What a bad choice of name! I may not be the only one who was thinking of people in yellow "Staff" hoodies as employees/contractors.

There is nothing inherently bad in getting paid, it's just that it's cooler when everyone knows that FOSDEM is a real volunteer-organized event.

“Staff” just means “official representative of the organisation” in this context.

I had not assumed anything regarding payment in that context.

But googling around for definitions does lead to the conclusion that “staff” == “employed” and “employed” == “paid”.

I guess you could use the second definition of staff to mean “close representative” although that definition seems to be from the army. (“A general and their staff”)

They are core staff and the shirts show leadership. Getting paid or not they make the decisions or at least lead the group in implementing items previously decided on.