Thanks everyone for the info. I did notice the RailsGirls and RailsCamp hardware ideas. I'll be interested to see what other things come up as the safe cash margin is determined and future funding takes shape.
The largest Ruby conference I've been to was RubyKaigi 2011, which was a great conference and had a ticket price of around $75. I agree that RailsCamp is more accessible than most conferences in terms of price, and because it happens fairly locally and frequently, but I actually find it to be a more intimidating/overwhelming format than a conference. I've been to several RailsCamps and enjoyed them, but I have found events with a bit more structure easier to get into, particularly as a newbie to the code and community. CampJS early this year seemed to strike a good balance between scheduled talks, impromptu discussions and freeform hacking, while maintaining the camp-style location and accommodation that I know many do enjoy. For me, and I'm sure many others, the biggest incentive to go to a potentially intimidating event would be to have the chance to go with someone I know. Reduced cost comes after that. If our goal is to welcome and encourage newcomers who feel unsure about fitting into the community or enjoying the event format (or content) I think free tickets help, but maybe it would be even better to give out pairs of tickets? Cheers, Chris On Wed, Nov 6, 2013 at 1:04 PM, Jason Stirk <jst...@gmail.com> wrote: > We will be making all the Ruby Australia financial reports publicly > available on the website soon*. > > Past RCs (at least back to RC10, the first under RubyAU) have had healthy > (~$3-11k) profits. I don’t think this has ever been a conscious decision by > organisers, but having that cash has given us the ability us to pay venue > deposits for events before we start selling tickets, which is great. > > Personally, I would like to see future RCs coming in closer to break-even, > or run at a small loss, given they are probably the events that are most > accessible to new members, students, etc. and so cheaper tickets beats them > making profit IMHO. > > Lachie did a fantastic job here on RC14 - final figures aren’t in yet, but > it’s probably going to be within a few hundred dollars of break-even. > > RubyConfAU is an entirely different situation - it makes a bunch of > profit, and lets us support things like RailsGirls, and other smaller > events (which often have a lot of trouble getting corporate sponsorship, > etc.). It’s also responsible for the bulk of our insurance and accounting > needs, so it makes sense that it should cover the bulk of the organisation > operating costs. > > If anyone has specific questions, feel free to ping me at > treasu...@ruby.org.au - I’m not in the habit of reading every group > thread :) > > Cheers, > Jason > > * probably in a week or so. There are some bigger, more urgent things to > handle first (like renewing our insurance). I’ll package the reports up and > post to the group once it’s done. > > On 6 November 2013 at 12:09:32 pm, Jon Rowe > (m...@jonrowe.co.uk<//m...@jonrowe.co.uk>) > wrote: > > There was talk of using some of the funds to help worthwhile projects like > RailsGirls, as well as buying hardware to support future RailsCamps (which > only just about break even). > > Also and this just my opinion but I think RubyConfAU is pretty well priced > compared to conferences elsewhere, and cheap for an Australian conference > (when compared to YOW or WebDirections). The ticket price is also not the > bulk of the cost of attending (opportunity cost, accommodation, travel, > expenses etc) so a minor tweak probably wouldn't affect most peoples > decision to attend, but I'd love to see a "scholarship" setup like there > was for RC. > > Jon Rowe > ----------------------------- > m...@jonrowe.co.uk > jonrowe.co.uk > > On Wednesday, 6 November 2013 at 12:02, Wayne Robinson wrote: > > I believe the committee is still working out what a safe cash margin > would be for Ruby Australia. > > Understanding this surplus is the first step to deciding how best to use > these funds to further help the Ruby community in Australia. > > > On 6 November 2013 11:57, Chris Berkhout <chrisberkh...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On the finances, it seems like a decent bank balance has been built up, > mostly thanks to RubyConf, which had revenue of about 300% of cost. > > I decided not to go to the last RubyConf, mainly because of the price (I > know the price is in line with many other conferences, it just didn't suit > me at that time). > > Will the next one be planned with the same kind of margin? If so, what is > the intended use of the profit? > > Cheers, > Chris > > > On Wed, Nov 6, 2013 at 11:35 AM, Matt Allen <matt.al...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Ah oops. Sorry, my typing skills may have been lagging at that point. > > Thanks again for organising this camp, Lachie (and Ben and Chris). > RailsCamp #1 will always be #1 in my book, but this last one is #2. It was > next-level good. > > The amazing interactions I had with so many people showed level of > awesomeness that the Ruby community has achieved in Australia. > > Matta > > -- > Matt Allen > 0413 777 771 > ------------------------------ > From: Lachie Lachie <lach...@gmail.com> > Reply: rails-oceania@googlegroups.com rails-oceania@googlegroups.com > Date: 5 November 2013 at 11:34:11 am > To: Ruby on Rails Oceania rails-oceania@googlegroups.com > Subject: Re: [rails-oceania] Ruby Australia AGM minutes - 3rd November > 2013 > > "We try to aim to break even on the camps, thanks to the sponsorship. > Hopefully it's not something we have to do each year." > > I think I said that we received sponsorship + increased ticket price to > break even. (Meaning, I'm hoping we don't have to increase price each > camp/year to keep up) > > thanks Matt! > Lachie > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rails-oceania+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rails-oceania@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rails-oceania+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rails-oceania@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rails-oceania+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rails-oceania@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rails-oceania+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rails-oceania@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rails-oceania+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rails-oceania@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rails-oceania+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rails-oceania@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rails-oceania+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rails-oceania@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
