post summit summary

The following summary reflects on the goverance portion of this event (Sept 25 & 26, 2018). In general, the meeting was positive and appreciated. Attendees provided positive feedback on the last 2 years of releases, on the communications around the 5.3 security release, and on several improvements to the core software (mosaico, shoreditch, etc.).

Participants indicated that the market felt flat and that CiviCRM did not seem to be growing. Participants and the core team discussed the financial position of the project.

Key Takeaways

1. Spark
   1. The core team discussed the current # members (30) as well as the passive marketing approach to date.
   2. CiviCRM partners are able to register for their own spark account (https://civicrm.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=100) and are free to build services around Spark.
   3. One Spark user as of this writing as transferred to a CiviCRM partner and another is expected to do so per KarinG
   4. The core team will work up plans to more actively promote Spark.
2. Extended Support
   1. The core team presented a 4 month extended support release focusing on security updates and critical bug fixes for discussion.
   2. Though there was broad support for a paid ES version, most felt that 6 months or greater was necessary to provide meaningful value to Partners using ES.
   3. Attendees stressed that the real market for ES was in the partner community, and a paid release to end users would fall flat.
   4. The core team agreed to digest the feedback and follow up within the next week with proposed revisions to ES.
3. Stats
   1. Attendees agreed that improving our collection of stats and user information was a priority in order to more effectively market to our community.
   2. Likewise, attendees agreed that various pages on c.o should be revised to emphasize spark, ES, and Partners, and to de-emphasize the download of the latest stable.
4. Establishment Committee - Participants agreed to elect a team of individuals tasked with formalizing a governing body/process whereby the community can shape the priorities and direction of CiviCRM. The summit attendees empowered Pete D, Jon G, Peter P and Josh to drive this initiative and work up an outcome that is in the best interest of the project.
   1. Outline of objectives, decisions and format
   2. Call for establishment committee elections
5. Product management

Core Team led initiatives

1. CiviTutorial Extension - Based on feedback from participants (specifically around making CiviCRM more 'evaluator friendly'), the CT has begun work on an extension that allows for custom tutorials. UK participants discussed possibly working on the content at the upcoming sprint in the UK.
2. Feature Request - The CT consolidated existing projects on the a form gitlab project for feature requests. The purpose of this space is to create a forum where stakeholders may add, discuss and up/down vote improvements to CiviCRM.
3. Partner group communications on Gitlab - DevCamp attendees proposed consolidating the partner and dev lists (currently google groups) on to Gitlab. Discussion on doing so for partner list is happening here.

Financial Position

The core team presented a YTD P&L and balance sheet, and summarized it's current financial position as:

1. Current P&L shows a profit, however the CT projects greater expenses in the remainder of the year than income.
2. KarinG [please see slides below] provided a breakdown of how the CT funded its 2017 Operating Expenses; pointed out that Core Team earns a modest salary at $50/h without health, dental, etc benefits and listed a series of tasks that the Core Team currently executes within it's 2.6 FTE
3. 2017 was a tough year due to a tax error, a large receivable that is highly likely to be unrealized and a few consulting projects that were taken at a loss. All said, the core team took a loss of $71k in 2017.
4. CT members will float their pay in order to keep the project 'sustainable'. Using quotes here, but that isn't really sustainable.
5. Visibility on income has historically been difficult because both donations and earned income are tough to budget. Consulting projects are not typically known in advance and fundraising efforts vary.
6. Though no formal commitment was made, the core team will provide periodic updates about its financial position to the community at large.

Community Summit 2019

Community Summit 2019 is already forming and is intended to be held in the EU.

Special thanks to those that participated in the 2018 summit

• Charlotta Beavers
• Alain Benbassat
• Andy Burns
• Kevin Cristiano
• Peter Davis
• Justin Freeman
• Alice Frumin
• Nicolas Ganivet
• Stuart Gaston
• Karin Gerritsen
• Jon Goldberg
• Joshua Gowans
• Jeanell Greene
• Donald Hirst
• Andrew Hunt
• Guy Iaccarino
• Paul Keogan
• Joseph Lacey
• Mathieu Lutfy
• Jamie McClelland
• Noah Miller
• Joe Murray
• Tim Otten
• Adrienne Palmer
• Peter Petrik
• Morgan Robinson
• Parvez Saleh
• Aidan Saunders
• Dave Schafer
• Brian Shaughnessy
• Allen Shaw
• David Tarrant
• Bruce Thompson
• Coleman Watts