[Board] Proposal/thoughts for a FOSS4G Advisor Role

[Jeff McKenna]

Hi Paul,

Comments inline:

On 11-11-21 7:09 PM, Paul Ramsey wrote:
> Here's my issue w/ this.  If the conference was being deliberately
> sited in such a way as to make money, spending money on conference
> organization makes sense. But we're siting the conference randomly
> with respect to the foundation's larger goals (or are we? is there
> harmonization between what we want to achieve with this conference and
> where we are putting it? is our goal to invest money earned in Europe
> and NA in evangelism in other locales? I'm getting off topic here...)

In my mind due to OSGeo's obvious financial dependency on the success of 
the event, we have no choice but to throw resources at it.

>
> Rather than commit to an ongoing fixed cost, how about something more
> flexible, that shares both upside and downside, like proportion of
> profit?
>
> Or put another, more simple way: will Jeff's participation likely
> increase the revenue of FOSS4G 2012 by over $30K? (that's 3 gold
> sponsors or 60 extra attendees).

I drafted the wiki on the weekend and then Arnulf and I banged thoughts 
back and forth - he believes it must be tied to sponsorship as well.

My reaction to him this past weekend reading that: then it is a fulltime 
position for sure.

Honestly I am proposing an advisor role.  To me there is another 
fulltime position needed in OSGeo ("business development"?) to build 
relationships with potential sponsors for the foundation and FOSS4G.


Thanks Paul.

-jeff