Re: [Debconf-team] Budget status - travel sponsorship)
Richard Darst <rkd@zgib.net>
> It is hard to improve things. The order we spend money is: venue
> rental, accom, food, <a few other nice things>, travel. If travel is
> prioritized low, and we always are short of money, travel will keep
> being last.
I'm not sure that's quite right. Debconf might allocate the money in
that order, but I suspect it's often actually spent in an order closer
to venue rental deposit, travel, accom, <a few other nice things>,
food, rest of the venue rental. So the most stress is on travel,
which is allocated last but should be spent early to get the most
benefit.
Richard suggests the debian project guaranteeing X travel sponsorship
early in the cycle.
There are at least two more ways around this, including:
- the project guarantees those later known-size expenses for
everything after accommodation, so debconf can use that money to fund
the cashflow for travel sponsorship. This difference is that the
project is just underwriting core conference costs and doesn't look as
much like a sponsor, so shouldn't discourage any real sponsors.
- each debconf funds the following debconf's travel. To cover the
changeover, the project would need to raise one debconf's travel
(maybe for about the same amount as this year's travel, say 20k?) as a
sort of seed/transition fund, on the understanding that the final
debconf's surplus will be paid back to the project;
- do nothing and keep on with the current system.
Which do you prefer? I like all but the last one ;-) but I'd probably
suggest the each-debconf-funds-the-next one.
There will still need to be a flexible approach to travel sponsorship,
as there are different cheapest times for different routes, but at
least you'd be more confident about the total size of the travel pot.
Whatever is drafted later and decided in maybe five or six months' time,
good luck with it and thank you for grasping this nettle.
Hope that helps,
--
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
http://koha-community.org supporter, web and library systems developer.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire (including development) at http://www.software.coop/
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