[OSGeo-Board] ED Priorities and expenses

[Frank Warmerdam]

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.)

Tyler,

These seem quite reasonable to me.

> 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?

I think there should be a defined quarterly travel budget, and that you
should have the liberty to make decisions about where you go, and how
you spend it.  I would expect you to keep good records of how it is
spent and if we (the board) post-facto disagree we might need to put in
place more detailed guidelines.

> 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.

I think it is entirely appropriate for you to attend.

> 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.

Fair assumptions.

> 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.

I'd think that if you need a new computer at some point, that this would
be a fair expense.

> 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.

I'm a bit fuzzy on this area.  Generally speaking I think you should have
an administrative budget that you can charge against as needed for office
supplies.  I'm less certain about fixed costs you would have already
(utilities, office space).  Coming at this from a contractor point of view,
I consider those things as personal overhead bundled into my overall rate.
But I'm not sure that is an appropriate model for you as an employee.

I'd like to see a proposed travel and admin budget proposal, perhaps produced
by you and the Treasurer for the board, that includes some general guidelines
on what is reasonably chargable.  I certainly don't want you to have to
wait on approval for anything but quite large expenses, and hopefully the
budget would come with proposed spending guidelines.

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