Plone Event and Sprint Sponsorship Policy

The Plone Foundation can support various kinds of activities and events, from representing Plone at tradeshows to local sprints.

Promoting Plone is one of the core activities of the Plone Foundation. To do that, the Foundation can support members of the community in their activities.

Types of events

In general, there are a few main types of events that can be sponsored in part by the Foundation.

  • Marketing events. These are for instance trade shows or software conferences where Plone can and should be represented. These will fall under the Marketing budget, and will be evaluated by the marketing team. See specific guidelines
  • Larger, 'strategic' sprints. There is a separate budget for these. What is deemed a 'strategic' sprint is in general decided by the various teams within the community. See further the policy on strategic sprint funding.
  • 'Community' sprints and meetups. The topics and specifics of these can, and should, vary greatly. Although our budget is limited, we will try to support as many of these as possible. These could be regional events, but also meetups of specific interest groups. So, from renting a room to tag a Plone meetup day onto PyCon Malaysia, to a meeting of "Plone for quantum cryptographers", this category is limited by the community only, where the community should also be seen in a broad sense.

Please note: this is what is in the budget. Of course, there can always be different events that fall outside of these categories. In which case, don't despair! You can still ask the Foundation for support, but you'll have to be extra convincing on why this is essential for Plone.

Submitting new events, applying for funds

So that we can have an orderly and clear process for funding, all requests must be made through one of these two forms:

Prior to filling out the form, you need to perform due diligence to understand the local laws surrounding what types and limits of insurance coverage you are required to carry for the proposed event.  Given that the laws and regulations differ wildly around the world, this is something that the Plone Foundation cannot help you with. But we want to be sure that neither you nor the Plone Foundation are exposed to undue risks on this front.

No requests will be considered without filling out the form. Do not email the Foundation board or the marketing team with requests directly, although you can, of course, contact the board or the marketing team later with more specific information.

Reporting back

If you receive event sponsorship funds, we'll expect you to provide a brief report-back to the Plone community via this form, so there can be a news item on this site. And remember, there is always friendly help available if you are not the kind of person that normally writes great articles, or if you normally are, but English is not your first language!

Reimbursement

After the sprint/event is completed, in order to make an official request for reimbursement from the Plone Foundation, please email board@plone.org with any relevant invoices. Typically, the Plone Foundation will make reimbursement payments via Paypal. If this is not appropriate for you, provide details, and we'll make alternative arrangements.