Prospective board members: travel sponsoring.

[Peter Hutterer]

On Mon, Mar 18, 2019 at 12:25:10AM +0100, Luc Verhaegen wrote:
> The board meeting log of august 16th says the following:
> (https://www.x.org/wiki/BoardOfDirectors/MeetingSummaries/2018/08-16/)
> 
> "Since the paper committee had to reject lots of talks this year (35 
> submissions for 18 slots) board discussed how to still make it possible 
> for anyone to attend with modest means - travel sponsoring is coupled to 
> accepted talks. Board decides to extend offering travel sponsoring to 
> anyone who submits a talk proposal."
> 
> This seemed to have happened well _after_ the deadline for talk 
> submission occured, precluding a lot of people from applying for such a 
> generous offer.
> 
> And it is generous; i will now definitely submit a talk for 2019, as i 
> am bound to find something tiny to code that i can give a talk on.

so basically you're implying that you intend to hack the system. 
as opposed to simply applying for travel sponsorship, an option that has
been open to all members for what, a decade?

It's hard to mis-read the barely veiled accusations in the rest of the
email.

My advice is that you spend less of your energy treating everyone as your
opponent and start contributing in a positive manner. The whole foundation
will be better off that way.

Cheers,
   Peter

> I also think that i have not seen who has benefitted from this 
> sponsorship money that was spent, or the companies that they work for (i 
> trust that the answer to the latter is "none"). Have i missed or 
> overlooked this?
> 
> Fundamentally, the board exists to gather sponsorship money and to spend 
> it wisely, and this is what, fundamentally, current and future board 
> members should be judged on. Therefore, this new "ruling", how it came 
> to be, and what effects it will have, is crucial for the upcoming 
> elections.
> 
> How do prospective members feel about how this was handled?
> How will this policy help improve the quality of talks at future XDC 
> editions?
> How will this influence the foundations budget?
> How does this reflect on the sponsors and their willingness to sponsor 
> the foundation?
> 
> Luc Verhaegen.