The more councils and suppliers contribute, the more we can build together and improve the distribution.
We want to continue investing in our products for the benefit of all councils and users. However, we can only do this if councils subscribe.
We are asking councils to pay a voluntary subscription fee to resource core maintenance, offer support, and develop our platforms.
LocalGov Drupal will remain open source and free for anyone to download and use.
I couldn't praise it enough, both from a project manager's point of view, from a public sector democracy point of view, and from a digital point of view. It's a really, really good thing.
Choose your level of involvement
The LGD platform's code is available to take and use as you wish, but the most significant benefits are from participating.
Councils who join the project agree to commit some time to further the organisation's aims and sign our Contributors Agreement.
We also ask for a commitment from participants with specific skills, including:
- Dedicated developer time
- Management/admin time
- User research
- Product management
- Testing
Subscribers
The main benefit of subscriptions is that the more councils contribute, the more we can build together and improve the distribution.
The financial contributions we receive help ensure our products are as good as they can be for all our users, whether they be service users or content designers.
Roughly 70% of subscription fees go directly towards further improving the platform. This includes:
- Product and Technical Leadership
- Coordination and management of the product backlog
- Development of new features
- Release management for core products (LocalGov Drupal and LocalGov Microsites), including stable upgrade paths for minor and major Drupal versions (e.g. Drupal 9 to Drupal 10)
- Providing technical support for councils
Collaborative tools
We encourage councils to work with each other, but they don’t tend to do so without help.
The LGD team actively encourages collaboration, onboards new councils, runs community sessions, facilitates working groups to build new features, and more.
Comms functions
We're actively spreading the word about our collaboration to potential new councils, suppliers, and supporting partners. For example, we send a monthly email newsletter, have a presence on LinkedIn, attend and put on our own events (LocalGov Drupalcamp / LocalGov Drupal Week), and maintain the LGD infrastructure (LGD website, demo sites, docs site).
What else you'll receive
- Join our Slack Subscriber Group to give strategic direction to the open-source project.
- Help formulate our collective product roadmap and decide how to develop our products.
- Receive additional recognition for supporting the project.
- You'll also be eligible for membership in our cooperative. This means you will have part ownership of Open Digital Cooperative, can nominate and vote for directors of the Open Digital Cooperative board, and can vote at the AGM.
How fees are calculated
Our subscription fees are based on the successful scheme run by the Co-operative Council Innovation Network and are designed to be as equitable as possible.
Fees are calculated on a sliding scale based on turnover and population, varying from £1000 to £9750 per year.
This means that councils serving smaller populations with smaller budgets pay less than those with larger budgets. A cap on the overall fee will ensure that larger councils are not unduly burdened.
Contributors (free)
Councils unable to pay the fee are encouraged to use the distribution, contribute in other ways and access our community resources.
- Join the community on Slack for access to technical and peer support
- Join the Technical Group and other working groups to help guide the project and work collaboratively with other councils
- Start helping out when you can. This could involve building new functionality, testing, or sharing your new user research.
How the process works
We know that your time is precious, so the process is designed to be as lightweight as possible. It varies between councils but is generally as follows:
1. Introductory meeting.
We’ll set up a 45-minute chat with an LGD team member. They’ll give you an overview of the project and products and answer any initial questions you might have.
2. Agree to our Contributor Agreement and community code of conduct
If you decide to continue on your LGD journey we ask you to agree to our Contributor Agreement and code of conduct. This outlines what we expect of councils and what they can expect from us.
We’ll send you a quick team survey. We can then add all your team members to the relevant channels. e.g. Slack, Community Group session invites, etc.
You’ll then be able to attend meetings and ask our community for support and advice over our well-used Slack channel (it currently has over 450 members).
3. Announcement
Once the Contributor Agreement is signed we’ll work with you to announce that you’ve joined the project over our social and email channels.
4. Invoicing and payment (optional)
For those councils who want to become subscribers (and we hope that’s all of you), we’ll then issue an invoice for your subscription fee.
On payment, we'll add you to the Subscriber Group on Slack.
5. Technical onboarding (optional)
We also offer technical onboarding to help developers get their web build projects up and running. These are usually with our Tech Lead, Finn. It’s always useful to send him any questions in advance so he can prepare for your session.
6. Membership decision (optional)
For those who’ve paid their subscription fee, there is also the option of becoming a member of our cooperative. This would give you the opportunity to vote at our AGM’s and elect board members.
If you would like to find out more or have any questions just drop us a line at hello@localgovdrupal.org. We are always happy to chat about LocalGov Drupal, provide a demo of the platform, or show how councils are using it.