<div dir="ltr">Hi,<div><br></div><div>I have been reading this conversation silently and for my point of view, if paying helps OsGeo, then subsctription fees are welcome.</div><div><br></div><div>But there is a big but: for students and people who are unemployed, subsctription fees can be very discouraging. It happened to me with IEEE and I still haven't returned to them after so many years. Once I couldn't pay the membership, it was like forcing me to go away. I know that OsGeo is more open and that even people who is not a member can participate actively on mailing lists and projects but... it helps if you feel that you are part of the community.</div>
<div><br></div><div>So, couldn't we add some kind of volunteer work to compensate the fee on some cases? For example: people that work on maintenance of the servers, or translate very hard or help on conferences, can they get a discounted or even free subscription?</div>
<div><br></div><div>This way, all OsGeo members will contribute to OsGeo (with fees or work) and people who are very active but cannot pay the fees will have also recognition.</div><div><br></div><div>Just a random thought.<br>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jun 24, 2014 at 2:17 PM, Mateusz Łoskot <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mateusz@loskot.net" target="_blank">mateusz@loskot.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="">On 24 June 2014 14:02, Jorge Gaspar Sanz Salinas <<a href="mailto:jsanz@osgeo.org">jsanz@osgeo.org</a>> wrote:<br>
> El 24/06/14 13:26, Mateusz Łoskot escribió:<br>
>>><br>
</div><div class="">>> Shortly, I see nothing wrong in expecting as an organisation<br>
>> that if an individual aims and agrees to be nominated for<br>
>> OSGeo Charter Member she/he also agrees to donate on yearly/monthly basis.<br>
>><br>
><br>
> Yes but I see that as different things, one is being nominated and<br>
> elected as member, and other being an active sponsor of the<br>
> organization.<br>
><br>
> They are complementary, some people want to be involved on<br>
> the organization donating time, others maybe just want to donate funds,<br>
> and finally some crazy people both :-)<br>
<br>
</div>So, you prefer that Charter Members and non-Charter Members<br>
is not differentiated (among other things) by paid membership.<br>
<div class=""><br>
> But when it comes on deciding who is on the board or any other important<br>
> issue, I prefer having a membership that has been in one way or the<br>
> other elected by the community, not one that has paid their annual fee.<br>
<br>
</div>AFAIU, nobody proposed to replace Charter Members election<br>
with membership fees, but to complement the former with the latter.<br>
<div class=""><br>
>>> Ha! Not exactly that, but maybe doing better outreach effort to show<br>
>>> where the money is used would help to a better understanding of the need<br>
>>> of funds.<br>
>>><br>
>>> Budgets are published and anyone willing to ask can reach them, but<br>
>>> maybe being more proactive on showing the need for money could help to<br>
>>> increase the perception that maintaining OSGeo is not free (as free beer).<br>
>><br>
>> Yes, but that is more a technical issue. So, it's the easiest one to<br>
>> solve, I think.<br>
><br>
> It's not important now but anyway I didn't explain well myself. I see it<br>
> as an organizational and marketing issue. As our treasurer, the task of<br>
> publicly remembering where the money comes and goes is probably one of<br>
> most ungrateful jobs anyone can have here, only for a tireless special one.<br>
<br>
</div>The books show where the money comes from and where it goes,<br>
so still technical issue, but yes it requires hard work to maintain.<br>
However, the marketing side...is a different issue that is much harder to<br>
work on than the former one, I think.<br>
<div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br>
Best regards,<br>
--<br>
Mateusz Łoskot, <a href="http://mateusz.loskot.net" target="_blank">http://mateusz.loskot.net</a><br>
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