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<p>+1 from me that future global FOSS4G RFP documents require
organising committees publish full accounts (at a similar level of
detail to the budget submitted with the RfP) within x months of
the event finishing.</p>
<p>Such information should also be provided by large regional FOSS4G
events (such as FOSS4G-NA), and strongly encouraged (but not
mandated) from smaller regional and local events. (The smaller
events often don't have as much process and capacity.)<br>
</p>
<p>Such information should also be linked from our FOSS4G Cookbook
at: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_Handbook#Budget">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_Handbook#Budget</a><br>
</p>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 14/6/18 9:09 pm, Steven Feldman
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:DD4B26FC-C0EE-44CB-A0DF-DFBCA2FC076D@gmail.com">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
It has been the "norm” but not a requirement that LOCs publish
their accounts following a FOSS4G. In the case of a global event
where OSGeo has a funding agreement or guarantee with the LOC in
return for a share of the surplus (if any) then an "open book"
approach is implicit in that agreement.
<div class="">
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">I would not expect preparing a schedule of income
and expenditure for a conference to be a lot of effort. The
organising team or their PCO must maintain some schedules to
record income and expenditure. </div>
</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">I just had a quick look at the RfP doc and it does
not explicitly state that full accounts (at a similar level of
detail to the budget submitted with the RfP) should be published
within x months of the event finishing. I suggest we add that
requirement to the RfP doc for 2020.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Here are the accounts for FOSS4G 2013 which we
published in December 2013 <a
href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YdFNuBNaJK2XeA-bs1vU24VA1Qv9HpN8rLs30D9_0zg/edit#gid=1040179171"
class="" moz-do-not-send="true">https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YdFNuBNaJK2XeA-bs1vU24VA1Qv9HpN8rLs30D9_0zg/edit#gid=1040179171</a></div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">
<div class="">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse:
separate; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position:
normal; line-height: normal; border-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none;">______<br
class="">
Steven<br class="">
<br class="">
</span>
</div>
<div><br class="">
<blockquote type="cite" class="">
<div class="">On 14 Jun 2018, at 04:44, Cameron Shorter <<a
href="mailto:cameron.shorter@gmail.com" class=""
moz-do-not-send="true">cameron.shorter@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
<div class="">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=utf-8" class="">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class="">
<p class="">Sara,</p>
<p class="">I'd suggest it might be helpful to explain
why you are requesting people open the books.
Providing a worthy motivation will likely help inspire
a volunteer to help you.<br class="">
</p>
<p class="">There is typically quite a bit of volunteer
effort required to pull together past data into a
usable format. Quite often it requires data to be
de-personalised for public consumption. Maybe you can
say something along the lines of "if you release the
metrics, then I will be able to add value to the osgeo
community to help ..."<br class="">
</p>
<br class="">
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 14/6/18 8:20 am, michael
terner wrote:<br class="">
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAFk2e0KFQnQ=Q9_3hEWfL43fJ1xSoW=PdL4BCiADJAB9NAK5Ew@mail.gmail.com"
class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Sara:</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">I fully
support the notion of "open books" and the Boston
Team has endeavored to do that. Indeed, when
asking volunteers to do so much in this ecosystem
it is important to have openness around the
finances.</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br class="">
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">This tweet
from Matthew Hanson had a picture of the "raw"
(and rounded) Boston numbers that I presented in a
talk at FOSS4GNA in STL:</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">
<div class="gmail_default"
style="text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><span
style="color:rgb(20,23,26);font-family:"Segoe
UI",Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;background-color:rgb(230,236,240);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline"
class=""><a
href="https://twitter.com/GeoSkeptic/status/996147340854652928"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="">https://twitter.com/GeoSkeptic/status/996147340854652928</a></span><span
class=""> </span><br class="" clear="all">
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br
class="">
</div>
There's one other slide in that deck that showed
the net results (i.e., surplus) and I would be
happy to share the entire deck with this list if
useful. Just ask. (And, we have lots of other more
granular data if there are other, specific
questions [e.g., speaker fees; # of people who
were early bird; etc.]).</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br class="">
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">That said,
the numbers by themselves don't tell the entire
story as there is a whole lot of context that
matters greatly. Stuff like:</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="">
<ul style="" class="">
<li style="" class=""><font class=""
face="tahoma, sans-serif">Organizers do not
know how the numbers will fully add up until
a good bit after the conference. Indeed,
there are both trailing expenses to pay, and
revenue to collect (some of which are
dependent on the actual attendance you
achieve). And, some accounting/spreadsheet
work to do by already tired volunteers.</font></li>
<li style="" class=""><font class=""
face="tahoma, sans-serif">Conference
registrations are slow to pour in. So while
Boston ultimately harvested a sizable
surplus, we did not know until <i class="">2
weeks </i>before the conference that we
had achieved our break-even number. If we
knew what our final attendance would be in
advance we would have surely lowered our
prices and/or better funded the travel grant
program. But we, nor any other organizer,
has that luxury. We are pleased that some of
our surplus is going to support the Dar es
Salaam conference through OSGeo <i class="">paying</i> for
sponsorship for that event.</font></li>
<li style="" class=""><font class=""
face="tahoma, sans-serif">Decisions that
organizers make greatly impact the finances.
