Senator Lin -

I briefly talked to you earlier about getting Senate funding for this
event. Attached is my budget, and below a list of bullet points for
why this should be funded; please let me know if you're willing to
sponsor it, & if there's anything else I need do. Please use the
figures under the "two-day" column.

Also, I would like to request the full amount. I realize this is
unlikely to happen on the first round, and am okay with that; I will
appeal as necessary (or can we skip that and just request a waiver on
the first round?). I will also be applying for funds via ASUC Academic
Community Fund and Community Building Fund. At this point it seems
unlikely that either the CogSci or Linguistics departments will
provide significant amounts of funding, but I'm pursuing that anyhow.

I am perfectly willing to make a cogent case (as laid out below, in
more detail if needed) before the senate why this should be funded.
The costs of an event are, obviously, rather above and beyond the
range of activity subsidized by a normal $200 'entry-level' cap (i.e.
basic bootstrapping gear, etc) - and, as far as I know, there is no
actual ASUC bylaw or constitutional provision to prevent greater
funding - just the decision of the senate (and yes, I checked).

The restrictions I did see: max 25% / $1000 waiver for ASUC fund
applying to food;
max allocation $1500 or 5% of current Contingency Fund - whichever is higher;
max $2500 / 7.5% per event
automatic $200 for 1st year groups - waivable per the above

In re. the last one - SLUgS -  Society of Linguistic Undergraduate
Students at UC-Berkeley - would I think be willing to co-sponsor this
event, and they have existed since 1997, so should not be subject to
any cap. It may be possible to apply twice for funding - once through
each group. I have CCed the president of SLUgS to this email.

And of course, there's the other point, which is that IIRC the
Contingency Fund is a bit flush with cash at the moment, which will
probably need to be remitted if not spent...

Lastly - I note that there is a "funding application" required, but I
don't see one on the website - could you email it to me or provide a
link?

Thanks,
 Sai
Language Creation Society


Reasons:

* there has been no serious conference about the art, craft, and study
of language creation in over a hundred years;
* language creation is an interesting and innovative field dealing
with linguistics, sociology, cognitive psychology, anthropology, and
art; worthy of more formal study; and rapidly growing in popularity
and esteem;
* there is great interest within the community of academics and
practitioners of language creation in having a conference on the
subject;
* UC Berkeley has a reputation as a location for innovative and
engaging research and academic events, and for strong leadership in
all areas, and the conference will add to the reputation of the
University in all these aspects, and increase its attractiveness to
potential students, scholars, and peers;
* the Constructing Languages DE-Cal is in its second year as the first
ever university-level class, anywhere in the world, specifically aimed
at teaching students how to create their own languages and all the
myriad implications, complications, and philosophical consequences
that go with such an undertaking, and this conference is an offspring
thereof;
* eight well-known speakers on the subject have already confirmed
their availability for the weekend of April 22-23, and another
half-dozen have confirmed that they are potential speakers;
* the existing proposals for panel and lecture topics are diverse in
perspective, application, and methods, and include for example a
sociological look at language creators, a comparison of several
competing theories of language syntax and their differing applications
and implications, a talk on how to directly apply principles and
cognitive structures learned from cognitive psychology;
* the conference will bring together very diverse subfields of
language creation - including those interested in auxiliary languages,
engineered languages, logical languages, artistic languages,
experimental languages, computer languages, and others;
* the conference will be made open to all interested people, both
local and remote, and attendees have already confirmed interest in
attending from as far as Missouri and New York;
* the conference will be recorded to video and posted online to
further increase its usefulness to encompass the entire set of
language creators worldwide;
* the conference is unlikely to occur at all if not sponsored by the
ASUC, in this semester, as the only person currently willing and able
to be the thrust of such an effort will be graduating in May, and
there has been as yet no serious efforts to hold a similar conference
anywhere else in the world, and for the reasons mentioned above this
would be a great loss of potential