DebConf/DebConf/TravelSponsorship
The travel, Accomodation and meals sponsorship is perhaps one of the most trickiest pathways to traverse as these three heads of expenses generate the bulk of expenses. In Previous years, Google used to pay an amount for GSOC Interns to meet/attend a conference where the company or organization was situated. For reasons unknown this practice has been stopped since 2018 onwards.
Usually Debconf opens its registration window about 3-4 months before the conference starts. The idea to open registration few months before is to get as many good many proposals for potential contributors and attendees. There is usually a deadline of about a month or a month and half for registration window to close from when it opens. Around the terms of closure of registrations, two teams are formed, one is the content team and the other is the bursaries team. The responsibilities of the two teams are different. The content team will rate the quality of talks depending upon the contributions the person has done, her(is) track record either in Debian or free software as a whole, initiative and various factors. If the content team has many great proposals, it just makes their job that much harder to do.
Apart from the Debconf Committee who have to study bids, ask for clarifications and take a call of which the DPL may or may not be a member and the DPL who has the unenvious job of justifying his decision for budget allocations one way or the other, the bursaries team shares similar dilemma when ranking who should get bursaries or not. Debian tries to have as much of a healthy environment as possible. This means having a ratio of unknown people/newbies who may or not know Debian and may or may not stick around, First time contributors and long-time contributors to Debian and rank them in order of importance to Debian's goals of promoting diversity and inclusiveness while retaining both the cultural and technical character that Debconf has come to be associated with.
It is somewhat of a thankless job as you do end up denying applications . The team is usually made of some long-time Debian contributors and the local team members. The benefit of having local team members is that they will treat each application on its own merit without obvious biases. Some biases will probably remain at a subconscious level but that's the characteristic of being human.
Ideally, an applicant for bursary (irrespective of his affiliation, talks registered or not) will be informed as to the state of bursary about couple of months before Debconf so formalities as getting a refundable ticket, Visa formalities are completed well within time to be able to travel to Debconf without issues.
Real life is somewhat messier. The analogy of the best laid plans of Mice and Men go awry' is apt here as people who may be selected first for Debian sponsors may find they are unable to travel due to some other commitments or any events occurring outside their control so other people who are down the order may become eligible.
One of the problems from a potential attendee while asking for bursary is how to quantify or estimate air ticket prices. One common thumb rule that most people use is to estimate 30-40% more of the ticket prices shown on the proposed route. Airlines use dynamic pricing a lot plus it also depends on the originating country it is the tourist season or not. Ticket pricing of airlines and what they constitute is an art and science in itself, so just sharing some guidelines.
Keep in mind, you have to pay up-front for the tickets and then get it reimbursed from Debconf organizers. If your ticket is lower than your estimate than you will be paid the ticket amounts. If your tickets higher than your estimate, the partial amount you may have to bear unless it has been shared before with specific teams/people and they have okay-ed the additional expenditure. Its rare but may be possible under specific circumstances.
