Running JPA (YAPC::NA 2011)

Editor's Notes

1. \n
2. So a little bit about myself.\nI grew up mostly in Brazil and US, and expatriated to Japan in 2004.\n\nI’ve been writing perl for 12 yrs now.\n
3. today I’m here to talk about this organization that\nwe run in Japan. JPA.\n
4. I believe JPA is a unique organization within the\nPerl world, and that we fill the void that entities like\nTPF and PMs cannot fill\n\nIn short, we’re business oriented. We cater mostly\nto the needs of the businesses. \n
5. So before I tell you how JPA operates and the things\nthat we do, let me briefly tell you how this organization\nfirst came to be.\n
6. I’ve been involved in all of the past YAPCs in Japan.\nAfter the one held in 2008, we had a little dinner\nwith all the staff.\n\nWe were talking about the whole event, and I blurted out...\n\nso what do I mean by “this stuff”?\n
7. One of my major pet peeves was that until then YAPC finances were handled by the individuals running the show. while they were doing their best to minimize the risk, individuals were paying for expenses before hand. What happens if you the conference was canceled? who was gonna take the initial risk? Nobody would be willing to step up and help running the show if you had to put your personal wallet on the line\n\nEven if everything went well and we had a profit, we couldn’t keep the profit, because all this money had to go to /somebody’s/ pocket first. That means taxes, and everybody wants to avoid it. So we spent it all each year. If we kept doing this, we could never grow the conference itself, or keep a safe amount for the year after. Note that the tax situation may be different in US, but in Japan you can’t just donate to random entities and not be taxed.\n\nand finally, there was no single entity to represent perl in Japan. If we were to keep running YAPC, it was about time there was an incorporated entity like TPF\n\n\nYou know that eerie feeling you get\nwhen you just want to raise an issue and point out that something needs to be fixed, and then the next thing you know,\nyou’re in charge of implementing it?\n
8. One of my major pet peeves was that until then YAPC finances were handled by the individuals running the show. while they were doing their best to minimize the risk, individuals were paying for expenses before hand. What happens if you the conference was canceled? who was gonna take the initial risk? Nobody would be willing to step up and help running the show if you had to put your personal wallet on the line\n\nEven if everything went well and we had a profit, we couldn’t keep the profit, because all this money had to go to /somebody’s/ pocket first. That means taxes, and everybody wants to avoid it. So we spent it all each year. If we kept doing this, we could never grow the conference itself, or keep a safe amount for the year after. Note that the tax situation may be different in US, but in Japan you can’t just donate to random entities and not be taxed.\n\nand finally, there was no single entity to represent perl in Japan. If we were to keep running YAPC, it was about time there was an incorporated entity like TPF\n\n\nYou know that eerie feeling you get\nwhen you just want to raise an issue and point out that something needs to be fixed, and then the next thing you know,\nyou’re in charge of implementing it?\n
9. One of my major pet peeves was that until then YAPC finances were handled by the individuals running the show. while they were doing their best to minimize the risk, individuals were paying for expenses before hand. What happens if you the conference was canceled? who was gonna take the initial risk? Nobody would be willing to step up and help running the show if you had to put your personal wallet on the line\n\nEven if everything went well and we had a profit, we couldn’t keep the profit, because all this money had to go to /somebody’s/ pocket first. That means taxes, and everybody wants to avoid it. So we spent it all each year. If we kept doing this, we could never grow the conference itself, or keep a safe amount for the year after. Note that the tax situation may be different in US, but in Japan you can’t just donate to random entities and not be taxed.\n\nand finally, there was no single entity to represent perl in Japan. If we were to keep running YAPC, it was about time there was an incorporated entity like TPF\n\n\nYou know that eerie feeling you get\nwhen you just want to raise an issue and point out that something needs to be fixed, and then the next thing you know,\nyou’re in charge of implementing it?\n
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12. I organized about 4 or 5 meetups with various Perl hackers\nwhere I inquired\n
13. I organized about 4 or 5 meetups with various Perl hackers\nwhere I inquired\n
14. I organized about 4 or 5 meetups with various Perl hackers\nwhere I inquired\n
15. I organized about 4 or 5 meetups with various Perl hackers\nwhere I inquired\n
16. many answers came back, some of them formed the objectives for JPA\n
17. \n
