[Board] ED Update Dec07-Jan08

[Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)]

Hi all,
Here is a summary of some of the things I've been working on during  
the ~16 working days since the last report on Dec 11th.  This year I  
actually took some time off during Christmas! :)   I'm sending this  
out a few days before the next board so you have time to consider the  
points and ask questions in person if needed on Friday.

Sincerely,
Tyler

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FINANCES
I've started to work on year-end summaries of our first full  
financial year.  Balanced the books with our bank accounts, completed  
all deposits, finalised all expenses.  Will produce a set of reports  
for next Finance meeting, as well as use them to feed into 501c3  
requirements - including a list of all donors and amounts -  
information that mayl be interesting to the membership as well.
- I'm continuing to answer 501c3 questions with Dave Rankin and  
produce various reports.  It's slow going but we're making progress.

Sponsors and Donations
- We've received our Summer of Code funding from Google - most  
mentors opted to donate their payments to OSGeo, so we'll end up with  
$7,000 after we send out our one mentor payment that is due.
- INGRES has become a GDAL sponsor.
- I'm preparing to send out invoices to sponsors that are due to  
renew (LizardTech, 1Spatial).  Three GDAL sponsors are also expiring  
- what would you like to do with them Frank?  (ACT, Safe, Cadcorp)
- Continuing to work with INPE to get an announcement together re:  
their sponsorship.  We started working on it before FOSS4G but ran  
out of time.
- Working on a support letter for INGRES to get an Ontario grant for  
students/faculty to work on open source geospatial projects.
- I'm also trying to look at other ways to increase communication  
with sponsors (i.e. Journal articles, Annual Report comments,  
introducing them to other members, etc.) to help them engage OSGeo  
more directly.  This feeds into the need to build relationships and  
help show value to our sponsors.

GENERAL
- Reviewed and considered ED position priorities and how to improve  
communication with the board
- Took 5 days vacation and Canadian statutory holidays over Christmas/ 
New Years (plus 6 days during September = 11 days total vacation for  
2007)
- Answered other misc. questions re: OSGeo, projects, web site, etc.  
via email/IRC/IM.  And dealt with other day-to-day items like Payroll  
company dialogue, phone calls, mail, document management, etc.

EVENTS
- What events are any of you planning to be at in 2008?  What events  
do you see as important for me to attend on your behalf?  We haven't  
talk much about 2008 in the Marketing Committee yet, so any  
suggestions or guidance would be helpful.
- Michael Gerlek pointed out the opportunity to help with the GeoWeb  
2008 Conference organising committee held annually in Vancouver.  I'm  
debating whether it is valuable for me to help in some way on behalf  
of OSGeo.  Opinions?
- Answered various questions from Australia-New Zealand FOSS4G bid group
- Discussed FOSS4G bid and suggestions with Rafael in Brazil - there  
will not be a bid from the Brazil OSGeo group.
- Discussed presentation ideas with Jorge and others for the II  
Jornadas SIG Libre event, Spain, in March where I will present OSGeo  
concepts and get to know the gvSIG (and others) teams better.
- I have not been as actively focused on events over the past few  
months, but intend to be more involved over the next couple months as  
we line up summer plans and put a spending plan together for the  
Marketing Committee.  Supporting marketing and representing OSGeo at  
community and outreach events is one of my responsibilities.

PUBLICATIONS / COMMUNICATIONS
- Completed editing and published FOSS4G Conference proceedings.
- The French translation of previous volume of Journal is almost  
complete.
- Started lining up content for the 2007 Annual Report to report to  
members, include year end statements, get reports from committees,  
etc.  This will be a big job, but because we already have the tools,  
format and some editorial helpers through the Journal, it makes it  
not look so impossible.  I included a report from the board in the  
list of items and put Frank's name beside it, but if someone else  
wants to help I'm sure he won't refuse ;).  Let me know if you want  
to help with any other aspect of the Annual Report.
- All of the above feed into the priorities of increasing  
communication between projects, members, board and, in the case of  
FOSS4G, supporting our conference event.

SYSTEMS / WEB SITE
- Worked with SAC to address backup issues, prompted by the need to  
manage our backup quota volume to contain hosting costs.  Coordinated  
with hosting provider to align our plan with their service.
- Investigated various user account management concepts for the web  
site and presented some options to SAC for further integration with  
LDAP.  The intent was to improve user/member interaction by  
integrating more functions directly into the website.  Further  
security ideas are still being discussed.
- Various website improvements (SSL for logins, captcha on various  
forms, etc).
- Recovered the home page language translations that got moved during  
website update.
- This work all falls under the category of day-to-day operations and  
helping run our infrastructure.  More volunteers have become  
available here over the past couple months, so my involvement has  
been able to be scaled back.

As usual, if you have any questions or want more detail on a  
particular point, please just let me know.

Tyler