[OSGeo-Board] About Sponsorship for local OSGeo Chapters

[Frank Warmerdam]

Venkatesh Raghavan wrote:
> Can I request Tyler or someone else to incorporate (mashup) the
> points raised by Frank into the summary of that I
> made before. Some of the text in brackets in my summary
> need to be answered too, I think. I will send the corrected
> summary about sponsorship solicited by local chapter to
> Mori and Noda after getting the new version.


Venka,

I'll leave it to Tyler to mash things up if he wants.

> 5)  Will OSGeo sponsors be invited to next FOSS4G Conference ?
>    Every sponsor > associate level receives an invite to join
>    the board and other speakers at a sponsors-only event following
>    the conference.  details need to be worked out See.
>    https://www.osgeo.org/content/sponsorship/
>    (My question. How do we differentiate between "Conference Sponsor"
>     for example people who pay money for the conference events like
>     FOSS4G2007? Do Associate level above sponsor not pay sponsorship
>     for FOSS4G Conference Event but are still considered as sponsors?
>     Invitation to FOSS4G with certain number of free registration
>     passes? Or discount for registration fee for participants from
>     sponsoring organization?)

I believe that only conference sponsors will be acknowledged as
sponsors on the various conference materials.  If foundation
sponsors wish to also sponsor the conference (which we hope will
be the case for many) then that is an additional payment.

> 6) 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". (*Question* What if the sponsor asks that
>    his contribution to be used by some Local Chapter only? Is
>    "Local Chapter Sponsorship" treated same as "Project
>    Sponsorship"?)

One area I think I neglected in the previous discussion was that
any organization can give money to OSGeo, and then they can
generally indicate how it should be used (as long as it is
still congruent with our mission).  However, if they want
the formal benefits of sponsorship then they are not able to
decide how the money is used.

So, for instance, M. Tiemann wished to provide money for
the OSGeo India local chapter to use for local promotional
efforts.  He was able to specify this without any problem.  But
he isn't asking to be acknowledged as a sponsor in the
"sponsorship program" sense.

>    I could see where some donors may be interested in giving
>    $x (or x Japanese Yen) - with half going to a project and half
>    going to the foundation (*Question* Does it have to be half?
>    OSGeo can charge 10-20% (whatever) for accepting, processing
>    etc. of sponsorship and give back remaining to the "Project"
>    or "Local Chapter" requested by the sponsor).

If they wished to give to the foundation and a project, they could
become sponsors for them seperately, following the normal procedures.

I do think we still need to talk about whether the foundation normally
wants to hold money on behalf of local chapters or whether that should
normally be arranged directly with the local chapter.  I will say,
that if we are holding money no behalf of local chapters this implies
some degree of due diligence to ensure the money is spent responsibly.

Overall, if an organization would like to provide money in a
"nonstandard" way I'm sure something can be worked out.

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org