Entry Donations

[Darcy Laycock]

One of the things we wanted to try and cut down on this year is the
number of
people who register for spots with no intention of actually using them
- and yes,
we realise there are a good number of people who legitimately intend
to compete
but have to pull out at the last minute - this post is about dealing
with the former
(and not the latter).

Early on in the planning stage this year we discussed two alternatives
to cutting
down the number. The first we discussed was a small entry fee which in
turn would
ensure them a spot in the competition and in return we considered t-
shirts or something
along those lines. The second, not too dissimilar choice (which we've
decided to go
with) was required each team to make a donation to a ruby project in
order to compete.

In other words, one of the things we'll be introducing this year is a
required donation by
teams (similar to an entry fee) towards a couple of projects in the
ruby / rails community.
So far, teams will be able to choose between donating to the
railsrumble (so, in essence
in that case it would be the same as an entry fee, going towards
things like prize shipping
and putting the competition on in general).

The other option we've settled on is Rails Bridge - A brilliant group
of people with a simple
goal - "To create an inclusive and friendly Ruby on Rails community".
To this end, we hope
to not only cut down on the number of people taking positions just
because they can but
we also hope to help the ruby community in general.

So, in the spirit of being open, we're interested in hearing what you
as a community
think about the changes in general and, at the same time, what other
causes you think
are worthy of being added to the list.

[Matt Todd]

How about an option to pick whatever projects are on GitHub that have Pledgie accounts? I'm sure Pledgie could make something simple to implement into the registration process, they've done custom work like this before.

Matt

--
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www.highgroove.com
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[Roland Swingler]

Another idea would be donations to the ruby 1.9 or bust project:
http://www.ruby19orbust.com/

Cheers,
Roland

[Mike Gunderloy]

On Jun 18, 8:18 pm, Darcy Laycock <su...@sutto.net> wrote:
> The other option we've settled on is Rails Bridge - A brilliant group
> of people with a simple
> goal - "To create an inclusive and friendly Ruby on Rails community".
> To this end, we hope
> to not only cut down on the number of people taking positions just
> because they can but
> we also hope to help the ruby community in general.

Speaking for RailsBridge, we'd be happy to have the support, and we do
have good uses to put the money towards. But I do need to clarify one
thing - it's iffy as to whether donations to RailsBridge will be tax-
deductible in the timeframe of this Rumble's registration. We are
working through the paperwork to be a 501c3 nonprofit, but that works
at the speed of the IRS.

Just want to be sure that the word "donation" doesn't give people the
wrong impression.

[Nick Plante]

To Mike's point, I'd like to remind everyone that the Rails Rumble
team is not a non-profit tax-deductable entity either and have no
plans to file for NPF status. We'll make it very clear on the
registration forms that amounts are not tax-deductable too.

My concern with allowing donations to any GitHub-based project is that
people could just donate to themselves. It could also complicate fund
tracking. I'd like us to select a few common community projects that
are beneficial to everyone. I think starting with RailsBridge and the
Rumble organizers team is good. The "Ruby 1.9 or Bust" project is
something I wasn't aware of before but also seems admirable and
deserving of support.

..nap