Every time I see your comments or posts the real regret is you're not on any of the chats. Comments just don't hit the same way as talking things out to get the information across.
This is a job that has to be done by someone with project management experience. Its not a paying job and it takes full-time hours. When Hive launched I had no intention of taking this on but things that must be done must be done. My personal feelings toward any of this are irrelevant, only Hive does. Just like when I have to sit there making cat memes for the Hive X account. Do I give two shits about cat memes? No. Will I make them for Hive? Yes.
We ran a lot of various events all over LATAM these last few years to find the more suitable locations. What we found is countries that are just now discovering crypto aren't suitable for Hive. The population is over-reliant on the government and lacks the self-education and self-sustainability required for Hive (this is also true for large parts of North America let's say). It also won't work in areas where the people have generational poverty, such as rural areas. This is why we had good luck in Venezuela so far. The population that uses Hive were the educated middle and upper-middle classes before the collapse or are the children of those people.
The activities that are funded are not people's personal activities that benefit them. This would be explicitly prohibited as that would mean its a personal business. No one can make any money out of VP. This is the point of confusion for most and I get a lot of asks for profit-driven projects that are immediately rejected. Every organizer is just the person who puts the event together and uses the funds sent to their wallet to pay the vendors. They are volunteers and receive nothing for the trouble they go through. The projects are also not owned by them. Let's say Slaven is ill and can't represent the rally car to a conference himself. Someone else will step in and do that. This is why the speakers and booth teams change as needed.
The people presenting are not selected based on how much HIVE they hold. They're selected based on merit or they're invited by the organizers. Arlette is commonly invited. These people don't get anything out of presenting except to have to take time off their regular jobs and be away from their families. You keep referring to people getting funding. This is the entire issue. They are not receiving anything beneficial. The conferences are not fun. They are extremely long work days for the volunteers and there is absolutely nothing anyone would personally consider remuneration that they receive. Its rare for any participant to have any time to themselves during any event or activity. This is also why we have to spread out volunteers.
Funding personal activities is limited to Hive dapps. In those cases, the onus to create a good speech or event falls on the dapp but half of it must be about Hive. This is to prevent dapps from using DHF funding (VP funding is the same as any DHF funding) to promote themselves while hiding what chain they're on. It's a safeguard. Those events, even if they're Plug-In Proposals, are held to the same standard as all VP events. They are very rare and are usually either thematic (like the WOO event coming up next year) or the dapps are part of larger conference spaces housed under the Hive banner.
I think we agree on a lot of points in general. The SWC is unique in that it was started solely as a Hive promotional activity - meaning it never existed in any form prior. It's been steadily moving towards autonomy which is what it needs to become a real entity. It's gathering sponsors and supporters outside of Hive for this reason and that support is coming back to Hive. The cost to Hive is already steadily reducing and its main cost is actually Hive merch.
The rally car is about 25k per race just based on the WRC requirements. What it costs depends on how many races it does. This past year it did three. This coming year no one knows the WRC schedule yet and without it its impossible to predict what race we'll run and what we'll sit out. The race selection depends on the race itself (if this type of car is sufficient for the terrain), its location (we're not going to fly the car to Chile), and the impact to Hive (can we couple it with a side-event, can we maximize its impact, how much can we get out of it).
The projects will naturally change over time. VP is not a reactionary initiative or no one would even trust it. Everything is based on lessons learned, opportunities, partners, metrics, and etc. The strategy changes every year. This is a lot of work for myself and for others. It's meant to be hard. Sure it would be convenient to take the easy way out and tell everyone who is vocal exactly what they want to hear but that would short-sighted. This is why VP is open for anyone to positively contribute and there's no shortage of things to do.