Prospective board members: travel sponsoring.

[Rob Clark]

On Sun, Mar 17, 2019 at 7:25 PM Luc Verhaegen <libv at skynet.be> 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.

The intention was to allow people to attend XDC even if the only
reason their talk was not accepted was that there were not enough
slots relative to the # of submissions.  It wasn't intended as a
freebee, ie. submit a crap talk that wouldn't be accepted anyways, yet
still get travel sponsorship.

So the fact the decision was taken after the CFP deadline is
immaterial.  In fact, it would have been weird to make it before we
had too many talk submissions.

> 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.
>
> 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?

We vote on travel approvals, it should all be in the meeting minutes.

BR,
-R

> 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.
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