4 ms·

Is it a volunteer organized event, really? IIRC, there is a non-negligeable number of staff nowadays. And an NGO that likely pays salaries. Unfortunately, they

Is it a volunteer organized event, really? IIRC, there is a non-negligeable number of staff nowadays. And an NGO that likely pays salaries. Unfortunately, they do not report annual accounts to the National Bank [1] so I can't check. They do not seem to have financial statements online, which is a pity. [1] https://cri.nbb.be/bc9/web/catalog;jsessionid=EB073167100A6A72CDD39B28F3A682B7?execution=e1s1 https://cri.nbb.be/bc9/web/catalog;jsessionid=EB073167100A6A...

ghaff 7y ago
My understanding is that it is primarily volunteer although they have a small full-time staff (https://fosdem.org/2020/volunteer/ https://fosdem.org/2020/volunteer/) who may also be volunteers and, of course, many of the weekend volunteers are doing this as a part or quasi-part of their day job. In any case, it's certainly in a different category than a show that's basically entirely handled by paid staff and contracted events people.
- raphinou 7y ago
  No one in the organisation gets paid. Some work year-round on it, but it doesn't mean full-time. (I started fosdem, and keeping it a volunteer event was always a priority. I'm not active in the organisation these days, but got the confirmation this week-end that none of the team gets paid)
  - sam_lowry_ 7y ago
    Raphaël! Thanks for sharing. "Staff" hoodies are misleading, then. I think I've seen at least a dozen of those this year, and (wrongly) assumed that these were made for FOSDEM staff in the the common sense of the term. P.S. Thank you for starting such a successful endeavour.
koffiezet 7y ago
I know a few people in the main org (as in: listed on the website on the about page), and they are unpaid volunteers. I'd be surprised if any of them were paid, they all have daytime jobs...
kragniz 7y ago
"staff" just means they volunteer around the year. Volunteers help out during the weekend.
- sam_lowry_ 7y ago
  What a bad choice of name! I may not be the only one who was thinking of people in yellow "Staff" hoodies as employees/contractors. There is nothing inherently bad in getting paid, it's just that it's cooler when everyone knows that FOSDEM is a real volunteer-organized event.
  - wolco 7y ago
    They are core staff and the shirts show leadership. Getting paid or not they make the decisions or at least lead the group in implementing items previously decided on.
  - dijit 7y ago
    “Staff” just means “official representative of the organisation” in this context. I had not assumed anything regarding payment in that context. But googling around for definitions does lead to the conclusion that “staff” == “employed” and “employed” == “paid”. I guess you could use the second definition of staff to mean “close representative” although that definition seems to be from the army. (“A general and their staff”)

ghaff 7y ago

My understanding is that it is primarily volunteer although they have a small full-time staff (https://fosdem.org/2020/volunteer/ https://fosdem.org/2020/volunteer/) who may also be volunteers and, of course, many of the weekend volunteers are doing this as a part or quasi-part of their day job. In any case, it's certainly in a different category than a show that's basically entirely handled by paid staff and contracted events people.

raphinou 7y ago
No one in the organisation gets paid. Some work year-round on it, but it doesn't mean full-time. (I started fosdem, and keeping it a volunteer event was always a priority. I'm not active in the organisation these days, but got the confirmation this week-end that none of the team gets paid)
- sam_lowry_ 7y ago
  Raphaël! Thanks for sharing. "Staff" hoodies are misleading, then. I think I've seen at least a dozen of those this year, and (wrongly) assumed that these were made for FOSDEM staff in the the common sense of the term. P.S. Thank you for starting such a successful endeavour.

koffiezet 7y ago

I know a few people in the main org (as in: listed on the website on the about page), and they are unpaid volunteers. I'd be surprised if any of them were paid, they all have daytime jobs...

kragniz 7y ago

"staff" just means they volunteer around the year. Volunteers help out during the weekend.

sam_lowry_ 7y ago
What a bad choice of name! I may not be the only one who was thinking of people in yellow "Staff" hoodies as employees/contractors. There is nothing inherently bad in getting paid, it's just that it's cooler when everyone knows that FOSDEM is a real volunteer-organized event.
- wolco 7y ago
  They are core staff and the shirts show leadership. Getting paid or not they make the decisions or at least lead the group in implementing items previously decided on.
- dijit 7y ago
  “Staff” just means “official representative of the organisation” in this context. I had not assumed anything regarding payment in that context. But googling around for definitions does lead to the conclusion that “staff” == “employed” and “employed” == “paid”. I guess you could use the second definition of staff to mean “close representative” although that definition seems to be from the army. (“A general and their staff”)