[Board] FOSS4G Boston Travel Grants ~ IMPORTANT request

[Michael Terner]

As you all can see we've been very busy assembling our program (225
accepted talks <http://2017.foss4g.org/accepted-presentations/>, out of 423
submitted) and rounding out the sponsorship for the conference (>$200k of
commitments <http://2017.foss4g.org/sponsor/>). And now, with 2 weeks to go
before the Early Bird expires, registration is starting to pickup with ~200
registrations processed.

And, with registration on people's minds we have started to get the
inevitable requests for financial support (e.g., and accepted speaker who's
company cannot pay; graduate students looking for support; etc.) and we
expect those requests to continue. The Boston LOC (BLOC) would dearly like
to have a "Travel Grant Program", but as was pointed out in earlier threads
(I believe by both Steven Feldman and Jody Garnett) it is difficult for the
host LOC to run such a program. For instance:

   1. We do not yet know our financial condition. With registrations being
   notoriously late, we won't know if/how much $'s are available for such a
   program for some time.
   2. Administering such a program takes time, and our primary focus is on
   producing the conference and the workshops.
   3. Decisions on criteria for choosing recipients and the amount of
   individual grants can be delicate and the criteria/objectives may differ
   between the BLOC and OSGeo

As such,* the BLOC would like to make a formal request that OSGeo establish
and administer a travel grant program for the Boston 2017 event*. We would
gladly collaborate and help advertise the program (e.g., on our website and
through referrals), but we would concur that this program should be
established and funded by OSGeo. We have high hopes that the proceeds from
Boston will reimburse OSGeo's investment in subsidizing attendance from
certain communities. And, we too will be looking to offer other
opportunities for financial support through our volunteer program, and
potentially a "need-based" registration discount (if our Early Bird
registrations give us increased confidence in our financial success).

Thank you in advance for considering this request. Please let us know if
you have any questions.

Sincerely, MT & the BLOC
-- 
*Michael Terner*
*Executive Vice President​ & Chair FOSS4G Boston 2017​*
Applied Geographics, Inc.

-- 
This e-mail message and any attachments may contain confidential or legally 
privileged information. If you are not an intended recipient or otherwise 
authorized to receive this message, you should not use, copy, distribute, 
disclose or take any action based on the information contained in this 
e-mail or any attachments. If you have received this message and material 
in error, please advise the sender immediately by reply e-mail and delete 
this message. Thank you on behalf of Applied Geographics, Inc. (AppGeo).
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/attachments/20170503/55c9eec8/attachment.htm>