[ZOO-PSC] Requesting funds to go the FOSS4G 2017

[Jeff McKenna]

Dear Gérald and ZOO-PSC members,

I have been quiet on this issue, because I agree with the points made by 
Markus, Daniel and others; and, I'm very disheartened by the high costs 
of FOSS4G Boston.

Yesterday I received a direct message from the Boston co-chair, Michael 
Terner.  He said that the local committee noticed my big smile at 
FOSS4G-Paris, and they would like to offer a complementary "full pass" 
for the registration to me.  They would also like me to be there to 
present this year's Sol Katz award.

That is a kind offer.   And one that made me really think, of somehow 
attending (very similar to Gérald's situation).  A full registration is 
a thousand Canadian dollars, yikes.  Unfortunately the Canadian dollar 
is very low compared to the USD.

Part of my thinking on this, is also the fact that I'll be working on 
the ZOO-Project these coming weeks, before Boston, to add ZOO into the 
base MS4W installer.

And on my mind also is how useful it was for me to be at the ZOO-Project 
workshop in Paris, where I spoke for about an hour on MapServer and ZOO 
to the workshop attendees.

Therefore I've been looking and looking for a cheap flight since I 
received Michael's invite yesterday.  The best I can do is to arrive 
Monday evening, in time for the ZOO-Project workshop (Tuesday 
afternoon), and hope to sleep on someone's hotel room floor for the 
week, and attend the code sprint on Saturday.  The flight cost would be 
470 USD. I would not be buying rounds of beer there of course, and 
cutting costs wherever I can.

So I am proposing to join in on Gérald's use of the code sprint funding, 
only to cover the cost of my flight (I can sleep on Gérald's hotel room 
floor likely, to cut costs).

I do worry that the OSGeo Board might not approve the use of this 
funding for the one-day FOSS4G-Boston sprint, for the ZOO team (which I 
think both Markus and Daniel said as well); but on the other hand, it 
can't hurt to try.

What do others think of this idea?

This is definitely confusing.  Especially as I realize that the 2k might 
just be enough for to cover Gérald's flight and hotel costs.

But I do want to stress that I strongly feel that Gérald should be at 
FOSS4G Boston.  He deserves this after so much work for FOSS4G-Paris.

-jeff






On 2017-07-10 10:31 AM, Fenoy Gerald wrote:
> Dear ZOO-PSC members,
> I do apologize to come back to you so late about this specific query but at this point there is no other way around, so I have to send you this email.
> 
> I would like to request for funds for being able to attend the FOSS4G 2017 in Boston. Indeed, as you have probably noticed we have been accepted for both the ZOO-Project and the MapMint workshop.
> 
> Thanks to this acceptance, we got free tickets to attend the conference. Then for the MapMint workshop we asked for refund after the conference, this should make 750 $US when this money is send.
> 
> Still, this does not even cover the fees I have advanced already for the flight tickets …. (bought in january this year for having cheap price).
> 
> I have also booked a hotel, but for the first time in my life when preparing my journey to the global FOSS4G I have selected a hotel that I can cancel few days before the conference. Only the hotel for the minimum number of nights is around 1200€ which sounds not very reasonable for someone like me that is only willing to promote the software.
> 
> Obviously there will be a Code Sprint there, and we have filled the fund request to OSGeo at the end of the last year (if I recall correctly the dates) for attending code sprint.
> 
> So I would like to request for the full amount of money that we have asked to the OSGeo, so 2000€, for attending the global FOSS4G this year.
> 
> I hope to hear from you and we can accept my proposal, in other case I will have to inform the FOSS4G LOC that both MapMint and ZOO-Project workshops and the ZOO-Project presentation will be canceled. Looking at the price for attending the conference, I still wonder if our place is there or not as selecting attendees on the money they are able to expense during the summer period is probably far from our initial vision … ( when I say « our place » I mean a place for any free software).
> 
> I hope to hear your thoughts on this matter.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Gérald Fenoy
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Djay
>