[OSGeo-Conf] KickOff of TGP for 2018

[Till Adams]

Dear Dar-Team!

I just came across the travel grant programme (TGP) WIKi pages of the
2017 conference. TGP was - in our eyes - really successful, as we were
able to get quite some people to F4G through TGP.

Looking back, the whole process happened somehow under pressure, as we
did not have much time last year (after OSGeo released the fundings, we
only had few weeks for establishing the whole process). But for 2018 we
of course want to improve the process and ideally expand the whole
programme.

This page describes what we did for 2017:
https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_Travel_Grant_Programme_2017

(I started to add a section "procedure 2017 which might not be complete
as I just wrote down what came to my mind - @CCers feel free to add/edit
;-))


I'd like you to put some attention on TGP when discussing your next
steps. It would be great, if we could start planning TGP earlier (in
words: as early as possible) for 2018 and also publish a call for
community donations as early as possible.


Personally I regard TGP as one of the key factors on enabling more
people to access a F4G. And also, I'd like to have had an external TGP
committee in 2016, but there was none. Just so you know, we are ready to
help and support you where we can, so don't hesitate contacting CC or me
directly in this issue.


Till