[ubuntu-us-mi] Verification message you all received

[Craig Maloney]

Good morning.

No your eyes are not deceiving you. We are no longer a verified team.
Does that mean we need to disband? Are we in danger? No, and no. Let me
explain.

The loco teams had an approval process where each team would go through
a "health-check" to see if they were still an active team. Approved
teams would then be eligible for special treatment (more CDs, book
give-aways, etc.).

After the last UDS it was decided that the apporoval process should
instead be a "verification process". Teams would occasionally be
verified to see if they were still active, and would thereby still be
eligible for special treatment and such.

At the last few meetings we discussed the verification process. we went
back and forth on whether it was worth pursuing or if it would instead
be more beneficial to let our verification lapse. The email you received
was the lapsing of that verification.

Some things to note:

1) Losing verification does not mean losing viability. We're still
viable. We had a great release party last weekend, and I'm confident we
can still continue on as a group.

2) We can regain our verification. We're a strong group; stronger than
most groups. But our participation has been lagging, and we're not as
strong as we once were.

Our group depends on the participation of its members. And while it's
true that our participation has been sagging lately it can come back. I
know a lot of folks have moved on to other distros and doing things in
the name of Ubuntu isn't what it once was. But losing verification isn't
terminal. We have a unique opportunity in the loco community should we
decide to take it. It just depends on whether or not people want to run
with it.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. As always we
meet on the first Sunday of the month at 9pm on IRC. Barring that
there's always someone in the IRC channel.

(More details here: http://loco.ubuntu.com/teams/ubuntu-michigan/)

Hope this clears things up!