Re: GNOME Travel Committee & Travel Policy: A proposal for consideration and feedback

[Claudio Saavedra <csaavedra gnome org>]

El mar, 17-02-2009 a las 15:32 -0700, Stormy Peters escribió:
> I think the 200 € was intended to apply to GUADEC. GUADEC is most of
> our travel money. But it could be set on a case by case and could even
> be lowered or waived on a case-by-case basis.

Seriously, I don't like this. Telling a student who's been contributing
on his free time to the project that he needs to request special
consideration if he can't afford those 200 € could even cause him not to
apply at all.

I think GUADEC is a special kind of conference in the sense it needs to
be inclusive, specially for people who is not so integrated in the
community and for whom attending may have a huge impact on their
involvement. Maybe hackfests and other local conferences may suit better
for the approach you propose, but definitively not GUADEC.

On the other hand, case-by-case basis are going to slow things a lot and
make even more difficult to get decisions right on time for those who
simply can't afford a participation.

If in Vilanova, a 200 € participation would have been requested, I
couldn't have afforded it and I don't think I would have dared to ask
for a special consideration (I wasn't too involved at that time to feel
I would have "deserved" it), so I wouldn't have attended GUADEC. And I
have to say that not attending would have made a huge difference in the
way I see the GNOME community and project. I'm sure I'm not the only one
with these feelings.

Claudio

-- 
Claudio Saavedra <csaavedra gnome org>