[OSGeo-Board] ED Priorities and expenses

[Mark Lucas]

This sounds very reasonable to me.  We need to manage within our  
existing resources and kick off efforts to secure additional  
fundraising allowing us to expand what we can do.  We need to allow  
Tyler to manage his own activities, travel, and priorities within the  
top level guidelines and resources that we have.  The board is active  
and not shy about questioning all of OSGeo activities so I expect  
that any significant course corrections or priority revisions will be  
raised appropriately.  The office expenses seem appropriate for where  
we are today.  I'm planning on working towards growing our funding to  
give us more flexibility on compensation in the future.

I want to be one of the first in line to get Tyler's help in the area  
that I can contribute the most - getting us into US government  
systems and programs.  To that end Dave McIllhagga and I have been  
discussing an OSGeo day/conference in Washington DC after the first  
of the year, probably in the February time frame.  I already have a  
number of programs, agencies, and decision makers that have verbally  
agreed to take part in such an event.  I'll summarize some of the  
parameters for that in a separate email and discussion.

Finally, I think that supporting the Autodesk conference would be a  
top priority.  Autodesk has been our benefactor and they have gone  
out of their way to support us in a truly open source fashion.   
Whatever we can do to communicate the benefits  and our projects to  
Auto and their users should be a fairly high priority for us.  We  
want the Autodesk management, employees, and users to think that  
support for OSGeo was one of the best decisions they ever made.

Finally, I'm in Colorado Springs Co right now and a blizzard is  
coming in.  I'm supposed to be flying back tomorrow morning if they  
can dig us out of here so I will probably miss the board meeting.

Mark


On Oct 26, 2006, at 3:07 AM, Tyler Mitchell wrote:

> Hi all,
> Time to think through a few points about coordinating with you on  
> priorities, events and expenses.  Hopefully we can work through  
> this quickly and then go forward with some clear expectations.   
> This is what I hoped to cover on Friday, but I want to get the  
> discussion going sooner via email.
>
> PRIORITIES AND TASKS
> Here are the top priorities for me, as I see them, in order of  
> importance/urgency:
> 1) Infrastructure Migration
> 2) Fundraising initiatives and pursuing 501c3 status
> 3) Community Communications (web site content, newsletter, personal  
> communications, blog, summaries of activity, membership package, etc.)
> 4) Maintain VisCom involvement (conferences, promo writing, etc.)
>
> Anything else that is high on your list of expectations?
>
>
> TRAVEL / EVENTS
> In Lausanne we talked about a budget for travel to events and  
> meetings. We talked about using for:
> 1) Meeting with others who are key in fundraising, or for meeting  
> with potential sponsors or partners
> 2) Representing OSGeo at conferences and events
> 3) Meeting with local chapters, regional OSGeo-related groups,  
> other committee members or staff
>
> Are there other things like this that you expect me to be doing?
> To what degree would you like me to pass details by you for  
> approval vs. self-management of a budget?
> Should it be based on a certain spending threshold?  Is there a  
> budget I should plan against?
>
> The first event I want to bring to your attention is Autodesk  
> University, a conference held over 4 days at the end of November in  
> Las Vegas.  We will have a booth there, courtesy of Autodesk, but  
> only 4-5 people who can attend to it with relatively deep knowledge  
> of our various projects.  I would like to help us make a solid  
> presence there by helping manage the booth traffic.  There is also  
> a MapGuide User Meeting planned at the event, in which there is  
> time for introducing OSGeo to the group.  I am supposed to help  
> organise this portion and the event organisers are definitely  
> interested.  The conference will have about 5-6,000 people - I  
> don't think we should pass up such a large opportunity to promote  
> all of our projects.
>
> Should I plan to go?  Do you have other events or meeting in mind  
> for me?
>
>
> ONGOING OFFICE EXPENSES
>
> Please clarify what office-related expenses I should expect to have  
> covered by OSGeo.  Then I will do up a monthly estimated expense  
> summary.
>
> Some basics that I assume to be covered are:  broadband, phone and  
> cell, postal box, and basic supplies like paper, toner, etc. as  
> needed.
>
> Others I am not sure about:
> 1) I plan to use my current office computer and printer, they work  
> fine and I don't mind, but some employers help recover some of the  
> costs on a monthly basis.
> 2) I will be using my home office - we don't need to rent office  
> space, but there are proportional costs for utilities, maintenance  
> and insurance to consider.
>
> Can you confirm these for me?  What items should I plan for?
>
> That's all for now, thank you.
> Tyler
>
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Mark Lucas
Principal Scientist

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