[Board] Recognizing monetary contributions by Local Chapters

Mon Dec 14 00:03:26 PST 2015

I think I understand that Venkatesh is wishing to acknowledge the financial
contributions of local chapters in position to financially support OSGeo. I
had not thought of it, but if a local chapter wishes to sponsor OSGeo they
are (as a legal entity) in position to do so.

With sponsorship we are trying to give a voice to organizations (companies,
universities, non-profits, governments) that support open source, often
hiring our developers and community members. Currently sponsorship is one
of our few avenues of recognition for this important aspect of our
community. I like the idea of adjusting our recognition of sponsors to
encourage greater support of local chapters by sponsors. This should be
easier to justify (involvement in your local community visible to your
customers) and provide more resources for local chapters to work with.

The important part of being a local chapter is participation - representing
all of us a national / state / civic level. We really want to celebrate
these activities. Micheal Smith voiced the concern of appearing to "tax"
local chapters - while I am sure we could work around this it is something
that would have to be done carefully to not give the wrong impression. I do
not think we should disrupt our local chapter setup by complicating it with
any expectation of financially supporting OSGeo.

In a similar fashion any funds raised via a FOSS4G conference are done so
within a set framework with OSGeo (negotiated by the OSGeo board, local
organizing committee, and others?!). Such funds would not be viewed as
sponsorship - but the result of a business arrangement focused on community
outreach. I would hate to have any organizing committee feel bad if their
conference did not return a profit - the primary goal of FOSS4g is outreach
rather than fundraising.

To make this very real, recognizing the Korean local chapter with "lifetime
silver sponsorship" based on FOSS4G profit would do a bit of injustice in
skipping over acknowledging organizations that sponsored the event
directly, or I suppose those who paid conference fees to attend. Such
events are on a different scale then sponsorship, and would be discouraging
for a small consulting shop (like how2map.com) that could never register
against the dollar amounts involved.

Still I suspect that Venka's would like to provide greater recognition to
Korea and others that have done such amazing work. Perhaps after revamping
our sponsors page we could work on
http://www.osgeo.org/content/chapters/index.html to better showcase local
chapters (think logos, events, accomplishments) to better illustrate
participation in our diverse community.

I know Cameron has often asked me (whenever we have an email thread about
sponsorship) what kind of foundation we are expecting to build. I would
like to remain focused on our low cost organization structure, but be in
position to use any resources made available to us as a multiplier on our
volunteer labour.
--
Jody

On 13 December 2015 at 21:24, Sanghee Shin <shshin at gaia3d.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I think both Venka’s & Jody’s idea make sense. Venka’s idea could give
> OSGeo Foundation another opportunity to acknowledge and honour local
> chapter for its efforts and contribution for the FOSS4G officially.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> 신상희
> ---
> Shin, Sanghee
> Gaia3D, Inc. - The GeoSpatial Company
> http://www.gaia3d.com
>
> > 2015. 12. 14., 오전 8:30, Venkatesh Raghavan <
> raghavan at media.osaka-cu.ac.jp> 작성:
> >
> > My  suggestion is not about sponsoring local chapters (they can
> > find their own sponsors).
> >
> > The suggestions was about OSGeo Foundation recognizing of some
> > Local Chapters as sponsors of the OSGeo (global) Foundation.
> >
> > By "some" chapters, I mean the chapters that are "official" and that
> have made
> > monetary contribution to the OSGeo Foundation (just as
> > the Koeran Local Chapter recently did as well as other
> > Local Chapters did before through contribution of profits
> > from the FOSS4G (Global) conferences).
> >
> > Venka
> >
> > On 2015/12/14 7:28, Michael Smith wrote:
> >> I like this approach a lot more personally. I think we should do all
> that we can to support local chapters.
> >>
> >> As for the finance part, we have no financial connection to local
> chapters. We don't manage any finances except for the main foundation.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Michael Smith
> >>
> >>
> >>> On Dec 13, 2015, at 5:15 PM, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> I like the way you are thinking - thank you for starting the
> discussion.I have an alternate suggestion...
> >>>
> >>> I would not mind flipping this the other direction, if you check our
> updated how to sponsor OSGeo page, you can see incentives for prior
> sponsors and sporing OSGeo events. If we want we can add "sponsoring local
> chapters" to the list.
> >>>
> >>> Where does this ideas come from? One item of feedback I got when
> reaching out to sponsors was that they were already sponsoring local
> chapters and it would be nice if this could also be recognized as
> contributing to OSGeo.
> >>>
> >>> Before everyone agrees this makes sense / is obvious / etc... there is
> a reason why I was shaky in answering. Although sponsoring a local chapter
> is in keeping with our mandate - it does not interact directly with the
> Foundation's back account the same way sponsoring a local/global event does.
> >>>
> >>> As such it is a matter to discuss on the board list here... and
> perhaps ask our treasure how finances for local chapters are managed?
> >>>
> >>> So the alternate suggestion is to highlight local chapters as a prime
> example of *participation*, and set up policies so that sponsors are
> recognized for engaging with local chapters. Note this policy change steers
> OSGeo in a more decentralized, and should be considered a strategic
> direction by the board - rather than just in isolation.
> >>>
> >>> (As a board member I like this strategy, but would like to see
> consensus before pursuing it. I also want to recognize the caution Micheal
> Smith expressed in the IRC meeting)
> >>> --
> >>> Jody
> >>>
> >>>> On Sat, Dec 12, 2015 at 5:42 PM Venkatesh Raghavan <
> raghavan at media.osaka-cu.ac.jp> wrote:
> >>>> Dear All,
> >>>>
> >>>> I brought up the topic of *requesting* Sponsorship from "official"
> Local
> >>>> Chapters at the last Board meeting. While it may be difficult to make
> such
> >>>> sponsorship mandatory, it would be good to recognize monetary
> sponsorship
> >>>> for Local Chapters as equivalent to sponsoring OSGeo foundation at
> >>>> appropriate
> >>>> level.
> >>>>
> >>>> I would like to propose that the recent contribution (profits for
> FOSS4G
> >>>> 2015)
> >>>> by the Korean Local Chapter be recognized as equivalent to life time
> >>>> sponsorship
> >>>> at Silver Leval [1]. Earlier contributions of other local chapters
> (e.g
> >>>> PDX etc.) could
> >>>> be similarly recognized.
> >>>>
> >>>> Doing so could serve two purposes. Firstly, we will see the
> sponsorship
> >>>> page more
> >>>> densely populated. Secondly, it may prompt other local chapters to
> make
> >>>> voluntary
> >>>> contributions to keep our Foundation running.
> >>>>
> >>>> Best
> >>>>
> >>>> Venka
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> _______________________________________________
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> >>>> Board at lists.osgeo.org
> >>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
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