Thanks so much for your post. I appreciate that you care so much about Neil and Marta, and that you share constructive and real concerns. I understand that it feels sudden - We can't share this kind of news publicly until after the fact, so I don't think there's a way around that, but that doesn't mean it wasn't thought out, or considered carefully. We don't want to catch people off guard, but we can't let the community on this sort of thing ahead of time either. I hope that makes sense and is understandable.

I want to assure you that outsourcing DrupalCons is in NO WAY part of our future. I have a post going up to day to share some of the notes from our DrupalCon related board retreat last week. Outsourcing was not mentioned even once, by anyone in the room. I think you'll be pleased to know that we're looking to align even further with the directions you mention - community involvement, community fun, staying economical for participants.

Please feel free to continue the conversation, either in the comments or via email.