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Re: [Debconf-team] Updated budget for DC14



On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 03:45:10PM +0100, Ana Guerrero Lopez wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 03:35:59PM +0100, Ana Guerrero Lopez wrote:

> > > Without taking any position in the recent debate over the use of
> > > Debian money to sponsor DebConf, I would even go as far as saying
> > > that Debian should always make sure there's a day trip.

> > That's based in your personal experience and preference only. I have seen
> > plenty of people skipping the day trip every year. I know because I was
> > one of them. 
> > The good thing is this is something we can measure, and check the numbers
> > the approx. numbers of how many people benefited of the daytrip and how
> > many people benefit of the daytrip in previous years.

> I meant to say:
> ..."and how many people benefined of the conference dinner in previous years."

Being one of the more biased people here in regards to the daytrip (I was
one of the catalysts that started the "tradition" at DC4, and then directly
responsible for making a day trip happen at DC7 (thanks, Moray), and
apparently somewhat involved in DC10 (still unsure how that happened) and
have been a pretty consistent proponent of DayTrips since 2004 in general),
it's also my personal experience and preference for the reasons Lucas has
outline and even what Martin is saying here.

The daytrip has become a very important social aspect of DebConf. It's not
*the only* social aspect, and we know not everyone will attend (and
*actually, for DC14, I'm kinda banking on people not going so I can plan out
*the conference dinner of my dreams). I've had MULTIPLE people who have
*attended the daytrip comment that it gave them a much needed break from the
*monotony of a conference and get a chance to actually work with other
*developers in a much more laid-back manner. Even when they were required to
*pay their own way on the daytrip (DC7), people were still overwhelmingly
*pleased with it.

Does everyone go on the daytrip? No, I've already said as much. In fact, we
only see about 55-70% participation generally.  But, then again, many active
Debian Developers never actually go to DebConf, but we still consider
DebConf a vital contribution to Debian, and the participation percentage
would be much, much lower there.

I would like to point out that we're planning a slightly extended conference
(time-frame wise) this year, what with replacing DebCamp with a few more
days of talks and hack time. With that extension, I think the daytrip is
even *more* important to give people a chance to actually build comraderie.
It will, as it always has been, be voluntary, and it will most definitely be
low-key this year, and will depend on our fund-raising efforts (hint: IF YOU
WANT A DAYTRIP, JOIN THE SPONSORSHIP TEAM). But, I would argue that it most
certainly *is* useful and benefical to DebConf.

Love and bunnies,
Patty


-- 
----------------------------------------------------------

Patty Langasek
harmoney@debian.org

----------------------------------------------------------

At times, you may end up far away from home; you may not be 
sure of where you belong, anymore. But home is always 
there... because home is not a place. It's wherever your 
passion takes you.
                                --- J. Michael Straczynski


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