I have to disagree. money for WMF employee attendance is still WMF money... still coming from donations. I find it very interesting that so much more is spent on employee attendance then volunteer attendance.
> From: [email protected] > Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2016 20:06:28 -0500 > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Reducing the net cost of Wikimania > > Chris & Ellie: I don't think I would include 'WMF Travel/Accomodation' or > general Wikimedia PR in the Wikimania overhead. > * Staff have a budget for travel to events of all kinds; the Board has a > budget for its meetings wherever they are held; and similarly the few > committees that meet in person have a budget for those meetings. > * The fact that these things happen to take place at Wikimania is, if > anything, a slight cost savings: some of the logistics of scheduling and > finding venues can be shared, it allows coordinating press events, &c. > > > Lodewijk, I agree: we should be able to find ways to limit direct expenses, > and increase sponsorships. We could also increase the number of people who > benefit from scholarships, or are otherwise able to attend. > > Focusing on direct expenses from recent Wikimanias: > * 2014 budget: $250K revenue + a $150K WMF grant. Actual: $280K revenue, > needed $320K from WMF to cover direct expenses > * 2015 budget: $150K revenue + a $300K WMF grant. Actual: $100K revenue, > needed $380K from WMF to cover direct expenses > * 2016 budget: $290K? revenue + a $250K WMF grant. > > Itzik, what were the equivalent budgets for Haifa? From the post-mortem on > Meta it looks like a $280K budget, and a $100K WMF grant. This included > paying for the event coordinator, which is now budgeted separately. That > was for the finest event one could hope for. > > > Lodewijk writes: > > 'wikimania direct' is quite expensive, to be honest, and much more than I > > would have expected. However, it does include catering, which is always > > an expensive chunk... > > Registration fees should at least cover the marginal cost of the event: > catering & materials per person. > > > > looking at these figures, I can agree that it should be possible to do it > for > > less, I'm less certain though whether the proposed splitting up would > > significantly reduce the total costs for everything that is included here. > > The greater part of money spent on attending Wikimania is the out-of-pocket > cost of flights and hotels. The cost of this for non-local attendees is > 10-50x the cost of registration. Running many simultaneous local events > has a greater total budget, if you look only at the budgets of the > organizers; but a much lower cost per person. There are many more options > for free venues and low-cost lodging when you're not scrambling to fit 1000 > people in a small region of a city. And a smaller fraction of money spent > goes towards jet fuel. > > For this reason, the same pool of scholarship funds would go farther. > > Finally, I don't think we should oversell the current Wikimania as a > universal connector. I too want there to be a community thing that builds > interpersonal connections and is accessible to every community member at > low cost. But that thing cannot be a $2,000-net-cost week-long > conference. Many people could never attend such an event, even if it were > free. It is a long time commitment, and is inevitably mono or bilingual. > > Sam > (who loves the current Wikimanias, and thinks they should continue! but > doesn't think they are the pinnacle of what movement-gatherings could be) > > > On Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 5:52 PM, Sam Klein <[email protected]> wrote: > > > That's most helpful, thank you both. > > > > On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 5:14 PM, Pharos <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > >> Thanks, Ellie and Chris, this historical experience should be very helpful > >> for future discussions! > >> > >> Best, > >> Pharos > >> > >> On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 5:06 PM, Chris Schilling < > >> [email protected]> > >> wrote: > >> > >> > Hey folks, > >> > > >> > Ellie has put together a summarized budget including revenue and > >> expenses > >> > from Wikimania 2014 in London[1] and Wikimania 2015[2], which I've gone > >> > ahead and posted to the summary pages of these conferences on meta. > >> > > >> > Thanks, > >> > > >> > Chris > >> > > >> > [1] <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2014> > >> > [2] <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2015> > >> > > >> > On Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 1:15 PM, Samuel Klein <[email protected]> > >> wrote: > >> > > >> > > Itzik writes: > >> > > > >> > > > If we want to talk about the cost of Wikimania it will be great if > >> the > >> > > WMF and the local team will share the costs. > >> > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2014/Budget > >> > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2015/Budget > >> > > > Maybe I missed something, but it's strange that such discussion > >> takes > >> > > place without a real budget breakdown. > >> > > > To summarize 2 huge event to "1$ million USD" does not make sense. > >> > > > >> > > Agreed 1million%. It would be important to see a rough cost > >> breakdown, & > >> > > compare that to the best-budgeted Wikimanias. > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > On Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 9:52 AM, Tomasz Ganicz <[email protected]> > >> > > wrote: > >> > > > >> > > > 2016-02-10 6:06 GMT+01:00 Samuel Klein <[email protected]>: > >> > > > > >> > > > > FUDCons > >> > > > > >> > > > Also it is hard to compare Wikimanias with FUDCons as it is > >> > > > a) much smaller (usually bo more than 200 attendees) > >> > > > b) divided by regions - for example in 2015 there were 3 FUDCons > >> > > > (Argentina, India, Spain) and 2 Flocks (NY and Kraków) - so they > >> are > >> > > > rather like our Iberecop or CEE meetings than the global > >> conferences. > >> > > > > >> > > > >> > > Thanks. Similar to regional events perhaps, not Wikimania. Still > >> worth > >> > > comparing budgets perhaps, if available. > >> > > > >> > > But I was wondering about the trend over time: whether extensive > >> funding > >> > > during the RedHat days made the events less useful, in the years after > >> > that > >> > > funding was reduced. > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > > And also Fedora developers have many potential sources of external > >> > > funding > >> > > > - mainly from IT companies which uses free software and want to > >> apply > >> > for > >> > > > their specific needs and for whom they quite often work. > >> > > > > >> > > > >> > > True. But attendees to GLAM or education conferences also tend to > >> have > >> > > many potential sources of funding - mainly from archives or > >> educational > >> > or > >> > > technical companies who curate knowledge or develop education tools. > >> And > >> > we > >> > > have IT industry partners who are similarly willing to support > >> > Wikimanias. > >> > > Not entirely dissimilar. > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > > But anyway, Fedora offers scholarships for attendees, see: > >> > > > > >> > > > >> > > Yes, wiki conferences should as well - that part of conference > >> funding is > >> > > important. Even early Wikimanias with almost no WMF support had > >> > > significant scholarship pools. > >> > > > >> > > S > >> > > _______________________________________________ > >> > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > >> > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > >> > > New messages to: [email protected] > >> > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l > >> , > >> > > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> > >> > > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > -- > >> > Chris "Jethro" Schilling > >> > I JethroBT (WMF) <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:I_JethroBT_(WMF) > >> > > >> > Community Organizer, Wikimedia Foundation > >> > <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home> > >> > _______________________________________________ > >> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > >> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > >> > New messages to: [email protected] > >> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > >> > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> > >> > > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > >> New messages to: [email protected] > >> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > >> <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> > >> > > > > > > > > -- > > Samuel Klein @metasj w:user:sj +1 617 529 4266 > > > > > > -- > Samuel Klein @metasj w:user:sj +1 617 529 4266 > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > New messages to: [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
