TL;DR: Between the pro-boycott language in the Montreal announcement and the request for a Debian approved budget and logistical resources, The Mini DebConf Montreal organizers have created a perception that they are undermining the hard work of the DebConf 20 team. I ask them to take a positive step to show that their disagreement is not with the volunteers of Debian putting on a conference.
First, I'd like to thank everyone for letting me take the time to get my thoughts in order and approach this situation with compassion. Background ========== The Montreal Debian community is organizing a mini DebConf in August of this year. In their announcement they indicated that they were putting on the conference because their participation in the Boycott/Divest/Sanction movement was incompatible with DebConf 20's location. Meanwhile, the organizers have asked me as DPL to approve a budget. They want to use Debian's relationship with SPI to invoice sponsors and generally make their financial logistics easier. They anticipate that they would break even or make money. Even so, Debian would be obligated to SPI to cover any shortfall. I think a shortfall is unlikely. Debian's Responsibilities ========================= I think Debian has two key responsibilities here: 1) We need to support a diverse community of political opinion. We want to be welcoming to people who commit to our principles and want to work together to make a free software operating system. That means there's going to be conflict on issues like this. Sometimes our members will disagree with what the project does. Sometimes they will need to stand aside. As a project we need to respect that within the bounds of our community guidelines. forming a related effort--whether it is a conference or even a downstream distribution--is often a healthy way to respect this kind of disagreement. 2) We need to respect and support our volunteers doing work in Debian. While there is plenty of room for disagreement as we're making decisions, there needs to come a point where we as a project stand behind the people doing the work. Instead, we tend to have a culture of those unhappy with a decision sniping at or undermining the efforts of those doing work. That harms our community. Debian will always have a robust and open decision process. But we need to have a finite decision process and support people after the decision is made. Debian is Asked to Support a Protest of a Debian Activity ========================================================= The Montreal organizers could have simply organized an alternative for those who were not traveling to DC20 for whatever reason. That's something Debian could support with no reservations. By making the political statement in their announcement, they have turned the conference into a protest. It's being billed as an alternative to DebConf for political reasons. If their effort was entirely outside of Debian, that would be fine. That would be part of the larger free software community having healthy disagreement. However, they are asking for Debian's support. They are asking for financial liquidity and risk mitigation. They are asking for logistical support. So in effect the Debian Project is being asked to support a protest of its own activity. This sucks for the DC20 team. Everyone I've talked to about this has raised the argument that it's not a big deal: the DC20 team has already had to develop a thick skin. THAT'S BULLSHIT! I do not want to facilitate a Debian where we expect our volunteers to be inured to their efforts being disrespected and challenged so much that we discount piling on other minor aggressions because it's not a big deal. Our community is our most precious resource; we need to stop treating them like crap. Having the project support a protest of their efforts does create a perception that we value them less. I want to avoid that. So, as DPL, I could deny the budget and force the Montreal event to be outside of Debian. That's no good either. My frustration has probably already created somewhat of a wedge. I regret that, while also acknowledging that sharing our feelings and frustrations is an important part of building connection. I don't want to create wedges. The folks in Montreal are part of our community too. They disagree with something we've done. We don't want to drive them away, even if for a few days in August they are going to stand aside because of their convictions. So, I'm going to approve the budget with one change requested by the DebConf committee. But see below. My Request to Montreal Organizers ================================= First, please acknowledge that the combination of your political announcement and asking for Debian support creates a negative perception that might tend to undermine Debian's support for its volunteers. That may not be what you intend, but it is a consequence. I hope you are committed to valuing the other members of Debian even when you disagree with them. I hope that your fight is with Israel's government not with our volunteers. So, I ask you to find and make some meaningful, clear statement to show support for our volunteers putting on DC20. I think the easiest way for you to do that is to withdraw your budget request and for you to do the conference logistics on your own. In effect, accept the idea that putting this too close to Debian puts the project in an awkward position and remove that. If we force you, it is inherently distancing. If you do it on your own, it can be constructive. I have no doubt that you can do this without Debian and SPI's relationship. Yes, absolutely it will be more work. But you've already demonstrated you have what it takes to run a successful conference. If that's not your choice, then I ask you to find some other meaningful way (stronger than just words) to show support for the volunteers in Debian, even though you disagree with the location. The choice is entirely yours. This is a request. You can reinterpret it or even ignore it. I hope that you do choose to turn this into an example of how we can constructively disagree. Debian supports the DC20 Team ============================= I want to take this opportunity to express strong support for the volunteers putting on DebConf 20. Your contributions to the Debian community are greatly appreciated. Thanks for your understanding and hard work. Thanks for your Consideration, Sam Hartman Debian Project Leader
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