go to PyCon 2015!

[chadwhitacre]

Per private email w/ @dianaclarke, I've submitted a sponsorship application at the open-source/community level on the website.

[chadwhitacre]

I think we should just get a bistro table and electric this year.

[chadwhitacre]

Thanks Diana! I submitted the sponsorship application. Tracking on the Gratipay side here:

#111

Logo attached in SVG and PNG (150px).

How about this for a description?

Gratipay - https://gratipay.com/ - Gratipay (formerly Gittip) is a way to give money every week to people and teams you believe in. Our mission is to enable an economy of gratitude, generosity, and love. We are an open company, funded on our own platform.

Let me know what else you need from me. :-)

[dianaclarke]

The logo & description are up on the PyCon site now. I've also tweeted the sponsorship from the PyCon twitter account.

https://us.pycon.org/2015/sponsors/
https://twitter.com/pycon/status/534833458502438912

There was a typo in my first tweet, so I deleted it. Sorry about that.

--diana

[chadwhitacre]

Thanks @dianaclarke! Glad to be on board! 💃

[ReginaHolliday]

 Hey Chad, you wanted me to let you know when more info was up on the medical conference in Maryland in June.  Here it is is : https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cinderblocks2-tickets-6811480321
Regina Holliday
home 301-895-8123mobile 202-441-9664
Speaker's Profile:  http://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker/regina-hollidayBlog: http://reginaholliday.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/regina.holliday
http://twitter.com/ReginaHolliday
From: Chad Whitacre notifications@github.com
To: gratipay/inside.gratipay.com inside.gratipay.com@noreply.github.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2014 11:02 AM
Subject: Re: [inside.gratipay.com] go to PyCon 2015! (#111)

Thanks @dianaclarke! Glad to be on board! —
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[chadwhitacre]

Thanks @ReginaHolliday! I've copied your message over to #87.

[chadwhitacre]

If the giant heart coin (gratipay/gratipay.com#2985) comes together right we may be able to use it as a backdrop.

[chadwhitacre]

[chadwhitacre]

cc: @chrisdev You'll be at PyCon, ya?

[techtonik]

PyCon account at https://gratipay.com/pycon/ needs some care. Why avatar is not updated?

[chadwhitacre]

I'm unable to make it to PyCon this year (there's a big retirement party for my dad on Friday the 10th). @chrisdev will be there and is willing to staff the booth. He would like to find someone else to join him. Maybe @lyndsysimon, and/or @aisipos?

We get one free registration with the booth. Maybe we can transfer that. Who wants it?

[dianaclarke]

@whit537 Your sponsorship comes with two full tickets to PyCon, not just one. And we're sold out, so those tickets are in hot demand. Anyhoo, perhaps you could consider sending two people to additional PyCon to help staff your booth during the busy times.

[dianaclarke]

@whit537 PS. The busy times are listed here:

https://us.pycon.org/2015/sponsors/exhibitfloor/

It's really important to have your booth staffed during those times.

Thanks!

[chrisdev]

Is there no one who wants to go to PyCon 2015?
Free ticket and you can share my hotel room which will reduce the cost even more!
From my experience its hard to do an effective job at the boot with only one person.

[chadwhitacre]

Thanks for the info, @dianaclarke. Good news about two registrations! Shall I email Ewa to transfer one to @chrisdev? I've emailed @aisipos to see if he can use the other to help Chris with the Gratipay booth.

[dianaclarke]

@whit537 Please email pycon8-reg@cteusa.com to transfer your ticket.

[chadwhitacre]

@dianaclarke Will do, thanks! :-)

[chadwhitacre]

Registration transferred to @chrisdev! 💃

[chrisdev]

👍 @whit537 @dianaclarke

[lyndsysimon]

I'll be at PyCon this year, but will be representing COS and won't be available to staff the Gratipay booth.

I will bring decals, though!

[citruspi]

Hey,

I'd be interested in helping out with staffing the Gratipay booth. How would we plan who staffs when?

Because I'm happy to staff the booth but there are some talks/events that I'd prefer not to miss...

— @citruspi

[chrisdev]

Great! We can come up with a duty roster since PyCon is being so strict about boot staffing!
@citruspi is I assuming you already have your PyCon ticket?
@whit537 can we help him out?

[citruspi]

@chrisdev,

I do already have PyCon ticket.

— @citruspi

[chadwhitacre]

Thanks, @lyndsysimon! I believe COS and Gratipay are next door to one another! :-)

@citruspi Huzzah! Thank you! I'll email the PyCon registration folks. What's a good email address to cc: you (ping me at chad@zetaweb.com to if you want to keep it private)?

[citruspi]

@whit537,

The email address to cc: me with would be hello@mihirsingh.com.

— @citruspi

[chrisdev]

With no @whit537 we probably need some actual swag to spice up the boot

• Penny Punch or at least some pre punched pennies - you can send some prepunched pennies to @citruspi via UPS or something?
• The giant heart that @whit537 made for the parade. Is it too big?
• Posters?
• Tee shirts - I can bring about 20 with me. @whit537 do we not have a design worked out already?
• Decals/stickers @lyndsysimon

[chrisdev]

@whit537 have we sorted out the electricity at the boot?

