#58: Regional allocation for FY17 budget
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Reporter: mattdm | Owner:
Status: new | Priority: major
Component: General | Resolution:
Keywords: |
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Comment (by cwickert):
Replying to [comment:6 mattdm]:
LATAM definitely came out the lowest here by any measure. That's
largely
because their ''request'' was significantly lower than that
from the other
regions, which doesn't really seem like a good reason to penalize.
Their LATAM request was lower because they have learned their lesson of
overbudgeting and underspending. APAC has overbudgeted way more, so I
really think it's unfair to give LATAM less just because they are more
realistic now.
Do you have a concrete alternate proposal?
AFAIR we approved the [
https://pagure.io/fedora-
budget/blob/master/f/FY17/adjustedannualbudgets/council/scenarios.txt#_25
hF/hDI scenario], which leaves USD 74,500 for regional support. The
numbers above add up to USD 73,500, so there is a 1k margin. We could
either
* give it to LATAM
* divide it by all four regions
* split among LATAM and APAC
* give APAC and LATAM the same amount, then it would match the
[
https://pagure.io/fedora-
budget/blob/master/f/FY17/adjustedannualbudgets/council/scenarios.txt#_119
historic percentages].
Can you help me understand why this can't just be
''continuously'' kept
up to date, though, making it just a matter
of taking a snapshot?
I'm afraid I'm lost. You said the regions report quarterly splits after we
approve the top-level allocation. This is a yearly thing, and so is the
event planning in the regions. Therefor I assumed the quarterly splits
were a yearly thing, too. Once a year, right tell the regions how much
money they get and in return, they tell us how they plan to spend it
throughout the quarters. How would one make this continuously?
The goal is to make sure that the budgeted funds are actually all
spent
(in meaningful ways, of course). It isn't to penalize the region for
underspending. I'm okay with modifying the above to say that regions can
do their own internal quarter-to-quarter reallocation of unspent money as
long as it is reported up (and as long as it really does end up being made
use of). But if the region ''doesn't'' have a solid plan, we do still
have
plenty of central needs (or possibly there's a strong unplanned need in
another region).
The easiest thing to do when you have money left at the end of the FY is
to buy swag and save it for next year. This makes planning a lot easier:
You don't have to worry about swag or about budget cuts. I'm not saying we
should burn money, we should only buy swag we really need. As swag
production happens on a regional level, the budget would remain there.
Only if a region has no other use for their budget, the council should
claim it for other activities or regions. It is on the budget owner to
have an eye on the spending and get touch with the regions if necessary. I
would rather ask if we can use a region's unused budget than automatically
reallocate it. In fact, quarterly reallocation can be counter-productive
as it encourages regions to spend money on less meaningful stuff not only
on a yearly but quarterly base.
--
Ticket URL: <
https://fedorahosted.org/council/ticket/58#comment:7>
council <
https://fedorahosted.org/council>
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