[OSGeo-Conf] OSgeo travel grant program support

[Suchith Anand]

Hi Adam, FOSS4G SotM Oceania LOC,

Thank you for the excellent information on Travel grant program FOSS4G SotM Oceania .

One of the biggest advantage of OSGeo organising local events is the opportunity to reaching out to the local communities.  Hence  I request the LOC to please ensure that  funding is given  to deserving  attendees from host country Australia. In my humble opinion, there is no reason to exclude deserving candidates from host country in the Travel Grant Program.  This travel program will be a great benefit for students from   lower income backgrounds,  indigenous communities etc in the host country to participate and benefit. They can then go and share their knowledge and ideas in their communities.

I also applaud the LOC aim to assisting regional participants from Pacific Islands  through this program. It will greatly help colleagues from smaller countries in the region to participate and learn.

Thank you for your work on this.

Best wishes,

Suchith


________________________________
From: Conference_dev <conference_dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> on behalf of adam steer <adam.d.steer at gmail.com>
Sent: 11 July 2018 09:21
To: conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org
Cc: Trisha Moriarty
Subject: [OSGeo-Conf] OSgeo travel grant program support

Hi conference team

The committee organising FOSS4G SotM Oceania would like to operate a travel grant program - aimed at assisting regional participants (for example, from pacific islands - or from remote Australian communities).

This e-mail is part 1 of the OSgeo TGP procedure (https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_Travel_Grant_Programme_2018). I believe our conference co-chairs (John and Alex, in cc) are invited to the August OSgeo board meeting - so I thought it timely to raise our intention to request TGP assistance. We are also just now in a position to start planning - we feel we have enough sponsorship commitment to start.


We will co-fund a TGP using sponsorship funds we’ve generated; and in general align the TGP with previous programs run for OSgeo events.

One major issue is apparent - the OSgeo TGP recommendations suggest that we would not be able to give funding to attendees from Australia. We (the conference committee) request discretion to fund Australian attendees where we see fit. Why?

Australia’s wealth is highly concentrated in the south-eastern seaboard (and one city centre in the west). Being broadly unable to fund Australians would mean potentially excluding remote (in particular indigenous) attendees. We hope that sits OK with the OSgeo board/general principles of operation - and we will most definitely keep an audit trail justifying any travel grant expenditure.

Looking forward to hearing back from you. Trisha Moriarty (also in cc) will also be involved in operating the TGP; as the diversity and inclusion lead for the committee.

Regards

Adam
(FOSS4G SotM Oceania sponsorship lead)
--
Dr. Adam Steer
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Adam_Steer
http://au.linkedin.com/in/adamsteer
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0046-7236
+61 427 091 712
skype: adam.d.steer
tweet: @adamdsteer



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