= Support Team 2014 Work plan and Budget =

PROPOSED 

The Support, Infrastructure and Data Sovereignty (Support Team) team is responsible for ensuring that our members have access to a reliable technology infrastructure that is designed and implemented based on the values of freedom, transparency and democracy.

== Goal for the Year ==

In addition to our on-going goal of ensuring the data sovereignty of our organization and members, this year we are focusing in particular on member communication: we have lots of great tools that nobody knows about. We want to improve our communication to our members of what we have and how to use them.
  
The benefit to our membership is not only knowledge and ability to use these tools, but also a strengthened sense of their membership in our organization and what that membership means. By communicating what we have, we also have the opportunity to communicate who we are and why we exist.

== Outreach ==

We have a special opportunity this year since Ross, one of the critical members of our team, is moving to Mexico City. We plan to take advantage of this move to help build the support team in Mexico City. By the end of the year, we would like to have an established core team in Mexico City, meeting monthly.

== Ongoing Tasks ==

The Support Team team performs many on-going tasks, which include:

 * Answering support tickets
 * Performing routine maintenance, backups and software upgrades 
 * Documenting features and support tips
 * Meeting once a month, face-to-face in NY and Mexico, connected by a conference call to:
  * Welcome new volunteers
  * Have a two hour meeting to discuss progress and methods for implementing our work, that includes at least one topic that relates to a political issue facing another work team, with a summary of the discussion reported in the following coordinators meeting
  * Have a multi-hour (sometimes late into the night) work session 

== Special Projects for 2014 ==

In 2014, the Support Team team will work on our on-going tasks as well as many other tasks that will come up over the course of the year.

In addition to these tasks, we will make a special commitment to completing the following tasks in 2014.

=== First half of year ===

 * WordPress auto installer via the control panel. Ticket: #1608
 * Collaborate with Membership team to heavily promote https://share.mayfirst.org/, our file sharing site and make improvements to integrate it with our other services (#8374)
 * Shared Styles across mayfirst.org domains: #8373
 * Upgrade all servers to Debian Wheezy. Wiki page: [wiki:squeeze-wheezy-mosh-upgrade squeeze wheezy MOSH upgrade].
 * Organize Association for Progressive Communications members in an international meeting on fighting Denial of Service attacks and legal threats to our members. [https://pad.riseup.net/p/apc-hosting-gathering Planning Page].
 * Upgrade https://mayfirst.org/ web site to Drupal 7, collaborate with other teams on re-design. Ticket: #8171
 * Collaborate with Membership team on installing CiviCRM (and sync'ing with our control panel) to improve membership communications): #8341 and #8357
 * Purchase and install one new physical server: #8375
 * Establish two new on-going sub-teams:
  * Infrastructure Audit team: to pro-actively analyze our services to ensure they are deployed in ways consistent with our data sovereignty goals (dkg, steve, kendra)
  * Comms team: ensure we maintain consistant communications about our services with our broader membership (kendra, jamie, dana, thiago)
 * Collaborate with membership team to recruit more women and people of color through targeted outreach to our membership
 * Based on our experiences with the Techie of Color training program, develop and pilot a free software systems administrator training curriculum geared toward addressing racism and sexism (and other forms of oppression) as they operate specifically in the tech world, that can be used in both the US and Mexico (this item has a $3,000 additional budget line attached to it)
 * Together with Membership and Outreach teams, develop a "harm reduction" approach to the use of corporate social media, that both firmly addresses the security and other risks of using these services, while also providing an inviting path for joining May First/People Link.
=== Second half of the year ===

