Visa problems

[Truong Anh. Tuan]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jaroslav Reznik" <jreznik at redhat.com>
> To: "Planning discussion for Flock (Fedora Contributor Conference)" <flock-planning at lists.fedoraproject.org>
> Sent: Monday, July 21, 2014 3:45:29 PM
> Subject: Re: Visa problems

I agree with Jaroslav with some additional comments:

> ----- Original Message -----
> > 
> > We did prioritize those who needed visas to have their flights purchased
> > first. Those of you who were subsidized also know that this year we tried
> > two different methods. Paul and I booked some of your flights ourselves,
> > which is time consuming not only for us doing the booking, but also slow
> > because we can only go until we max out our credit cards (which isn't very
> > many), pay them off, and start over. Then we switched to having them booked
> > through Red Hat's travel agent, which in some cases resulted in cheaper
> > flights and definitely was much faster, but I believe overall in the end
> > cost us more money. As a result, I'm undecided on which is really the
> > better option.
> > 
> > I think there are a few things to consider next year:
> > 
> > - We'll be back in the US, and I think historically we've had less trouble
> > getting people to the US, so that should help.
> 
> EU <-> US travelling is easy. It gets much more complicated, if you travel
> to/from non EU/US countries.
> 
> > - We'll move up the CFP, which will give us an agenda sooner, which will
> > let us book flights sooner.
> > 
> > - I suspect the ideal solution is to use blocked flights for people who
> > need
> > them for visas. Unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of luck booking these as
> > a third party, so it means people need to do them themselves. I've found
> > people are reluctant to (or simply don't have credit cards and cannot) book
> > their own flights. And in at least one case in the past, it resulted in the
> > person booking a very expensive flight including upgrades (which we did not
> > reimburse). So there are pluses and minuses there too.
> 
> Blocking flights is also not very convenient - usually it's blocked only for
> a few days, has to be renewed and visa application could take longer time.
> But usually what matters is the day of blocking (I'm not sure they really
> check it). Or as Marina suggested, buy tickets that can be changed, it's
> just more expensive - but for people we know issues can occur, it could be
> better option.

It is not a big deal here. I booked another flight first for applying visa
(just bookibg, not paid). The when I got the real flight, I can throw that
booking away.

I have applied for visa to Schengen, US, Japan, etc. without any problems.
In my experience, we should read all information on embassy website and
prepare all required documents well before (even they should be put in the
same priority as suggested on their website). Sometimes you should call to
consulates to make all information as clear as possible.

> > - I know several people think we should choose who receives subsidies in
> > entirely different ways. The past two years, we've fully subsidized any
> > speaker who requested it. This year, that turned out to be a mistake, as
> > with all these flight changes and the cost of getting more than a dozen
> > people from APAC to Prague has killed our budget. Suggestions I've heard
> > include:
> > - Making the subsidy not necessarily for speakers, but for some other
> > criteria. I think this is the most challenging, as the appropriate criteria
> > will be different to everyone. To me, subsidizing speakers is the most fair
> > way.
> 
> Well, it worked pretty well in the past for FUDCons. Being speaker was one
> part of criteria. The question was always what are you going to achieve
> at FUDCon? The same would be for Flock - there could be folks not very
> happy being speakers just to get money - but with other itinerary like team
> meetings etc.

+1. Of course, we can have more criteria to give money to right persons. IIRC,
we also discuss this much before deciding sponsorship but finally, we just
keep that only one criteria. We can change this next time(s).

> > - Reconsidering which countries we subsidize first. Flock is a NA/EMEA
> > conference, and APAC and LATAM have their own FUDCons. For the two years of
> > Flock, the biggest parts of our budget have gone to getting LATAM and APAC
> > people there.
> 
> It's Fedora contributors conference. I understand APAC/LATAM expenses are
> huge but we shouldn't close this event to them. Yes, there has to be limit
> but as I said above - team meetings etc., it's the main value of Flock.
> Maybe less talks (and so less sponsored folks) could lower the pressure on
> the budget...

Yes, why not. It would be much much better if we can bring some *most active*
contributors from other regions. We can connect all regions to improve
contributions both in quantity and quality.
IMHO, most people come back from those such events (where they can meet
experienced people) have more contributions to Fedora. That is also one of
the most important goals, isn't it?

We had a lot of discussion in FAmSCo to have support for other people
(non-speakers, who do not receive sponsorship from Flock budget) to Flock.
In fact, we decided to have a small fund (about $4k) from regional budget
to support 7-8 EMEA people and a guy from LATAM to Flock (APAC has no one
due to expensive travel cost).

> > - Subsidizing either hotel stays or flights but not both. I will be
> > honest...
> > we've had a few people this year act like they thought this was how they
> > were getting a free trip to Prague. Yes, you get the benefit of coming to a
> > beautiful city. And I'm even willing to work with you on when you come and
> > go if you'd like to stay a while to visit Europe. But we're not in the
> > business of free vacations here.
> 
> For FUDCons, there's question - is partial support ok for you... Maybe we
> can try it for Flock too. For some people it's a blocker not to be paid
> for everything, for some people it's nice to have paid at least something.

+1. It worked well in the past at all FUDCons.

Kind regards,
Tuan