Doubted-By-Default mode of budget evaluation

[Soumya Deb]

Hi Council,

I'm sending this in context of
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1120121, but the agenda is
no-brainer/high-impact budgets as a whole, and especially the
*not-trusted-by-default* mode of evaluating budgets. Didn't want to add
this as a comment to the bug itself, hence the email.

Bugs like these are a-regular-thing for the council-members (should be even
more so now, than that I have experience with - I'm guessing), but it's
once/twice a year thing for the rep. Their resilience is not as strong -
the bugs demotivate the Reps to the fullest extent & contribute to downturn
of the final quality of the event.

Being doubted, second guessed and frowned upon even after so many
compromises and trying the level best, leaves a bad taste in mouth. Maybe
that's why it's being difficult to find people to take responsibility for
the events. Even the enthusiastic reps who committed to host many events
before, are gradually taking up less event responsibilities (reps-portal
data can confirm that).

Added struggle for creating Mozilla presence locally wasn't the target for
remo; it was supposed to be the other way around. I don't deny that Mozilla
Reps program does the resource allocation and regional empowering much
better than most of FOSS projects I know of, but may be to the scale we've
grown to, we need a fresh new thinking again that fits.

Also, _if_ there's a severe scarcity of budgets (leading to toughened
screening), it may be best to come clean and let the Reps know about it.
They've signed NDA and deserve to be on the same page about this key
information. Otherwise they're under an impression of being treated
differently, or there's some sort of regional/interpersonal discrimination
etc. We definitely don't wanna paint this picture.

Apologies for ending up giving probably more than 2 cents!

Thanks,
--
*Soumya Deb*
*http://debs.io <http://debs.io>*
Twitter: *@Debloper <http://twitter.com/Debloper>*
Open Source Evangelist

[Emma Irwin]

Hi Deb,

Thanks for the note. I'm sad to hear that people feel second-guessed our
doubted, that's definitely not the intent. There are also no secrets
regarding budget but we do talk a lot about how to make funds to further
and have more impact, just as with any budget.

Speaking only for myself, budgets are always different - and not regular as
you suggest, some are very well screened by mentors, others are are simply
a mess. Asking questions is not about doubting, being frowned upon, it's
about understanding, and helping. I think sometimes the medium of
communication we're using removes the human piece.

You are also not the first person to bring up 'trusted' aspect - and I
personally have wrestled with what that means - the implications and
complications of pushing things through based on reputation or collective
successes of a community. I will bring this up at our council meeting
Wednesday, but wondered aside from being frustrated what suggestions you
have to making the process more human and kind, than just 'not asking so
many questions'?

Thanks Deb - I do understand your point. And want to help, more after our
meeting.

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--
Emma Irwin
@sunnydeveloper
Mozilla Reps Council Chair

[Emma Irwin]

Hi Deb ,

So council did discuss your concerns - we understand the feelings of those
who work very hard, and whose intentions are only the best,; and I think
it's important to recognize that similarly council is seeking to bring the
best to the project. This year will bring numerous changes, as the
participation plan - will further direct how we review budgets. We will
revisit budgets, and how we review them this year - and that will be a
participatory experience, feedback and ideas will be encouraged.

The best way I can put this in perspective for you (and this is just me -
not on behalf of council) is this 'coding analogy':

Do you accept pull requests from people just because they have previously
contributed great code? Do you bypass usual QA process for those you have
seen great work from? Or do you guard the quality of the product by
diligent review of 'all code' ? You wouldn't accept improper syntax, or
spaghetti code from someone just because they have previously done good
work. You also wouldn't be doing them a favour if you did. This is how I
like to think of my own budget review process - it's important that in the
end, the result supports the quality and impact of the project.

So if you could take this same perspective to your mentee - if it works to
explain it this way. It helps me

Thanks , and please let me know of you have more questions.

[Arturo "Fenix" Martinez]

Hi Deb,

I just want to add my comment too, since i have participated in the bug you
mention and made a few questions on it, and also proposed some changes.

I think that Emma has covered most of the Council opinion about this matter
of being "trusted" vs "protocol" to follow, this some times may be a bit
bureaucratic but it allows us to have a greater understanding on how the
funds are used by the Reps, the thing is that the Council works
asynchronously with the event organizers, this means that most of the event
organization and planning happens without the Council being aware of this,
this is not a bad thing, because the Council doesn't have to know the
details of every event happening around the world on "real-time", yet when
the budget requests are submitted to us, we depend exclusively on the
documentation provided by the Rep (event description, planning pad, budget
breakdown,etc) to understand the goals that the event will accomplish, if
they are aligned with mozilla global goals, and the impact/reach that those
events will create, if they were successful in the past if its a recurring
event, and also Council has to decide if the amount of budget requested is
proportional to the goals.

So, its not like we are going on a *not-trusted-by-default* mode on
budgets, its just that we can not accept budgets blindly, the Council job
is to "review", not just "accept" budgets, we have sometimes to ask
questions that will clear out doubts due poorly documented budgets or just
lack of critical information on the planning pad or bug. We are seeing a
trend of the budgets over USD$500 that most of the time 96% of the total
budget is just spend on travel expenses, so we want to make sure that every
Mozillian that is traveling to this event has a specific role during all
this event, and his attendance is critical for it, so that is why we
inquiry so much on traveling expenses. We don't want to create a travel
policy that forces Reps to use cheaper travel options (like going 12~20
hours road trip on bus or something even more uncomfortable) because we
know that sometimes cheaper isn't better and also long/cheap travels will
cause a lot of fatigue and resulting in poor performance.

We trust you guys, but we also want you, to trust us!

If you have any more questions, please try to reach me anytime!



--
Regards
Arturo Martinez (Fenix)

[Soumya Deb]

[Dropping the painfully long draft]

It's sad to see that we're not there yet, but I'll keep my hopes high for
the future.

I'd keep on believing, "the best governance is the one, in which, it
doesn't feel like there is (a need for) one."

Thanks all for your responses; it was brought up & thought about, that's
the farthest I could push for anyways.

Cheers!

P.S: Emma... a good coder, by definition, doesn't write spaghetti code.
On Jan 25, 2015 7:43 AM, "Arturo "Fenix" Martinez" <feni...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Emma Irwin]

re: P.S: Emma... a good coder, by definition, doesn't write spaghetti code.


*exactly* But even good coders get lazy sometimes. That's why we have
standards .