I am very involved in drupal usability through the Season of Usability and in the usability group. I will also be attending the formal usability testing of drupal at the University of Minnesota the week before DrupalCon. I have been a mentor for a number of GHOP tasks. I intend to take part in GHOP and UMN panel presentations and also give 1 or 2 presentations individually.
My recent heavy involvement in drupal and the community over the last few months has taken a toll on my income. I haven't been finding and doing the same amount of billable work as usual, and now my bank balance is breaking.
I live in Christchurch, New Zealand, 14,937.40 km (9,281.67 miles) from The Boston Convention center -- so flights are expensive. CivicActions wants me to be there and are helping me out both financially and in other ways. However the budget I have from CivicActions isn't quite enough to pay for airfares let alone accommodation, DrupalCon Registration, meals etc. Then there are the bills at home that don't stop just because I'm away for 2 weeks.
Funds will help improve usability in Drupal by allowing me to dedicate more time to various usability projects.
If you want to help but can't help financially, I'm looking for something fun and affordable to do the weekend before DrupalCon and would love to see NYC or sights in New England.
Thank you for assisting in anyway you can! :)