Agreeing with Rich:
We actually have funds available for one international meting a year, plus one in each region, and to give scholarships covering the full cost to every committed WPedian who asks for them. ( On the whole I think most people would, from any region, thou some might not ask for anything beyond international transportation) . It would be different if we were barely making ends meet.
But tha last few years has shown that we have been obtaining each year more money than we can usefully spend, and even if we were to devote half the surplus into an endowment, there is still many millions remaining. The one thing we should not do with it is expand the WMF paid staff. (The only other practical use for the money is to expand access to paid resources)
On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 2:15 PM, Richard Farmbrough < richard@farmbrough.co.uk> wrote:
It's all very well to assume that certain demographics are wealthy. But it is simply a stereotype. Wikipedians I know personally from the "privileged" demographics vary from those who are well off through to those who are saddled with substantial debt and zero income.
But really the question is, given the funds available, and the benefits that accrue, why there should be such a limited WMF spend on Wikimania (and/or other gatherings). It is one of the few discretionary spends that we know from stories like Doc James' has a huge impact.
On 10/02/2016 16:27, Béria Lima wrote:
And I for one agree with the new policy. The effort made by a European (or American, or Canadian) to travel to a Wikimania, is something like one month of salary. For a woman from the same place will probably be 2 months (pay gap at its finest!) and for a Latino, African, or Asiatic the effort starts at 6 months and go on to even a decade*[4]* (A full decade of your salary to go to Wikimania).
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