Constitution of the United Diffs

Introduction

This aim of this document is to detail the guiding principles that can be referred to when making decisions over affairs such as corporate sponsorship, events and venues.

This document is written in markdown format and stored on github.

Simple document structure (to aid in keeping things to-the-point)
Transparency for all
Amendment history

Any proposed amendments should be made via pull request. Using the code review tools there gives us good context for any discussion that needs to take place before ratifying them.

And yes, maybe I do spend a bit too much time reading American political history.

Corporate Sponsorship and Donations

###Rationale

I'm going to use this space to outline the purpose of Unified Diff from my perspective, and how sponsorship fits in with that. If we can get some concensus on this, we could refactor this section out.

If we can reach a concencus on what the core purpose of Unified Diff is, then it makes it easier to answer difficult questions. If a proposed answer encroaches on these agreed purposes, there's a good bet it's something we should not be doing.

Socialise with my peers and friends in a relaxed setting.
Have polite, intelligent discussions/debates.
Gain knowledge on subjects I wouldn't usually entertain.
Share my knowledge with a receptive audience:
- Improves my understanding of concepts by explaining and demonstrating them.
- Improves my speaking skills.
- Improves my exposure as a knowledgable person in given areas.
Raise the standard of knowledge in a given area:
- Makes it easier to recruit in the short- or long-term future.

###Sponsorship vs. Donations

I think it's important to make the distinction between 'donations' and 'sponsorship' clear.

Donations are contributions that can be made by anyone. We should decide whether donations should be accepted in the form of money, physical goods, or both.

My preference would be to accept money only, paid into a pot, which we then use to buy equipment, etc. Although there would be a bit of an overhead here in setting up a bank account, etc, I think the independence and flexibility it gives us would be better.

Transparency should be paramount here; donations, (identities?) and purchases made should be visible to all.

The goal of donations should be to raise the standard of all Unified Diff output through better equipment and other assets.

Sponsorship is a donation made to assist events only. This could look like covering venue fees, 'special guest' speaker fees, money behind the bar, etc.

The goal of sponsorship should be to raise the standard of a given event by allowing us to hire a larger/better quality venue, and have knowledgable 'special guests'.

###Corporate remittance

Companies expect something in return for donations and sponsorship, and why not? Their donations and sponsorships help us achieve the goals given in the preamble.

However, we need to make sure that what we offer does not encroach upon or obstruct those goals, otherwise it is all for nothing.

####On Donations

I don't think we should offer speaking slots in return for donations, directly or indirectly. Representatives of a company should consider themselves free to speak at an event whether they have made a donation or not.

The content of their proposed talk, and any other agenda should be the deciding factor; not if they have given us money (or how much.) This would need to be made clear to any potential donor, although I envisage us directing them to this document when it is complete.

The as stated before, the purpose of donations is to raise the standard for all speakers and attendees. I think that selling slots or trying to put a price on them dooms us all to a fate of dull, irrelevant topics.

I suggest that all donors, regardless of the size of their ~~wang~~ donation, get their logo on a 'sponsors' page of the udiff website.

These logos should be of an equal maximum size, displayed in alphabetical order, linking to their corporate homepage or blog.

####On Sponsorships

We need to dicuss what to give in return a company sponsoring a event. I'm thinking logo on material and signage specifically promoting that event.

I'm spent for now, I'll come back to this section later. If anybody else wants to pick up from here, go nuts.

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