[Linux-aus] Candidacy Support Statement - President or Ordinary Council Member

[Russell Stuart]

On Fri, 2016-12-09 at 14:58 +1100, Kathy Reid wrote:
> Who do I call if I have a problem with CiviCRM I can't figure out?

How important is this?  For example, who do you call now if you have
problem with the LA website and can't figure it out?  But if you really
need to do that CiviCRM helpfully provides a list on their web site:

  https://civicrm.org/partners-contributors?country=1013&service_languages_181=All&services=All&supported_cms_s_182=All

That aside, this is a "toe in the water" exercise.  If it has a steep
learning curve maybe it's not the right choice for a bunch of
volunteers that are elected every year.

> What is their SLA for responding to me?

Again, how important is this?  What is the SLA for the current web
site?  How much does it matter if it's down for a day?

But does it matter now?  This isn't a "big bang", so both the old and
new web sites will be around. Surely the time to be thinking about an
SLA is when you are planning to trash the old, working system - not
when you are doing a cheap test of the new one.

> Who does the ETL process for MemberDB -> CiviCRM?

No idea.  Presumably if everyone agreed CiviCRM is the way to go, you
would start down whatever process you have planned now, and it would
take the same time???

> Who does the quarterly updates to CiviCRM?

Is it that hard?  If it is, they will do it for you for USD$65 or
something:

   https://civihosting.com/site-upgrades

> Who configures CiviCRM to set us up well from the start?

That would have to be someone who knows what LA wants.  You perhaps? 
Maybe we could do it together.  I imagine learning how to configure it
is step 1 in learning how to use it.  Since it is a throw away instance
we can keep doing it until we get it right.  That's one of the
advantages of putting your toe into the water, as opposed to getting
everything perfect on the initial roll out which is what a "big bang"
requires.

> Who is responsible for keeping me informed with changes to the
> platform?

You are.  And don't underestimate it.  Any system that take changes
every 3 months is going to require ongoing investment in self
education.   On the positive side, unsurprisingly CiviCRM has a lot of
ways of keeping new stuff flowing into your inbox - newsletters,
mailing lists, rss feeds.  Take your pick.

By the by, I'm a big fan of "evolution not revolution".  If the idea
works both techniques end up with the same result, the only difference
being evolution takes a bit longer.  Revolution is faster because it
puts you in the middle of the creek from the beginning, but at the cost
of throwing away the paddles.