponsor packages
- @nolamesa suggested to keep all the packages under the psychological limit of 10.000
Finally the pdf template (in terms of design) must be created asap in order to be ready to go public.
We need a very well thought plan and immediate actions in order to be heard out there. As a first task we should have a draft of the first steps that we need to take in that direction. @pagojo will be creating a document with his proposals on this, where we should all comment.
- @pagojo will reprint the NFP contracts and @vvatikiotis will take care of gathering the signatures
- @fotos and @chief will handle the pdf design process in cooperation with the skroutz team
- @pagojo will be drafting a document with the first steps in the area of meda coverage. @teoulas might be able to assist him on this, or propose any different approach.
- @nolamesa and @fotos will be syncing the action plan document and communicate our progress to the girls
- @apantsiop will further process the sponsors PDF content in order to hand it over tou Skroutz for the design part and be in charge of the voting procedure for the sponsors price/slots.
- Sissy and Marian will be asking for a price on accounting
The next meeting will be on 2/1/2013. Also the proposed time for gathering is 20.30 sharp
(As recorded by Apostolos until he had to leave, then Fotos took over)
Short update by everyone on how the last week went by, which issues where completed, which were pushed forward, stalled issues, and new issues that arose.
This section will be filled in by Apostolos (from recollection, we decided to start recording minutes after that :)).
@chief updated us on the site progress. It is in the design process. He also mentioned a potential sponsor (CarreerBuilder). @nolamesa also mentioned Upstream as a potential sponsor. @apantsiop mentioned a few things about last Friday's meeting with the girls (you can find it in previous weeks minutes). Both @chief and @apantsiop said that we need to write some content for the sponsor's pdf (which is being designed by Skroutz).
@nikosd said that the statute must be complete and signed by Sunday (possibly) so that he can submit the papers on Monday morning. He still has a part or two to complete/correct.
We asked Colab on the spot for an offer : 1200 EUR (150/month) + communication sponsorship package. (we save 1200 EUR (2400 initial price), we gain a registration address for the company). @chief informed us that Skroutz could do it, but they prefer to do it in two months (due to the company moving, and a condition in their current contract that forbids them to do so). Unless... we are in a hurry. They can make it work in that case. It was not recommended as a regular meeting place, though. We would still have to use (and pay for) Colab. Pame Diakopes said they can do it but only if we can't do otherwise (too many companies in there). @nikosd stated that with Pame Diakopes there is the advantage of storage (paperwork etc.) and we can also do the meetings there (lots of space, relatively good access whenever we need it).
Voted for :
@chief : Pame Diakopes @apantsiop : neutral @pagojo : Colab @vvatikiotis : Colab @dark5un: Colab @nolamesa : Pame diakopes @nikosd : Pame diakopes @fotos: colab
Colab : 4, Pame Diakopes : 3
Colab will be the NFP's registered office and our regular meeting place. Colab needs 150€ / month for 6-8 months + some minor sponsorship (communication partner). They offer... next steps.
(At this point Apostolos had to urgently leave the meeting)
Discussed the statute and the articles regarding company membership and especially how many people should be present in order to have a valid "meeting" and how much of a majority will be required for decisions.
As stated in the statute there should be at least 50% membership participation (e.g. 4 out of 8) for a meeting to be considered valid and a majority of the present members for valid (and binding) decisions (e.g. 3 out of 4).
Even tho we can't legally enforce it, we agreed that on important issues we will try to have at least 2/3 participation before decisions are made (e.g. at least 6 out of 8). Or at least avoid making decisions supported only by 3 people (4 out of 8 are present and a majority of 3 out of 4 makes a decision).
Also made some clarifications on whether the decisions are binding (as stated in the statute). Since the chair, co-chair and the treasury literally execute the orders of the general election and they don't make up their mind on company decisions, they bind legally all of the company since they implement the decisions of the general election. If a member is not present he is also legally binded by the decisions made by the general election. Given that the meeting place and hour is well known in advance, everybody is expected to be present or at least decide on a representative in case of absence.
Pagojo will communicate with the Northern Greece mates (Petros Amiridis, Vasilis Rizopoulos, Theodoros Orfanidis). He should learn their intentions about participating in the company and especially whether they plan to contribute (hands on).
We need to know how is in the committee. Vasilis (damphyr) has helped and will most likely help us. The other two (pamiridis and teoulas) will support the cause but will they sign the legal documents. Are they willing to commit and contribute? Pamiridis is in or out? Dimitris is certainly out.
We have to start thinking about our roles in the company and probably setup a vote for all interested parties.