18. When I talk to programmers sometime I hear a great reluctance\nwhen I mention that we should be working with corporations to\nsecure support, financial or otherwise.\n\nHowever, I believe this is a very important aspect that the Perl\ncommunity is really bad at. \n
19. Because, hello reality...\n
20. Because, hello reality...\n
21. Because, hello reality...\n
22. Because, hello reality...\n
23. So I went and talked to as many companies that I could.\n\n\n
24. So whether you like it or not, people see perl\nas a nerd-oriented, hacker centric tool\n
25. What we heard boils down to\n * there are a lot of hackers, but not so much newbies\n * and the general env is for hackers, so newbies, new-hires, companies are having trouble\n * .... and people don’t know who to turn to\n\n
26. We need to appeal to these types, as well as\nstudents, light users.\n\n\nSo keep the hacker culture, but we need an aid/additional help to reach out to people who don’t care about tech issues.\n\n
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33. We actually have many heavyweights in the Japanese\nIT industry.\n\nMissing: Old-Industries: telecom, IBM-type giants\n
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38. Wildly successful with over 500, almost 600 attendees\n
39. Actually, we brought him in because I wasn’t going to be able to run the show on 2010, but that’s another story\n
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41. JPA is also responsible for supervising\n\nYappo made all the arrangement. I just do the supervising, reviewing articles.\n
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43. As I said earlier, one of the major requests that I heard was how\nit was hard for new comers to learn Perl. We’re talking lack of \nmodern learning material for new-hires, people just coming to Perl\n
44. So as part of our effort to remedy the situation, we’re providing\ntraining courses. There is PRACTICALLY NO OTHER COMPANY\nPROVIDING PERL COURSES IN JAPAN. This should be a wake up\ncall if you didn’t know.\n
45. Of course, it doesn’t help our sponsors if we’re just training\nothers. We need material that we could use for our new hires.\n\nSo we’re working to come up with text/material for new-hire training,\naiming for fiscal year 2012\n
46. Another important aspect is networking between Perl users\nThis includes companies using Perl, and Perl hackers in different areas of Japan.\n
47. So first off, Regional Perl groups.\n\nThis is a special situation in Japan, but everything in Japan is concentrated around the greater Tokyo area. Perl mongers are no exception. \n\nbut that doesn’t mean we don’t have quality Perl engineers in other regions. we also want to encourage regional IT industries to consider Perl, so we’d like to hold events with the regional Perl groups\n
48. One thing we’ve been actively doing is to head over to as many regional Perl Monger meetups as possible.\n\nWe’d like to show that JPA and Perl are active\nWe’d like to create new bonds in other areas.\nwe also would like to recruit people form other areas\n
49. One thing we’ve been actively doing is to head over to as many regional Perl Monger meetups as possible.\n\nWe’d like to show that JPA and Perl are active\nWe’d like to create new bonds in other areas.\nwe also would like to recruit people form other areas\n
50. One thing we’ve been actively doing is to head over to as many regional Perl Monger meetups as possible.\n\nWe’d like to show that JPA and Perl are active\nWe’d like to create new bonds in other areas.\nwe also would like to recruit people form other areas\n
51. One thing we’ve been actively doing is to head over to as many regional Perl Monger meetups as possible.\n\nWe’d like to show that JPA and Perl are active\nWe’d like to create new bonds in other areas.\nwe also would like to recruit people form other areas\n
52. One thing we’ve been actively doing is to head over to as many regional Perl Monger meetups as possible.\n\nWe’d like to show that JPA and Perl are active\nWe’d like to create new bonds in other areas.\nwe also would like to recruit people form other areas\n
53. One thing we’ve been actively doing is to head over to as many regional Perl Monger meetups as possible.\n\nWe’d like to show that JPA and Perl are active\nWe’d like to create new bonds in other areas.\nwe also would like to recruit people form other areas\n
54. One thing we’ve been actively doing is to head over to as many regional Perl Monger meetups as possible.\n\nWe’d like to show that JPA and Perl are active\nWe’d like to create new bonds in other areas.\nwe also would like to recruit people form other areas\n
55. One thing we’ve been actively doing is to head over to as many regional Perl Monger meetups as possible.\n\nWe’d like to show that JPA and Perl are active\nWe’d like to create new bonds in other areas.\nwe also would like to recruit people form other areas\n
56. One thing we’ve been actively doing is to head over to as many regional Perl Monger meetups as possible.\n\nWe’d like to show that JPA and Perl are active\nWe’d like to create new bonds in other areas.\nwe also would like to recruit people form other areas\n
