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

[Alberto Ruiz <aruiz gnome org>]

2009/2/17 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 have to point out here, that when I got sponsored in Vilanova, my
contributions weren't that many to the point that I felt kind of
guilty. But the fact that I was there really boost my enthusiasm,
involvement and I felt committed to the project since then. We have to
think in sending students to GUADEC as an investment.

For professionals that are not sponsored by their employers it might
be a different issue though.

My 2 cents.

> 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>
>
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-- 
Un saludo,
Alberto Ruiz