[OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G Discount for Charter Members proposal

[Darrell Fuhriman]

> One of the things I’ve heard in the past is that some people are afraid that running a more professional conference will take away the grass roots / community feeling of FOSS4G. As I said, I myself have no issues with this, but it’s a common theme that comes up.

Actually, I think it could be *more* grass roots if there were a dedicated staff to handle the day-to-day stuff. The LOC could focus on conference issues, without having to learn the ins-and-outs of running a conference.

There’s an enormous number of things that need to be done that have nothing at all to do with a grass roots/community feel, but that burn a huge amount of time, especially if you’ve never done it before.

There’s a big difference in time spent between:

A) Hi, LOC, here’s the signage you need. Make it fit your theme, it’s due on….

and

B) Hey, what signage do we need? Where does it go? What size should it be? Who’s printing it?  Oh crap, we forgot about signs for X, shit someone throw something together…

Substitute a million little things for “signage” and repeat.

Darrell