Roles

DRAFT - Various roles performed by TAC members and volunteers.

This page describes the various roles that various TAC volunteers perform throughout the year. Most roles are event specific and occur only whilst an Apache event is being held. Note that whilst it might be nice that we have enough member volunteers to fill all these roles, it is usual currently that TAC members take on more than one role. This works as some roles are performed at different times of an event cycle.

In no particular order:

TAC co-ordinator

This role is one of collaboration and of tying up all the loose ends. This role can involve communicating with anyone and everyone.
This can involve dealing with folks from other lists and external parties such as concom, planners, comdev, travel agents, event organisers, hotels, ASF treasurer, visa queries etc. The TAC co-ordinator should get hold of neccessary information and/or documentation from any of these parties and relay them to judges, travel agent liaison, Shepherds, onsite event co-ordinators etc.

The TAC co-ordinator should have an overall view of all aspects of an event, knowing what needs to be done and when, giving other role players a reminder nudge when needed, seeing when there are gaps in processes and seeing that they get filled in by an appropriate role, or filling the gap themselves. This role needs someone who will be available to everyone at any time (within reason) for the whole of the period from before applications open through to after the actual event is finished, which is usually a period of months rather than weeks.

This role can be performed by any TAC Member.

Judge

There are always three judges for every event. The three judges responsibility is to score applications based on a pre-defined set of questions and question scores. Some scores values are based on a judges interpretation of the answers. Judges should be available during the defined judging period to collaborate with each other should any clarifications be needed, and to communicate with applicants if further information is needed. Judges have exclusive use of the tac-apply private list during the judging period. The judging period usually begins the day after event applications close although scoring can start just as soon as an applicant mrks their application as final/complete. The judging period lasts as long as is neccessary, usually 1 week, but can be as much as 2 weeks if there are many applications. The amount of applications that can be approved is also determined by budget as well as a cut-off score. Note that it is up to the judges to determine if applications are already invalid due to triggering a rule such as previous assistance by TAC for other events. Judges will also need to liaise with other lists such as concom and the main travel-assistance list.

Judges must be TAC Members.

Financial co-ordinator

A TAC Member, typically who judged, who will sanity check proposed itineraries and costs associated with them, and will approve those for booking. They will also give a yes/no to proposed alterations that attendees request with noticeable cost or visa implications, such as staying an extra week or going with a different airline.

EA Support for TAC

We have limited time from the Executive Assistant to work with TAC, but in order to make the most use of that limited resource, we need to be careful about what we do and don't ask of them.

The EA's role is mostly around liaising with external parties, in a consistent way with a single voice. This normally means flights, hotels, financials etc. (The EA will not normally communicate with the applicants). The EA will take the information gathered by the Shepherds on travel requirements, and will pass that to the Travel Agent. The resulting itineraries will be passed to the shepherds to go out to applicants, and once approved by the applicant + shepherd + financial co-ordination, will tell the Travel Agent to issue the ticket. They will pass the issued ticket to the shepherd.

They will work with the hotel on room assignments, based on Shepherd supplied requirements (including where attendees are covering some cost).

They will work with the treasurer, the committee chair and virtual to get payments made, and will work with willing committee members to use personal cards as a last resort.

Shepherd

Once applicants have been approved by the judges and they have accepted, Shepherds are assigned to be the main contact point between the applicant and the TAC list. Ensuring that the applicant is kept well informed throughout the rest of the process up until tickets have been issued. Shepherds may be asked by the Travel Agent (TA) liaison to obtain further information and clarity from the the applicants under their charge. Even though Visas should be in place and full information provided by the applicant on the application forms, in the past it has not been quite so straight forward; and some Visas do require proof of attendance before being officially approved so it is up to the shepherds to ask for and obtain any required documentation from the TAC co-ordinator. (Required documentation is usually proof of Hotel stay, proof of conference registration etc, so it makes sense that one point of contact obtains this info and passes it on)

Content Editors/Publishers

Can be one or more people to help keep our various content outlets upto date with all the latest information as it happens. This includes our wiki, our Travel page on the main Apache site, our email outlets such committers lists and project user/dev lists, twitter etc. External avenues of advertising should be explored and co-ordinated between the main TAC co-ordinator and bodies such as concom and Marketing & Publicity

Onsite Event co-ordinator(s)

One or more people who will be at the event itself. This person or persons will be in charge of the successful applicants whilst they are at an event. Meeting & greeting them upon arrival, introducing them to other people of interest, answering their queries, handing out any subsistance if applicable. Usually also, a meeting, or welcome breakfast is organised for TAC attendees where the days ahead are planned out. TAC attendees are usually required to perform some duties whilst at an event, from being session chair to helping set up a room etc. an onsite event co-ordinator(s) should be contactable at any time, though hopefully, a lot of their time spent at an event will be their own.