[Board] Status of the Marketing Committee

[Seven (aka Arnulf)]

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Folks,
how do you feel about this committee? Straight forward answers are
appreciated.


Then, please excuse the longish mail but there are some things that need
to get tackled by someone - the best fit seems to be the Marketing
Committee.


Are we going to be able to fill out the role that Tyler wants to give
up? He sent a list of things that he wants to hand off a month ago but
there was just one mail in response. Therefore I copied the points here
again for reference and will comment on some of them. Please keep in
mind that all the points listed here were so far managed by a fraction
of a full time job, Tyler had lots of other things on his plate too. We
should be able to get Marketing up and functional easily by sharing
tasks between several people. Each of us will not need more than an hour
or two per week to do this. But we do need some commitment, so please
step up if any of the following resonates with you. Maybe you also want
to post something on Discuss to attract new committee members.


- - Committee
    Chair Marketing Committee, plan meetings
- -> this is an honorable job and requires little work. If I were younger
and less overloaded I would jump the chance to take over this role. It
also gives your profile a kick and opens doors to events which would
otherwise be either closed or costly. Marketing also has a budget for
travel which can be spent by Marketing. The next OSGeo budget is
developing now, so this is the right time to request for money.

    Identify priorities – events, material
- -> increasingly this has been taken over by the Local Chapters.
Marketing focuses more on the global perspective balancing interest and
energy spent on different events and serving as hub to mediate dates of
events to avoid overlap.

    Coordinate with volunteers
    Design and host material
    Coordinate with designers as required
    Coordinate printing, shipment, payment of material for events
- -> thanks to Tyler we have a good set of material now. Printing and
maintaing this material is increasingly a globalized thing meaning that
we think globally but act (print, ship, etc.) locally. The German local
chapter FOSSGIS for example manages trade fair brochures all on it's own
including searching for sponsors to print things.

    Maximizing OSGeo benefit from all events we are at
    Prioritising event related spending

- - Events
    Help coordinate OSGeo's presence at events
    Speak as the OSGeo rep/contact
- -> At a recent Board Meeting we decided to create a new role called
"OSGeo Ambassador". It is yet to be more clearly defined but it gives
credibility to speakers and access to events otherwise not reachable
(see also committee chair benefits). Currently Daniel Morissette and
myself manage spending of travel money required to do this. We could
transfer this responsibility to the Marketing Committee if there is
interest and commitment.

    Plan OSGeo booth – material, manpower
    Coordinate presentations for events
- -> There are lots of good presentations available, including generic
OSGeo introductions. Cleaning up and focusing will help people to find
the right one.

    Plan special meetings with stakeholders
- -> I am not sure what this exactly is. Tyler, could you expand on this
giving examples?

    Help FOSS4G chair
    Serve on FOSS4G LOC
    Drive sponsors to FOSS4G
- -> these three tasks mainly relate to the global FOSS4G conference and
belong to the conference committee.

    Get OSGeo sponsorship needs in front of many eyes
- -> Well, yes - the need is clearly seen but that did not really get us
very far. And again - I do not believe that this is a primary task for
the Marketing committee.


Best regards,
Arnulf

- -- 
Exploring Space, Time and Mind
http://arnulf.us
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