Please vote below Yes or No on this proposal placed in the CoE Rocket Chat Channel by Degerhan. The CoE itself has already discussed and voted yes, but, we would like to have the community vote as well before a final confirmation is made.
See below from Degerhan:
Background: I want to connect with the maximum number of active and interesting members of the community at numeraicon
Assumption: cost of travel may cause hardship for some and block them from attending
Proposal: Five “numeraicon fellow” need-based travel stipends. Designate a CoE member to privately receive messages, take the person’s word that this stipend is infact needed (no onerous proofs). Only requirement is that the person is active in the community. CoE privately and at their sole discretion decide who (if any people) receive it.
Estimated cost: ~$3-5k.
A Vote YES is for up to 5 need-based travel stipends of up to 1k USD max each.
If approved, please private message me (Aventurine) in the Rocket Chat channel. I will take names to the rest of the CoE for final approvals at which point travel reservation estimates will be requested. Payouts will be in NMR and adjusted to current market value in USD on each approval.
NJ is also willing to provide formal letters of invitation to the conference if needed for visas etc.
The voting period will be 48hrs so we can maximize time before conference
CoE is moving ahead with the proposal for NumeraiCon travel stipends with clear community support! Please fill out this form if you’re interested in attending NumeraiCon, but costs would otherwise be prohibitive: NumeraiCon Need-based Travel Stipend Requests
Maybe there should be like an official announcement forum post (and a banner on rocketchat maybe) for NumeraiCon somewhere if they want people to attend. Email blast? I know it has been mentioned, but there is actually no information anywhere that I can see…
Just tweeted and had the CoE twitter retweet. Maybe we will get a Richard and/or a Numerai account retweet. I can also send out a special edition Newsletter blast
I just mean a general announcement about the conference – when, where, etc. I think there was something in RC about it but I can’t even find it now. It is less than 2 months away, right? They should be blaring it from the rooftops…
The stipend is an excellent idea, but there must be adequate checks to ensure that the gift process isn’t abused and full disclosure to the community as to which members received the gift. It would be inappropriate, for example, for someone to claim a stipend yet have a sizable sum invested in the competition, which I’d hope wouldn’t happen but can’t be ruled out.
What’s a sizable sum? Also, I’m not sure those receiving it would necessarily want that fact broadcast. (Although I don’t care myself, but revealing personal finances publicly can be a taboo subject. I’ll just say now that if you see me at the conference, it is because the CoE paid for me to be there.)
That would be for the CoE to decide and I doubt there would be an issue, but none the less, conceivably someone might claim despite being able to easily cover their costs. Not everyone is scrupulous as I know from my own business, so just suggesting that there should be some protection against abuse of the process. And yes, I agree that publishing who receive a stipend may be inappropriate, and we have to trust the CoE in how the process is managed.
We will close the form for stipend requests at the end of the month (Feb 28) so there is enough time for the CoE to distribute funds and for people to plan travel. Don’t forget to fill out the google form if you’re interested in attending NumeraiCon, but costs would otherwise be prohibitive: NumeraiCon Need-based Travel Stipend Requests
