[OSGeo-Conf] [Board] travel grant discussion
Kristin Bott
bottk at reed.edu
Fri May 12 16:03:03 PDT 2017
All --
Very, very excited to see travel grants picked up as a consistent piece of
FOSS4G.
Having either run or been involved in the applicant selection process for a
half-dozen of these/similar programs, I wanted to chime in -- the below
questions (from Steven) are important and can be complicated to navigate.
> We need simple criteria from OSGeo to determine our selection of
recipients
1. Do we give priority to people from lower income countries? 100%?
2. Is OSGeo content to allow the selection group to prioritise
ethnicity and gender as they see fit?
3. Do we give full funding to a small number of people or partial
funding to a larger number
4. Do we ask/expect travel grant recipients to volunteer some time at
the event?
>From what I've seen (again, across a number of different approaches to a
travel grant/scholarship program) -- either the LOC or OSGeo will need to
be clear about the *goal* of the TG program -- is this about:
-- financial access (defined by country of origin? self-identified need?),
-- increasing diversity (what does that mean -- and how do you identify it
... and what particular axis of diversity are you interested in -- gender?
country of origin? [how does that change when the location of the
conference changes?] other underrepresented group identity?
-- what stage of career are you interested in supporting (all? advanced
only? new only? preference given only to those with submitted talks? <-- a
problematic metric because who is likely to submit a talk is not an equal
cross-section of all people...)
... I can see Steven's questions being answered by the LOC or by OSGeo; it
may be easiest to let the LOCs define their own scope and program, although
if there is clear consensus re: answer from OSGeo to any of the above
questions, perhaps priorities can be set @ the org level, as well.
Again, I'm really glad to see this potentially moving forward as an
institutional priority.
-k.bott
On Fri, May 12, 2017 at 12:39 PM, Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com
> wrote:
> +1 to Steven's comments.
>
> When chairing FOSS4G 2009 I was surprised by how many people had very
> compelling reasons for why they in particular deserved a free pass to the
> conference. And at the same time, there are people equally passionate about
> keeping fees to a minimum.
>
> The hardest part of the travel grant program is that there will be
> insufficient budget for everyone's request. There is likely to be endless
> debate over what is fair, with most people thinking that what is selected
> is unfair for them. Lots of people will need to be told "No, sorry you
> didn't get a spot".
>
> So yes, the most important thing is to create a set of selection
> principles, which are transposed into selection criteria, which is
> allocated to a selection panel to apply as fairly as they see fit. Then to
> defend the selection committee when people complain.
>
> I suggest that every attendee should "have some skin in the game". Ie this
> travel grant shouldn't be seen as a way to get a free holiday. It should be
> seen as supporting a hugely dedicated community member to connect with
> other people such that they can amplify their effectiveness.
> So I'd suggest criteria include:
> * Volunteer effort by recipient > Cost of grant
> * The recipient co-contributes in some way, maybe by partly funding their
> activity, maybe by working at the event, such as helping out on the OSGeo
> booth
>
> On 13/5/17 1:57 am, Steven Feldman wrote:
>
> My 2c
>
> Several key questions
>
> 1. How much money do we have to distribute?
> 2. Where is it coming from? If OSGeo we will need Michael Smith to
> manage the payments.
> 3. We need simple criteria from OSGeo to determine our selection of
> recipients
> 1. Do we give priority to people from lower income countries? 100%?
> 2. Is OSGeo content to allow the selection group to prioritise
> ethnicity and gender as they see fit?
> 3. Do we give full funding to a small number of people or partial
> funding to a larger number
> 4. Do we ask/expect travel grant recipients to volunteer some time
> at the event?
>
>
> This needn’t be too complicated but we will need to move quickly to agree
> and publish criteria and kick off the application process. Hopefully the
> Boston LOC will be willing to extend early bird prices to travel grant
> recipients even though the cut off date will have passed?
>
> mftbwy
> ______
> Steven
>
>
> On 12 May 2017, at 16:11, Eli Adam <eadam at co.lincoln.or.us> wrote:
>
> On Fri, May 12, 2017 at 4:04 AM, Till Adams <till.adams at fossgis.de> wrote:
>
>
> Hi CC-members,
>
> I read the paper delivered by Jody, added some comments and corrected the
> details for the Bonn conference.
> This paper is more the OSGeo-manual on the topic.
>
>
> If we're really using google docs to work on a document, please allow
> wide editing or at a minimum comments. I've opened this document
> several times and read it but lack access to edit or comment.
> Selectively giving access isn't really sufficient in my opinion.
> Otherwise, we can use the wiki.
>
>
> I think we as Conference Committee have another important task in this
> tropic:
> How to we select applicants, if applicants > money?
>
>
> Right, I expect this will be a common situation.
>
>
> Second we should agree on what do applicants get paid? We had a long
> discussion on this for bonn and in the end we agreed, that it is very
> difficult to actually give a travel grant. In the end we did two things:
> 1. we paid early bird fee and accommodation in a regular hotel for
> "regular" applicants
>
>
> This is of course "easy" when it is the LOC since it is the LOC both
> "paying" and "receiving" the funds. We'll have to figure something
> out for this when it is the Conference Committee "paying" and the LOC
> "receiving" the funds. Maybe we'll want to include TG funds in the
> advance to the LOC? This is partly all semantics since it is all
> OSGeo funds but the LOC does have real bills to be paid (venue,
> catering, etc).
