Getting your LoCo team approved

In the LoCo project there are two types of LoCo team:

• New Teams - these are teams that are in the process of getting started and have not yet been officially approved as an Ubuntu LoCo team.

• Approved Teams - an approved team is a team that is up and running, has each of the required resources in operation and the team is working well. When you become an approved team, it will make you eligible for certain benefits such as marketing materials, discounts or possibilities. An approved team is also considered officially by the Ubuntu project.

This page explains what a team needs to do to move from the New Teams category to the Approved Teams category.

Are you ready?

The first question to ask is if you are ready for approval. Check each of the following points and see if it applies to you:

• Resources - you should have a mailing list set up, IRC channel on Freenode and have some wiki pages set up on http://wiki.ubuntu.com/. More details on setting these resources up can be found in LoCoTeamHowto.

• Membership - Do you have members in your group? Are the mailing list and IRC channel resources active?

• Roadmap - Do you have an idea of what you want to achieve and which projects the group should work on?

• Experience - What have you done so far? Have you done any advocacy, translations, exhibitions, support or other activities? We recommend you have done at least three activities before you apply for approval.

If you have positive answers for the above questions, then you are ready to apply for approval.

The process

To get approved, the Community Council need to have confidence that the team is up and running and performing well. This requires some evidence that the team has established various resources (website, mailing list etc) and is actively working on different things and working well.

To get approved you need to create a wiki page (more on this below) that outlines a number of things to do with the group, and has supporting evidence. When this page is complete, you should mail Jono Bacon at jono AT ubuntu DOT com who will determine if the group is ready to be considered for approval. Jono will provide feedback. If the page is suitable, you will be added to the next Community Council agenda.

Writing your Approval Application wiki page

Your application to become an approved team largely rests in the application wiki page - you should call it <yourteam>ApprovalApplication or place it in your LoCo team's sub-pages. You can see an example application at LoCoExampleApplication. This shows you the kind of structure that the page should form. Before we look at the sections, here are some important tips:

• Keep to the structure of that page - use the same section headings and structure of the LoCoExampleApplication page - this makes it easier to read the page for those of us who consider your application.

• Use lots of links and references - this is essential. In the Roadmap and Experience sections and elsewhere on the document, you should provide web links to websites, blogs, mailing list archives and such that confirm the points you make on the application. So, as an example, if you have an activity listed in the Experience section, provide some web links to show what you did, or where it was discussed on the mailing list / IRC channel / forums.

• Be concise, detailed and clear - we don't want to see thousands of words - just list the key points clearly and concisely.

Right, lets look at the different sections and what you need to put in there

We recommend the group members work together to refine the page to ensure it is detailed and well written. Again, the page should be concise, detailed and be backed up with plenty of links and references.

Submitting your application

When the page is complete, mail it to Jono Bacon with the subject LoCo Application: <your team> e.g. LoCo Application: United Kingdom (ubuntu-uk). Send the mail to jono AT ubuntu DOT com and include a link to your application wiki page.

Jono will then look over the application and provide some feedback if the page needs adjusting, or he will add it to the agenda for the Community Council. Jono will also post the proposed application to the loco-contacts mailing list. The team will then be discussed at the next Community Council meeting. Good luck!

Please note - a completed application must be finished and ready at least three days before the next Community Council meeting. This is so Jono can post the proposed approval to the loco-contacts mailing list so the community can have time to view the application.

If you have any questions, see the [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoFAQ FAQ], LoCoTeamHowto and ask your questions on the [https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/loco-contacts loco-contacts mailing list].