[Debconf-team] About DebConf
DIVA Staff,
I am writing this mail to help explain the history of DebConf, in
order to help us work together better.
DebConf has happened yearly since 2000. It started small, just a one
day event, and has slowly grown. Since around 2006, we have had a
fairly consistent size and plan we follow. There is a Global Team,
consisting of people who have been involved for years, who guide the
conference. There is a Local Team, which works on the details
following guidance from the Global Team. The Local Team does not have
to re-create everything each year, there is an established plan which
we know works well.
The DebConf team is all of these parts: the local NGO (DIVA) handling
money and reservations, the Local Team handling local planning, the
Global Team handling more planning and supervising everything. Each
part is needed to make each year a success.
As such, I am sorry that so much has been thrown at you without being
able to have our guidance. You are doing great at arranging things,
however, it would be less stressful if you didn't have to start from
the beginning. We were expecting you to help manage money, while our
Local Team arranges all of the hotels, venue, food, etc. under our
budgetary guidance.
Since DebConf happens every year, long-term stability is important.
Each year, we have a surplus and it is used to help start the next
year's conference. If we run a deficit one year, the Debian project
can provide some spare funds. We will then try to pay it back in
future years as best we can. Our long-term goal is to not make a
profit or loss, and to always have a surplus for future years. All of
us are volunteers, none of us are paid or have any financial gain from
DebConf.
DebConf doesn't have to be a fancy conference - in past years,
accommodation has included a youth hostel, and even been the floor of
a school sports hall! As long as we have a place to meet, Debian
developers can interact and work. As such, we start with the
essentials and slowly build up. We have had budgetary problems in
past years, and when that happens, we scale back.
We have budgetary problems now, so we should scale back:
* The most important thing is accommodation. This does not have to be
fancy, we often have used hostels or student dorms.
We have hotels arranged, so should stick with that. I did some
quick calculations: This should cost 60.000€ to 80.000€ for the
number of people we have right now, depending on if we use the most
expensive hotels first, or the least expensive ones. I will include
further information on accommodation costs in a second mail, which
will follow shortly.
* Next most important is the Venue. It seems we will spend 51.000€ on
this.
* Next most important would be food. At 7.5€ per person, with the
numbers I see, this would come to around 30.000€. We pay for some
people, and others can pay at the venue.
* T-shirts and conference bags: Since sponsors have been promised
logos on these, they are important to do. 3.000€ to 5.000€ ?
The sum of the numbers above is about 144.000€ to 166.000€. This
means we will probably have to cut other things this year:
* Day trip: It is fun, but if we don't have enough money, we can't pay
for it. In this case, we can request attendees to pay their own way
if needed, as we have more often than not done in previous years.
* Conference dinner: This is also nice, but it does not have to be
fancy. If we don't have enough money, we can use a back-up plan like
a normal dinner, with a small amount of added entertainment, if
desired.
* Other things: you had mentioned pools, special transport and
accommodation for Google and Canonical guests: These are not
needed. The Google and Canonical guests we have are registered as
normal attendees and expecting our normal accommodation.
I hope this helps to clarify some things and simplify your planning.
There should be no risk for DIVA here: the risk is DebConf's and
Debian's. We want to handle it, and we can handle it, but we need
information about what is happening to make good decisions. Please
let us know the budget, and what other expenses you have had so far.
Thank you for your time in making DebConf a success,
- Richard Darst
--
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