[Linux-aus] The Ada Initiative - Should Linux Australia support it?

[Silvia Pfeiffer]

On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 3:31 PM, Russell Stuart
<russell-linuxaus at stuart.id.au> wrote:
> On Fri, 2011-02-25 at 14:30 +1100, Silvia Pfeiffer wrote:
>> So, consequentually, you are saying that every year's LCA should ask
>> that charity that it is intending to give money to during from the LCA
>> dinner activities to put in a grant application for that money.
>
> No Silvia, that is not what is happening at the auctions.  Typically LA
> is not donating LA's money at the auction.  People are choosing to
> donate their own money.  Obviously asking the LA membership on whether
> someone should choose to donate their own money to a cause is
> inappropriate.  The mechanism can be somewhat convoluted to make things
> easy for the organisers, and that may mean the money ends up in
> someone's bank account (maybe even LA's) on the way through.  That
> doesn't alter the principle.
>
> The few (one?) time LA did donate a largish sum at the auction, yes that
> makes me feel a little uneasy.


To my recollection, LA has donated $10K every year since 2007 to the
LCA charity. There was no discussion on this - it was purely a
committee decision.


>  On the one hand we had a significant
> chunk of LA's budget being given away after what could have been no more
> than a few minutes discussion, no doubt after the consumption of some
> alcohol.  On the other hand, it was done to prod the auction along.  It
> was successful, so the effect of those dollars were multiplied.  It also
> contributed to a fun night being had by all, and this is important at
> LCA.  You might even consider it an LCA entertainment expense.  Having
> seen the bills for some entertainment expenses at this years LCA I think
> we got a reasonable deal.
>
> Apart from all that, practicalities mean it would have been difficult to
> do it differently on the night.  It got much of its effectiveness from
> being a surprise move.  You could hardly have a 2 week email discussion
> during the auction night, nor could you ask for a grant application.
>
> The situation here is very different.  We do have the time and
> opportunity to do those things.  Surely it is possible to manage our
> money in a conservative fashion, we should not let excuses like "well we
> didn't do it on an auction night" stand in our way?

I am not saying that and I was the first to say there should be a
process in place for donations, too. I am just saying that you should
not compare apples and pears.

Silvia.