[Board] Funding for IslandWood sprint?

[Tim Schaub]

My ideal would be that we would have a conference (or more) that
generated enough revenue to put money toward development.  I'd be
happy if the foundation were mainly about that.  Conference generates
revenue.  Funds go do support the software projects.

My opinion is that the developers already "donate" a ton of time and
energy to the projects, and if they have to pay to attend a sprint
(where they contribute even more), it doesn't make sense to me that
their payment goes toward supporting the foundation.  This feels
completely backwards to me.

Tim

On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 2:49 PM, Seven (aka Arnulf) <seven at arnulf.us> wrote:
> Hello Board,
> this was a request to which the board should actually react. You are the
> board, so please feel obliged to react.
>
> :-)
>
> My personal opinion is that we should consider to do this kind of thing.
> Maybe even with a margin for OSGeo if successful, similar to the project
> sponsorship program. Eventually this might become a moderate source of
> income. OSGeo is the only place where you can access all the FOSS4G
> folks at once and I can imagine that there are potentially interested
> parties, especially larger public administrations and so on who could be
> interested in having us organize code sprints.
>
> With an organizer like Michael leading the event I have no doubt that it
> will be a great event.
>
>
> I put it on the agenda for Thursday:
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2011-09-01#Agenda
>
> The agenda is starting to fill up quickly, so if you have something
> important please stick it up at the top - or reorder items as you like.
> I will rearrange them as we go anyway, except somebody else feels like
> leading. :-)
>
>
> Not sure if this is really required - and please only feel slightly
> offended; this is a personal note to the board: We are not the
> administrators of the organization but the visionaries and supposed to
> give guidance and decide about the future development of OSGeo. In this
> position we need to actively invest some time and brains. In preparation
> for our f2f we really need to get up to speed now. We never managed to
> have more than one f2f per year (very much to my regrets) so this is
> really important.
>
> Best regards,
> Nag.
>
> On 08/24/2011 05:25 PM, Michael P. Gerlek wrote:
>> Dear Board (and lurkers):
>>
>> First, let me say I'm excited (and more than a little humbled) to be joining
>> the board and look forward to Denver where I'll get to meet you all...
>>
>> That said, I'd like to inquire about the possibility of having OSGeo
>> "underwrite" the cost of the proposed IslandWood code sprint (details here:
>> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/IslandWood_Code_Sprint_2011).  The cost of the
>> event, with a 30 person projected attendance, is US$24,000.  Registration is
>> $525 per person, which includes all lodging and meals.
>>
>> To date, I have raised almost $12K, with a good mix of both registrations
>> and sponsorships, which is enough to cover the needed deposit.  However,
>> I've not been able to collect more than that this far in advance of the
>> event.  I'm reasonably confident that in a few months people will start to
>> say "hey, of course I'm coming!" and will start sending in monies.   But not
>> personally confident enough that I can afford the risk of being personally
>> liable for $12K.
>>
>> At this point, every additional registration will reduce the net remaining
>> amount, so ~20 people would cover it.  Would OSGeo be willing to agree to
>> cover any shortage that occurs?  I don't know what OSGeo's finances look
>> like right now, and I don't know what the board's position on things like
>> this have been in the past, but it never hurts to ask.
>>
>> Thoughts? Comments? Discussions?
>>
>> -mpg
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
>
>
> --
> Exploring Space, Time and Mind
> http://arnulf.us
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-- 
Tim Schaub
OpenGeo http://opengeo.org/
Expert service straight from the developers.