Tomorrow we will ask an accountant regarding article 16 and the definition of tax year.
Fotos will request an offer from his accountant for taking care of all logistical matters for the NFP for at least on year (establishment, VAT handling, resolution, 6-8 months advice, etc.).
Nikos will learn the necessary documents from the lawyer and make sure to collect them as well as member signatures until Sunday 16/12.
Nikos will find out necessary documents required from Colab after communicating with Spyros tomorrow 13/12.
We need to discuss delegates number. Girls started the topic. Pagojo thinks that the decision should be postponed. Fotos thinks that the decision should be made now. We have an option for 20% for more people on the ticket price. Nikos is hard limit 800 people max. Nikos is 600 tickets and 200 people.
We go with 600 delegates and 700 hard limit delegates. We change this number only on exceptional circumstances (everything is ready, we have spare time, resources.
We need a response for why we have a hard limit to 700 delegates. Quality? Comfortable for
Pagojo wants to have as many happy people as possible. It depends on the foyer area. Feels that the essence doesn't change.
We decided on a hard limit of 700 delegates. That's the number we announce to sponsors, third parties, and other people. We will have at least 600 delegates. 800 delegates is the hard limit on the contract for the venue. For the next 200 seats (up to 1000) we will have the option for 20% of the ticket price.
We discussed about money and payments. Sissy and Marian (N21) will pay 1000€ upfront and reach a pre-agreement with the venue. Until 30/01 we have to establish the company and sign the real contract with the venue (and also pay 30% of the money) so the venue released the money of the pre-agreement back to N21.
Idea: Release early bird tickets so we get some money to cover the 30% expenses.
Postponed for next week, since Apostolos had to leave early and George also had to leave at some point.
We need a letterhead in order to show it to Vodafone / HOL sales people. Panos will create it. Taking inspiration from the mission statement and other points. Nothing fancy, just a header and a couple of bullets / phrases.
Nikos Dimitrakopoulos: handle the lawyer and all things necessary for the establishment of the NFP Fotos: contact the accountant, organize the action plan / list Panos: create the letterhead, go to Badminton and see possible banner locations Giorgos: start working on the website, disengagement from the sponsorship packages Apostolos: complete the sponsorship packages Vassilis: market research on ticket management companies and options, first contact with Eventora Pagojo: contact the northern Greece guys and learn their intentions Nikos Diamantopoulos: ??? Sissy & Marian: action plan ratification, venue pre-agreement, event manager responsibilities final draft, go to Badminton and evaluate sponsorship banner locations
The meeting is adjourned, beers are in order.
(As recorded by Vasilhs and formatted by Apostolos)
(please don't ask me to translate, but if you feel like it you can do this yourself :)
(Translated from Greeklish to English by gfotos, the usual guy doing the dirty jobs :))
Find out where and why...
- 1500 EUR pre-agreement with Badminton, maybe taken care by Network21 through Sissy. After than, a formal agreement between Badminton and ΑΜΚΕ. By the end of January Sissy will need the money. By the end of next week Sissy and Marian will close the deal with Badminton. 14/12
- Sissy and Marian will ask for a contract for 600 to 800 people. They can't leave number of delegates open or variant (e.g. 600-1000). John asked whether we can pay Badminton with a ticket percentage for delegates above a certain number. For example if in the contract it says 600 and 1000 persons attend then we will pay Badminton with a % of the ticket.
- In a month after the pre-agreemenet we should pay Badminton 30% (16000* 30%) of the price. (1500 at Sissy and the rest to Badminton). 15/01 we get the initial contract, by 30/01/2013 we sign the contract. The contract should be between the venue and the NFP (ΑΜΚΕ).
- Sissy and Marian have some existing contracts we could use. They also have contracts with Badminton which we could use as templates (maybe without even changing anything, because the contracts have already been checked by lawyers etc.)
- After the event we pay the rest of the money (some give them one month after the event, but there is no such point in our case)
- We need a pre-agreement with Badminton, and the NFP (ΑΜΚΕ) as well as the contact of the IT person at Badminton. Panos will handle it from there. Until 20/01/2013.
- We get in touch with the IT guy of Badminton for all tech related issues.
- Charging stations, TBD later on. (John proposed something like Samsung's charging stations)
- Sissy and Marian said that from a managerial / organizational standpoint the difference between 600 and 1000 delegates is small (professional opinion). It depends on us, whether we want a cozzy or a massive conference.
- Until Wednesday we need feeback from Sissy and Marian for the Sponsorship Packages we showed to them. They will also give us a pricelist for the banners, curtains, etc.
