Please note that speakers are welcome to apply for these grants too.<div><br></div><div>Tim<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 1 October 2012 20:44, Mary Gardiner <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mary@puzzling.org" target="_blank">mary@puzzling.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="im">On 2012-09-26, Tim Ansell wrote:<br>
> Hello Linux Australia community,<br>
><br>
> You can find our bid document for LCA2014 and 2015 at<br>
> <a href="https://docs.google.com/a/mithis.com/file/d/0B5VlNZ_Rvdw6WVA2Y0phUHFtQ1E/edit" target="_blank">https://docs.google.com/a/mithis.com/file/d/0B5VlNZ_Rvdw6WVA2Y0phUHFtQ1E/edit</a><br>
<br>
</div>Excited to see a Sydney bid, and one looking at modifying some parts of LCA.<br>
<br>
The proposal to alter the travel funding I think is very interesting! Copying<br>
and pasting from the bid doc for the benefit of the list:<br>
<br>
"""<br>
This exciting new program aims to target diversity, not just gender diversity,<br>
but regional and income. This is based on the very successful PyCon US model,<br>
another community run conference which funds a community run organisation.<br>
Jesse Noller, a PyCon US organiser, has explained why this program is so<br>
important.<br>
<br>
"... offers a very generous financial aid program — this means that some<br>
attendees, speakers, tutorial presenters, etc have some, or in rare cases,<br>
all of their expenses such as flight, hotel and admission provided to them<br>
from the PyCon budget.<br>
<br>
PyCon goes out of its way to encourage people to a pply for financial aid<br>
even if we cant cover all of your expenses, we will give you free admission<br>
based on need. The FA application process is simple, and straightforward.<br>
<br>
We also don't ban anyone from applying (for example, I needed assistance in<br>
2010 even as the PC chair)."<br>
<br>
The funding for this program [at a Sydney LCA] will come from the money<br>
normally allocated for the speakers travel budget. A majority of our speakers<br>
work for large corporations that are happy to pay both their travel and<br>
accommodation and LCA does currently not utilising this fact. This doesn't<br>
leave speakers who don't meet this criteria out in the cold, as they can apply<br>
to the grant program too.<br>
<br>
[...]<br>
<br>
The budget can be extended even further through a "Donate to the grants<br>
program, get discount on your professional ticket" or a "Buy one, give one"<br>
program.<br>
<br>
[...]<br>
<br>
On average, these costs will mean that the average grant will be ~$1200 meaning<br>
we can bring ~33 people to the event.<br>
"""<br>
<br>
I have some miscellaneous commentary on this:<br>
<br>
As a brief correction: most LCA speakers who work for large for-profit<br>
corporations already do have that corporation pay for their travel to LCA: the<br>
bid team should not expect enormous savings in this respect. Speakers asking<br>
for travel are, by and large, working for smaller or newer companies, working<br>
for non-profits, working as hobbyists or volunteers, or in the odd case here<br>
and there working for the occasional large corporation with a very stingy staff<br>
travel program. I would expect that almost all of those speakers would apply<br>
for the travel grants under the new model too.<br>
<br>
Which doesn't make it a bad idea!<br>
<br>
For the benefit of history only, I should note that LCA has also had variants<br>
on such a scheme before:<br>
<br>
1. a Regional Delegates Program, sponsored by Sun, for <a href="http://linux.conf.au" target="_blank">linux.conf.au</a> 2003,<br>
2004, and 2005, which selected one person from each Australian state and<br>
territory to receive travel, accommodation and registration to the conference.<br>
<br>
2. a Diversity Delegates Program, sponsored by Google, for <a href="http://linux.conf.au" target="_blank">linux.conf.au</a> 2009<br>
and 2010, which selected women (in 2009) and members of minority groups (in<br>
2010) for grants to attend. LCA2010 also had grants for people from New Zealand<br>
and Oceania, funded by other sponsors.<br>
<br>
So what the Sydney bid is proposing also fits into that history, with the<br>
change that it comes from central conference funds at the expense of the fund<br>
that is limited to speakers' travel.<br>
<br>
As a note: some conferences have also done a similar "donate to the [cause]<br>
fund" at registration time in order to fund the provision of childcare.<br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
-Mary<br>
</font></span><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
linux-aus mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:linux-aus@lists.linux.org.au">linux-aus@lists.linux.org.au</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.linux.org.au/listinfo/linux-aus" target="_blank">http://lists.linux.org.au/listinfo/linux-aus</a><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>