On Tue, Mar 31, 2015 at 4:43 PM, Matt Davis <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi everyone, > > At our March 12, 2015 meeting, the Software Carpentry Foundation Steering > Committee discussed whether and under what terms to provide workshops to > for-profit corporations. There were no objections to the idea of doing > workshops for corporations, but it is something new to Software Carpentry. > We’ve decided to run a pilot program encompassing five corporate workshops > so we can learn more about working with corporations. The pilot program will > allow us to gauge corporate interest and collect feedback from instructors, > coordinators, and others about how things go. During the pilot, workshops > will be run on these terms: > > Hosts will pay $5000 for their first workshop and $3000 for subsequent > workshops > The money will be split according to the same ratios as for workshops for > non-profit entities > As with our other workshops, instructors will be volunteers and their travel > expenses will be covered by hosts > Three-quarters of the money directed to the SCF will be earmarked to > underwrite administrative fees for non-profit organizations > Fee waivers/discounts will be available to corporations on a case-by-case > basis just as with non-profit organizations > > > We are in the process of updating our workshop operations description [1] to > reflect this new policy. > > Because it has already been arranged, the upcoming workshop at Monsanto will > pay the lower administrative fee of $1250, but it will count toward the > five-workshop sample for the pilot program. > > At the end of the pilot program the Steering Committee will consider whether > to continue doing workshops for for-profit entities, taking into account > such factors as whether the instructors, coordinators, and students involved > had positive experiences, and whether there seems likely to be continued > interest from corporations. The Steering Committee may also elect to change > the terms under which corporate workshops are provided. > > Thank you all for sharing your perspectives on this matter. They have been > helpful insights for our discussions. Steering Committee members will be on > the April 1 lab meeting calls [2] if you have questions about this or other > SCF activities. > > Best, > Matt Davis > Vice-Chair, Software Carpentry Foundation Steering Committee > > [1]: http://software-carpentry.org/scf/workshops.html > [2]: http://software-carpentry.org/blog/2015/03/april-2015-lab-meeting.html
Hi Matt, At first blush this all sounds reasonable to me, and nothing stands out as particularly unsavory. Especially if this is, for now, a pilot program. One thing I'm wondering is, under this program, how a "for-profit corporation" is defined. I have absolutely no clue about corporate law so maybe this is very simple. However, I for one would consider something like Johns Hopkins University a for-profit corporation (no matter how it presents itself otherwise). Or Harvard for that matter. At the same time, I don't feel that way necessarily if an individual department in the university with a limited training budget is the host. So, I'm a little confused. But maybe that's just me. Thanks, Erik _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org
