2009/2/18 Michael Peel email@mikepeel.net:
If you're interested in going to schools, then you may find that the schools are willing to cover the travel costs etc. in exchange for a good educational session.
Schools have very limited funds, I think they would be far more interested in having us visit if we paid for it ourselves.
Something else to factor in, though, is the development of the session content and any necessary materials. That can of course be done on a volunteer basis, but it all depends on how ambitious the sessions are, and whether e.g. a laptop and/or a projector needs to be purchased (although nowadays most schools can provide those, I guess).
I think pretty much all schools can supply the necessary hardware. Putting together visual aids and whatever else is required can probably be done by volunteers.
Also, would the wikimedians going be paid for their time, or would they have to volunteer it? If you pay for their time, then you tend to get a lot more people interested in doing a session...
If we have the money, there is no reason we can't pay people, but I would expect we can get enough volunteers. We could probably throw in lunch...