Link for meeting (here)
Agenda and template for meeting notes here
For anyone in the community: If there is anything worth highlighting before the meeting feel free to add a post here.
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As one of several volunteer contributors on this OFN:Portugal project, i appreciate your efforts on our behalf, @ferrazfil . And i have to say: launch of a new OFN instance is an undertaking that clearly requires significant work at 3 levels -local hub, national or regional instance, and global platform- which work cannot depend on volunteers, if the launch is to be successful.
For any such project to be sustainable over time does also imply significant volunteer effort; indeed, those volunteers whose contribution is justified by the end-benefit of participation in the functioning network will in the end carry most of the weight. Startup investors (of money, time or both) will be counting on this to happen -the sooner, the better.
From my perspective, the more i come to understand the software and the workflow involved in its configuration & maintenance, the more i become convinced of the need for making its HR requirements more explicit up-front. This needs to be communicated in terms that project sponsors can understand: i.e. Roles, Skills attending to each Role, and an estimate of Hours needed at each stage of implementation and maintenance.
If this were to be presented in a realistic way, i don’t know whether that would improve chances of a successful funding appeal or not, to be honest. In any case: i for one would appreciate an explicit up-front estimate of HR requirements pertaining to a New OFN Instance project, as i think any project sponsor would do. That is the best insurance policy that one can hold against risk of misaligned expectations, and is a key indicator of project maturity.
That’s my €0.02, FWIW (since you asked 
)
/walt
@walt thank you for your post. I do feel we need more of this feedback, so that we can direct our few resources where they are needed. Just for a note the Global fundraising Circle was re-started last year with some new people and other members that are very stretched with their time. Hence basically just trying to get some coherence from the ground up and seeing if we can keep the ball-rolling. We will in any case need more support at some point,
khence if you would like to volunteer some of your time to help fixing the problem you are listing that would be great.
HI @ferrazfil : As one who is just beginning his journey with OFN, i don’t know as how i have much to contribute, beyond my best efforts to understand this platform & network, what it can and can’t do for an incipient Local Food Network (great book that, b/t/w; shout-out to @DuncanCatchpole), and how to use these tools to positive advantage -still a struggle for me at this point, to be perfectly honest.
What i can perhaps do is document steps taken in this journey, challenges encountered along the way, choices taken and implications, and my thoughts about better ways of doing. Dunno if any of that is relevant to the work of this circle, but that’s all i’ve got the breath for, at this point!
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Hi @walt, Yes I do think that is important, and that could be shared here, AND I believe you could also create a post (here on Discourse) about the various steps along the way. If you do that, then more people will be able to see. Those who are on starting journey can potentially prepare better, and those who have been on the journey might be able to give you feedback on that own experience. I really do think that would be a great idea.
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