<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Cameron<div><br></div><div>I have to rust to a meeting this morning and may not be back in time for your mid-day deadline.</div><div><br></div><div>So a very brief guess would be that our worst exposure would be:</div><div><ul class="MailOutline"><li> Of the order of $90-100k if we cancelled within the 6 month window AND we were obliged to return sponsor income because we had cancelled. </li><li>A more realistic figure of possible downside would be that we run the conference with low attendance of say 500-550 and some sponsorship and lose between $30k and $60k</li></ul><div><br></div><div>Note very rough guesses</div><div><br></div><div>Our early cash needs are as previously outlined going to be no more than $40k and will be recouped when we start to get sponsor income in.</div><div><br></div><div>I want to add that I think these are nightmare scenarios and that OSGeo should back both the NA event and Nottingham.</div><div><br></div><div>No comment from me on the reserving of profits for future activities</div><div><br></div><div>Steven</div><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><font color="#999999">_____________________</font><br><div class="moz-signature"><div class="moz-signature"><div class="moz-signature"><div class="moz-signature"><div class="moz-signature"><div class="moz-signature"><font color="#999999" face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font color="#999999"><b><br>Steven Feldman</b></font><br>_____________________<br>KnowWhere Consulting</font></div><div class="moz-signature"><font color="#999999" face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br>m: +44 (0) 7958 924 101</font><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br></font><font color="#999999" face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">w:</font><font color="#999999" face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"> <a href="http://www.knowwhereconsulting.co.uk/">knowwhere</a><br></font><font color="#999999" face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">t: </font><font color="#999999" face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><a href="http://twitter.com/stevenfeldman">@StevenFeldma</a></font><font color="#999999" face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><a href="http://twitter.com/stevenfeldman">n</a></font></div><div class="moz-signature"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; ">skype: stevenfeldman2638</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></span></span>
</div>
<br><div><div>On 21 Aug 2012, at 21:29, Cameron Shorter wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Thank you Steven,<br>
So by your assessment, what is going to be OSGeo's maximum
exposure to the FOSS4G-Nottingham event. (That is adding how much
you will be owing and subtracting how much money you expect to
have at that point in time).<br>
<br>
(I do acknowledge that both FOSS4G-Nottingham and FOSS4G-NA have
excellent teams behind them. Please forgive me if I'm seeming
petty, but sometimes global events effect conferences. I was
FOSS4G chair when the Global Financial Crisis hit, and due to
lower attendance than expected, we were concerned that we might
loose OSGeo $60K. We hadn't considered these scenarios in
advanced.<br>
<br>
From what I'm hearing, FOSS4G-NA have a maximum exposure of $50K,
and OSGeo have $84K, leaving $34K for FOSS4G-Nottingham. (Timing
might be such that this won't be quite as bad).<br>
Steven, based upon this assessment, do you wish to state any
objections related to FOSS4G-NA?<br>
<br>
At this point, I'm thinking that we should be asking FOSS4G-NA to
try and adjust their cancel decision points reduce their exposure
to $40K (possibly more depending upon Stephen's feedback)?<br>
<br>
<br>
On 22/08/2012 2:45 AM, Steven Feldman wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:74DD9462-B1AD-4D57-BF8E-158D04B12CAB@gmail.com" type="cite">Cameron
<div><br>
</div>
<div>As time is of the essence with the Board's need to sign off
on the NA conference I am going to give some quick responses to
your questions without reference to some members of my LOC team
who are on vacation.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><b>Early funding requirements</b></div>
<div><b><br>
</b></div>
<div>I imagine that we will need some seed funding from OSGeo to
cover deposits and some early expenses prior to revenue starting
to come through from sponsors and registrations. At this stage I
cannot envisage this requirement exceeding 10% of our budgeted
costs i.e $40k</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><b>Maximum Exposure</b></div>
<div><b><br>
</b></div>
<div>Our main commitment is to the venue at Nottingham, we are
awaiting a draft contract from Nottingham Conferences however we
know the broad outline of their contracts from previous
experience of the venue. Our cost is largely based on a per
delegate rate so we have some flexibility but we will need to
commit to say 750 delegates with flexibility to increase (or
decrease) as needed. On this basis we would have a cost of $190k
approx with a 0% cancellation fee up to 6 months prior to the
event and 50% cancellation charge (only for the part we cancel)
in 4-6 months period and increasing thereafter.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Most of our other costs will not require irrevocable
commitments until nearer the date of the conference. So we have
a mid March date for pulling the whole event with minimal
exposure (we will inevitably have spent a little money to get to
that point). Thereafter the costs of cancellation will ramp up.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><b>Financial Timeline</b></div>
<div><b><br>
</b></div>
<div>We plan to launch our sponsor packages in September and would
hope to have passed our sponsor target by mid March</div>
<div>The calls for presentations, workshops and academic papers
will have gone out in January or early Feb so we should have
some indications of interest by mid March</div>
<div>Registrations are unlikely to take off until we can publish a
program and that is likely to be late April or early May so we
are going to go past the zero cancellation cost point without
that knowledge (but that has been the case for every conference
I have been involved in organising). </div>
<div>Assuming we are on target for sponsorship in mid March (and I
am confident that we will be based on early conversations) then
we know we can deliver a break even on an attendance of 600
delegates and that would seem to be very low based on past
events so I would use sponsorship as a major determinant of
go/no go in mid March</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><b>Volunteers and local chapter</b></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>In our proposal we indicated that we would like to share a
portion of the surplus in excess of $30k with the UK chapter, we
did not set a level for that and would be happy to discuss this
further with the board/conference team over the next few weeks.
