>>>>> "Lucas" == Lucas Nussbaum <lu...@debian.org> writes:
Lucas> In his platform, Neil wrote:
>> I will spend some money we have horded. Debian currently holds
>> approximately $200,000 at SPI alone. Our donators didn't give us money
>> for it to be sat around in a bank account, we should spend it to make
>> the project more successful.
Lucas> Other candidates: what will be your approach to that?
Already touched this elsewhere, at least in part, but a non-exhaustive
list would be:
* Outreach: One of the problematic thing about Debian is the lackluster
recruitment. We hardly do any active recruiting. This is an area where
supporting the outreach could yield great results. I'm not only
thinking about Outreachy (but that's a wonderful programme too, about
which I talked about briefly in an earlier mail), but about reaching
people in other ways too.
Sprints and meetings, while useful on their own too, may also be used
for outreach. That would obviously runs the risk of making the sprint
and the meeting less effective, and places more burden on the people
involved. But perhaps if we've done them more frequently, with more
people involved (just not at the same time), we could balance that
out.
Just to give an example: an ftp-* "sprint" that goes through NEW, and
at the same time teaches the intricate details of licensing to
participants would be educational. It may not attract many people, but
who knows?
I'm sure we can come up with Debian-funded events that benefit both
Debian, and the wider community we want to recruit from.
* Meetings, sprints: Great stuff. I'm a big fan of in-person
collaboration, and would like to encourage more of it. Possibly with
travel or accomodation sponsorship.
* Conferences, events and the like: Similar to what Neil wrote: banners,
leaflets, whatsoever. I'd even go as far as suggest that we could use
Debian funds to cover the expense of people participating in paid-for
events in some cases. Of course, one has to be *very* careful and
strict about this one... I'm not entirely convinced it would be a good
idea, but I'll just throw it in.
* Accounting & Treasury: See my reply to Martin. In short: outsourcing
accounting & treasury to a professional agency is something I'd
seriously consider.
Lucas> All candidates: how will you reconcile that with the fact that the
DPL
Lucas> currently only has a limited vision of what funds are available, and
how
Lucas> they evolved over time?
See my reply to Martin's suggestion of outsourcing accounting &
treasury. Having a limited vision of what funds are available is
something we should fix, one way or the other. But until such time that
we have a clear view, seeing the larger picture, a rough estimate of how
much we get in, and how much we spend, is enough to base reasonable
decisions upon, without the risk of running out of money. (Better err on
the side of safety, and so on.)
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