- Chief/Skroutz... 'nough said.
- Discussed it with Panos. We might offer it to the top sponsors. TBD
- Accounting: Sissy & Marian can handle this. They need a committee decision. We are expecting an offer from them (it will be charged extra).
- Vendors: Watch after and deal with the vendors. Sissy and Marian can do this. e.g. for any contact with vendors (tshirts, catering, etc.) they can ask for prices, close deals, etc. We need a committee decision (+ extra charge).
- List of income revenues: Sissy will send us one of their more complicated spreadsheets. We'll also create on (Apostolis) in order to compare and have a common ground for discussions.
- We must, ASAP, decide on the number of delegates. In the contract this will be flexible, for example for 600 people, we'll be able to adapt up to 800 (see issue #55).
- By the end of January we should have sold the 1st batch of tickets.
- Job description: They will send us their job description until Wed 12/12
- Contract and extra services list: in the contract there will be an extra clause with a list of services and a list of extra services we might or might not need. The clause will be flexible. Extra services not on the extra services list will be negotiable.
- Cost: Depends on the budget, in essence we insurance a specific money valuation. We need the NFP (ΑΜΚΕ), number of delegates, sum of sum of sponsorships. Sissy & Marian give the insurance company the budget until Feb 10 and they give us back an offer until March 10.
- Sissy and Marian asked what options Badminton provides for the internal decoration. They are also brainstorming for the decoration.
- We are waiting for a decoration price list from the girls (Sissy & Marian) 14/12
- Price list for the banners and their dimensions from Badminton 14/12
- Cost for light displays, dimensions and print cost. 14/12
Extra tech support
- Prices for a fixed camera and a moving camera / cameraman (2-camero, 3-camero). And a mixing console. 20/12
- Plasma screens in Foyer: offer. Badminton has 2 and we can bring another 2 or 3
- We'll bring in touch Maria (who sent us an email for the Walking Tour) with Marian & Sissy. This is premature, we'll think about it later.
- To be decided later. It should be mentioned on site because some people might need it.
- Badminton has no lunch options available. We have to give the delegates the option for a lunch (selected on registration which menu options), paid by each delegate.
- Coffee and some extras are included in the the ticket price. We might give a bottle of water for free with their entrance. Everything else is paid by the delegates.
- TBD
- Doctor: will be available. It can be an acquaintance or a friend.
- Security: Badminton has no security. We might need a 2 person security.
- Eventora, Sissy knows Nikos Tsamis, and is very positive towards him.
- We should ask if we can and what kind of fields we are able to add in the ticket registration form to collect info for further decisions (tshirt size & color, cater for special needs, will attend with spouse or side event, etc)
- There was the question of what procedure we are going to follow when some feel we need to reopen an already resolved issue. Tentatively, we said that a majority rule of 2/3, 4/5 or something like that has to be in place
- We could have a vote for the AMKE on Sunday, if Nikosd meets with the lawyer within this week and merges his feedback into the AMKE draft.
- Provided that we do have a vote on Sunday, we can have people sign the AMKE document on Monday. Whoever can't make it on Monday can be swiftly admitted in the AMKE following the stated procedure.
- Open issue for the theme (naming) in order to vote (until Sunday)
- We will vote for prices/slots-per-package as well (until next Wednesday)
- vvatikiotis proposed not to have slots for the 4th packet
- John proposed to raise the 1st package at least to 20000 EUR
- John proposed to raise the bigger packages (he prefers less sponsors, but with each giving more money)
- Nikosd and others wanted examples from other events
- Nikosd stated that package prices should be well distributed
- Nikosd and others : the last package should have unlimited slots
- We all agreed to convert the amounts to EUR
- Free tickets for sponsors will not be subtracted from the 600
- VAT : Nikosd proposed taxes excluded (and state that will be enforced where applicable). Nikosd will ask the accountant about this.
- Decided that the "social media" should not refer to specific sites/services
- Decided to remove frequency from social media
- How are we going to introduce Skroutz and Pame Diakopes as sponsors/partners/supporters?
We need to give a symbolic amount for the venue. We will ask how much it should be. There is an issue here, because AMKE will not be ready in time and the appropriate invoices cannot be provided.
Actions needed:
- Ask Marian & Sissy what the some means.
- Ask Skroutz whether they can deposit the 5.000€ they have plegded.
Since skroutz can not do it we have to find someone to do it. Errikos Cohen will do it until Friday.
Additional notes:
- Host it either on Heroku or Github (possibly).
- Google Analytics
- Link to twitter
nolamesa will contact the girls in order to finalize the meeting with them