After being invited a month ago and have already arranged the hotel and flight tickets, today was the moment I was uninvited. This in a way that I would never do. I would not have mind as much if I would have lived around the corner but I’m coming from The Netherlands. It isn’t that cheap to fly over and it takes some time. Also I would not have gone to WordCamp US if I wasn’t invited to the summit. Below is the email I got and you can make your mind around it on how bad it is.
Hello Marko,
I’ve been assisting with some of the organization for the Community Summit.
I noticed that when you applied for an invitation this year you marked that you were part of the community team, but as far as I can tell you are not a meetup or WordCamp organizer. Keep in mind that your involvement with WordCamp Belgrade this year does not qualify, as you are not a resident of Serbia and thus not eligible to be on the Belgrade organizing team.
I understand that this email is coming a lot later than is ideal, but unfortunately you’re not eligible to come to the community summit this year. There are many members of the community team that are heavily involved in organizing local meetups and WordCamps and we have very limited space. It’s important to the nature of the summit that slots are preserved for active team members. Turning them away and allowing you to attend is unfair to them. As a result, we’ve removed your name from the list of attendees.
When considering this decision, we factored in your public statements that you won’t be contributing to WordPress any longer. With limited space, it’s hard to justify your attendance over someone who’s excited to contribute for years to come.
I’m incredibly sorry that I’m only now contacting you. This was clearly an oversight in the process and we’re making sure it doesn’t happen again – to anyone – in the future.
Thank you again for your contributions to the project. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know or contact any of the community team leads.
Update: I have been reinvited to the summit. They have given me the option to join it or pay back the cost I already made. I decided that I will join the summit. I have things I want to discuss and see others people point on them. I do want to thank the community for standing behind me and the people who decided to reinvite me.