Hello Board,
So Linux Fund who has volunteered some funds to help sponsor development on our text tool has not received the matching that they would need to pay for the full development cost. They would like to either fund it, or free up the funds by the end of their fiscal year, which is the end of this month.
The difference is $630. They would like the foundation to pay the difference.
I have very mixed feelings on this. While it seems like a very small amount to pay for a feature that is weak in Inkscape, I'm also concerned about the prescient that it sets as we certainly don't have the money to fund development regularly. Though, there are already "funded" developers working on Inkscape through GSoC even though there are major restrictions on the eligibility by having to be enrolled in school.
Lastly, there are some political implications. Linux Fund has volunteered to help us, turning this down probably would mean that they wouldn't make that offer again. I don't believe that to be a major downside, but also something that should be considered.
I'm proposing that we do a simple vote on it. How about votes due by Sunday evening? Depending on that I'll either write a nice e-mail to Linux Fund thanking them for their generosity or ask the Software Conservancy to send the money.
--Ted