 * Purchase and install one new physical server (dkg)
 * Participate in at least 3 [wiki:peoplelinks People Links] sessions, organized by the Membership team, that are specifically about learning how to us MF/PL technology (Comms team)
 * Launch a Tor node (exit node or relay node?) (gdl)
 * Automatic https-enabled web sites for all members. Currently, all of our members have easy access to http (non-encrypted nor authenticated) web sites. Every member can add an https (encrypted and authenticated) web site, however, it requires many cumbersome steps. By the end of 2014, we would like to streamline this process so that all members automatically have an https site that is signed with an MF/PL certificate and can easily be modified to be signed with a corporate provided certificate. Ticket: #407.
 * Begin developing relationships with hardware specialists to explore our vulnerabilities from using potentially compromised hardware (specifically to address the revelations that the Snowden NSA leaks suggest that the US government may be intercepting hardware shipments and changing out shipped components with compromised ones) 
 * Begin participating, as MF/PL, in more mainstream technical bodies (like standards bodies) that are often dominated by corporations, in order to ensure our political vision is heard
 * research sustainable computing options such as servers, other rack hardware, even green rack spaces.
 * supporting the forensics assessment of the riseup server previously seized by the FBI.

== Paid Staff ==

The Support Team team has two paid staff people. Each started at $1,000/month and have received 5% raises after every year they have worked.

 * Ross Glover
  * Began: October 2011
  * Job: Performs day-to-day server administration tasks
  * Political Bio:
 * Dana Skallman
  * Began: January 2013
  * Job: Responds to all support requests, ensures each requests is answered or assigned to a support team member
  * Political Bio: Prior to becoming part of the support team, Dana has freelanced with a variety of organizations. Her work has been geared towards making technology more accessible to a variety communities and individuals, through two distinct focuses: organizing data, and software training.  This work affords Dana opportunities to teach about the politics of proprietary versus non-proprietary software. Dana has also taught folks with little or no computer literacy, which includes people who are homeless or formerly homeless, senior citizens and kids as young as three. Most recently, Dana has participated in the Occupy Tech teams.  There she works on developing and supporting free/open tools to meet activists and organizers' needs, as well as providing guidance on use of software to organizers involved in Occupy Wall Street. During Occupy Sandy, Dana managed CiviCRM for relief efforts. Lastly Dana has been intentional about working in collective structures, with horizontal decision-making processes.  She is a founding member of Tadpole Collective, and Glocal, a techie/organizer collective born of Occupy

== Budget ==

 * Note: 2013 items are not for the full year nor are the fully reconciled
 * Hosting charges:
  * Highwinds: $2000/month (includes overage)
  * Telehouse + Hurricane Electric: $2000/month (includes overage)
  * Extra (chun and front-line servers): $300/month 
  * High speed Internet via our Elisa location in Mexico City ($1200)
 * Servers: 2 servers at $4500 each (not including hard drives)
 * Hard drives: 8 hard drives (for the new servers) + 4 spares
 * Travel and lodging: We will have the costs covered for one team member to attend the APC gathering in Spain. I think we should budget for a second person to go as well.
 * Payroll-related: I'm trying to estimate our costs at 3/4 of the total for last year (since in 2013 we paid Ross and Dana about $1,000/month and Hilary was paid about $650).
 * For salaries - I'm calculating based on 5% raise (Ross: two years, $1,102.50/month, Dana: one yar, $1,050/month)
=== Revenue ===

||'''Item'''                                      ||'''2012'''		||'''2013'''	||                         
||Donations                                       ||247						||495					||
||      AMC Donations                             ||2736					||0						||
||Grants                                          ||4500					||0						||
||      AMC Grants                                ||1600					||0						||
||      POC Grants                                ||4000					||0						||
||Infrastructure Income                           ||4911					||3418				||
||Interest Income                                 ||14						||16					||
||Membership Dues                                 ||126797				||122497			||
||Program Related Income                          ||1123					||0						||
||POC Training Program                            ||11190					||6667				||
||'''Total Revenue'''                             ||'''157119'''  ||'''133093'''||

