[Board] meeting prep thread, OSGeo sponsorship and 2018 opportunities

[Jody Garnett]

Although we did not get to it last meeting, it is on the agenda for next
time - here is the osgeo sponsorship page for 2017:
http://www.osgeo.org/sponsorship

In addition to raising money the sponsorship program has a secondary goal
of encouraging sponsors to support our projects, local chapters and events.
This helps recognize organizations that consistently support OSGeo (rather
than focus on big sponsors that put all their effort behind one event).
This has a couple of benefits: it allows sponsors some choice in directing
their funds to OSGeo activities they believe in. It also allows committees,
local chapters and projects to raise funds without being in conflict with
the OSGeo foundation. I think this approach is brilliant and should
continue and be promoted.

The page lists "Sponsorship Opportunities for 2017", if you hear of
anything from our projects or committees we can make a similar section for
2018. We had some hits (events, travel grant, website reboot, sprints) and
some misses (UN Hackathon).

How to sponsors (talk to treasurer or use paypal with a note) is working
well.

The "sponsorship levels" are only working okay, we made a very cheap
sponsorship level at $500 USD ... and my small consulting shop how2map was
the only organization to make use of it. Indeed we had groups from outside
our industry use the low sponsorship level to optimize search results -
something the board put a stop to in 2017.  I would like to give this low
sponsorship level another try, especially since the new website can provide
additional visibility to these organizations; but I would also understand
if we drop it from lack of use/interest.

I have gotten private feedback, especially after the foss4g sponsorship
levels were published that OSGeo should raise our rates. I am not so sure
(in part because the feedback is private), in part because we are a world
wide organization and comparisons to us and eu organizations are not
appropriate. Mostly I think there is no need to be greedy - our goal is as
much to promote these sponsors and build community as it is to raise funds.

We have two discounts available (25% for prior sponsors, 25% for Low or
Lower-Middle Income Economies). These discounts are being effective with
prior sponsors, offering getting them just close enough to the next level
that they provide additional funds. Kind of like we planned. The
low-to-lower-middle-income discount is not really being used; I expect we
need to provide more value - or better advertise that local event
sponsorship counts towards foundation sponsorship.

The "sponsorship benefits" have been passed to us from previous boards, and
we struggled to understand two of them that required direct management from
the board - indeed they were difficult and time consuming to implement:

*Invitation to Sponsor Information Exchange Event with Board of Directors
following annual OSGeo International Conference *- we turned this into a
sponsorship breakfast with Maria doing the organizing. This was successful
in giving us a chance to meet meet with sponsors and partners. I think this
was really important to see what organizations are working with us face to
face. Sadly the time allowed barely got us passed introductions - resulting
in a breakout meeting and other follow up activities.

*Invitation to Sponsor Networking Event with OSGeo Board of Directors and
other invited guests following annual OSGeo International Conference. *This
was intended to be a chance to thank partners and sponsors in public,
although the foss4g organizers set us up a stage during the conference
networking event our board members were not in position act. The
opportunity to network and build connections/collaborations/contacts was a
consistent request during the subsequent breakfast meeting - so we missed
an opportunity here.

*Joint Press Release with OSGeo to announce Sponsorship. *These are a bit
of a bother to do, generally as a shared google document and then
coordinate timing with the sponsors. Not all sponsors (example CARTO) went
ahead with a press release. We also tend to just make a blog post, rather
than issue a press release to news organizations. This is something we
could coordinate (with marketing?) to provide better value to our sponsors
and partners. We may consider bumping the press release up from silver to
gold.

*Organization name listed in "about osgeo" section of foundation press
releases. *We are doing this, no feedback so far.

*First Sponsorship Selection for the **Annual OSGeo International
Conference. *This is interesting as we have not always communicated this to
our foss4g organizers, we should confirm with the conference committee that
this benefit is possible before offering it in 2018.

*Key OSGeo marketing materials feature your organization's logo, At
promotion events, your organization's logo is displayed as part of the
OSGeo Booth - *We are doing this with the marketing committee, no issues so
far. For our usual sponsors they often have their own booth and do not make
use of this perk. Unclear if this applies to local chapters running a booth?

*Full-page Promotional Space on a personalized OSGeo Sponsor Page,
Promotional Space on an OSGeo Platinum Sponsor Page - *Our website design
does not work like this, but it could?

*Right to use OSGeo Sponsor logo and promote named sponsorship level *We
have new logos to roll out to sponsors.









--
Jody Garnett
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