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Hosting Community Calls

Fluss hosts monthly community calls on the last Friday of each month to accommodate contributors across the world time zones. These calls are an opportunity for the community to connect, share updates, discuss roadmap items, and collaborate on the project's future. Check the Community Events Calendar for upcoming call schedules.

Any community member can volunteer to host these calls. This guide provides step-by-step instructions for hosting and documenting community calls using Fathom.ai for automated recording and note-taking.

tip

All community workflows in Fluss are transparent and documented, similar to our release process. Anyone can take on the role of call host by following this guide.

Prerequisites

  • Personal Gmail account (recommended over work email to avoid restrictions)
  • Access to Fluss community Google Meet link
  • 10 minutes for Fathom.ai setup

Announce the Community Call

A week or a day before the call, post this message in #general Slack channel:

Hi everyone 👋

We're excited to invite you to our upcoming Fluss community call on Friday, [DATE].
Please feel free to join and bring along any topics or agenda items you'd like to discuss.

In this community call, we'll be discussing [TOPICS - e.g., Fluss 0.9 release, key takeaways,
and what's ahead as we move toward 1.0].

It's a great opportunity to share your feedback, bring in real-world production insights,
and help shape the priorities that matter most to the community.

Looking forward to the discussion and hearing your thoughts!

Join using: [Google Meet Link]
📅 Time Zones:
- Europe (CET): 9:00 – 9:45 AM
- India (IST): 1:30 – 2:15 PM
- China (CST): 4:00 – 4:45 PM
- US (PDT): 1:00 – 1:45 AM

📝 Add discussion points here: [Community Sync Google Doc]

Set Up Google Doc for Agenda

Before the call, update the Community Sync Google Doc with:

## Community Call - [DATE]


### Discussion Topics

#### Community Member Topics
- [Members add what they want to discuss]
-

### Meeting Notes
[Will be added after call from Fathom recording]


### Recording
🎥 [Fathom link - will be added after call]
note

The Google Doc is mandatory - it allows participants to add discussion points before the call and serves as a permanent record.

Setting Up Fathom.ai

Fathom.ai is a free AI-powered meeting assistant that records, transcribes, and summarizes Google Meet calls.

Account Creation & Setup

  1. Visit https://www.fathom.ai/ and sign up with your personal Gmail account
  2. Download and install the Fathom desktop app
  3. In the Fathom dashboard, go to SettingsIntegrations
  4. Connect your Google Calendar and Google Meet
  5. Enable Auto-record in Settings → Preferences
Personal Email Sign-Up

When signing up with a personal email (gmail.com, yahoo.com), Fathom requires you have at least one meeting scheduled in the next 7 days. If you don't have a meeting scheduled, Fathom may block your account creation.

Solution: Make sure the Fluss community call is scheduled in your Google Calendar before signing up.

During the Community Call

  1. Open the Fathom desktop app
  2. Join the Google Meet call
  3. Fathom's notetaker bot will appear in the waiting room - admit it to the meeting
  4. From the Fathom desktop app, click Record to start recording
  5. Announce to participants that the call is being recorded
note

Only the meeting host can admit the Fathom notetaker from the waiting room.

After the Call

Fathom will automatically generate:

  • Full transcript
  • AI summary
  • Key highlights and action items

Sharing Meeting Notes

1. Update Google Doc (Mandatory)

  1. Go to the Fathom dashboard and find your recording
  2. Copy the Fathom recording link (click Share → set to "Anyone with the link")
  3. Update the Community Sync Google Doc:
    • Copy and refine the AI-generated summary from Fathom
    • Add action items with owners
    • Paste the Fathom recording link

2. Post to Slack

Post in the #general channel:

📞 Community Call - [Month Day, Year] Summary

Thanks everyone who joined! Here's a quick recap:
- [Key point 1]
- [Key point 2]
- [Key point 3]

🎥 Recording: [Fathom Link]
📝 Community sync Notes: [Google Doc Link]

Next call: [Date]

3. Email to Mailing List

Send to dev@fluss.apache.org with subject: [Community Call] Summary - [Month Year]

Include:

  • Brief summary
  • Recording link
  • Google Doc link
  • Action items

Questions?

For questions about hosting community calls, reach out on:

Thank you for volunteering to host community calls!