[foss4g2014] Scholarships

[Darrell Fuhriman]

On Feb 9, 2014, at 00:23, Eli A
> I think there is a need for this as well.  There are two reasons I'm
> not in favor of it being run by the LOC.  One is that in all cases,
> the LOC is working on a budget projection rather than already existing
> allocated funds.  Financial caution always encourages me to error on
> the safe side.  The second reason to keep the LOC out of this is that
> it is a minefield that brings underlying tensions in the OSGeo
> community into stark relief.


Budgeting is obviously a concern, which is why I’m bringing it up now. As with all budgeting items, the question is priorities – what’s most important to spend money on. It may be that we feel it’s important enough to do this that we cut funds from something else.

I genuinely have no idea what these underlying tensions you’re referring to are.


> A major issue to be addressed is financial need of major code
> contributors.  Some volunteers donate thousands of hours developing
> great open source projects, not all of these contributors can afford
> to attend FOSS4G.  


I don’t see anything that proposes these people are ineligible. Maybe “scholarship” is not the right term and “travel grant” is a preferable one.


> http://edina.ac.uk/, which I think provided funding for what they
> called "Academic Bursaries,"
> http://2013.foss4g.org/registration/academic-bursaries/
> 

These are not much different than the option (1) I mentioned previously, except for the inclusion of accommodations.

I understand your argument for having the conference committee manage it, though frankly, I don’t see that happening — the conference committee is too haphazard, and would have to work with the board. Not to be too cynical, but the odds of the two working together to put together a grant program between now and September are slim to none. I’d rather establish a precedent right now.

And frankly, given that OSGeo’s primary source of funding is this conference, it may be a distinction without a difference to define whether the funds come from FOSS4G or from OSGeo.

Darrell



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