57. One thing we’ve been actively doing is to head over to as many regional Perl Monger meetups as possible.\n\nWe’d like to show that JPA and Perl are active\nWe’d like to create new bonds in other areas.\nwe also would like to recruit people form other areas\n
58. One thing we’ve been actively doing is to head over to as many regional Perl Monger meetups as possible.\n\nWe’d like to show that JPA and Perl are active\nWe’d like to create new bonds in other areas.\nwe also would like to recruit people form other areas\n
59. One thing we’ve been actively doing is to head over to as many regional Perl Monger meetups as possible.\n\nWe’d like to show that JPA and Perl are active\nWe’d like to create new bonds in other areas.\nwe also would like to recruit people form other areas\n
60. As you may have noticed, I’ve been going to most of these\nmeetups myself. \nWhile I think I’ve been doing a good job, obviously seeing the same\nface every time gets boring pretty fast. It also looks suspiciously like I’m just having too much fun with JPA’s money.\n
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62. So to rectify this situation, and to Encourage cross-polination, \nwe’ve been sponsoring other Perl hackers to go to different areas.\n\nSo far we’ve had 4 such opportunities, and as seen here, we’ve been lucky to send many excellent engineers\n
63. So to rectify this situation, and to Encourage cross-polination, \nwe’ve been sponsoring other Perl hackers to go to different areas.\n\nSo far we’ve had 4 such opportunities, and as seen here, we’ve been lucky to send many excellent engineers\n
64. This program entails paying for Hotel and airfare to participate in monger meetups\n\nwe’re paying up to approx $500 per such occasion.\nthe local PMs owes the following:\n they should at least “try” to raise the money to cover this cost\n however, we don’t really expect them to raise that much money\n (if they could, they’d invite hackers themselves)\n this is just to ensure the PMs are being responsible\n they must blog about it\n and the hacker who was sent need to blog about it too\n\nthis program has been pretty successful.\nJust like in YAPC, this cross pollination apparently does wonders in terms of bringing up motivation and exchanging new ideas.\n\n\n\n
65. As proof of being well received..\n\nOSC Hokkaido - Apparently Hokkaido.pm got a recognition award\nfor working to boost the IT communities in Hokkaido area.\nPart of that was because we helped them bring mongers to their area\n
66. So, JPA holds YAPC, send people to regional monger meetups, holds training sessions...\n\nWhat does JPA’s cash flow look like?\n
67. First, we ask our sponsors for membership fees\nthis adds up to about $20K total or so\n
68. So first, obviously there’s YAPC::Asia Tokyo\n
69. I haven’t checked thoroughly, but I think YAPC::Asia Tokyo is \nprobably the cheapest YAPC in the world. We only charge $50 for\nthe entire attendance.\n\nWe used to have student discounts, but from this year on we’re\ngoing to admit students for free. We want more younger generation to attend it.\n\nAnd even with this cheap ticket prices, we make a profit\n
70. I haven’t checked thoroughly, but I think YAPC::Asia Tokyo is \nprobably the cheapest YAPC in the world. We only charge $50 for\nthe entire attendance.\n\nWe used to have student discounts, but from this year on we’re\ngoing to admit students for free. We want more younger generation to attend it.\n\nAnd even with this cheap ticket prices, we make a profit\n
71. The secret to profits is that as we told you before, we have a YAPC guy, who handles the sponsor relations for us. Damn, he’s good.\n\nOther than our annual sponsors, we have YAPC-only sponsors, and we make deals with them to get freebies, and extra sponsorship. For example, the T-shirt I’m wearing right now was donated to us -- and you notice their logo.\n\nSmall things like this add up.\n\nAnd the attendance for YAPC::Asia is about 500~600 people. This obviously becomes one of our direct income.\n\n
72. Here’s how our sales and expenses for the last YAPC look like\n\nAs you can see, YAPC itself is completely paid for by sponsorship alone. This is both good and bad. It’s good that we have that many sponsors, but it also means that every year we have to scramble to get that much sponsorship. We should try to rectify this in coming YAPCs...\n\nAnyway, since most of the expenses is paid by the sponsors, the entire ticket sales become our income.\n\nThis is actually the bulk of our annual revenue. It’s not great, but for a small organization like JPA, the fact that we can keep this money for the future makes a great difference.\n
73. The other source of our income is the training that we offer.\n
74. However, this doesn’t really pay that much...\nWe need to make this a bit more efficient, but right now this has intangible benefits like making new connections, so it’s worth it.\n
75. In the future, we’d like to make training for new hires one of the main income sources for JPA, probably by selling the education materials... but we’ll see.\n
76. These don’t pay much in terms of the overall percentage but it all adds up, so we do what we can\n
77. My wife in the audience handles the book keeping\n
