[OSGeo-Conf] Start 2019 RFP / Board discussion about RFP for FOSS4G-2019

[Till Adams]

Dear Conference Committee,

(as not finally voted, but last nominated chair of this committee I 
start this process before nobody else does ;-))

I just chatted with Steven, and we'd like to get the 2019 RfP in motion 
ASAP. Writing this, I aready started and created a WIKI page (see link 
below). I think for the RFP the most important point is the timetable. 
In comparison to past calls, I tightened the timetable a little (e.g. 14 
days for questions instead of a 21 day period), so that we have the 
chance to get a decision by mid of december.

Feel free to comment and/or edit:
https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2019_Bid_Process

We also have to include the suggestions of the board Venka recently 
sent. Regarding them, I see no problems with adapting Venkas points a - 
e and g, point h depends on time but might be critical, because we are 
already little late.

I'd like to suggest a more comprising section instead of Venkas point f:

Venka writes:

f) Page 11 mentions "We hope to keep cost per participant under $650 USD 
for the conference
> plus workshops."
> I (Venka) am not aware of how the affordability discussion went on at 
> f2f in Boston. However a
> more specific statement could be better for the 2019 RFP. e.g.
> "We strongly recommend to keep the cost per participants under $XXX 
> USD (early bird) and
> $YYY USD for the conference and workshops."

I'd like to replace the sentence in question by:

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please be aware, that a global FOSS4G is OSGeo's major event and that it 
should be open to as many participants as possible. One major factor are 
the overall costs of the conference-visit for potential attendees.
We suggest to keep conference fees per participant under $650 excluding 
costs for workshops and the social event. The experience of the past 
years has shown, that the social event is one major part of a FOSS4G, so 
we suggest to include the social event in the overall conference package.

Please line out:
- whether you are able to hit our expectations of a max conference fee 
of $650 or if not, why and whether it will include or exclude the main 
social event
- costs for accommodations around your place from basic to premium (I 
think this is included anyhow)
- give us a hint on the general living costs such as averaged costs for 
a meal/drink/public transport and so forth
- describe briefly how you will enable especially financial weak persons 
to attend your conference (e.g. student helper programme, 
pre-reservation of especially cheap accommodations, collect money on top 
of travel grant programme funding from OSGeo, [your ideas], etc.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think we must see the overall costs - low fees and high accommodation 
costs or even high costs for drinks may also exclude many people from 
FOSS4G or from one of the most important parts of a FOSS4G: Socializing 
(having low fees of e.g. $400 does not help anybody jumping into our 
community, when a beer costs $8 and he/she is not able to join other 
participants in the evenings....)

Also I can imagine of editing the section regarding the conference dates:
I think we just have s.t.h like a target timeperiod (Sept-Oct), but we 
should hint bidding teams, that they may choose the best and/or maybe 
also cheaper period around this target period. On the other hand, I also 
know, that there have been some problems for people attending the 
conferences in 2016 and 2017 that took place in holiday-pregnant August, 
so maybe we can also have a discussion whether we can/will allow people 
to have their conference in August?


Please also comment on this as well!

Regards, Till