>
> 2. we paid accommodation in a hostel and 500€ cash (as grant for travel
> costs) to applicants, that also took part in the student-helper programme.
>
> With that, there was no real cash flow before the event, as it would have
> been necessary, f we really would have paid for travel costs.
>
>
> We've got several details to work out. This might take a little
> discussion.
>
> Best regards, Eli
>
>
>
> So far,
>
> Till
>
>
>
> Am 10.05.2017 um 08:38 schrieb Jody Garnett:
>
> Happy to share the document (see attached).
> Travel Grant Guidelines
>
> I have put the travel grant thing on the agenda for Thursday board
> meeting; while i am sure we can handle it a rep from the conference
> committee may wish to attend.
>
> Aside: I am focused on this as part of our OSGeo inclusive goal (so
> diversity and having it be broader in scope then just the annual foss4g
> event. I know that will be hard to focus on since foss4g boston has a short
> term need.
> --
> Jody Garnett
>
> On 9 May 2017 at 23:30, Till Adams <till.adams at fossgis.de> wrote:
>
>
> Hi,
>
> thanks Eli for the sum up. I think the count of 9 votes (8 x +1, 1 x +0)
> shows, that we have enough capacity to run this topic.
>
> In general I think the voting result is clear - if the board passes over
> this topic to us, we are ready to go.
> Then we can proceed to the next step, as Jody suggested in his mail from
> 4th of May and dive into his draft document. @Jody, could you please share
> this doc with us?
>
> We have to keep Camerons thoughts in mind:
> - my intention was a restriction to global FOSS4G, but may be extended on
> a case by case basis to other events too - any other opinions here?
>
> Also I think the handbook (that needs a re-work anyway) is a good place:
> https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_Handbook
>
> Also we should care about Michaels last email and request to care about
> Narcisse Mbunzama (email from 09.05.2017)
>
>
> Regards, Till
>
>
>
>
> Am 10.05.2017 um 02:30 schrieb Eli Adam:
>
> On Tue, May 9, 2017 at 1:45 PM, Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com>
> <shfeldman at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Have we got enough votes to declare a decision? So far no one has voted -1
>
> I count eight +1s and one +0 so that is enough. [0]
> https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Conference_Committee#Decisions
>
> What was the expiry time for voting?
>
> Rereading, Till's email, I now see that he set an entirely reasonable
> timeline of May 10th, [1]
> https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/conference_dev/2017-May/004344.html
>
> I mistakenly complained about an short timespan in my response
> apparently based on a terrible misreading of the date.
>
> I expect that Till will "6. The result will be clearly declared
> afterwards." [0] once the timeline expires.
>
> Best regards, Eli
>
> [0] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Conference_Committee#Decisions
> [1] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/conference_dev/2017-May/004344.html
>
> Steven
> 07958 924 101
>
> On 9 May 2017, at 21:05, Michael Terner <mgt at appgeo.com> <mgt at appgeo.com>
> wrote:
>
> Off list, as not sure of process and this emanates from Jody (i.e., I
> assume
> he knows process; and may have avoided cross post to ConfDev
> intentionally?)...
>
> But, heads-up that from Board's perspective they're waiting for ConfDev to
> report back, and are hoping for something by Thursday (see below)...
>
> MT
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com> <jody.garnett at gmail.com>
> Date: Tue, May 9, 2017 at 2:27 PM
> Subject: Re: [Board] travel grant discussion
> To: "board at lists.osgeo.org" <board at lists.osgeo.org>
> <board at lists.osgeo.org> <board at lists.osgeo.org>
>
>
> I closed the loomio vote while we wait for a response from the conference
> committee. I note that discussion is getting into details
> (finance,scope,value,history) rather than focused on the question: Is the
> conference committee willing to accept the responsibility for a travel
> grant
> program.
>
> I hope we can hear back in time for our meeting Thursday, it would be good
> to have this well underway by the end of the month (as potential foss4g,
> foss4g-europe attendees will need to apply shortly).
>
>
>
> --
> Jody Garnett
>
> On 23 April 2017 at 22:25, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com>
> <jody.garnett at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> As noted in last weeks meeting, we have an action to move travel grant
> discussion to email. The motivation is to build on the work done at FOSS4G
> 2015, FOSS4G 2016 and a few local events.
>
> I would like to propose:
> - A format, similar to code sprints, where any OSGeo event can apply for
> funds to run a travel grants
> - To repeat this is not a FOSS4G specific idea
> - I am interested in using travel grants to promote diversity within our
> community
>
> A final comment is that travel grants are not a viable solution to high
> event costs. If we wish to offer discounts for students we should do so
> (rather than lean on a travel grant program).
> --
> Jody Garnett
>
> _______________________________________________
> Board mailing list
> Board at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
>
>
>
> --
> Michael Terner
> Executive Vice President
> 617-447-2468 <(617)%20447-2468> Direct | 617-447-2400 <(617)%20447-2400>
> Main
> Applied Geographics, Inc.
> 24 School Street, Suite 500
> Boston, MA 02108
> www.AppGeo.com
>
> 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).
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Conference_dev mailing list
> Conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev
>
> _______________________________________________
> Conference_dev mailing list
> Conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Conference_dev mailing listConference_dev at lists.osgeo.orghttps://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev
>
>
> --
> Cameron Shorter
> M +61 419 142 254 <+61%20419%20142%20254>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Conference_dev mailing list
> Conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/conference_dev/attachments/20170512/907fad17/attachment-0001.html>
More information about the Conference_dev
mailing list