[Debconf-team] Special sponsorship
Hi,
People are denied travel sponsorship every year. This year, it
included a very active Debian community member, Clint Adams. I am
further disappointed in this decision as Clint was key to DebConf10.
I don't think Clint should be left out like this. The argument from
the travel sponsorship team will be "excluded on a technicality", but
I (and others) do not care: If the team can not manage to give money
to the most deserving people, regardless of technicalities, I think
the team isn't doing its job.
I am not alone in thinking this. I know of at least five people
(myself, at least one sponsor, and some attendees) whom are willing to
give our own money to DebConf in order to fund Clint's travel cost. I
think this sufficiently negates the "technicality" argument: if we are
willing to give our own money because we believe something is right,
then that special-use money doesn't need to care about technicalities,
it is outside of that process. Thus, I don't want this to turn into a
debate about the function of the travel sponsorship team (that is
later, during the BOF on the topic).
Some of us would just like to make a donation, additional sponsorship,
or donate some of our travel sponsorship in order to fund Clint's
travel. All we are asking is that we be able to funnel this money
through DebConf, since attendees paying other attendees directly is
rather sketchy. There is more than enough money already to fund this
scheme, but I will ask the broader DebConf community if anyone else
would like to donate to reduce the impact on each of us. It is
possible there could be other groups of people who would like to join
this scheme, to fund other attendees whom have been denied DebConf
money.
So my question: Will DebConf authorize this transaction? There will
be no extra expense to DebConf, this is money donated for a specific
purpose, not much different than getting a sponsor to fund a day trip
or something like that.
(Aside: Clearly, I will be the one tracking this money movement. I am
obviously more than happy to do this, but I need outside approval, as
the same person should not track money and approve it.)
The fact that I am even writing this email indicates serious breakdown
in the system. These breakdown have been complained about for years.
As a positive solution to this problem, Phil Hands and I are hoping to
revamp the travel sponsorship team next year, based on the desires
expressed by the DebConf community at the BOF we have proposed, and
being as transparent and communicative about our team as possible. At
the very least, if we do not change the process, we can be more
transparent. We can't take over a team ourselves, but we hope our
proposal, whatever it is, is well received.
Thank you for your consideration,
- Richard
--
| Richard Darst - rkd@ - boltzmann: up 729 days, 2:29
| http://rkd.zgib.net - pgp 0xBD356740
| "Ye shall know the truth and -- the truth shall make you free"
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