Ana Guerrero wrote: > We need to: > > - determine a very clear guideline about the process: > - *who* can ask money, > - *why* you can ask money > - *how* much money you can ask (*).
- *when* you can ask for it (hopefully compatible with a range of cheap ticket availability dates) - *when* and *where* it will be paid > - determine how split the money between all the people who ask and who we > reject. > > Traditionally, we have not known if we have money for travel sponsorship very > close to debconf dates, so people has paid very expensive tickets. One of many > complains was: if I would have known this at least 1 month ago I could have > bought > cheaper tickets. Actually, my timing complaint the one time I tried to get sponsorship was that the ticket cost was requested too *early*, before the booking horizon (and well before debconf would pay out any money anyway), so only expensive "open" ticket prices were known. Also, I felt that at that time, the sponsorship process seemed very opaque and personalised, which is why I didn't show any interest in helping it. If the framework looks unworkable, why throw good work at it? I think things look a bit more open to change now and although I'm not interested in helping a system which encourages unnecessary air travel, I'm willing to help in principle, so let's see how these discussions unfold. > In every debconf, the first goal has been being able to pay food and lodging, > and they if there is enought money, then give travel sponsorship. This is news to me! I think back when I applied, I applied for only travel sponsorship because food is a smaller cost and I wasn't confident that the sponsored food would meet my dietary requirements. I wonder if that counted against me. I didn't see this priority stated clearly on http://debconf10.debconf.org/register.xhtml - did I overlook it? It looks like food and lodging sponsorship has a relatively early application closing date, again causing applicants ethical concerns: do they apply for sponsorship and risk denying someone else a place if they cannot obtain sufficient travel funding. I think they won't even have heard about debconf's travel sponsorships by the time they have to apply for food+lodging? Intuitively, it seems like one would worry about getting to the conference, then worry about somewhere to stay, then worry about food. If it's being done in another order, a little explicit guidance would go a long way. > (*) I see the money you get to help paying your travel is a bit like when > you get an university grant. You are usually given less money than you need > and you need to make it work... However, I have always seen very differents > views > here. Well, I was one of the last wave of students to get full grants at university... and I feel that the current general sponsorship craze for 50% and less grants limits access. I've been proud to spend the last six months helping to choose recipients of awards paid from the profits of co-operative.coop, in part because it favours 100% grants. So yes, a different view :-) Regards, -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only: see http://people.debian.org/~mjr/ Please follow http://www.uk.debian.org/MailingLists/#codeofconduct _______________________________________________ Debconf-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-discuss
