Standard Change - Purchase an Airtable account

[stephenscapelliti]

Description

This is a proposal to purchase a renewable annual Plus account from Airtable for use by the ProgCode community and access by ProgCode Operations Staff in fulfillment of the ProgCode mission.

Problem

As referenced in #248, ProgCode is a virtual community. Our records are maintained in several formats. Airtable is a means of maintaining databases in customizable spreadsheets which may be viewed and/or used in a variety of formats. ProgCode uses a free Airtable account for a Project List, Channel List, and other record-keeping. It can be integrated into Slack, and ProgCode has made use of this feature.

A free Airtable account allows for unlimited bases and a maximum of 1200 records per base. We have exceeded this limit in two of the bases which are vital to Operations. The lowest level paid account (i.e., Plus account) allows for an unlimited number of bases (like the free plan) and up to 5000 records per base, which will provide sufficient record capacity for the immediate future. Now that fundraising has improved, ProgCode can afford the annual fee of $120.00 ($10/month for 12 months).

Benefit

A paid Airtable account will allow the ProgCode community and the Operations Staff to continue and expand use of the current databases. This will minimize the likelihood of interruption in the day-to-day activities of the ProgCode community.

Expenditure Analysis

This proposed solution would require a minor annual expenditure (currently $120.00). The requirements of Issues #198 and #236 are applicable, as follows:

Proposals seeking consent for implementation of budget requests and/or change process should not contradict ProgCode core objective and should pass this four-pronged test when considered by operations:

1. Is this proposal non-partisan in nature? Yes
2. Is this proposal aligned with ProgCode's mission of removing the influence of big money in politics? Yes
3. Does this proposal seek to empower the grassroots by supporting the creation of open source tech? Yes
4. Is this proposal sponsored or funded by an outside organization? If yes, the source of the funding must be disclosed. No

Plan

• [ ] Community discussion of all elements of this proposal at the 10.01.2018 Community Operations Meeting.
• [ ] Vote for consent to implement the standard change to purchase a renewable Airtable Plus account for access by all ProgCode Staff for the benefit of and use by the ProgCode community.
• [ ] Notify the community of the vote taken by posting a #team-announcement and sharing the video URL in #operations immediately following the 10.01.2018 Community Operations Meeting to allow additional votes & feedback during the standard 72-hour waiting period before ratifying the vote.
• [ ] If vote passes, purchase a renewable Airtable Plus account under the ProgCode Administration account.

Decision Making

Consent to implement a standard change per the Change Process

Optional Information

Reference link(s)

• Airtable pricing
• Change Process

Community Discussion History:

• 02.26.2017 - Issue 81 "Funding Framework"
• 05.15.2017 - Issue 198 "Four Pronged Test for Mission Alignment"
• 06.18.2018 - Issue 236 "Standard Change - Budget Expense Requests"

[stephenscapelliti]

By agreement of the attendees at the 10-01-18 Community Operations meeting, this issue is tabled pending further analysis of Airtable base organization to minimize the risk of exceeding the record maximum for each base. Additionally, the development of Progbot could eliminate or reduce the number of records in the bases which currently exceed the maximum number of records.