For those of you unaware, there’s been quite a bit of discussion recently in the US Teams Project about the possibility of starting a non-profit organization, to accept donations and to shield individual LoCo teams of liability; the main conclusion has seemed to be that having users sign waivers is good enough for liability, and that “teams have and are more than able to function without funding and without liability coverage” (see discussion here ^[1] and here ^[2]).

In response to this, this blog is going to have a fun recurring theme over the next few months: how Joe spends his money. I’ll be keeping you all updated on all the things I spend out of pocket (or other people chip in) for LoCo Team events, and I’ll accept suggestions for alternative methods which require 0 dollars. I will also be making requests to Canonical to fund all of these needs, and letting you know of the results.

I don’t mean to call people out, start a fight, or sound bitter; I’m quite happy with my team, and its situation. Other teams are attempting to get donations, and this strange notion that LoCo teams don’t need money for anything is holding them back. Let me make this clear: not all locations are donated, not all us of have Google, Sun, or Novell offices in our back yard, and not all of us are willing to have advocacy events in our basements. Not every LoCo Team can survive on t-shirts and CDs alone, and it’s time this is made clear to those who refuse to accept that notion.

I encourage other team leaders in a similar position to also keep us updated on what they’re spending money on. Expect an itemized list for our next event on September 22nd.