[OSGeo-Board] Re: People at FOSS4G

[Tyler Mitchell]

> I'm thinking of a benevolent fund, yes, and then looking at the budget
> document and thinking "well, there's an allocation which looks like
> what I have in mind and has the same sort of name". I'm thinking that
> travel expenses is a good way to support "people we like". "Promotion"
> is a difficult word for me and I'd maybe say "representation".

I would like to see us have a travel grant fund that people could  
request support from or apply to and a committee could dole out, but  
I see this as distinct from the promo budget.

While I would like to see ways to help get members more involved in  
events, I'm a little concerned about setting precedence on what  
"people we like" means, without some clear guidelines.  Of course, at  
present, no one is going to want to say they don't like the people  
you or I like, so then it comes down who asks first or who is 'brave'  
enough to ask the question :)  Who is going to say no, since we all  
have a benevolent nature?

I'm sure that if some of the PSC's or other members knew we had money  
to help support them, they would have asked to come to promote their  
projects, which would seem much easier to justify.

I assume VisCom should get a plan together for how the promo budget  
gets spent, so there is some longer term vision for how the funds are  
directed.  I'm not saying this kind of support wouldn't fall in  
there, but I'm having trouble seeing the benefit for OSGeo to fund to  
have someone come when there are already so many supporters going to  
be there, unless EuroOSCON is in desperate need of OSGeo  
representation or a certain project is having trouble getting a rep  
there.

I guess it also touches on the point of whether or not we want OSGeo  
to be seen as having money to give away for this kind of support in  
general.

Were you looking for VisCom support on this?  I assume the board will  
decide what to do on this, but I just wanted to bring up a few  
discussion points.  Would love to see Andy there, of course :)

Arnulf - Are there some conference passes still available at all?

Tyler