Hi,
While the offer looks generous and quite anybody could advertise sponsorship, I do think that the neutrality that was expressed as being expected from NCC staff in recent discussions would also extend to the NCC's Board. To that extent I think the Board maybe overreached a bit - nobody had asked for this well to be drilled.
As a former WG chair I strongly disagree. The NCC is not overreaching at all here, they are responding to requests from the community. I have asked Hans Petter for support in the past, and as the result of that the NCC gave me a refund of the meeting fee. That at least made it a little bit easier to attend the meeting. I am very happy to see better support for WG chairs that need it, on request.
But then, why focus on WG chairs? What about the program committee and what about the contributors and presenters?
More can be done in the future, but one step at a time. I am happy with the current step! Cheers, Sander