I think for-profit/non-profit is the most straightforward way to divide potential workshop hosts into pricing tiers, with the idea that teaching at for-profits is essentially a form of fund-raising for our non-profit work. Exceptions for need, payment via in-kind services, etc., can be made on both the profit and non-profit side as needed.
I think going down the road of paying instructors confuses our mission, but there's nothing wrong with acting as a referral service for companies that want to hire SWC instructors. I like Trevor's "bail button suggestion." - Noam On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 11:36 AM Greg Wilson <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi everyone, > > A couple of people have mailed me about this directly as well, so here's > my thinking: > > 1. Some people have objected because they dislike Monsanto's business > practices and/or GMOs in general. However, we have instructors who won't > teach at the US national labs because of their involvement in the nuclear > weapons program, others who won't teach at Catholic-affiliated institutions > because of their record of covering up child abuse, and others still who > think that we should have gotten off GitHub last year because of their > treatment of Julie Ann Horvath. I have (very strong) personal feelings > about some of these issues, but everyone slices them differently, and I > respect everyone's right to choose what they do or don't volunteer for. > > 2. Other people have said that corporations should be charged market > rates. I'm all in favor of bringing in more money (after all, that's what > pays my salary) but what about Harvard? They're sitting on a $29 billion > endowment - should we charge them what we charge the Fortune 500? How > about small companies: do we ask a start-up less than we ask Monsanto? > We've already started down this road by not charging admin fees for > workshops in less affluent countries; should the subcommittee that the > executive is putting together to regularize fee waivers look at charging > market rates for companies, affluent institutions, or some other group? > > 3. I take Stephen's point about having a lot more companies knock on our > door if word gets out that we can provide high-quality training at low > cost, but I actually think that's a good thing. Many of our instructors > are considering careers outside academia, and I'd be pleased if we could > help them make connections. > > This one's likely to generate a long thread, but it's an important topic - > I look forward to hearing more about what you think. > > Thanks, > Greg > > > On 2015-03-04 1:12 PM, Daniel Chen wrote: > > I agree, a discussion is definitely warranted. > > Iterating off of Jason's e-mail: many services offer academic and > corporate pricing tiers. This could be something we do? > > > > > > On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 1:05 PM, Turner, Stephen D. (sdt5z) < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> I'll second the apprehension about providing free labor to corporations >> who can very easily pay for it. And I wouldn't blow this off as a one-off >> thing, a "let's just do it this time and figure it out later if it becomes >> a problem" -kind of thing. When word gets out that we're providing training >> worth big money for free to any corporation who asks for it, I'd imagine >> we'll have lots more Monsantos knocking at our door (and not just global >> multibillion dollar corps). I'd suggest some serious discussion amongst the >> steering committee and everyone else on this list about what a policy >> should look like. >> >> Stephen >> >> ----------------------------------------- >> Stephen D. Turner, Ph.D. >> Bioinformatics Core Director >> University of Virginia School of Medicine >> bioinformatics.virginia.edu >> >> >> >> On Mar 4, 2015, at 12:25 PM, Jason Moore <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> This is the first time I've noticed one of the workshops for a >> billion dollar corporation. What is SWC's policy on providing volunteer >> labor for corporations? I can get behind helping grad students at >> universities for free, but this seems very different. Corporate training is >> big money. For example, my girlfriend's place of business just paid $20k >> for a lousy two day workshop a couple weeks ago. Seems like this kind of >> thing would be ideal to do to fund SWC's more altruistic goals, but I'm not >> sure that having volunteers teaching it is necessarily what everyone has in >> mind. Not to mention, Monsanto isn't the most liked of companies. I'd >> potentially feel ok volunteering for corporate training if I knew it meant >> a strong pay off to our non-profit. >> >> That's just a thought. Sounds like something worthy of a board >> discussion if it hasn't happened yet. At the last non-profit I worked at, >> these topics certainly kept us at the meeting longer than we'd wished. >> >> >> Jason >> moorepants.info >> +01 530-601-9791 >> >> On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 6:43 AM, Greg Wilson < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Hi everyone, >>> >>> We've been approached by Monsanto to run two or even three workshops >>> side by side on April 20-21 in St Louis. They're looking for instructors >>> with backgrounds in stats, genomics/bioinformatics, or both - if you're >>> interested and available, please add yourself to >>> https://swcarpentry.etherpad.mozilla.org/instructors-US. They have a >>> lot of scientists who need our skills, so I'm hopeful that a good first >>> showing will lead to repeat business... >>> >>> Thanks, >>> Greg >>> >>> -- >>> Dr. Greg Wilson | [email protected] >>> Software Carpentry | http://software-carpentry.org >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Instructors mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> >>> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/instructors_lists.software-carpentry.org >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Discuss mailing list >> [email protected] >> >> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Discuss mailing list >> [email protected] >> >> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org >> > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing > [email protected]http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org > > > -- > Dr. Greg Wilson | [email protected] > Software Carpentry | http://software-carpentry.org > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists. > software-carpentry.org
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