[Board] Activity Update...

[Frank Warmerdam]

Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) wrote:
> Hello - I started to write an email update, but ended up pushing it out 
> as a series of blog posts, so more people will see it.
> 
> Please see the last 3 postings at:
> http://www.osgeo.org/tyler/

Tyler,

Thanks for the updates in your blog, they are great.  We really need
some way of making these more evident. Perhaps a box on the main page
with links to recent blog entries on osgeo.org?

> There are a few items in there that are worth discussing over the next 
> couple weeks - I'd love to hear your opinion, especially on the 
> fundraising items.

I was a bit surprised by "We've never had any real commitment to
revenue targets - how many donors, how much from grants, who is
responsible for doing it all,"

We do have revenue targets, theoretical numbers of each class of donor,
and how much from grants.  It is also the responsibility of the Fundraising
Committee to pursue this task.  I'm not sure what you mean by a "real
commitment".

What we lack is people interested in actually raising funds.  I ran out
of steam as Fundraising Chair last year and tried to resign but with
little success in getting a replacement.  Since getting the sponsorship
program passed I have done essentially nothing committee-wise though
I have pursued GDAL project sponsorships (also promoting the option of
OSGeo general sponsorships).

Clearly we either need to get some people interested in doing fundraising
or we need to radically revise our expected income potential.

PS. If we were to roll-up FunCom back into the board, how would
non-board members get involved?

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