[Board] Mid-summer financial review

[Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)]

We've got a pretty nice sponsorship package ready to ship too.  I  
only have to write up a letter - and can send them out.  So if anyone  
any leads, ideas or messages they'd like me to follow up on, please  
let me know if it might help.

Tyler

On 1-Jun-09, at 5:57 PM, Dave McIlhagga wrote:

> Re. the off-the-wall idea -- I'm not so sure its that crazy. If  
> OSGeo were to align with anyone though -- I'd suggest another open  
> source foundation would be a better fit ... seems to me there is  
> much more community overlap with the IT open source universe then  
> the traditional GIS community.
>
> On the original issue re. the financial situation -- I still wonder  
> if we're doing enough on the fundraising side of the equation. It  
> might be worth a mini-campaign to at least inquire from some of the  
> obvious candidates to understand what would make membership  
> attractive to them.
>
> Dave
>
>
>
>
> On 1-Jun-09, at 12:40 PM, Paul Ramsey wrote:
>
>> At some point a budget-to-actual cash flow projection would be
>> helpful. As you note, our "new revenue" assumptions appear to be
>> disappearing (though it's always hard to predict). If we have a good
>> prospect of $85K ongoing, we are not in completely dire straights. It
>> remains unlikely that FOSS4G2009 will in fact lose the max, but it
>> looks increasingly likely that they'll manage a concerted run at it
>> (25? 35?). That puts us closer to an actual cash crisis, as we wait
>> the 12 months for Barcelona to re-fill the coffers.
>>
>> (Speaking of which, early indications are that everyone and their dog
>> is going to Barcelona, and we're still 16 months out. We should  
>> ensure
>> the LOC manages us to a hefty profit by setting their break-even  
>> point
>> at some low figure like 550 attendees.)
>>
>> If you want an off-the-wall idea for how to maintain many of the more
>> demanding jobs of the Foundation while reducing expenses, freeing up
>> time, aligning with a core mission and even potentially increasing
>> revenues, I have one -- explore an organizational partnership with
>> GITA. They already do non-profit accounting, they can do conference
>> organizing in house, and their mission (education) is aligned to one
>> of the core things OSGeo should be doing for the overall community
>> (education about open source).
>>
>> Yours,
>>
>> Paul
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 6:25 AM, Jo Walsh <jo at frot.org> wrote:
>>> dear all,
>>>
>>> Frank has talked on the finance list about his desire to
>>> hold a mid-summer financial review for OSGeo.
>>>
>>> This is a summary of the situation as I see it:
>>>
>>> While Autodesk remain our main, sustaining sponsor,
>>> they are no longer OSGeo's sugar daddy.
>>> The financial crisis has hit sponsorship budgets,
>>> and our good hopes of two more 30K+ sponsors
>>> are not materialising. So far we have 85K coming
>>> for the year.
>>>
>>> Due to decrease in travel and training budgets
>>> we also face a possible loss on 2009's FOSS4G.
>>> The worst case scenario is a 50K loss, though we
>>> have funds to cover this and to seed 2010's event
>>> which hopefully will be profitable again.
>>> We also face the expense of proper tax preparation.
>>>
>>> In the meantime the prospect is that we cannot
>>> afford to sustain a full-time staffer from late this year.
>>> We have to figure out what to do about this,
>>> as much for Tyler's peace of mind as OSGeo's plans.
>>>
>>> FOSS4G is quite late in the year and the prospect
>>> of an F2F board meeting has been raised. Perhaps
>>> it can be done with 2 groups in NA and EU with a
>>> conference line in between. I don't really plan to
>>> re-stand for the board this year but i want to make sure
>>> that action is set up or i won't be meeting my current
>>> responsibility.
>>>
>>> cheers,
>>>
>>>
>>> jo
>>> --
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>>>
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