[Board] Questions about "Local Chapter Sponsor"

[Frank Warmerdam]

Venkatesh Raghavan wrote:
  > Question1: What is "Sponsorship Selection" ? Could you tell me?
> 
> My Answer: "Sponsorship Selection" refers to OSGeo choosing
> who will be offcial sponsors for OSGeo's FOSS4G International
> Conferences (hope i have got that answer right)

Venka,

This is correct.  It might be worth pointing these folks at the following
page about how to be a sponsor of the conference.

   http://www.seatoskymeetings.com/site_foss4g07/sponsorship_exhibition.html

Preferential treatment for OSGeo sponsors in the process of sponsor
selection for the conference would only come into play if there were
more sponsors than sponsor slots.

> Other questions
> 
> Question2: "Local Chapter Sponsor" desires be invited all event of
> OSGeo both International and Local. What level of sponsorship
> will ensure that "Local Chapter Sponsor" will be invited as
> per their desire.
> My Answer: I am awaiting feed back from the board and Tyler.

We don't really have many events that we would invite sponsors to.

> Question 3: Can "Local Chapter Sponsor" be listed as "Official Local 
> Chapter Sponsor" (with logo) on the OSGeo website.
> My Answer: I am awaiting feed back from the board and Tyler.
 >
> I think that it is better to add a new category
> "Local Chapter Sponsors" in 
> http://www.osgeo.org/content/sponsorship/sponsorship.html
> based on the feedback to this mail and summary below
> and help clarify things to people who would like
> to sponsor local OSGeo chapter activities.

For project sponsors we do not list them on the main foundation
sponsorship page - instead they are listed on the project pages.
The rationale is that if they want "foundation level" profile they
should be a foundation level sponsor.  It would seem to me that a
similar approach would apply to local sponsors.  They should be
featured prominantly on the local chapter web site, but not on the
general foundation sponsor list.

I don't feel very strongly about this position, but in my experience
we face a challenge promoting foundation level sponsorship.  And if we
essentially give all the benefits of foundation level sponsorship to
local and project sponsors then there is little incentive for sponsors
to provide "no strings attached" funding to the foundation.  If most
of our sponsorship is tied to specific projects, or to local chapters,
then there are good things it can be used for, but we will not be able
to use it to accomplish cover our general legal, staffing and
infrastructure costs.

I hope this is helpful.

Best regards,
-- 
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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