[Inpycon] Everybody Pays Policy

[Anand Chitipothu]

On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 11:32 AM, atul jha <koolhead17 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 11:18 AM, Noufal Ibrahim <noufal at nibrahim.net.in>wrote:
>
>> Kiran Jonnalagadda <jace at pobox.com> writes:
>>
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> > HasGeek policy is free tickets for speakers and crew.
>>
>> I wasn't aware of that.
>>
>> > I bought a ticket because I knew it was PyCon policy -- I bought a
>> > ticket even last year despite volunteering.
>>
>> <snip>
>
>>  There's still gap in the communication. Anand told me about one or two
>> speakers who were annoyed that they had to pay even though their talks
>> were selected.
>>
> </snip>
>
>>
>>
>> [...]
>>
>>
>> --
>> Cordially,
>> Noufal
>> http://nibrahim.net.in
>> _______________________________________________
>> Inpycon mailing list
>> Inpycon at python.org
>> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/inpycon
>>
>
>
> Who & why was it decided to charge fees for volunteers and speakers?
>

There was a discussion in this mailing list when we decided the fee and the
tiers. Where were you then?


> Is it because sponsorship money not sufficient? Is there any blog/mail
> provides description/info about the overall expenditure of the event?
>
> If money is real issue please get a new sponsorship model in place which
> handles entry fee payments for speakers and volunteers specifically.
>

I don't see the point. No volunteer has complained that he has a problem
with paying the fee. Some student volunteers have explicitly asked us and
we've made couple of exceptions.

Again, the problem with the speakers was not about paying the money, but
the lack of the communication about that. Some speakers were surprised at
the last minute because they weren't aware that they have to pay the fee.

I think we should respect the opinions of the people who have managed the
volunteers and handled the speakers than suggesting hypothetical issues
without any base. It is not very good use of the time on this mailing list.


> When most of the volunteers are students & some speakers as well. Some of
> them are coming from other part of country & planning stay/food on their
> own. Can we not do best by giving them entry to the event?
>

How do you know that most of the volunteers are students? I've worked very
closely with volunteers this year and I haven't heard any complaints from
them. There are even some volunteers who have just sit in the network room
all the three days of the conference, making sure the network/registration
desk working fine, and some of them were students. When they were very
happy to pay the fee themselves, I don't see an point of discussing about
it.

Comparing an Indian event with event in US  & following with same footprint
> does not go well here.
>
> An event with focus on Indian crowd should be handled in Indian way.
>

Well, I've started this thread not with the intention of blindly following
that model, but because that post has explained a model that *we have been*
following since beginning and I strongly believe that it very good model to
continue.

It would have been a lot more productive if you had come in couple of
months earlier and helped in shaping the event. Lot of these decisions have
come out of the collective wisdom of running PyCon India over years and
closely observing it grow. I'm sure you'll have a better understanding
about the whole thing once you see it closely. Hope to see you at PyCon
India 2014.

Anand
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