Re: [Debconf-team] BSP in Le Camp
On 23/09/12 21:17, Gaudenz Steinlin wrote:
> P.S.: I'm a bit worried about the recent news regarding the contract for
> DebConf with Le Camp. It seems that all my initial hopes that we will be
> able to reduce the price somewhat were wrong. We really need a plan
> about how to get all that money or we need to investigate alternatives
> now (but I don't know a good one yet).
>
Despite my own critical analysis of various points, I personally remain
both supportive and hopeful about a Swiss debconf, even after seeing
Mike's email today and the potentially unavoidable 160k budget
The feedback Luca obtained from RMLL/LSM gives very little detail about
the process for approaching Swiss foundations, their timescale for
funding decisions, etc. But it leaves me with the feeling that no such
organisation will give funding before the deadline set by Le Camp.
If we had the ability to change history, I would say that the DC13 bid
should have had a firm underwriter (a Swiss institution, charitable
foundation or Government agency) before the bid was accepted. When I
say `firm', I mean that before the DC13 bid was accepted, local team
would already have a signature and stamp from such an organisation: "If
DebConf13 comes to CH, our organisation guarantees to be a platinum
sponsor, to pay XXX and to make up any shortfall in funding due to the
currency crisis"
Has any local team ever been asked to obtain such guarantees before
their bid was accepted? It appears that the budget was very honestly
communicated, but no bid has ever been asked to present such written
guarantees.
Nonetheless, I think this provides a useful guide for scrutinizing the
DC14 bids - and it gives them time to seek such support well in advance,
which can only be a good thing. If any prospective team can get such
funding/support locked in at a very early stage as part of their bid
(and there are countries that provide such funding), it would take a lot
of this stress out of the DebConf process.
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