Re: Feedback request: spending Foundation money

[Ekaterina Gerasimova <kittykat3756 gmail com>]

On 20 September 2017 at 22:57, Alexandre Franke <afranke gnome org> wrote:
> Taking my board member hat off here and commenting as a foundation member.
>
> On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 3:47 PM, Richard Hughes <hughsient gmail com> wrote:
> > When we were arranging the gnome-software hackfest last year we had
> > huge problems trying to get sponsorship for a non-GNOME foundation
> > member. In the end Canonical paid for the travel and hotel (thanks!)
> > for this person but it was slightly embarrassing how long things took
> > to sort.
>
> I agree, we should consider a procedure for “invited experts”. The
> current guidelines expect that sponnsorship applicants either are or
> paln to become foundation members, but we’ve had valid cases where we
> wanted to have someone because they were relevant to the specific
> topic of a hackfest yet weren’t really on their way to become
> foundation members. This should be acknowledge somehow.

The TC does assign sponsorship to non-foundation members who are core
participants at hackfests and conferences. Those applicants are
expected to explain in their application why they should be sponsored,
same as everyone else.

For the specific case that you mention, could you please ping me in
private about who this was? I looked through the TC records and logs,
and cannot see any requests at all for that hackfest. I am curious
about what happened there.

There was an idea floating around when I was on the board for some
funds to be put towards hackfests which are of interest to other
groups outside of GNOME. I hope that this will still happen.

> > For things like hackfests it would also be nice to have a
> > "team dinner" or some kind of team-building thing as part of the
> > sponsorship, not just some super cheap hotel and economy flights.
>
> Event organizers are encouraged to seek sources of sponsorship outside
> of the GNOME Foundation and we’ve had success in this regard so far. I
> can remember drinks or dinner being funded by corporate sponsors at
> several GNOME events I attended, and I think this is a good way to
> handle this.

I have asked the board to help me previously with finding sponsors for
hackfests that I had organised and did not get any response or help.
Is the board more proactive about providing support to hackfest
organisers now? Or is it expected that organisers search for
sponsorship on their own?

> --
> Alexandre Franke
> GNOME Hacker & Foundation Director
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