Hey ya’ll, here’s a forum post to answer your questions
Our GivConnect Schedule
November 6th - Everyone arrives! November 7th -10th - Unconference and team gatherings November 11th - Team outing! November 12th - Day off to recover from so much socialization and stimulation November 13th - Devconnect week begins! Contributors are encouraged to co-work during the day and attend events that are relevant to their field of expertise. November 17th - 19th - EthGlobal hackathon! Everyone is encouraged to hack - it’s a fun experience, deep inside hacker culture, plus there’s some big prizes to win! The deadline to apply is November 1st. Apply for EthGlobal here. November 20th - We all say farewell
Our Accommodation Info
Venue Location: Classy Suites Taksim (Yep, you read it right, we are some classy people!) Website:https://www.classysuitetaksim.com/ 18 Address: İnönü, Elmadağ Cd. No: 44-50, 34381 Şişli/İstanbul, Türkiye
Flight Reimbursements
Full-time contributors who have passed their trial period are eligible for 80% reimbursement. Part-time contributors who have passed their trial period are eligible for 50% reimbursement.
*Part-time = must have worked at least 75 hours a month for the past 3 months.
*If you are limited or blocked by the money factor, we can offer you an interest free loan to purchase your flight. Contact Freshelle, and she’ll help you.
Other Flight and Transit Questions
Save your flight receipts, submit your expenses in Clockify (video guide here), and we’ll process reimbursements most likely at the beginning of December.
Plus 1s and family members are not eligible for flight reimbursement. They are solely responsible for paying their own flight.
Some great questions have already come up like, “Why doesn’t Giveth reimburse 100% of the flight cost?”
To answer: Flights are not 100% reimbursed to discourage people from buying the most expensive flights. We also found in the past, that when we paid for all of the flight cost, some people wouldn’t show up. Now, we have higher rates of people attending when they are responsible for paying a portion.
Great post and thanks for elaborating and thinking of everything.
One item I would like to discuss is maybe a transport stipend for airport to hotel, as again think this retreat is more of a “we want you to come and meet / work with your fellow contributors” and not the same as an elective event, like ETH Denver etc. Just a thought…
Oh great than that’s not much so I think the community is probably pretty cool with covering the $7 RT for the bus so no real concerns about high prices then, as I know the IST and SAW airports are 45 mins by car from Taksim.
But what about VISA reimbursement, assuming this one is a no-brainer and has to be covered, as we have a large portion of contributors needing them and they aren’t $7. @Griff you are good with this one right? right?
To clarify “Plus 1” means significant other, not a friend or someone else.
This is a WORK retreat (Yes, getting aggressive with the capitalization). We’ll capitalize on the rare IRL time we’ll have together to hack on all the Giveth Galaxy projects we are working on. Significant others and family members will be responsible for entertaining themselves during the day. (Someone correct me if I’m wrong, please).
OK this is interesting and gets into nuances that weren’t a big deal at first but now come under closer scrutiny as we add more people and their "significant other"s which starts to affect room allocations and thusly, budget.
We are assuming a lot of people will be working much of the time, either in our scheduled together time or in unscheduled time. This leaves “others” with free time to entertain themselves, yes.
Your other, regardless of their significance, is invited to join in on many activities with the group, most notably the funconferencing and connection shenanigans after breakfast each day!
And too, there will be several time blocks limited to contributor participation.
What I will call out is that it would be regrettable to spend time with your other that could be passed in connection with Giveth - Magic - Galaxy collaborators. That’s what it’s all about!!
From an accommodation reservation perspective:
Couples that require a room with a double bed - these are in limited supply, and I’ll have to add more suites to our block now as most rooms are single beds with double and triple occupancy.
Some people bringing a “plus one” asked for 2 single beds - I did not make assumptions about the nature of relationships and gave people the room and bed assignments based on feedback in the form in previous forum post (and again above).
If you have a “friend” joining you, we have some flexibility as every suite has a sofa bed (or 2), and only a few of these have been assigned to people who specifically said it was ok.
I don’t know if we should allow friends. That seems to open the door for more accommodation needs, and thus increases our budget. If friends are brought, that’s 14 nights x $32 = $448 per friend. That will add up quickly and doubles our budget. If this was an option, I would had invited by BFF hypothetically. I’m also concerned about distractions, this is a team retreat, focused on unconferencing, buidling, and hacking IMO.
Most everyone is locked in at this point as single traveler or couple with an edge case or 3.
I’d prefer not having to ask that the nature of a partner / relationship be defined at this point; can we set an accommodation cap with final deadline for confirmation?
We’re almost at 60 now with the new hires added, and need to finalize our room count by Monday 23rd (2 weeks prior to arrival).
Then anyone else can arrange with the hotel directly?
Sharing transparently, as we do love to make and share food - know your allergies, keep each other alive!
NAME:
ALLERGIES:
Griff
Seafood (avoid corn, wheat, rice)
Almond
dairy, pork (avoid fried foods)
Franco
Seafood
Surbhi
eggs, dairy products, wheat, rice
Jake
raw nuts
Brichis
avocados
Tosin
Seafood, dairy
Mayeli
peanuts, shrimp, watermelon
Lauren
gluten, dairy, pork, pineapple, eggplant
Pedro
is vegan
Guil
no meat
Suga
no meat
Ahmad
Eats Halal (no pig)
Maryam
Eats Halal (no pig)
Hossein
Eats Halal (no pig)
Ramin
Eats Halal (no pig)
Ayaz
Eats Halal (no pig)
PLEASE REPLY WITH UPDATES / EDITS as I’m sure we are missing some people’s needs - do your significant others eat the same as you or have allergies too, for example!
Agree, would rather have VISA cost’s covered than cover friends accommodation costs plus this is still a work trip as mentioned earlier, and reason I’ve decided not to bring my family.
Thanks @Danibelle for confirming in the call today that Visa fee costs are covered. Def really shows our drive to have everyone there together and being a true galaxy retreat
on how to add flight expenses in Clockify.
so no real concerns about high prices then, as I know the IST and SAW airports are 45 mins by car from Taksim.