We are expecting that many active members of the UK Chapter will
be volunteering in one way or another to support FOSS4G 2013 </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><b>Board representation</b></div>
<div><b><br>
</b></div>
<div>Peter Batty is already participating in some of our LOC
discussions as both a board representative and a past FOSS4G
chair</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I would only add that at this stage I am very confident of a
successful and profitable FOSS4G 2013 given the buzz and
entusiasm that we have already generated, we will need some
funds to cover early expenses but should not be a drain on OSGeo
reserves at the end.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I hope that is enough to help you reach your decisions on the
NA event, mail me back if you need anything more from us.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Cheers</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Steven<br>
<div>
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<div>
<div>On 21 Aug 2012, at 05:00, Cameron Shorter wrote:</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
<blockquote type="cite">
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">I'm moving this email thread
back to the conference list, and request that all
responses CC the conference list in order to keep the
history.<br>
<br>
There are long term discussion items to consider from
this email thread, and questions needing answers within
40 hours to meet FOSS4G-NA requirements of securing a
venue. I'll divide the issues accordingly, and request
that everyone focus on immediate questions first, and
park other questions for future discussion.<br>
<br>
Immediate question we are trying to answer is: Is OSGeo
able to financially guarantee both FOSS4G-NA and
FOSS4G-Nottingham, and is OSGeo willing to do so?<br>
<br>
In order to answer that question, we need to know who
much OSGeo is capable and prepared to loose, and how
much the 2 conferences could potentially loose.<br>
<br>
So questions to ask are:<br>
<br>
Daniel Morissette, as treasurer, can you please explain
how much money OSGeo has, what our current commitments
are, and as such what is the maximum amount we are in
the position to loose.<br>
<br>
Daniel, Can you also comment on what you think would be
a maximum exposure we would consider we acceptable. Eg:
I suggest that OSGeo should not be exposed more that 80%
of our total resources.<br>
<br>
Does the board need to consider saving extra funds to
support other regional events? I believe that
FOSS4G-Nottingham and FOSS4G-NA will be our biggest,
most lucrative, highest profile events this year, and as
such the OSGeo board is justified in offering them
special help, above other regional events.<br>
<br>
FOSS4G-NA (David Bitner) and FOSS4G-Nottingham (Stephen
Feldman):<br>
* Can you please describe what the maximum exposure will
be for your conference. (in $$).<br>
<br>
FOSS4G-NA and FOSS4G-Nottingham:<br>
* Can you please explain the decision points during
planning. These decision points will include:<br>
** Date<br>
** Event<br>
** What your maximum exposure will be at this point<br>
** What your criteria will be to decide to continue with
the conference, or cancel at that point.<br>
<br>
Board members:<br>
* Who will volunteer as FOSS4G-NA board representative?<br>
* Who will volunteer as FOSS4G-Nottingham board
representative?<br>
<br>
Andrew Ross, I understand that LocationTech wish to help
with FOSS4G conferences. Are you in a position to rally
unconditional support from LocationTech/Eclipse within
the next 40 hours. In particular, provide a financial
guarantee.<br>
<br>
From OSGeo commitments listed below:<br>
1. Provide an OSGeo representative to sit on the Local
Organizing Committee<br>
* OSGeo Board: Who will volunteer for this?<br>
<br>
2. Provide oversight over the budget through filling a
seat on the<br>
Conference Executive Committee<br>
* OSGeo Board Rep: Can you please confirm that you will
accept this role.<br>
* In particular, can you please confirm that you will
immediately raise the issue of cancelling the conference
(to the board) should the conference not meet financial
expectations of decision points above.<br>
<br>
3. Earmark a minimum of 50% of net conference profits
for future FOSS4G<br>
North America events (excluding the main FOSS4G
international event).<br>
* I think this is a valid request, but there are many
grey areas associated with the wide comment and I
believe it requires more discussion (at least weeks).
