[Board] next board meeting & project sponsorship

[Frank Warmerdam]

On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 8:32 PM, Tim Schaub <tschaub at opengeo.org> wrote:
> To that agenda, I added an item on project sponsorship & donations.  The one
> proposal there is about adding a "Bronze" level at $1000 USD.

Tim,

I'm sorry I won't make it to the meeting today.  I'm not sure what the
background is on adding a $1000 sponsorship level, but I am not too
keen on it for a few reasons.

1) There is a non-trivial amount of effort involved in maintaining a
sponsorship relationship.  At $1000 the return for effort is not so
great.

2) It gives organizations that was to get some value out of an
association with OSGeo an awfully cheap way of doing so.
There aren't that many organizations for which $3000 a year is
too much if they are at all serious about it.  If we get four new
bronze sponsors but two silvers drop down to bronze given
the new "cheap" option we won't have any more money.

3) Is does dilute the value of the higher level sponsors to some
degree.

All that said, I'd be roughly a -0 on the issue but then I haven't
heard the justification.

I will note there is no problem with an organization giving $1000
to OSGeo if it wants, and the conference does usually have an
inexpensive level of sponsorship.  Also, organizations without
much money to contribute can assist in other ways.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent