We'd like to wrap up budgeting for FUDCon Toronto 2009 as the happy date draws nearer. And we need your help. Ask us for money!

We have budget set aside to help with the travel of community members who would not otherwise be able to afford the trip to FUDCon. Instructions are at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Toronto_2009#Requesting_funding. These are the same instructions that everyone who indicated a need for funding help during pre-registration got. We've been processing those funding applications for the past few weeks, and we wanted to make absolutely sure that everyone who wanted to request funding has gotten a chance to do so before the cutoff date, Thursday October 29 at 19:30 UTC. Our budget is finite in size, but we are doing our best to bring as many people over as possible, and are making our decision process completely transparent - the instructions on how to request funding also have a link to meeting logs so you can see how we've made the choices that we did so far.

One note: If you're on the fence and wondering whether you should request funding or not, please ask. The more we know about what people need, the more we can figure out the best way to help - for instance, even if we can't fully fund someone, we might be able to partially fund them, or hook them up with a carpool or a bus seat, or find a way for them to participate remotely. As someone who would have, a year ago, probably not sent in a funding application due to a desire not to cause any extra trouble, I can honestly say (as this FUDCon's co-planner) that giving us this information actually helps us plan. So you'd be doing us a favor, really. Seriously, ASK.

Heck, even if you don't need funding to come to FUDCon, putting your FUDCon plans in the pre-registration table would be awesome, so that folks can find out who's up to what. So in short, the request:

  1. If you need FUDCon travel funding, ask for it. Before Thursday 19:30 UTC.
  2. If you don't need FUDCon travel funding, tell us what you're doing anyway. Having a game plan to adapt and improvise from (and occasionally completely throw away) often makes for a better event experience, because you come in with a target goal in mind.

Thanks - we'll see you in Toronto in a few weeks!