[IAEP] XOCamp fundraising (and, please sign up to donate)

[Jameson Quinn]

OK. It seems that Sugar Labs is willing to receive
donations<http://sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Donate>to the travel
fund. That would make such donations
*tax-deductible*. I also got a couple of +1's to my 50/50 disbursement plan:
half the money split equally, half of it split proportionally to remaining
direct travel expenses (ie, plane/bus/train tickets). I am also taking the
liberty of assuming that people can put up the money and then get reimbursed
at the event. If I'm wrong -- if there is anybody who cannot afford to buy a
ticket, but could with some help -- please respond to me *soon*.

There are currently $3150 of pledges and
donations<http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XOcamp_2/Fundraising#Donations>on
OLPC's wiki. There are 6 requests for funds there, and one other that
I
know of (aa, that's you). Average travel cost is currently around $685.
Let's say that there will be 9 people receiving partial travel scholarships,
and that the average travel cost will stay about the same (aa's expensive
Uruguay flight and two cheap domestic ones). That would mean that the
average subsidy would be about $350, or $175 + 1/3 of remaining costs. I
suspect that these are relatively conservative assumptions, so you can
reasonably hope for more, but you should not, of course, absolutely rely on
even this much. This prospect is clear enough to make the difference for me;
I can't really afford full price, but hoping for this I will buy my ticket
soon.

I think that since Sugar Labs is willing to take tax-deductible
contributions for this, it should be relatively easy to fundraise another
couple of thousand dollars, which would leave participants paying at most a
small amount without too much risk of having money left over to refund to
people.* If anybody reading this is a regular contributor to OLPC news*,
that would be a good place for us to ask for money; if nobody steps forward,
I guess I'll do that next week. Also, fundraise with your organizations if
possible - any first-world organizations which care about sugar should be
able to add a few hundred to the pot.

Please, anybody making a donation for this purpose, note it on the wiki
(link above) with the words "donated to Sugarlabs". Otherwise, the donation
will just get lumped in with other sugarlabs donations.

Have I missed anything?

Jameson

On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 5:11 PM, David Farning <dfarning at sugarlabs.org>wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 4:19 PM, Jameson Quinn <jameson.quinn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > It's getting to be time to buy tickets for XOCamp 2, which is in under a
> > month now. Those of us who'd like to come from far away would love to
> know
> > whether we can get some financial support for our journey. However, the
> > relevant wiki page is somewhat out-of-date. When I asked today on IRC:
> >
> > [13:45] <cscott> yes, but both SL and OLPC have issues with actually
> being
> > the coordinating party; there are tax implications
> > [13:45] <cscott> it might even be best if someone not affiliated took on
> the
> > coordination
> > [13:46] <cscott> poke bernie hard about it; he's a little more empowered
> to
> > act on behalf of SL than I am to act on behalf of OLPC
> > [13:46] <cscott> and i'm sure that if you volunteer to help w/ the
> > coordination, it would be appreciated
> >
> > So bernie, consider this a hard poke. Others who'd be willing to donate,
> > consider this a request to add your pledge to the wiki page. Anyone
> outside
> > SL/OLPC but inside the US who can do the actual money coordination
> (funnel
> > money through checks and/or paypal, devote some time to handling the
> issues
> > involved) please step forward. And in general, this is also me
> volunteering
> > to take some tasks: if someone will explain to me how the money part
> works,
> > I would be happy to do a fundraising post for OLPC News, to blog it on
> the
> > planet, to keep the wiki up-to-date, and/or to be in charge of contacting
> > people.
>
> Thanks for stepping up!  You are now the official point of contact for
> Sugar Labs at the up coming event:)
>
> Some thoughts. Sugar Labs held SugarCamp last month.  At that event
> Sugar Labs struggled with many of its hard problems.  I expect that
> OLPC will be looking at some of its hard problems this time around.  A
> full week of hard problems is really long.
>
> From an SL point of view let's turn this into a fun community
> engagement event.  In stead of talks, let have work shops and work
> sessions were we focus on engaging the community.  Then, we will be
> freshed enough to listen or participate in OLPC talks that pertain to
> us.
>
> I can help you through the Sugar Labs stuff.  Paul Frields, of Fedora
> Fame, will be the best resource on how to run a successful event.
>
> david
>
> > As for a mechanism for distribution, I propose the following. 50% of the
> > money would be divided equally between applicants, and 50% would be
> divided
> > proportional to any remaining travel costs. We can also ask people for
> whom
> > it is not the single primary reason for the trip to please take only half
> of
> > the money. I think that anybody who's going to come to Boston
> specifically
> > to attend XOCamp, from more than 500 miles away, should be funded,
> whether
> > or not they are signed up as speakers. I don't see enough benefit in
> trying
> > to divide people by merit or need for it to be worth the drama. (And I
> say
> > this as an applicant who's about average in most regards; I can't even
> think
> > of any plausible proposal that would benefit me specifically).
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Jameson
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> > IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
> > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
> >
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/attachments/20081215/a8c9b293/attachment.htm