Recently svaksha blogged that she and Runa ( hi Runa :) are planning for Linux-Chix stickers. Runa apparently has put in quite a lot of efforts to make those stickers. Now they are looking for sponsors. So what is new here? Now this seems to me like a pattern. And this issue can be solved up to a certain extent by ourselves. I know for sure that Ananth N ( KillerX) and Shyam M (fox2mike ) have put in money from their own pockets to make a few Gentoo t-shirts for FOSS.IN conference. Now this hurts a bit if you didn't realise. I know from experience because I shelled out half my months pay at that time when I made the first batch of KDE-India t-shirts. Due to sales tax laws in Karnataka, they can't sell t-shirts or anything at the FOSS.IN conference venue or else it involves some paperwork, I guess.

Some solutions to the problem are ( at least according to me )
1. Find a sponsor ( often difficult to find one, not impossible )
2. Get your Project/Organisation to fund it ( sometimes difficult if money is coming in from outside India, tax reasons, remittance period, need for IBAN/SWIFT numbers, doable but comes with lots of headache/paperwork )

*Suggestion*

Now how about about pooling money? That is so easy and a self-reliant way of getting at least something done. It is often equivalent to asking for advance payment for the t-shirt or the sticker. And one doesn't really have to ask for much. Say, you need to make Debian t-shirts, folks its a 1 colour print. With INR 3000-4000, you can get custom print for 20-30 tees. For stickers, you can print 1000 stickers ( 2 x 2 inches , 4 colour ) for less INR 2000 ( it probably is lesser and much lesser for 1 colour images ). So 10 people can shell out INR 100-200 to get stickers done for Linux-Chix India. If 20 people had pooled in INR 500 each, making Gentoo t-shirts would have been easier that what it was now :). So think about it. Think of it as you bought a t-shirt for the nice KDE/GNOME/Gentoo/Debian/Fedora/ contributor as return gift for what he/she has given you :). And now if you agree send a mail to Vidya ( svaksha ), Runa, Ananth ( he still wants to print stickers and flyers ),Kartik, me ( I want to make stickers and flyers even :). If you don't agree, think about it again, do it anyway, I promise the brownie points are really worth it. :)

What would you get in return? Well - Karma++ firstly, a nice fuzzy feeling that you contributed in some way to a FOSS project. Best of all since you contributed for the t-shirt printing or stickers, you get 1 t-shirt/sticker for free or whatever the respective project people decide. So wanna play a game of pool or two? I am in for sure, join us :)

Btw, I have been lucky here, I didn't have look far for sponsor for t-shirts :). Actually I didn't have look anywhere at all. I was planning to ask one nice company where I know some marketing people to help me with this. But as providence had it, a GOD sent solution fell right on my lap(top) ;) before I has to ask anybody at all. Two very nice and considerate people - ( whom I have met/seen exactly 3 times in my life ), came forward voluntarily to sponsor KDE and KDE-India t-shirts. Who are they? Watch this space because "picture abhi baaki hai mere dost".... :)

Current Location: Panvel
Tags: foss, pool, stickers

(4 comments | Leave a comment)