78. So that’s about it for what JPA’s doing, and how we fund ourselves.\n\nNow I’d like to share with you guys what we think we got right.\n
79. First off, the regional PMs. Things definitely changed since JPA:\nMany new regional PMs were born, and they are more active than ever. I know of some other PMs that are being setup too. \n\nThere are no plans as of yet, but would be cool if there was a PM in Okinawa, which is sort of like Hawaii.... I’d love to hold a YAPC there :)\n
80. And finally: it was definitely good that we made an incorporated entity. This means that we can run our organization without risking any individual, it also means that we can easily transfer assets and control when the current board steps down.\n\nBeing able to acquire assets is also a great thing. For example, because we can leave some money and equipment from the previous years, running YAPC is easier than ever.\n
81. And now.. the challenges. Yeah, JPA isn’t perfect. We still have to face many challenges.\n
82. While I bragged about revenue, this is not enough.\n\nTo be able to provide better training, and other activities we need to make more money.\n
83. Another thing.\n\nThe directors for JPA are sacrificing a lot of time and effort to run the organization. However we’re all unpaid at this point.\n\nYou may think I’m being greedy, but if you want an organization and its staff to last, you need have a healthy cycle of effort and reward.\n\nOf course, you don’t need be paid a multi-billion dollar check, but what I’m saying is that without a modest reward, you burn out your staff fast. And that’s not really what we want. We want this organization to last\n\nThis is another reason why we need to think of other ways to raise a profit.\n
84. It’s extremely hard to recruit people to volunteer their time.\n\nYou really need some sort of reward to lure people into sacrificing their time.\n\nThis lack of resources is seriously hurting our education program. \n
85. And finally, we’re still lacking processes. \n
86. We’re a small team, and we make decisions fast.\nHowever, we do owe our sponsors for a better defined process\n\nbut this comes back again to having limited resources.\nyou need to spend some resource to come up with processes, so it’s kind of like chicken-or-the-egg type of thing.\n\nwe’re making small progress, though\n\n
87. Finally, lessons that we learned during the course of running JPA for the last few years.\n
88. The biggest thing to learn is that, for a small organization like JPA, who is promoting a non-buzzing technology like perl, you need to leverage other people’s strength. \n\nYou need to make sure you’re not playing it alone; you need to work with others and make it a win-win situation... and don’t distrust corporations. they are important part of reality.\n
89. Another thing.\nYou may or may not agree with this, but I’m personally\nskeptic about all-volunteer organizations.\n\nI believe in people’s good intent, but I don’t believe for a second that you can keep relying on that good intent for much longer than a few yrs. I don’t want to see people being burnt out, being disillusioned, frustrated and feeling like they wasted their time.\n\nCompensations ARE important, damnit.\n\nSince I’ve been talking about profit and corporations, some of you might have the opinion that I’m selling out my soul to these big corporations.\n\nbut you know what, so what.\nUs hackers are not hiring devs. Companies are. we need to make them think that Perl is worth it if we want to increase the Perl population.\n\nHowever, I’d like to state clearly that we’re also trying or best to not be evil. So far I think we’ve been pretty successful at that.\n\n
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91. I talked a lot about money during my presentation,\nbut please don’t think we’re after the financial aspect\nalone. We just believe that we need to be able to\nraise enough money to pay for stuff ourselves.\n\n
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97. This is my last point.\n\nI started programming when I was 18. \nI’ll turn 34 this year. Sure, I still have many years of programming ahead of me, but admit it, every year more young folks start their careers in engineering.\n\nPerl is seriously lacking in the effort to bring up new generation of programmers, and it’s visibly affecting what technology companies (our sponsors) choose.\n\nIf you’ve been programming for an extended amount of time, you can help.\n\n\n
98. Namely, write stuff for newbies. Intro material.\nthings that show what Perl can achieve. \n\nDon’t just let TPF and its site do all the talking, write it yourself! Brag about what you’ve done with Perl. Talk about it.\n\nWriting a book is also a great thing for yourself, and for all others.\n
99. During the course of promoting Perl, I’ve come across many many encounters with entries and people who seem to only be obsessed about dissing stuff they don’t like.\n\nDon’t fall prey for that. Don’t fight. Don’t lower yourselves to that level.\nPromote that you and the technology we love is worth trusting. \n\nShow people that our community is secure, that we’re adults. Show the great things we can do using Perl. And talk about it. Have others talk about it.\n