FUDcon LATAM Changes

Thu May 17 16:54:26 UTC 2012

The FUDCon Venezuela team has pushed as hard as possible to make it
possible to hold FUDCon at Margarita Island, however, several complications
have made this goal difficult to achieve.  The prices for hotel rooms have
increased dramatically, major sponsors have declined to help with an event
so far from their offices, and the local team has been too far from the
island to be efficient in their organization. In order to still have a
FUDcon at Venezuela inside the time-frame for LATAM (June to August), I
would like to propose the following changes:

======== New Location ========
Move FUDcon to the city of Valencia. Valencia is the capital city of
Carabobo State, and the third largest city of Venezuela. The Valencia
airport, Arturo Michelena International Airport (VLN), is the nation's
third busiest. It is served by all major Venezuelan airlines. For more
information about Valencia, please check
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valencia,_Carabobo,_Venezuela.

Some of the reasons to choose Valencia as alternative city are:

* More local participation: This new location will make it easier to bring
people from the mainland of Venezuela and from several colleges in the five
nearby states using local resources.  The city of Valencia has 26 local
colleges.
* Less expensive location: Hotels are WAY less espensive in Valencia.
Because of the travel season, the preferred hotels in Margarita have
dramatically increased their prices, and the increase in price would make
it difficult to provide subsidies for a large number of participants.
* Easier logistics: The logistics of trying to get a large number of
participants from the mainland to Margarita Island was substantial, and
weighed heavily in the decision to move the event to Valencia.  Members of
the organizing team live much closer to Valencia, and they can use
volunteers from other communities that have been helping with previous free
software events to make easier work of the planning and organization.

======== New Date ========
FUDcon LATAM has suffered several changes in dates, mostly due to the fact
that every date we had selected collided with other international events
that involved several of our attendees. In order to try to please as many
people as we can, we have already changed the event dates two times. This
has brought some issues.

Changing locations will be a huge challenge. However, since there is a
strong local team in the Valencia area, things will be much easier. The new
(and final) dates for FUDcon LATAM 2012 will be 23-24-25 August (and 26 for
those who want to spend a FUDpub at Beach - Yes, we will still have an
optional day at the beach).  I would have liked to pick the last week of
August, however, some people will want to attend LinuxCon, which will be
held from August 29-31.  I feel that moving the event to August will allow
for better preparation and organization of the event, and allow for greater
local participation.

========== Call for Help ===========
We need your help!   We not only need people who are excited about
attending the event, but we also need people willing to work hard to get
all the preparations in place ahead of the event.  We plan on having weekly
FUDCon planning meetings again, and we encourage everyone with an interest
in helping to join the meetings and help out.  In particular, we could use
help with:

* Design: Some designs might need changes
* Money: Call for additional Sponsor
* Marketing: Help in spreading the word about our event
* Organization: If you're in Venezuela, (doesn't matter if you're not part
of Fedora team) Contact us ASAP - If you're out Venezuela, drop all your
ideas at Wiki or through mail.

========== Travel Subsidies ===========
As usual, there will be a limited budget available for travel subsidies.
 To requests a travel subsidy, pleast fill out a ticket in our FUDCon
Planning Trac system at https://fedorahosted.org/fudcon-planning/newticket.
 The FUDCon planning team will consider requests based on a number of
criteria, including relevance to the event, how critical that request is,
the specific deliverables it will enable, the proximity of the traveler,
and the amount of the request.   Please note that the subsidy is intended
to help offset the cost of travel and sleeping accomodations, but typically
don't cover taxis, food, sightseeing, passport or visa fees, or any other
personal expenses.  For more information on subsidies, visit
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Sponsoring_event_attendees

Travel subsidies should be filed no earlier than 21 May 2012, and no later
than 17 June 2012.

========= Next FUDCon LATAM Planning Meeting ===========
Our next FUDCon Planning meeting will be held on Friday, May 18th at 18:00
UTC in the #fudcon-planning IRC channel. We'll discuss these changes in the
meeting and try to come to an agreement, we apreciate your support and
understanding. We are working hard to bring you a great FUDcon in
Venezuela.  To see that time in your local time zone, visit
http://timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?year=2012&month=05&day=18&hour=18&min=00&sec=0

I hope to see you in the meeting to discuss any questions or concerns you
might have with these changes.  After the meeting is done and we've come to
a consensus on the changes, we will update the wiki with the updated
information.

-- 
tatica
Maria Gracia Leandro
http://www.tatica.org
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:tatica
LinuxUser= 440285  GPG Public Key: E1CDCC56
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