[OSGeo-Edu] Re: [Board] Outstanding tasks

[Tyler Mitchell]

Hi all,

> as current chair, could you start this process in the Marketing
> committee please? Maybe Marketing should also have a meeting to discuss
> what needs to be taken over from you?

This is underway.  We'll see if the list gets active again with a few new people joining on.
My point to the board is that someone ought to feel responsible for keeping an
eye on things until it does take off on its own - because ultimately this will be 
one group that needs to reflect (or develop) your new strategies for outreach, 
and they will be spending money.  Naturally a few of you are already following 
the list, so that might be enough.

>>> * Event management - e.g. booth planning, presentation tracks planning
>> 
>> Do you have particular events in mind?  I assume this mostly falls
>> under the baliwick of the marketing committee?
> 
> Most of this has been ongoing by a variety of individuals and there are
> lots of local chapter activities. We used the Wiki to coordinate some of
> the larger / global events but without a clear responsibility this
> tapered out and has not been followed up lately:
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Event_Management

The particular events that marketing committee members have been personally
associated with have continued to be managed in a similar way.  I've 
coordinated any of the times where marketing material (brochures, etc)
needs to be produced and shipped.  Some local chapters do it themselves
but we took the approach that helping an active group get good material
in their hands early on can help boost local interest.  See the spreadsheet
for a more detailed list of the tasks I outlined.

>> I'm hoping an existing contributor (Landon?) can lead this effort.
>> Can you poll for someone?
> 
> Yes, good idea. Maybe we can also get more interest from the Local
> Chapters if we make them central contributors of the Journal. Plus there
> was interst from the Education community who might also be interested in
> pushing the Journal forward.

Don't worry, this is underway as well and will self organise or die.  I mention
it in case you see any additional value in supporting it by having someone
keep an eye on it.  For example, we committed to publishing FOSS4G
proceedings and I would have done most of the heavy lifting.  Others might
step up, but if not, then there will need to be some decisions made - drop it,
reschedule it, outsource it, etc.

Re: fundraising and sponsorship - Now  that the ED position is gone, I urge 
you to accept that fundraising is the board's responsibility.  Sure, other
members may help to deliver it or with some incentive want to help further, 
but ultimately, if no one is responsible you can't hope for any improvement.

A historical recap on the responsibility might help, since there are probably a
few lessons learned there: fundraising basically started as a board focus, then 
it passed to a FunCom committee, then back to the board, then given to ED, 
then ED + a couple directors were meeting to discuss it, then some debates 
about "why" we should even fundraise at all came up, now it will go back to 
committee it seems.

I assume you've
already kicked all this around, but mention this for context.  The point is, the 
challenges have been not only volunteer/director/member/ED's time available 
to help, but there have also been clashes on what the value proposition to 
sponsors is as well as who is responsible and how a "team" approach can
be best used to support one another in the efforts.  If you can clear that up, I think 
you'll be in good shape.

Hope that helps,

Tyler