also sprach Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> [2014-12-08 09:46 +0100]:
> i.e. take the sum that Debian is willing to underwrite DebConf
> for, and allocate it ASAP so that people can go ahead and book
> travel early, then as early sponsorship comes in, allocate some
> more.
This is precisely what we have in mind for DC15 and our budget
already has two positions for that. Being able to commit early is at
the core of the timeline idea Michael Banck sent to the list last
week.
But the point that "budget overcommittal" is trying to address is
really a different one than enabling people to get cheap airfares.
In the past, we've had people approved for travel sponsorship who
then didn't claim the funds, including those who didn't even tell
us. While I think that we should make sure that people know that
this sort of behaviour will negatively impact future bursary
decisions, there'll always be the likelihood of unused funds, e.g.
due to emergencies or other good reasons. In such cases, we should
be able to quickly put the money to other use. Having enough time is
going to facilitate this.
Now, with my budgeting hat on, I'd like to say that I find the idea
of budget overcommittal quite contrary to budgeting itself. Let's
instead just increase the allocation for the travel sponsorship
budget and be prepared to know what to do with money we don't spend.
--
.''`. martin f. krafft <madduck@debconf.org> @martinkrafft
: :' : DebConf orga team
`. `'`
`- DebConf15: Heidelberg, Germany: http://debconf15.debconf.org
DebConf16 in your country? https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf16
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