[LGM] reimbursing traveling expenses: for active people or for presentations?

[Dave Neary]

Hi,

On 02/05/2013 11:40 AM, ale rimoldi wrote:
> as we read in a previous mail: we are organizing a meeting, not a
> conference.
>
> it's nice to have talks.
> it's even nicer to have good talks.
> but the most important thing, is that people are there to actively
> participate!
> and it does not really matter if they're giving a talk or not!

A follow-on point: Everything here depends on the means we have 
available too. LGM is a participatory conference, and perhaps we need to 
look at funding the expenses of some with donations from other 
attendees. "From each according to his means, to each according to his 
needs".

> on a side track, i urge you to think about the current policy for
> reimbursement.
> as i already tried to explain last year, the current policy is not
> compatible with the few team members that don't live in a "western" country.
>
> http://www.indiegogo.com/dmitriev-lgm-2013
>
> it would be a pity, if we would miss him just because he could not get
> the money in advance but would have got the money afterwards).
> the same $ 900 that are "very manageable" for many of us, are a huge
> amount of money for him!
> the fact that it's very likely he has not got yet last year's money does
> not help either.

This is not just a question of policy, but of practicality. If we had a 
full time staff handling travel & reimbursements, we could consider 
buying people plane tickets, planning their travel for them, etc.

We don't, and the best person to buy your ticket is you. And the only 
way that we can reimburse you what you paid is to know how much you 
paid. Let's say you give us a quote for €692, we approve that and pay 
you €692, and when you buy the ticket a week later (after receiving the 
money) it's €783. What happens then?

I would urge everyone on this list to have as much empathy for the 
people who have to deal with accounting, taxes, non-profit laws and the 
practicalities of international fund transfers as you do for people who 
get reimbursed slowly, or in a way which does not suit them.

> currently, we have three or four pledgies that are running in parallel
> and are -- as far as i know --  all equally unsuccessful.
> this is not something i'm proud of, but it's probably a direct
> consequence of the current policy.

I have not heard of any of them, in spite of being a rather active free 
software contributor, albeit not in the graphics world any more.

How are you promoting these pledgie campaigns? They don't promote 
themselves.

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
Dave Neary, Lyon, France
Email: dneary at gnome.org
Jabber: nearyd at gmail.com