[Board] Micro payments

[Daniel Morissette]

On 13-05-08 4:19 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
> Daniel,
> I've added the following to the OSGeo board agenda:
> * discuss micro-payments. Marketing committee wants to cover ~ $50 to
> $500 payments to ~ 100 osgeo events/year.
>
> (Current issue is that we pay $30 per transaction, and there is possibly
> an issue with the amount of time required for our volunteers to issue
> 100 payments).
>
> This might be a question for your new accountant?
>

I don't really see this as an accountant question as the accountant is 
mostly there to record the transactions in the books, produce financial 
statements, help with filing taxes, etc. Even if we outsource our 
accounting, the tasks of invoicing of sponsors, payments of suppliers, 
signing authority for dealing with the bank, etc, would remain with the 
treasurer. An accountant could maybe advise on a bank with cheaper 
rates, but I didn't think we should be outsourcing the management of the 
bank account.

On the topic of micro-payments, my experience is that wire payments 
between countries always end up with a 10$ minimum charge added on top 
of the local bank's charge for accepting the transaction, so I simply 
think that wires are not the way to go for micro-payments. If someone 
has a different experience then please speak up.

Maybe paypal would be a better alternative?


But before we even start talking about micro-payments, as a board member 
I am not personally convinced of the value of supporting ~100 events 
with a stipend to have them print DVDs locally. We may be better choose 
our battles and support a smaller number of key events where the DVDs 
will have a greater impact.

My 0.02$

-- 
Daniel Morissette
http://www.mapgears.com/
Provider of Professional MapServer Support since 2000