Robert,
I'll summarize the text by pasting lines here which are relevant and why.
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1. Joomla!Day Definition
A Joomla! Day is an event open to everyone, and the only fee charged should be that necessary to cover costs. Joomla!Days should not used as a commercial enterprise for profit raising purposes.
I feel that the Joomla World Conference has published rates for attendees and sponsors which are extraordinarily high, that those fees cover more than costs of this event, and that the event is being used a commercial enterprise to generate profit.
The budget for the Joomla Day West a nearly identical event was published.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/j ... Dd3Ra-N80JThe fee structure stated does not make sense in my opinion.
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2 Application and Rules
2.1 Organizing Teams
...If a new organization team wishes to take over responsibility of the following year's Joomla!Day we will contact the original team to ensure it is not interested in organizing the event. If the original team is not interested or a renewal application is not sent in time then the a new team can take over organization of that country/region/city's Joomla!Day event.
Not all of the original organizers of the Joomla Day West were contacted to ensure their dis-interest in involvement. While their are many caveats here, including the thought that this is a first time event, it is reasonable to assume that the original organizers of a very similar but differently named event may want to at least participate in organization of the event, as stated in the charter.
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2.4 Financial Rules
A major requirement for the approval of your application is that the event is not designed to generate profit.
See above response my arguement regarding both admission fee and sponsorship rates.
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It is up to each organizing group to determine whether to charge admission and, if so, how much to charge. Because of the nature of the events, we recommend finding a free or inexpensive location and not to make complex contracts with space providers.
I don't believe that due diligence was performed in the location selection of the Joomla World Conference, and that if the current space is going to be provided at no cost, that the admission fee should reflect that.
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2.5 Legal Issues
Joomla!Days are organized and controlled by local event organizers who are solely responsible for all actions and liabiilities in association with the event. Neither Open Source Matters nor the Joomla! project is responsible for the actions or expenditures of local organizers. Local organizers are responsible for obtaining all appropriate insurance, permits, and other similar items.
Without taking this statement out of context, I have not received knowledge of any local event organizers in California or the Bay Area, as the organizers of even a World Conference which follows the charter should have at least some local organizers.
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3 Organization and Structure
Generally a Joomla!Day should be focused on local people and companies. Make your organization as simple as possible. A highly sophisticated event is not what people expect. Community interaction and collaborative learning should be the focus. The main thing the people are looking for is a place to meet each other in person and to get to know other Joomla! users and contributors.
Following the charter, even though this has been named a "World Conference" local people should not be disregarded. The statement of the highly sophisticated event being not what people expect only lends itself again to the incredibly high published admission and sponsorship fees.
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3.1 Activities
You are free to determine the topic, range of activities and structure of the day. We suggest you include time for people to talk and chat about what's going on in the Joomla! world both globally and locally.
This is merely a suggestion for the activities of a chartered event, but these words lend strongly to my opinion, and I hope mention now that this should be considered a healthy discussion.
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3.2 Exhibition / paid workshops
During an Joomla!Day event sponsors may pay for exhibition space orclearly labelled presentation slots and with that help to reduce the entrance fee for the audience or expenses for the organization holding the event.
Special interest workshops can be organized and might have a separate fee. One idea is to create one day which includes special workshops or training and charge a higher fee for that day. The income of that day is then used to organize the community day and reduce the entrance fee for everybody or to finance refreshments.
While sponsorships are offered and rates have already been published, the sponsorships do not appear to reduce the attendance fees.
Conclusion: Either a new charter should be created for this particular event or the event should be modified to adhere to the charter to reduce damages to the local and global community members who are expecting OSM of all entities to at least follow their own charter.
Overall I feel that this event while boasting a rather large potential attendance, is actually a rather exclusive event rather than inclusive based on the above stated issues.
Thank you for taking the time to review
