Hi DebianitesThere are likely a few different lists that this mail could be applicable: bursaries@debconf.o, debconf@ debconf-team@, etc. I chose this list to minimize cross-posting and since this could affect policies for all our events (not just DebConf) and it's easy to point people here. On that note, please don't cross-post.
For DebConf, the bursary policy has varied year-on-year when it comes to visas. For some events, visas were completely covered, while for others, visas weren't to give more people a chance to attend (where the budget was more limited).
This had mixed results, for one, people who had their visa's covered in the past may have been surprised to learn that this time round they suddenly had to pay $100-200 that they thought would have been covered.
Furthermore, visa requirements tend to affect people from less privileged countries the most. If we're serious about diversity, I think that we should include covering the visa fee if we offer travel+accommodation by default, and that this should be the default for DebConf going forward, and ideally for all Debian events.
I realise I have some bias here, I myself come from a country where I need a visa nearly everywhere I want to travel to, but I do think that including visa fees by default will help making Debian easier to contribute to for people who come from such countries, and ultimately have a small role in helping us expand to more areas and improve our diversity.
I don't think this needs to be a GR per sé, but I'd like to hear the views of others on this, and I hope that we can garner enough consensus so that we can just go ahead and implement this in our future bursary policies.
-Jonathan
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