Confusing bursary mail received

[Jonathan McDowell <noodles@earth.li>]

Hi.

I've received an email this morning stating "You have told us that you 
would be unable to come to DebConf25 if you were not granted travel 
assistance", under a heading of "Accommodation bursary".

This is not correct; I have not requested travel assistance. I _have_ 
requested a food + accommodation bursary, and have received confirmation 
of the food bursary. I assume this email was supposed to tell me I have 
not been successful in an accommodation bursary?

I understand this year sponsorship for DebConf has been much more 
limited, to the extent that the normal situation where active project 
contributors can expect bursaries is no longer the case. There are a 
number of reasons I requested a bursary:

 * There is no alternative accommodation within close walking distance 
   of the venue. I'm aware of some folks who are in AirBnBs, but there's 
   no logical alternative that people might congregate - most hotels 
   seem to be a 40 minute public transport journey away. I would much 
   rather stay close to where other Debian folk are, as that is part of 
   the purpose of DebConf to me.

 * It's not clear what the on-site accommodation actually is. To begin 
   with it wasn't clear if rooms were sharing or not; it now looks like 
   they are _probably_ single person to a room with shared toilet and 
   shower facilities, but that doesn't seem certain. If you want to 
   encourage people to pay for their own accommodation where possible it 
   helps if they know what they will actually get.

 * I have been led to believe by previous DebConf organisers that as a 
   long time Debian contributor that is sufficient to qualify for 
   accommodation, and that it is perfectly reasonable for me to do so. 
   Personally I make the decision that if I am taking the time off work 
   (my employer does not sponsor my Debian work in any manner) and 
   paying for my travel that having Debian provide me with food + 
   accommodation seems like a reasonable trade-off.

I do appreciate the hard work that goes into organising DebConf, but I'm 
aware of several bids in the past that have not gone forward because of 
the realisation sponsored accommodation would be the blocking factor. If 
that's the case _anyway_ then can I suggest there needs to be some 
modification of evaluating future DebConf bids?

J.

--
I'm not popular enough to be different.