=== Expenses === 
||'''Item'''                                      ||'''2012'''		||'''2013'''		||'''2014'''       ||'''For''' ||                         
||Bad Debts Expense                               ||0							||6600					||                 || member   ||
||Bank Service Charge                             ||2086					||2003					||                 || member   ||
||General Conference Registration                 ||250						||210						||                 || outreach ||
||      AMC Conference                            ||700						||210						||                 || outreach ||
||Depreciation                                    ||0							||0							||                 || support team     ||
||Dues and Subscriptions                          ||500						||500						||                 || internat ||
||Equipment Rental                                ||0							||100						||                 || member   ||
||Event/Meeting Space Rental                      ||150						||970						||                 || out/mem  ||
||      AMC Fundraiser                            ||360						||0							||                 || all      ||
||      POC Space Rental                          ||530						||0							||                 || special  ||
||Food and Entertainment                          ||913						||674						||                 || o/m/s    || 
||      AMC Food                                  ||827						||0							||                 || outreach ||
||      LC Food                                   ||0							||364						||                 || member   ||
||      POC Food                                  ||800						||1499					||                 || special  ||
||Hosting Expenses                                ||0							||0							||                 || support team     ||
||      Colocation Fees                           ||55611					||47474					|| 52800           || support team     ||
||      Domain Name Registration                  ||640						||363						||   500           || support team     ||
||      TLS Certificates                          ||519						||506						||   500           || support team     ||
||      Disability Benefits Insurance             ||60						||149						||   100           || support team/mem ||
||      Workers Compensation                      ||677						||325						||   500           || support team/mem ||
||       Miscellaneous                            ||1038					||550						||                 || special  ||
||             POC Miscellaneous                  ||0							||45						||                 || special  ||
||       Postage and Delivery                     ||615						||319						||                 || member   ||
||      Printing and Reproduction                 ||296						||0							||                 || out/mem  ||
||      AMC Printing                              ||54						||0							||                 || outreach ||
||      POC Printing                              ||0							||0							||                 || special  ||
||      POC Trainer Consultants                   ||7200					||0							||   3000          || special  ||
||Rent and Utilities                              ||4200					||4150					||                 || special  ||
||Repairs                                         ||0							||0							||                 || support team     ||
||      Computer Repairs                          ||0							||0							||                 || support team     ||
||      Equipment Repairs                         ||0							||0							||                 || support team     ||
||Supplies                                        ||0							||0							||                 || support team     ||
||      Hard Drives                               ||2382					||392						||  2400           || support team     ||
||      Misc. Computer Hardware                   ||7767					||3524					||   500           || support team     ||
||      Office Supplies                           ||94						||469						||                 || member   ||
||      POC Books                                 ||166						||0							||                 || special  ||
||      POC Hardware                              ||2100					||0							||                 || special  ||
||      POC Misc Supplies                         ||0							||0							||                 || special  ||
||      Servers                                   ||0							||1600					||  9000           || support team     ||
||Telephone and Fax                               ||300						||127						||                 || all      ||
||Transportation                                  ||0							||0							||                 || all      ||
||      AMC Lodging                               ||1714					||0							||                 || outreach ||
||      AMC Out of Town Travel                    ||3186					||0							||                 || outreach ||
||      Car Rental                                ||436						||0							||                 || outreach ||
||      Fees                                      ||11						||0							||                 || outreach ||
||      Gas                                       ||50						||34						||                 || outreach ||
||      LC Local Travel                           ||0							||127						||                 || member   ||
||      LC Out of Town Travel                     ||408						||2701					||                 || member   ||
||      Local Travel                              ||128						||0							||                 || member   ||
||      Lodging                                   ||381						||181						||                 || outreach ||
||      Out Of Town Travel                        ||5379					||843						||                 || outreach ||
||      Parking                                   ||0							||163						||                 || outreach ||
||      POC Local Travel                          ||293						||142						||                 || special  ||
||      POC Lodging                               ||857						||316						||                 || special  ||
||      POC Out of Town Travel                    ||3530					||5094					||                 || special  ||
||      Travel Meals                              ||0							||0							||                 || outreach ||
||      Travel Misc.                              ||120						||0							||                 || outrach  ||
||Payroll                                         ||0							||0							||                 ||          ||
||      Payroll Taxes                             ||2275					||3527					||  2500           || support team/mem ||
||      Salaries                                  ||21909					||30375					|| 25830.50        || support team/mem ||
|| '''Total Expenses'''                           ||'''131510'''  ||'''116627'''  || 97430.50        ||          ||