Hey , It's time that we have some swags in India. I would like to request for Fedora Pins, Banners and T-shirts.I would like fellow Ambassadors to up vote this request as I work on the cost per unit and propose a definite monetary unit.
IMO we don't distribute T-shirts among APAC. It's over the budget we can have. Banners, if I understand you correctly, classified to reusable promoting material instead of swags for distribution. I think pins and stickers should be fine. But please confirm with @pjp to make sure what we have in APAC, as PJP physically lives in India and he was helping with swags for the last two years or so.
Metadata Update from @zsun: - Issue assigned to pjp
@zsun we have been doing events in India since last year and events ave never seen the face of a banner or any kind of swags except which was made from our own pockets and some which was given by people who supported the events locally inside Red Hat. I totally get banners are supposed to be re-used but seems like the whereabouts of one in India is in doubt. I inquired couple of times for the same to local ambassadors but those raised more question than answers. I am in touch with @pjp and I will definitely seek his help/guidance as he is more involved.
My suggestion is that we look at this topic in the form which allows the formulation of a plan related to swags for Fedora events in India. It is perfectly alright if the conclusion that is arrived at is "Fedora will never allocate funds to produce swag for events in India". But that needs to be written down and made public in some form.
For "stuff we all get" at events, it might just be good to ascertain the ones which are easily produced at a low per unit cost and the economics work well for bulk production. These might be stickers; badges; buttons; pins; pens; keyrings and such. If there are no (re)usable banners for enhancing visibility at events around India, it would worthwhile to check if there are requirements for a new design and the cost(s) of producing such banners/posters. DIY or, self-funded swag was a great and exciting thing a decade ago. It isn't such a good model to have today. We will essentially be demanding that volunteers "pay-to-play" for organizing and being accountable for events.
A rudimentary glance at https://budget.fedoraproject.org/budget/FY18/apac.html seems to indicate that there is a possibility of monies being available if a proper plan of action is created. This requires someone to be responsible for the production of a defined selection of swag and being accountable for the distribution (and tracking) as and when appropriate. Perhaps, seeking to federate the locations of swag availability might help.
T-shirts are a great event presence. They clearly communicate a message that the project desires to put across. However, producing good quality T-shirts is expensive unless done in a sizeable volume. So, that part might just need to be discussed.
If you've read until here - thank you. I would request that this plan of swag for India be discussed on the Ambassadors list.
@pjp, can you tag this for next meeting? :) I think this is something that should be sorted out soon.
+100 to @sankarshan's thoughts.
Swag is very able to be budgeted and there is definitely funding available for this. The APAC budget currently has over $4500 available and more can be asked for from the council.
In LATAM they are looking at following the model EMEA (and I believe NA) use where a lot of swag is ordered at one time and then shipped as needed. While I realize that APAC is both large and has greater shipping/customs issues, I believe that we could work together to increase quality and reduce costs. LATAM is doing this and I am happy to help APAC do this. We have money and assistance from Red Hat to do this.
https://budget.fedoraproject.org/budget/FY18/apac.html
Can we consider sending matter for reusable banners to individual ambassadors, asking them to print the banners at their place and reimburse them later? Maybe it will save shipping costs and hassles?
That is one of the items I highlighted in my comment - whether there is a need to do designs (implied is that designs may vary for appropriate sizes of banners).
Swag is very able to be budgeted and there is definitely funding available for this. The APAC budget currently has over $4500 available and more can be asked for from the council. In LATAM they are looking at following the model EMEA (and I believe NA) use where a lot of swag is ordered at one time and then shipped as needed. While I realize that APAC is both large and has greater shipping/customs issues, I believe that we could work together to increase quality and reduce costs. LATAM is doing this and I am happy to help APAC do this. We have money and assistance from Red Hat to do this. https://budget.fedoraproject.org/budget/FY18/apac.html
Bex, We have been discussing and running a central production for swags in APAC since FAD Phnom Penh. And we've been doing central production for DVDs and stickers in 2015 ~ 2016 IIRC. All these are produced in India and sent to other places. China is the only exception as we face unresolvable regulation issue. That is why I suggest the reporter to confirm with PJP first, as PJP helped with swgas last year and they both live in India.
Budget wise, we had budget planning meetings before. However that is totally another story.
I'll tag this ticket with meeting keyword.
Metadata Update from @zsun: - Issue tagged with: meeting
To avoid the unfortunate conclusion that this discussion is intended to circumvent Prasad's presence, help and experience - let me emphatically state that it is not so. The original ticket was filed to start off a conversation around swag specific to India. My comments thereafter have been as a suggestion that it would be optimal to have a comprehensive plan that identifies the production and distribution of swag in India (to meet the substance of this ticket) and APAC (to continue with the precedent set).
I am not sure I completely comprehend what specifically has to be confirmed with Prasad. He is already copied/tagged into this ticket and will certainly respond once this is brought to his attention and he gets the time.
This seems like a topic best not mixed in this ticket.
Oh, sorry, I mis-understand it before. So to be clear, this is meant to be a ticket for swags all over India then.
I am not sure I completely comprehend what specifically has to be confirmed with Prasad. He is already copied/tagged into this ticket and will certainly respond once this is brought to his attention and he gets the time. Budget wise, we had budget planning meetings before. However that is totally another story. This seems like a topic best not mixed in this ticket.
Right this is why I didn't say much.
Rather than have swag produced at multiple sites (or banners) which puts extra demands on design and can cause large quality variance, lets focus on figuring out what we need to be effective and then just print it all in high quality in one place and ship it.
I understand that it will possibly (although not necessarily) cost more, however our constrained resource is people power not money. I am not going to claim we have an infinite supply of money, but I would rather ask the council for a bit more budget than have swag that looks bad, no swag, or swag paid for privately and never reimbursed.
If production in India is able to be both a) of good quality and b) easily shipped to most of APAC (not China it sounds like) I am also happy to ask if either of the two RH offices in India would be willing to warehouse the swag for us and send it on demand. We can do that in NA and EMEA so lets do it in APAC to if it will help.
The EMEA model has really helped focus conversations and efforts on impact and not swag and money discussions. Lets do that here too!
This ticket is still open. This leads me to believe we haven't resolved this issue.
I suggest we go forward one event at a time and work through stock I have access too. Please allow lead time for shipping and we can keep unit cost low.
Rather than produce swag for unknown events, lets stick to sending swag for events we know about and understand why we need to be at and need swag for.
As for banners, let's coordinate a design with the design team and figure out what the next step is.
We are moving to a event by event basis process and this ticket doesnt make much sense
Metadata Update from @sumantrom: - Issue close_status updated to: Invalid
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