[Board] Sponsorship funding and value for money

[Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)]

On 18-Dec-07, at 12:00 PM, Jo Walsh wrote:
> In de-prioritising some of those things, it makes sense to defocus on
> those tasks which can or are being carried out by "volunteer" labour
> (Such as website development and maintenance, editorial work on the
> journal) or by separate budgets (work on the marketing plan and  
> materials).

While still on my list of items to participate in and follow, many  
projects are doing increasingly well with volunteer labour.  We have  
more fresh blood managing Drupal, several new journal editors coming  
on board (with a planned reorg. in the new year).  Also, the  
marketing committee (which grew recently too) is managing their own  
funds, with Arnulf and Jeroen specifically handling the marketing  
plan and material development project.  I'd say that volunteerism has  
improved a lot over the past 3-4 months and has a bright future to  
continue improving.  In several ways my hand is still in the pot to  
help use or direct outcomes from some of these efforts, mostly  
through shared load with committees.

> Is there a standard
> access stats package running - through drupal or a standalone thing or
> even Google analytics?

We are currently running awstats, but there are some holes in the  
logs unfortunately:
http://www.osgeo.org/awstats/awstats.pl?config=osgeo

How you gauge the other journal metrics, I am not sure.  But when I  
see that over 100 writers have contributed content in only three  
volumes, it is successfully engaging many people in our communities  
and capturing information about projects, case studies, etc. that we  
never had before.  The interest in academic circles is especially  
strong and we use it as a way of engaging sponsors to share their  
OSGeo stories as well.

> There are so many people who can speak convincingly for the OSGeo
> organisation and whose attendance would mean a lot in terms of honour
> and credibility for a local chapter...

A lot of great stuff like this is happening already, if you look for  
it.  In most cases local groups are the ones inviting the speakers,  
not us trying to impose who we think is best.  So I've basically made  
myself available and in many cases simply came to present OSGeo when  
requested.  In the end, several local groups or companies are  
actively covering some travel expenses too, which was very encouraging.

>>>  likely enough I missed an email. Can you point me to an archive
> where the substance of these funding and strategy discussions with
> Autodesk was relayed to the Board, or to the Fundraising committee?

I've kept in regular touch with Ken about how much funding is  
available and what kind of future funding plans they have.  I've also  
presented him with our needs (e.g. budget) so he can communicate our  
needs accordingly.  You know it all already, they've committed funds  
for 2008 and plan to scale back funding after next year so they can  
share the funding load more with others.  Also, I worked with Ken,  
Gary and Laura to manage our bank accounts, etc. - all old news now,  
but was important to get a handle on.

I'll leave the others points for the board to discuss, but just  
wanted to clarify a few items.

Tyler