[LGM] Request For Comments - reorganizing financial tasks for LGM

[Dave Crossland]

On 20 May 2016 at 19:31, Simon Budig <simon at budig.de> wrote:

> Dave Crossland (dave at lab6.com) wrote:
> > On 20 May 2016 at 18:47, Simon Budig <simon at budig.de> wrote:
> >
> > > I wish I could provide some more input on
> > > how-to-get-more-money - but I fail at that even on a very local level
> > > with our local hackspace
> >
> > You imply that people who do not pay would be excluded; but what if the
> > only difference between paid members of an lgm 'members club' and a
> > walk-in-off-the-street is the color of the event t shirt they may obtain?
>
> If this would be the only difference I'd feel ripped of as a paying
> member...   :)
>

LOL :D

But dude, I don't understand this at all. If you knew that for your €120
all you were getting was a green T shirt instead of a purple one before you
paid your $100, why would you feel ripped off?

Especially when you also know that, not only will all you get in return for
your money an object with no resale value and dubious comparative
advantage, but also the surplus value in that €120 will not be going to
some top-hatted cigar-chomper's back pocket but to fund the very people you
do not wish to be excluded.


> Yes, I probably have painted a bit too black picture of the situation.
> However, making a distinction between (paying) members and (non-paying)
> attendees would still create two classes of people at the conference,

even emphasized explicitely by different t-shirt colors. I don't like
> that. I realize that the idea of being peers among each other is a bit
> idealistic (we old farts certainly have a different standing than some
> newbie with no project to show off), but I think it is an idea worth
> pursuing.


I'm glad you admit that there are already many classes of different people
in the conference's mini-society just as there is in the wider society. For
example the superior English, any everyone else. *loud coughing*

I offer the garment color difference as something with €0 additional
(marginal) cost to the event, that makes a difference in what I consider to
be an especially mild way, and that in contrast to your own perfectly valid
position may yet be perceived as rather desirable by the more casual (eg,
first time) LGM prospective attendees; and this is solicited, discreetly,
at the time of registration and purchase of an event garment, a transaction
which LGM has undertaken each year to date.

We could also offer _more_ exclusive paid-attendee benefits without
excluding anyone from the main event. Some of these have marginal costs,
such as a ticketed gala dinner that has to be additionally organized, with
provisions made for people who do not wish to attend any exclusive event.

There are many other zero marginal cost offerings... For example, a page on
the website and printed schedule thanking a list of supporting members for
their financial support, and congratulating a list of travel bursary
awardees who had their travel booked by the organization so there was no
back-and-forth reimbursements. Would you approve of such class distinction?
How about @libregraphicsmeeting.org email forwarding? A particularly nicely
designed and printed conference book?

It is not hard to come up with such ideas by looking at all the many
similar organizations. One of the US 501c3 charities I am a paying member
of, http://atypi.org, does a paid annual event, a gala, and a coffeetable
book - 365 articles about the previous year's activities of the charity's
audience, http://www.365typo.com, for €50. Another, http://typecon.com,
calls their gala the "type quiz" and it is literally a competition you pay
to enter in which you vie to display your ultimate insider knowledge.

Who wrote the first commit to Scribus? At the LGM in Poland, what film was
screened at a local cinema? In Leipzig, how many idiots slept through their
scheduled presentation slot?

Or we could also offer nothing at all - just solicit a donation for €120
from everyone, often. How distasteful.

Well, one must make tradeoffs.

If we don't raise funds to pay the travel of people who would bring value
to the event but are short on cash, most of them won't attend. Then it is
mostly old farts like you and me, who put decades into all this already and
know each other for years, that do attend. We can enjoy our classless
event. But it would be a mirage.

-- 
Cheers
Dave
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