Hello Sam, (I'm hereby answering out of my experience of helping organizing the miniDebConf Vaumarcus this year, but without coordination with the rest of the team).
Le mercredi, 2 octobre 2019, 16.43:37 h CEST Sam Hartman a écrit :
> TL;DR: Do we want BSP organizers to take on the responsibility of
> batching together travel reimbursement requests.
Yes, but… I think we, as a project, need to be clear about what this means,
along at least three axes.
First: what types of events qualify for travel reimbursement?
You have mentioned BSPs, but would a miniDebConf also qualify? Of course, it
is the expectation that miniDebConf attendees attend to "enhance Debian"; but
also that they might present, or attend talks, presentations, etc; during
which they are not (should not be) hunting bugs. I think such micro-
conferences, although not explicitly Bug Squashing Parties, should also
benefit.
(Shameless plug; the miniDebConf Vaumarcus still welcomes attendees and
proposals! [0,1])
Second: from which account is the money taken?
The answer might seem obvious, but let's make sure we're on the same line of
thought. When organizing a BSP (or a miniDebConf), it is of good measure to
try find sponsors and supporters to help lower the cost for attendees. In
plenty of cases, for a multi-day event, one needs a venue, help cover food and
accomodation costs, etc. But these events rarely last for more than a couple
of days; so adding significant charges to support travel makes the funding a
larger challenge. So the only realistic money source seems to be external;
hence "Debian" money, not "event" money.
(The annual DebConf is different in terms of scale and duration, which reduces
travel support in proportion to the other charges of the budget.)
Third: what rules-of-thumb, or guidelines do we want for travel support?
In the context of relatively _short_ events (2-5 days), I think we ought to
put upper limits in term of amounts, and in terms of distance. Put
differently: set economical and ecological limits. In this day and age, I
don't think Debian should be supporting flying long distances for short events
[2]. So we could have a duration-to-distance, or similar, criteria, as well as
"qualitative" incentives. I'd prefer Debian to sponsor a 600€ train ride than
a 150€ flight, for instance. As a rule of thumb, what about: "Travel distance
is max ~400km per event day duration, prefer land transportation where
applicable"?
(Also, connected to that "distance" question is also "who gets supported?")
So… To wrap this up. As potential organizer; I'd be all for granting travel
support to attendees ourselves provided that:
- Debian money is available;
- common guidelines for the allowance of Debian money for travel support for
attendees are public.
Without common rules-of-thumb, you, as DPL, would be de-facto delegating the
setting of travel support policies to events; with potentially large
differences in how we address the requests, and I'd regret this.
So what I'd would enjoy to see is exchanges along the lines of:
- BSP Orga: hey DPL; we organize a 3-days/2-nights BSP and would like to
support travel for potential attendees. We expect about 12 travel requests;
what can you do for us?
- DPL (or treasurer): the guidelines say that Debian will support travel for
attendees coming from less than ~ 1000km and for max 400€ per individual. We
grant you an initial 12 persons envelope for travel support. Would you be
willing to make an exception (larger distance or larger price), please consult
with $team first. Should you need to support more attendees, please come back
to us. Reimbursements will be processed after the event, provided
justifications and your approval by this $TO.
With my best regards,
OdyX
[0] https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEvents/ch/2019/Vaumarcus
[1] https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEvents/ch/2019/Vaumarcus/TalkSubmissions
[2] Disclaimer: I have flown back and forth from Europe to various DebConfs in
the past; sometimes partially or fully thanks to Deb{Conf,ian} money.
I am not proud of this, and am searching for ways to attend that have a
lower carbon impact: stay longer; combine with other events; skip too far
DebConfs; etc.
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