[Board] On the creation of permanent OSGeo/FOSS4G CRM

[David William Bitner]

Big +1.


On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 3:50 PM, Darrell Fuhriman <darrell at garnix.org>wrote:

>
> One of things that has become apparent in going through the process of
> getting sponsorships for FOSS4G is that the current system is rather
> unwieldy. In fact, the use of the word "system" implies a type of order
> which does not exist.
>
> There are no designated contacts at each company, no consistent tracking
> of past sponsorships or expressions of interest, no tracking of
> non-functioning e-mails, or people who have left a company.
>
> In short, it's a complete fucking disaster.
>
> This is a problem because:
>
> 1) FOSS4G is dependent on sponsorships to finish in the black
> 2) OSGeo is dependent on FOSS4G events (not just the big annual
> conference) for a large portion of its income
> 3) We should be making it easy, not hard, to keep FOSS4G/OSGeo solvent.
>
> We have individuals who have expressed an interest in getting all of the
> past and current data into a CRM so we can more easily track this in the
> future. However, unless there is a future for such a system, it's probably
> not worth the non-trivial amount of effort it would take.
>
> Hence, I propose:
>
> The 2014 LOC will work to configure an instance of SugarCRM, including
> entering the data we have collected on current and past sponsorships.
>
> After the conclusion of FOSS4G 2014, OSGeo would agree to:
>
> 1) Move the SugarCRM instance to be hosted and maintained by OSGeo
> 2) Strongly encourage (mandate?) its use by future OSGeo affiliated
> conferences
> 3) Give access to other geospatial related events as appropriate
>
> I realize there is some reluctance to "give orders" to the people who have
> volunteered to do these events. However in the long run having a central
> CRM will *reduce* the amount of work required by future LOCs, and by past
> ones who get requests to dig out contact information from events that
> occurred years ago.
>
> The use of a CRM could also be expanded to track contact information for
> all attendees including which events they've attended, so they can be
> contacted about future relevant events - another case where there is no
> coordination or sanity to any of the extant data.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Darrell
>
>
>
>
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>



-- 
************************************
David William Bitner
dbSpatial LLC
612-424-9932
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