This guide contains pointers on different aspects that play a special role for local groups.
It covers visiting different sorts of events, getting legal stuff sorted out, tips for promotion among others. Please note that the content covered here might differ from the needs and situation in your country. Only little in this guide does apply to every possible country. Nevertheless, this guide tries to share experiences and things learned in successfully setting up and running a local group.
Getting legal stuff sorted out is much more a means to improve performance or ease the work.
As a local group you may want to use the KDE logo. That's fine, or course, but there are a couple of issues involved with using the trademark. Usually, local groups create a slight variation of the KDE logo. For examples see kde.org.uk and kde.nl. It's a good idea to ask the KDE e.V. who holds the trademark for authorization to use the trademark before you're going public with the logo.
At some point, it's useful to give your local group a legal status. That eases handling of money, can involve tax advantages and might make things more transparent regarding sponsors. Sponsors would probably be more declined to donate if they can transfer the money to an account owned by KDE $somecountry rather than a private individual.The legal conditions and choices involved with that are highly dependant on local legislation. Often, the best idea is to get legal advice as to the way your local organisation is set up. A couple of things may be thought through in advance.
A Box which contains a lot of material commonly used for setting up booths on different events. Should contain material which is usually not owned by the booth members themselves.
Some figures for a metall box that would fit our needs:
To set up a local group, you first need people. In a lot of countries, there is a translation team that makes KDE available in the local languages. Often, these translation teams serve as a starting point for a local group. In fact, it is hard to define what you need as a local group. The most important thing is probably some people that are willing to coordinate and take the responsibility of representing KDE in the regional context.
If you are a member of a local group, think about who's giving guidance to the local team? Who is the person that tries to keep track of all kinds of issues? And think about if that could be you! Visiting small events, such as meetings of your local Linux Users Group can help you finding more people that are willing to take part in the local community. Make it clear to those that it's not important to put as much time as possible into the project, but that it's an organisation of volunteers that work for KDE in their free time. It's quite important to stress that, because often people are scared of getting involved. Communicate that it's fun, and that you can help KDE and free software in general by taking part, that you're not obliged to do all kinds of things, but that you're free at any point.
Local groups are the pillars of the KDE community. Basically everything that happens off the internet has to do with local groups. Local Groups play an important role in promoting KDE of course. Event attendance (see also next chapter) is organised by regional teams. Also in getting a translation of KDE setup, you'll need your local community members to help with the work.
Local groups can translate documentation, collect and communicate information about events, visit events, keep in contact with local contributors, and not at least, host aKademy, the yearly KDE developers meeting.
Local groups can also promote KDE in local organisations, serve as a helping point for people that do not speak english very well. For KDE itself, local groups are a good starting point for people for getting involved with the community.
Here's a list of the tasks that local or regional groups can help KDE with: