Sponsorships for GUADEC 2014

The big kidWe had a grand total of 59 sponsorship applications for GUADEC (up 5 on 2013) and a budget of €30,000 (approximately $43,000). The requests amounted to $63,799 which we calculated would be more realistic at $61,899 after verifying travel and accommodation costs. We were able to offer sponsorships to the amount of $39295 to 58 applicants. We helped find an alternative source of sponsorship for the applicant who was not offered sponsorship.

The applicants consisted of 32 Foundation members, 11 speakers, 24 GSoC students, 2 OPW interns and 1 journalist.

The first application was received on the 12th of May (thank you for being organised) and seven applications were late (one of which was over a month late).

Some people who couldn’t make it to GUADEC did not tell us so beforehand. Unfortunately, the lack of communication has cost the Foundation a little bit of money as we did not have a chance to cancel the rooms which has been booked for those people. At a time when the sponsorship budget is very tight, this could have been handled with more consideration.

9 people sent in their receipts past the deadline.

A fair few people used the plain text application form when sending in their sponsorship requests, which I find easier to process than the LibreOffice form as I don’t need to open it in another application.

In somewhat related news, the Travel Committee is now verifying considerably more stringently that the sponsored attendees for all events fulfil their duties.

(André is always happy when the Foundation can help people come to GUADEC.)

3 thoughts on “Sponsorships for GUADEC 2014

  1. Jim Campbell

    HI Kat – thanks for being so up front about so much of the foundations financial matters. I know it’s tough work, but you’re doing great!

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    Most of this makes sense, but I wonder: why would a journalist need sponsorship? In general, shouldn’t their travel be paid for by their journalistic efforts? And if not, do they really need to attend?

    Very glad to hear that you were able to accomodate so many requests.

    Reply

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