Re: Q to all candidates: SWOT analysis
On 14/03/15 at 23:25 +0100, Mehdi Dogguy wrote:
> - Financial status not clear: We have money but we don't spend it.
I'm not pointing specifically to you here (Neil has a similar statement
in his platform), but I think that we need to be a bit careful here. "We
don't spend it" is not a fair characterization of Debian's handling
of money.
We do spend a lot of money on DebConf[1], sprints, mini-debconfs,
infrastructure, OPW/Outreachy, etc. It's hard to know exactly how much
due to the lack of consolidated data, but probably about $200000 to
$250000, with 1/2 to 2/3 used for DebConf.
Spending more is tricky for at least three reasons:
1) we receive donations because we make good use of donations. If we
were spending more, on things that might not be perceived as as much
useful to Debian, we might end up receiving less donations.
2) spending more than what we receive is of course not sustainable on
the long term, and can only be done on a temporary basis. But even if we
did that for some time, we would need to think carefully about the exit
strategy: if we start paying things that were done for free before, how
do we return to the "for free" mode? For example, Neil writes about a
'Debian apprentice scheme': if people start expecting to get paid where
they get involved in Debian, will we be able to return to a scheme where
they aren't?
3) Debian Developers tend to be quite careful about what they ask money
for. I can't remember more than 2-3 occasions where I've refused to use
Debian funds. if you want to spend more, you will have to convince
Developers to ask for money, or find new things to spend money on.
- Lucas
[1] Even if the budget is kind-of separate, DebConf does fundraising on
behalf of Debian, for *the* annual Debian Developers Conference, using
the Debian "brand". Most organizations donating to DebConf kind-of do
their "annual Debian donation" by donating to DebConf, and do not otherwise
donate money to Debian.
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