FOSS4G-NA, in the interests of getting this motion
approved, can we please remove this point from the
motion.<br>
<br>
4. File any required post event Federal and State income
tax returns.<br>
Daniel Morissette, As conference treasurer, can you
please confirm you accept to take on this role.<br>
<br>
-----------------------<br>
Items to discuss later:<br>
* 50% of profits to go back to FOSS4G-NA<br>
* Are there enough volunteers to go around?<br>
* Expectation that FOSS4G LOCs should take an active
part in the conference email list, and in particular
help build up FOSS4G processes, in a FOSS4G Cookbook or
similar.<br>
* A possible relationship with LocationTech/Eclipse<br>
* How to build a potential FOSS4G Cookbook and
revitalise the Conference email list, and what shape
this might take.<br>
<br>
On 21/08/2012 7:46 AM, Mark Lucas wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:94D6EBBA-394C-44A9-AECA-B3A9BCA9BB20@mac.com" type="cite">
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charset=ISO-8859-1">
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I have previously reviewed this material and I'm ready
to move forward with it.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Mark</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
<div>
<div>On Aug 20, 2012, at 5:40 PM, Daniel Morissette
<<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:dmorissette@mapgears.com">dmorissette@mapgears.com</a>>
wrote:</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
<blockquote type="cite">Hi Board and Conference
Committee,<br>
<br>
At the 2012-08-09 board meeting, it was decided
that "The board agrees in principle to work
towards financial support of the FOSS4GNA regional
event, with details to be sorted out before final
approval of the support". And then Peter and I
were appointed to help sort out the details with
the FOSS4G-NA LOC and come back with a proposal.<br>
<br>
The documents proposed by David in this email are
the result of this work (and my concerns have been
addressed). They were on the agenda of today's
board meeting but unfortunately we ran out of time
to fully discuss them, so it was decided to go
with offline review and have the board come up
with a decision within 48hrs. (72hrs may be more
realistic)<br>
<br>
FYI, a more complete discussion of the budget and
our actual financial liability in case of
cancellation is available in the following board
email: <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2012-July/009876.html">http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2012-July/009876.html</a><br>
<br>
I'd like to add that we didn't forget that FOSS4G
2013 (Nottingham) is also expecting the same level
of support, and that is still on the radar.<br>
<br>
The FOSS4G-NA LOC needs our response ASAP in order
to secure their venue, so your input in the next
day or so will be most welcome. Then the next step
will be to vote a motion of the board by email if
everything is okay.<br>
<br>
Daniel<br>
<br>
<br>
On 12-08-15 4:43 PM, David William Bitner wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite">Dear OSGeo Board (Welcome
new members!) and Conference Committee,<br>
<br>
Thank you very much for your support to date in
helping us get<br>
everything in place to be able to make financial
arrangements for the<br>
FOSS4G North America Event in 2013. With the
help of Peter and Daniel as<br>
indicated at the tail end of the last Board
meeting we have worked over<br>
the last week to really put some "meat on the
bones" of what all<br>
agreements must be in place for us to be able to
leverage OSGeo to help<br>
the Twin Cities Local Chapter by acting as the
financial backstop for<br>
this conference.<br>
<br>
I do apologize for the rushed nature of this
request, but I wanted to be<br>
able to present a full and accurate budget to
the Board along with this<br>
request which we could not do until we had a
full offer from our venue.<br>
And of course, getting the full offer from the
venue then comes with a<br>
limited time to sign that contract.<br>
<br>
Where we are at now. As attached here and
presented to the Board and<br>
Conference Committee previously, we have a
current offer for a venue<br>
that we have worked into our budget documents.
