[Board] F2F topics

[Michael P. Gerlek]

As I'm new to the board, there are a two topics I'd like to discuss when we
meet -- financial health to date and goals going forward.  I guess these are
the two topics on everyone's mind, but I'm hoping for some good, productive
discussions and some quantifiable targets we can shoot for.

On the finances topic, I think we really need to have the following data
available to us when we meet:
  - revenue per quarter for the 5 years of our existence
  - expenses per quarter for the 5 years of our existence
  - pie-chart breakdown of where our revenue comes from (by fiscal year)
  - pie-chart breakdown of where our expenses go to (by fiscal year)
[I'll note that if this data is not something that is readily available by
running a few reports, then we have identified Problem #1.]

On the goals topic, I get the sense from recent emails and from talking to
folks over the past few months that as an organization we've reached a
steady-state and don't seem to know where to go next.  One technique I've
found helpful in the past is to put up a bunch of "vision" statements and
see which ones resonate and which ones don't.  For example, are you +1, 0,
or -1 on the following scenarios (chosen out of thin air, just as examples):
  * OSGeo should have a paid staff position responsible for pursuing large
foundation-level grants from philanthropic organizations.
  * OSGeo should engage directly with major commercial vendors to establish
large, multi-year funding.
  * OSGeo should provide funding for development efforts for its member
projects.
  * OSGeo should provide academic scholarships for promising students
levering open source software in their thesis projects.
  * OSGeo should rely on membership fees as one of our revenue streams.
  * OSGeo board members should be given ponies.
You get the idea.  Anyone interested in such an exercise?

-mpg