Things ranging from providing day care, to
giving all speakers a free pass, to the
location of the host city, greatly impact
costs/revenues while serving other important
objectives. </font></li>
</ul>
<div class=""><font class="" face="tahoma,
sans-serif">Indeed, it is an imperfect science
and the Boston team was petrified by our
finances up until that "break even" moment 2
weeks before the conference started. But it is
also the imperfectness of this science that
makes "opening the books" so important as all
future conferences can learn from both past
triumphs and mistakes. I would never look
askance at a set of numbers that told a sadder
story than Boston's (unless there was abject
corruption, or something like that). Running a
conference is hard and in all of the FOSS4G
and FOSS4GNA conferences I've volunteered on
(which now numbers 5, and includes STL) I have
never doubted than anyone acted in a way other
than to deliver the best possible conference
at the lowest possible cost. I also don't
expect that everyone would make the same
choices that we did in Boston. Indeed, the
Chair and his/her LOC make the choices they
feel will lead to the best/most successful
conference. Second guessing is a natural
impulse, but it easier to do than running the
conference. And, from my vantage, open books
are important as they serve to help explain
the choices that were made, and the financial
impact of those choices.</font></div>
<div class=""><font class="" face="tahoma,
sans-serif"><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class=""><font class="" face="tahoma,
sans-serif">Sincerely,</font></div>
<div class=""><font class="" face="tahoma,
sans-serif"><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class=""><span
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif" class="">MT</span><br
class="">
</div>
<br class="">
</div>
</div>
<br class="">
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="">On Wed, Jun 13, 2018 at 1:18
PM Sara <<a href="mailto:sara@sarasafavi.com"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="">sara@sarasafavi.com</a>>
wrote:<br class="">
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div class="">Hi folks,</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Some of you may be aware that for
the past ~5 weeks, I have periodically renewed
a public request [0] for FOSS4G-NA 2018's
financial records. </div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Yesterday, Marc Vloemans, speaking
on behalf of LocationTech, said that I was
"misrepresenting" this issue [1]. That's
certainly not my intent, so I'd like to
clarify the basis for my ongoing request in
longform, and renew said request in this
forum.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">- On May 4, 2018, a LocationTech
representative stated publicly that
FOSS4G-NA's "financials are open, have always
been" [2]</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">- Later the same day, the same
representative said that they were "working on
posting all our materials to the wiki
(...) Expect those late this week" [3]</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">- Those statements now appear to
be contradicted by the recent comment [1] that
"there is no obligation" of LocationTech to
share FOSS4G-NA financials</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">My ongoing requests have thus far
been an attempt to continue the conversation
that originally took place on twitter on May
4th. As Marc said last night that he does not
"communicate with people via twitter" [1], I'm
more than happy to continue the public
conversation with him or any relevant
representative(s) here. </div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">[0a] <a
href="https://twitter.com/sarasomewhere/status/1006304174332661760"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="">https://twitter.com/sarasomewhere/status/1006304174332661760</a></div>
<div class="">[0b] <a
href="https://twitter.com/sarasomewhere/status/1001543441053114368"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="">https://twitter.com/sarasomewhere/status/1001543441053114368</a></div>
<div class="">[0c] <a
href="https://twitter.com/sarasomewhere/status/994930635096641536"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="">https://twitter.com/sarasomewhere/status/994930635096641536</a></div>
<div class="">
<div class="">[1] <a
href="https://i.imgur.com/NlbXb4t.png"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="">https://i.imgur.com/NlbXb4t.png</a></div>
<div class="">[2] <a
href="https://twitter.com/TheaClay/status/992394814749577217"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="">https://twitter.com/TheaClay/status/992394814749577217</a></div>
<div class="">[3] <a
href="https://twitter.com/TheaClay/status/993584128279957504"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="">https://twitter.com/TheaClay/status/993584128279957504</a></div>
</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Regards,</div>
<div class="">Sara Safavi</div>
</div>
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<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
-- <br class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"
data-smartmail="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div class=""><font class="" face="tahoma,
sans-serif">Michael Terner</font></div>
<div class=""><a
href="mailto:ternergeo@gmail.com"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class=""><font class="" face="tahoma,
sans-serif">ternergeo@gmail.com</font></a></div>
<div class=""><font class="" face="tahoma,
sans-serif">(M) 978-631-6602</font></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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<br class="">
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier
Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
M +61 (0) 419 142 254</pre>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier
Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
M +61 (0) 419 142 254</pre>
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