As detailed before, we<br>
have made sure to be very careful in controlling
for any liabilities.<br>
Our team has significant experience having
hosted the 2003 and 2005<br>
proto-FOSS4G events as well as experience
working on other conferences<br>
including the annual comparably sized Minnesota
GIS/LIS Conference.<br>
<br>
In order to get the ball rolling and to sign the
contract with our<br>
venue, we must put in place the agreements for
the fiscal management of<br>
this conference. As the Twin Cities Local
Chapter is not a legal entity,<br>
we have secured the local non-profit
organization SharedGeo to act as<br>
our fiscal agent for this conference and are
requesting that OSGeo<br>
establishes a service agreement on the behalf of
the local chapter with<br>
SharedGeo for the fiscal management of this
conference. OSGeo will<br>
retain the liability for the event as well as
any net profits from the<br>
event.<br>
<br>
Attached to this message along with the current
budget is a draft<br>
agreement to be made between SharedGeo and
OSGeo. Additionally,<br>
following this message is text to be considered
as an agreement between<br>
OSGeo and the Twin Cities Local Chapter to make
sure that all the right<br>
expectations are in place.<br>
<br>
We look to the Board to provide any feedback on
these documents (these<br>
are living documents right now, any changes are
still welcome) and to<br>
take the following three actions upon
satisfaction of the documents. If<br>
at all possible, we would hope that we will be
able to address any<br>
concerns there may be and get these agreements
together as soon as<br>
possible while making sure that we remain
diligent about getting<br>
everything right.<br>
<br>
1. Accept and sign agreement between OSGeo and
SharedGeo (attached)<br>
2. Pass a resolution describing the expected
relationship between OSGeo<br>
and the Twin Cities Local Chapter (below)<br>
3. Provide a Board representative to help
support this event<br>
<br>
We thank you for your support to date and will
try to answer any<br>
questions that you may have.<br>
<br>
David Bitner<br>
FOSS4G North America 2013 Conference Chair<br>
<br>
---------------------- Agreement between OSGeo
and Twin Cities Local<br>
Chapter ----------------------------------------<br>
<br>
With reference to Board Resolution accepting the
Services Agreement<br>
between OSGeo and SharedGeo, the OSGeo Board
establishes a relationship<br>
with the OSGeo Twin Cities Local Chapter to
create the Local Organizing<br>
Committee for the planning and running of the
Free and Open Source<br>
Software for Geospatial North America Conference
(FOSS4G NA) 2013<br>
Conference to be held in Minneapolis, MN May
22-24 2013.<br>
<br>
As part of this relationship, the Twin Cities
Local Chapter agrees to:<br>
<br>
1. Establish a Local Organizing Committee (LOC).
This committee shall<br>
fulfill all roles within the Services
Agreement assigned to "The<br>
Committee". Specifically this encompasses all
activities in the<br>
Services Agreement Section II.A other than
"filing of any required<br>
post event Federal and State income tax
returns".<br>
2. Establish a Conference Chair.<br>
3. Establish a Program Committee that responds
to the Chair and the LOC<br>
and tries to represent the broader North
American OSGeo interests.<br>
4. Establish an Executive Committee made up of
the Conference Chair,<br>
the Conference Venue Chair, a representative
from SharedGeo, and a<br>
representative from the OSGeo Board of
Directors. No expenditures<br>
outside of the budget or changes to the
budget are to be made<br>
without full consensus by this Executive
Committee<br>
5. Communicate all major developments with
regards to the conference<br>
with the OSGeo Conference Committee and OSGeo
Board of Directors.<br>
<br>
The OSGeo Board agrees to:<br>
<br>
1. Provide an OSGeo representative to sit on the
Local Organizing Committee<br>
2. Provide oversight over the budget through
filling a seat on the<br>
Conference Executive Committee<br>
3. Earmark a minimum of 50% of net conference
profits for future FOSS4G<br>
North America events (excluding the main
FOSS4G international event).<br>
4. File any required post event Federal and
State income tax returns.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
Board mailing list<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:Board@lists.osgeo.org">Board@lists.osgeo.org</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board">http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board</a><br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
-- <br>
Daniel Morissette<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.mapgears.com/">http://www.mapgears.com/</a><br>
Provider of Professional MapServer Support since
2000<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<span><FOSS4G 2013 Draft Budget - Budget
%28Marriott Option%29 (2).pdf></span><span><2012_0809_SharedGeo_FOSS4GNA_Services_Agreement_DRAFT_sds.doc></span>_______________________________________________<br>
Board mailing list<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:Board@lists.osgeo.org">Board@lists.osgeo.org</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board">http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board</a><br>
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Board mailing list
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Board@lists.osgeo.org">Board@lists.osgeo.org</a>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board">http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board</a>
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<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Solutions Manager
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.lisasoft.com/">http://www.lisasoft.com</a>
</pre>
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<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Solutions Manager
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.lisasoft.com/">http://www.lisasoft.com</a>
</pre>
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