[LGM] 2011/2012

[a.l.e]

hi dave

the question about the financing of the LGM is a very interesting one (and should also be considered when thinking who is the LGM's target and what are its/their goals).

> >> It's a departure, but perhaps it's time to bring in an entrance
> >> fee?
> > 
> > well, currently we tend to have everybody attending asking to give a
> > talk to get his travelling costs reimboursed...
> 
> The conference is important to attend or it isn't. We have less and
> less money every year, for more and more requests for funding.
> Something's gotta give. If the conference is important enough for a
> bunch of people (Louis, Jon, etc) to spend hours organising it,
> surely it's important enough for attendees to make an effort to get
> there.

[...[

> I've spent hours working on LGMs that I haven't even
> *attended* afterwards. And then some snivel-nosed student...

here we see that you didn't attend the last few LGMs :-)
on the contrary to most free software events i have seen, at the LGM there are very few students attending.
we are "old" men -- and very luckily also "old" women -- with a job and a family.
most of us have (well) paid jobs and i don't think that most lack the money to be there, it's more that:

- getting the traveling funded is the only physical recognition of the good job done over the whole year

- having to pay to be part of the conference which only exists because i'm there, would feel strange to me (and probably also to many other people)...

most of us already give an enormous amount of time for non paid work on the LG projects. still, if you look at the list of the people having put their money into the pledgie, you will notice that many of them are the participants of the LGM.
would they also accept to pay a fee to attend? i'm not sure of it. but we seem to already have an optional entrance fee... is it enough?


in the whole discussion we shouldn't forget either, that very few people made their involvement in the libre graphics world part of their business. this means that there is not much money involved in the creation and use of our software. imo, that's part of the reason why it's so hard for us to collect money for the LGM.


finally, as far i can tell, there is no big problem in funding the traveling of the project members who request a reimbursement (most don't even ask for it)...
in my eyes, one of the problems is that there are more and more external people (who are very welcome at the LGM!) proposing a talk and/but requesting to get their traveling refunded (and in some cases also the lodging; which has always been refused until now).
also, we seem to have to put too much work into collecting -- all in all -- little money...

i think that we really need a good discussion on how to better finance the LGM (even if in europe the task is much easier than in north america: less money to be collected, easier to collect public money).

but the question about the target and the goals of the LGM should imo be answered before we get into those questions...

ciao
a.l.e