[Board] Board update

[Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)]

Well into the new year now and we already see the fundraising is going
to be a big topic for 2010.  We had our meeting a couple weeks ago and I
think all who participated were encouraged on several fronts.  If you
haven't seen the brainstorming done in the minutes, have a peek here:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2010-01-14

I believe there is something of interest for each director there and
some ideas for fundraising that likely matches the strengths of each of
us too.  One good idea Arnulf had was for each of us to think of 2
potential sponsors and try to approach them this month.  If you have a
lead or need a hand with a message, etc. just let me know.

Already this week I'm working with a few others to approach a potential
sponsor and I hope to also do up a sponsorship invite letter that we can
use for kicking off a small email campaign.

Our 2009 financials are pretty much done and waiting for finance
committee and treasurer approval.  When we add in the positive income
from FOSS4G (40k+), and the repayment of the seed funding as well
(another 40k+) the picture is encouraging.  Also, it's time for our
annual Summer of Code billing - here comes another $10k making Google a
virtual 3rd tier sponsor for us.

I've been helping a bit on the systems upgrade, Alex Mandel is leading
it now and making good progress.  Aiming to have new infrastructure in
place in March.  Please keep this in mind as a value proposition for
potential funders - we are doing this to help keep access to our
services at a high level... partly for all those users out there.  If
you know a company that relies on having access to our projects, etc.
then it may be a good opportunity to give them a physical reason (new
servers!) to join in funding us.

The 2009 Annual Report is underway.  Only half the projects have
submitted any reports yet, so I'll be following up with them on that
shortly as well.  Gary Sherman has been helping me on this and having
even a little support has made this much easier.  Please consider
getting any reports that you have in as soon as possible so this effort
does not drag into the summer again.
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Annual_Report_2009

Likewise the next issue of the Journal is being wrapped up right now and
should have a few good articles.  It's the first production with using a
bit more of a shared management of the process (e.g. not just me) and
also including some peer review.


Upcoming events for me:
FEB
* Workshop at local university next week
* Alaska Surveying & Mapping Conference - major session, presenting with
Gary Sherman, running a booth and also hoping to be on a panel with big
proprietary guys.
APRIL
* Presentation and followup OSGeo meetings in Portland, tied to URISA
event.  Working with David Percy to run a mini OSGeo event.. interested?
* Then zippping to Tacoma for their WAURISA event and a breakout meeting
with municipal GIS managers from Seattle area.
JUNE
* OSGIS event in Nottingham, potential talks at other regional venues as
well.  At least 2 others from board will be there, good place to meet up
and talk strategy, or to put on a roundtable discussion, potential
funders meetings.

If you would like to track where I'm heading a bit more closely, you
should be able to see it through my Tripit module on Linkedin.com.  Link
up if we haven't already.

That's probably enough background for today, don't hesitate to ask for
more info!

Tyler