Brian Gupta <brian.gupta@brandorr.com> writes: > On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 6:54 AM, martin f krafft <madduck@debconf.org> wrote: >> also sprach Giacomo Catenazzi <cate@debian.org> [2014-12-04 11:49 +0100]: >>> BTW we need also to discuss if we should (and how much) >>> over-commit sponsorships (anticipating the missed reconfirmation). >>> Some discussion already started last year. >> >> I'd say this should be decided by the bursaries team, possibly with >> budgeting. Does this need to be discussed in a wider group? > > I think, that at least in recent history, it's proven that the > bursaries allocation hasn't been fully utilized, so I personally feel > that it would be appropriate to conservatively explore overcommitment > of our bursaries budget. > > The next action items would be to come up with a conservative % > estimate for overcommitment, so that we can be sure budget won't be > killed. Also, we'd want to get sign off from chairs@ (who would work > with leader@ to give debconf insurance in the unlikely event that we > aren't conservative enough in our overcommitment.) I'd suggest being less conservative than you're sounding. 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. Note, this does not mean that all that money will need to be sent off to people immediately, they just need to know that they'll get it if we say they will. There will of course be people who cannot afford to be owed the money, but I don't think that's the general case. Also, just because it looks like we've blown all the debian funds on travel at one point in the cycle does not mean that we'll actually need to draw on those funds in the end, once all the sponsorship starts to flow in. If we manage to do this (rather than dithering until the last moment, as we usually do) then people will likely be able to book cheaper travel, thus allowing more people to be sponsored in the end. Cheers, Phil. -- |)| Philip Hands [+44 (0)20 8530 9560] HANDS.COM Ltd. |-| http://www.hands.com/ http://ftp.uk.debian.org/ |(| Hugo-Klemm-Strasse 34, 21075 Hamburg, GERMANY
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