[citruspi]

@whit537

I believe you should have access to the shared folder on LastPass now.

I do!

Can you let me know if LastPass is trying to bill you?

It says I have a free month of Pro because I was referred by a friend.

[chadwhitacre]

Okay! Pennies are all punched. 😩

[chadwhitacre]

have we sorted out the electricity at the boot?

No, I missed the early-bird deadline. Ball is in my court to get that lined up.

[chadwhitacre]

@citruspi I shipped 1,350 pennies (7 lbs). They should arrive by 10:30 AM on Wednesday the 8th. Will you be able to receive them then? If not I can call the shipping place tomorrow and upgrade to overnight for Tuesday delivery. Also, I neglected to get a tracking number, so I will call anyway to ask for that.

P.S. Cost was $25, plus $17 for beers with the guy that drove me to the shipping place at the last minute.

[citruspi]

@whit537 You may need to bump it to Tuesday delivery. The packages need to be processed so they're not always available the day they're received. And my flight to Montréal is Wednesday afternoon, so I would hate to have to have to fly out without them.

[chadwhitacre]

Missed 'em today (they closed at noon). Will call first thing Monday.

[chadwhitacre]

Called and upgraded, should arrive by 10:30 AM tomorrow (Tuesday). I need to stop over and swipe the card again, at which point I'll get a tracking number. +$20

[citruspi]

@whit537 Awesome! I'll let you know when I get it.

[chadwhitacre]

@citruspi Sent you the tracking number in private email.

[citruspi]

@chrisdev @aisipos We should figure out the schedule for PyCon.

[chrisdev]

@citruspi @aisipos let's meet up on Thursday morning at the Expo. We need to go to hall to setup the booth sometime before 6pm on Thursday.

[aisipos]

@chrisdev My flight arrives on Thursday at 3:48pm. Sadly means I probably would make it to the venue about 6pm. Is there anything I can bring to help?

Also - what should we use to keep in touch while we're in Montreal? Google chat, facebook messenger, whatsapp, or something else?

[citruspi]

@aisipos @chrisdev I don't personally use any of those services. Also, we won't have WiFi access everywhere and the cost of cellular data will be more expensive than the cost of SMS.

I'd vote for SMS with Twitter Direct Messages as a fallback.

[lyndsysimon]

I'm sure there will be lots of activity on IRC, official or not.

My flight comes in just before 1pm Thursday, which means I'll likely be at the convention center around 3pm or so. I'll drop by the booth with the decals (that I've still not made!) as soon as I get a chance.

I'm not sure yet if I'll have cell/data access or not - I'll be on IRC as much as possible though, so I'll let you know.

[chadwhitacre]

I ordered the electric. Receipt forwarded to @chrisdev @citruspi.

[chadwhitacre]

Any issues you need me for, my cell is 412 925 4220. I'll try to remember to keep my phone on. :)

[chadwhitacre]

P.S. Here's our current expense tally:

250.65 electric
 10.00 pennies
 45.00 pennies - shipping
 17.00 pennies - gratibeers
------
322.65

[chadwhitacre]

FedEx shows that the pennies arrived yesterday at 9:22 AM. Were you able to pick them up, @citruspi?

[citruspi]

@whit537 Yep, I have them.

[chadwhitacre]

Yep, I have them.

Huzzah! 🐧

[chadwhitacre]

Hear that, @Rdonnelly45? The pennies made it! :-)

[Rdonnelly45]

Mission accomplished! Nice

[chadwhitacre]

From @chrisdev in private email (names redacted):

I’ve got some feedback from some users in the Python community.

A.
He actually uses his tips to fund someone else. He figures that the drop off he is seeing in his contributions has to do with lack of notifications.
In particular found out that the CC of some of his main contributors expired but once he told them about this they started to contribute again.
Also he removed his Gratipay Buttons form his blog Github repo and contributions started to fall.

B.
Very interested in how “Shanleygate” affected contributions. However, i think he is still positive about the mission of Gratipay/Chad and is hoping we could do something to rekindle momentum on the site. Also, showing the stats is nice when we were growing but now it is a bit downer and may make people think is not a good platform for raising money.

C.
A bit sad that contributions have fallen, attributes it mainly to general lack of desire of folks to contribute to OSS even though they use it every day. This attitude was also affecting his direct appeal efforts

D. & E.
They were largely using their tips to fund others. So when their tips fell then their contributions to others fell. Lack of notifications meant that they did not think about/remember their Gratipay Accounts for long periods.

F.
Our problems were due to lack of marketing. Why do we not send emails like the other services on the goings on of the company. We need to have some way to promote key users

Others
I also got the impression that G. and others felt that they had overcome most of their negativity to the platform but they are still “cautious, wary, sceptical etc.” . The far bigger problem is that they feel that we are ineffective as fund raising platform largely because of poor UX and the fact that the stats show contributions are falling on the platform.

H.
He was fascinated about the Gratipay Open company model. He saw Gratipay as the future of organisational culture. Our problems were really a reflection that we were way ahead of the curve. He sounded that he wanted to make us a case-study in his next blog/book :)

[chadwhitacre]

@citruspi Does Piwik show anything interesting?