[Board] Financial limit on advances and guarantees to FOSS4Gs

[Jeff McKenna]

Hi Steven,

Thanks for bringing this to the attention of the Board.  I think it is 
excellent that the OSGeo Conference Committee is committed to 
establishing a process for FOSS4G financial support.

In terms of tackling this at the next Board meeting, I've added this to 
the agenda[1].  Note though that the next meeting is not until October 
15th, as we'll be going through Board elections (5 new members), through 
September.

So I don't think this should wait until October.  I encourage all Board 
members now to jump in and help Steven.

I believe we need an accurate look at our yearly expenses, to get an 
idea of how much we can set aside, in advance.  I've taken a look at our 
yearly budgets[2], and we can seem to expect costs of around 70k, not 
including this FOSS4G advance/seed money.

In terms of estimating revenue, that is more difficult because most of 
our revenue is tied to the FOSS4G profits, so this can change 
drastically each year.

I'm not sure how to tackle this, but I'm sure our Treasurer and others 
can jump in and help.

[1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2015-10-15#Current_items
[2] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Category:Budget

-jeff





On 2015-08-21 7:03 AM, Steven Feldman wrote:
> Board
>
> You are aware that Till has requested an advance and a guarantee for FOSS4G 2016 to protect the LOC and the German Chapter from liabilities (apologies if my very short summary is inaccurate).
>
> The Conference Committee are trying to draft a standard process for financial support to FOSS4G events, a straw man will be available on the wiki shortly. Regardless of the detail of that process there will be a need for the OSGeo Board, presumably via the Treasurer, to set a financial limit on the reserves available to support advances and guarantees. Could the Board schedule a discussion at their next meeting to consider what % of their funds they are willing to set aside to fund FOSS4G events. Given that we will be making commitments to the 2016 event before we know the financial outcome of the 2015 event (etc etc) prudence would suggest reserves might need to cover 2 years advances and guarantees. If events are successful and remit a significant proportion of their surplus back to OSGeo, the proportion of reserves needed for advances and guarantees should decline over time.
>
>
> Cheers
> ______
> Steven
>