[OSGeo-Board] About Sponsorship for local OSGeo Chapters

[Tyler Mitchell]

FYI - here is the sponsorship summary page that fundraising committee  
put together:
https://www.osgeo.org/content/sponsorship/

It may answer some of the questions.

My further responses below...

>> The company representive has asked about the present status of  
>> sponsors
>> and requested to know why sponsor names (Autodesk?)are not
>> appearing on the OSGeo Web site.

The fundraising committee is responsible for preparing a sponsors web  
page.  There will be a few different ways that sponsors are  
highlighted - in booth space, on marketing materials, etc.

Fundraising and seeking sponsorships has only just begun, therefore  
many things haven't been completed yet.  It was also somewhat  
desirable to have more than one sponsor on our sponsor page before  
posting one.  I believe we are ready to do this now, since we have at  
least 2 foundation-level associate sponsors now - 1Spatial and  
LizardTech (to be announced publicly in January) - Autodesk as a  
Sustaining Sponsor and 3 GDAL/OGR project sponsors as well.

>> Apart from that their other basic
>> quaetions about the sponsorship for their budgeting purpose are  
>> follows;
>>
>> 1  Will OSGeo Japan Chapter call for Japan domestic sponsor  
>> separately
>> as a part of OSGeo.org sponsorship ?
>> 2  Is the local sponsorship scheme same as OSGeo.org sponsorship ?
>
> I guess so, unless the Japan Local Chapter decides to work out  
> another one
> (which could make sense if you need to take cultural differences into
> account).

It would help to keep the process simple if we can all work from the  
same plan.  What has been happening so far is that individuals or  
companies have been coordinating with me to clarify sponsorship  
benefits, write up an invoice, etc.  I can serve as a helper to those  
who are doing international solicitation for sponsors.  In some  
cases, I have been given a contact and asked to follow-up.  In other  
cases I have been simply asked to send an invoice, because someone  
else 'local' has paved the way already.  Either way, I think this is  
a good approach because it connects someone local back to the main  
organisation while also providing support/services to make the  
process easier.

>
>> 3  When OSGeo sponsor page will be available on the web site ?
>
> As soon as the first Sponsor is there (so "right now" as Autodesk  
> has been
> a sponsor for quite some time. Why is Adesk not there yet?  
> Possibley for
> never voiced political reasons to not give people the imression  
> that Adesk
> has taken over. Nonetheless we must do this asap, thanks for the  
> reminder
> Venka.). Could we forward this to WebCom and make sure that with  
> the new
> site we immediately have the sponsor page up and running? (Sorry  
> if  that
> has been schedules already and I am just too slow to notice).

I suggest leaving this with the Fundraising Committee.  I'll likely  
end up doing this anyway and will transfer it over to Web when ready.

>> 4  Will OSGeo sponsors be invited to next FOSS4G Conference ?
>
> There is a passage stating sponsors get a unique chance to appear as
> sponsor at the highest level. I do not think that sponsoring  
> inlcudes an
> invitation but from a certain level upwards this could make sense.

Every sponsor > associate level receives an invite to join the board  
and other speakers at a sponsors-only event following the  
conference.  Obviously, details need to be worked out, but this was  
discussed at some point within FundCom and it list as benefit in:

https://www.osgeo.org/content/sponsorship/


>> 5 Can the sponsor specify the purpose for which the sponsorship
>> fee can be used?
>
> Yes, then it would not be the "Foundation-" but the "Project  
> Sponsorship
> program".

I could see where some donors may be interested in giving $x - with  
half going to a project and half going to the foundation.  For  
example if someone wants to donate and say that they want part of  
their donation to go into education development - we could split it  
for them so half goes to Edu project and the remainder to foundation.

Tyler