[Board] Re: F2F meeting

[Dave McIlhagga]

A quick thought from the sidelines.

If $$$ is the primary concern -- it's worth noting that in the case of  
most non-profits I've spoken with, fundraising is one of the most  
important tasks of the organization's Executive Director.  This is  
because fundraising is something that takes dedicated energy, and  
therefore difficult for volunteers to undertake.

If money is a key issue for the organization at the moment -- maybe  
the board should assign this a higher priority in Tyler's work tasks?

Dave



On 2009-11-06, at 9:41 AM, Arnulf Christl (OSGeo) wrote:

> Howard,
> thanks for making a clear statement to a constraint that we have.  
> But I am
> inclined to say that we should then remove that constraint instead  
> of not
> meeting. I also want to have my expenses paid for and I think this is
> something that OSGeo must be able to do in the future if it wants to
> continue to prosper and grow. Otherwise we can make it a requirement  
> that
> future Directors must be capable and willing to afford a meeting on  
> their
> own expense.
>
> I have started several attempts at getting together at least a list of
> potential sponsors and to then nudge some board members into actually
> contacting them and to report of their success but so far to no avail.
>
> Does anybody have a better suggestion at how to solve this problem? My
> guess is that nothing much will happen if we just sit around and wait.
> Another example: "Somebody" ought to get into contact with Autodesk  
> and
> make sure that they stay at the 50k level. They would be paying 150k  
> every
> year for their CollabNet environment if we would not have prepared a  
> cosy
> nest for them. Or did I miss something along the way? Its just a  
> deal and
> someone will have to dicker.
>
> It's just that I am not going to do it all on my own because I simply
> cannot, I am as busy as most of us. And probably I am not even very  
> good
> at it (too blunt, impatient, etc... :-)
>
> Best regards,
> Arnulf.
>
>
> On Fri, November 6, 2009 13:51, Howard Butler wrote:
>>
>
>> On Nov 5, 2009, at 7:09 PM, Arnulf Christl (OSGeo) wrote:
>>
>>
>>> I really mean to get all of us meet in one place
>>> for two days.
>>
>> I don't see how this is remotely possible given our budgetary
>> constraints.  There's no way I can afford footing a F2F board  
>> meeting out
>> of pocket right now, and OSGeo has never been in a position of  
>> being able
>> to support board member's travel to F2F meetings.
>>
>> We should see if we can procure reliable low-cost tele/video
>> conferencing before putting the squeeze on members to spend a day  
>> of travel
>> on each side of a two day F2F.  Our meeting situation (IRC + free  
>> skype)
>> is awful.
>>
>> Howard
>>
>>
>
>
> -- 
> Arnulf Christl
> President OSGeo
> http://www.osgeo.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> Board mailing list
> Board at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board