Travel assistance applications to attend Desktop Summit 2011

[Bharath Acharya <abharath gnome org>]

Hello All,

The GNOME Foundation provides travel sponsorships to individuals who
want to attend Desktop Summit and need financial assistance.

We are happy to announce the Travel Committee is ready to receive
applications for sponsorships to attend Desktop Summit 2011. This year,
The Desktop Summit is being held in Humboldt University, in Berlin,
Germany, from Saturday 6th August, until Friday 12th August.

The instructions are detailed at http://live.gnome.org/Travel
Please read them carefully.

Deadline: May 31, 2011, 19:00 UTC.  You can start sending in your
applications now!


Some extra comments:
* Any information you send to the Travel Committee will be private.

* Asking for sponsorship *does not* guarantee you will get sponsored.

* A good application with good information will be processed fast.

* If you need help with accommodation, you should state in your
application that you need lodging, and leave the cost blank.  The
organization has taken care of booking hostels in advance.

* Always choose the most economical option when possible.  People who
need travel sponsorship, should look for the best price (i.e. through a
service like kayak.com).  If the Travel Committee finds a cheaper price,
that will be the price considered during the evaluation.

* If you need assistance with either accommodation or airfare, but not
both, this year the Travel Committee will give higher priority to people
requesting accommodation.

* If your country needs a VISA invitation letter and you are a GNOME
contributor, please let the GNOME Travel committee know about it.

* If you are selected for the Google Summer of Code or the GNOME
Outreach Program for Women (as student or mentor) you should mention it
in your application.

* If your talk was selected for the Desktop Summit, you should mention
it in your application.

* The Travel committee should reply back about receiving your
application within 2-3 days. After that we would accumulate all the
sponsorship requests and process them together. So please do not panic
(have any butterflies in your stomach) if we take some time to reply on
the status. Affirmative/Negative you would surely get a response.

* No personal emails to committee members. Please keep travel-committee
Cc'ed on all your replies.


Feel free to ask questions on the travel-committee list. You can also
find us in the #travel channel at irc.gnome.org

Regards,
Bharath
On Behalf of GNOME Travel Committee