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Hiya Tim, <br>
Great suggestion -
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tyTA3Fj5J9XL2D7UTIxw46smXGrLM5J-fI4g6GxK9hM/edit?usp=sharing">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tyTA3Fj5J9XL2D7UTIxw46smXGrLM5J-fI4g6GxK9hM/edit?usp=sharing</a><br>
<br>
Bare bones at the moment, but as with all these things, it's a
starting point. <br>
<br>
Best, <br>
Kathy<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/02/2015 2:55 AM, Tim Ansell wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAHLUNMx=beKtJro=YxZDvPFgS-BdY5LdY47tzsfZRuqS92DKZg@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">In Josh's president report he mentions in the
"Membership platform" section;
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">The
Council, thanks to the hard work of Kathy Reid, has put
together a list of requirements of a
membership platform and will be looking for volunteers to
help with shifting to a new system.</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<div>Could the "list of requirements" be shared with the list?
(Or could I have a link to them if they have been shared
previous and I've missed them.)</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Thanks!</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Tim</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On 22 January 2015 at 15:24, Kathy Reid
<span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:kathy@kathyreid.id.au" target="_blank">kathy@kathyreid.id.au</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Hi
everyone,<br>
<br>
There's been some excellent debate here about the future of
MemberDB, and whether a mature product - possibly CiviCRM,
but not necessarily - should be favoured over a collection
of lower level utilities.<br>
I'd like to make the case for an established product.<br>
<br>
Maintability and supportability<br>
<br>
While less mature tools and utilities may do the job - and
do the job well - and even do *exactly* the job we want them
to do, they fall down when it comes to maintenance and
supportability. We have a small team of people who work on
ZooKeepr - which is an integral part of running <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://linux.conf.au"
target="_blank">linux.conf.au</a> - and both getting new
people up to speed and willing to commit unpaid time to
maintenance is difficult. We all have day jobs/lives/other
commitments.<br>
<br>
If we were to go down the road of a mature product, then the
support ecosystem would be one of the selection criteria. If
necessary, we could buy in the skills to maintain and
support the product, and *documentation* for the product is
likely going to also be more comprehensive, lowering the
barrier to entry of those who may wish to volunteer time to
maintain it.<br>
<br>
<br>
Alignment with values<br>
<br>
Linux Australia supports open communities and open
technologies, and contributes to the open source industry
and ecosystem in Australia and New Zealand. I feel that it's
actually a closer alignment to our values to support and
adopt an existing mature product - even if we need to pay to
do so - than to build another tool which will likely entropy
over time - as MemberDB has.<br>
<br>
<br>
Feature set and applicability<br>
<br>
If LA were to adopt a mature tool, the feature set is likely
to be much richer - even if we don't use all of it. There
will likely be use cases we hadn't though of as the
organisation evolves and our remit changes - and to have a
mature product established is likely to give us more
flexibility. A mature toolset is also likely to have wider
applicability to the LUGs who are Subcommittees of Linux
Australia - and therefore entitled to leverage LA's
infrastructure.<br>
<br>
<br>
Cost of ownership<br>
<br>
This argument is somewhat contentious. A mature product may
have an initial cost - for purchase, or installation
consultancy -and for ongoing maintenance and upgrades,
depending if it's hosted on LA servers or hosted somewhere
in the cloud. However, the TCO of a non-mature product comes
from the loss of productivity in being able to do all the
things we'd like to do with a Membership system, and
possibly the competing technologies it would be written in.
For instance, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://linux.org.au" target="_blank">linux.org.au</a>
is on Drupal. The people administering it - Web Team,
Council etc - are going to be the same people who use the
tools and utilities. Let's make it easy for the people who
volunteer their time to Linux Australia to do what they need
to do, rather than having to switch between multiple
systems.<br>
<br>
<br>
Legal compliance<br>
<br>
Linux Australia is incorporated under the Incorporations Act
of NSW, and administered by the NSW Office of Fair Trading.
There are a number of requirements this legal framework
places upon LA - which are generally very reasonable. They
include the ability to do good reporting on membership, and
ensure currency of membership. A mature product is both more
likely to allow us to achieve compliance, and further - and
distinctly - demonstrate that we are compliant.<br>
<br>
<br>
I warmly welcome further discussion around this point.<br>
<br>
Kind regards,<br>
Kathy<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
-- <br>
--<br>
<br>
Kathy Reid<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:kathy@kathyreid.id.au" target="_blank">kathy@kathyreid.id.au</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="tel:0418%20130%20636"
value="+61418130636" target="_blank">0418 130 636</a><br>
@kathyreid<br>
<br>
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</font></span></blockquote>
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<br>
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