Hi everyone,
The Google Summer of Code Mentor Summit is approaching!
When: 6-8 November, 2015
Where: Google Headquarters, Mountain View, California + Sheraton Sunnyvale and Aloft Sunnyvale hotels
Some brief background: The Google Summer of Code Mentor Summit is a two-day "unconference" that brings together mentors and org admins from each of the mentoring organizations that have participated in GSoC that year. Google pays for a two-night hotel stay, transportation costs, conference facilities, and food for the weekend, and the attendees make the agenda. We've consistently heard from mentors over the years that the summit was one of the best conferences of the year for them. The opportunity to meet face-to-face with other FOSS community members is a valuable experience, as is the time spent discussing ideas in a casual forum where everyone's voice can be heard.
Attendees will be staying at either the Sunnyvale Sheraton hotel or the Aloft Sunnyvale hotel this year.
Here's how to proceed with booking and attending:
1) Your organization will need to decide on either one or two delegates [1] to send to the event. If your organization was allocated 3 or fewer students this year you may send one delegate. If your organization was allocated 4 or more students this year you may send two delegates. Any people who want to attend above and beyond the two from your organization will need to list themselves on the Waiting List and wait for word from me about extra space as we get closer to the event.
2) Once your organization has decided on the delegate(s) it would like to send to this year's event, those individuals can feel free to book their hotel rooms at the Sunnyvale Sheraton now (this is where the evening social activities will be taking place). Please note that if the Sunnyvale Sheraton fills up you will need to make you can book at the Aloft Sunnyvale instead. If you really want to stay at the Sheraton, make sure to book early! We'll have shuttles running between the hotels and to campus for the whole weekend. NB: The hotel registration deadline is 2 October.
3) Please fill out the Mentor Summit Registration form as soon as you have confirmed your hotel room.
4) We include the reimbursement for travel to the mentor summit and the mentor stipends in one PO to your organization. Please see the payment info page for more detail on this. These POs will be issued to your org soon after it has made the payment request.
5) Flights should be purchased once you have a confirmed PO. All orgs pay for plane tickets ahead of time and then request reimbursement via invoice against the PO once you have receipts for the flights.
6) Please check out the website. It has lots of useful information for you about the event and what to expect.
7) In the unlikely event that your organization does not plan to attend the mentor summit at all, please fill out this form to let me know. Please only fill this out if you are not sending *any* delegates to the summit.
8) Please remember that any organization that misses two or more evaluation deadlines may not attend the summit. If you book travel and then get uninvited from the summit after the either the midterm or the final evaluations you will not be reimbursed for travel costs and your hotel stays will be cancelled. So don't miss those evaluations or you jeopardize missing the event!
[1] - A "delegate" is defined as either a mentor or org admin who participated in this year's GSoC program. We're sorry, but we can't accommodate other people from your organization who did not mentor or administer this year. Also, we will not accept any mentors who miss an evaluation deadline in this year's program. Please contact me if you have questions about if a person from your organization is on this list.
As always, please contact me directly with any questions or concerns you may have about any of these instructions.
Cheers,
Carol