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

[Jeff McKenna]

Great feedback from Jeroen and Till.

I can also add that I think we can improve on sharing the logos of our 
sponsors on print materials (popup banners, one page info sheets, etc.). 
  This could be a good task for a funded designer, to take all those 
materials that so many community members contributed content for Paris 
and Boston, and add in the sponsor logos. It gets a little tricky though 
because there could be project-level sponsors as well as OSGeo sponsors, 
that should be listed on those materials.  I really feel that we can 
improve on that though.

I would also like to see more sponsors from different countries, as 
there are so many service providers out there now.  Is our 25% discount 
for low/lower-income economies not low enough?  Or is there a different 
reason?

But this can open a whole new can of worms (not new, because we face 
this on each Board): who would be tasked with that outreach (contacting 
existing sponsors for feedback, contacting potential sponsors, 
contacting all local chapters to get contacts of service providers) as 
we are all volunteers?

Not any easy topic to tackle these days, with so many strong interests 
today.  But it's good to talk openly, and share thoughts.

-jeff









On 2017-11-09 10:07 AM, Jeroen Ticheler wrote:
> +1
> As a major sponsor of OSGeo and FOSS4G (if I can say that) I fully agree 
> with this. What we really wish to do as GeoCat is to support both the 
> large and small /local events under the OSGeo umbrella. Now we are kind 
> of forced to calculate and strategize what to do where in order to get 
> the best exposure _and_ have the biggest impact on the community with 
> the resources we invest. It would be nice if this was simplified as it 
> makes our lives easier and the result more predictable.
> My 2 cents. Cheers,
> Jeroen
> 
> GeoCat Bridge for ArcGIS allows instant publishing of data and metadata 
> on GeoServer, MapServer, PostGIS and GeoNetwork. Visit http://geocat.net 
> for details.
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> Jeroen Ticheler
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> 
> Op 9 nov. 2017 om 08:36 heeft Till Adams <till.adams at fossgis.de 
> <mailto:till.adams at fossgis.de>> het volgende geschreven:
> 
>> Dear board,
>>
>> I know that there have been some discussions around this already, but 
>> perhaps it's time to think about how to get OSgeo sponsorship and 
>> FOSS4G sponsorship under one umbrella?
>>
>> If two independent "groups" request the same potential group of 
>> sponsors, this may lead to confusion.
>>
>> My ideas go in this direction: If you sponsor OSGeo (FOSS4G) at a 
>> certain level (or with a certain additional charge) you are 
>> automaticaly named as sponsor of FOSS4G (OSGeo).
>>
>> In the end the money goes in the same pocket.
>>
>> Just a quick thought, that perhaps is worth to thin about.
>>
>> Till
>>
>>
>> Am 09.11.2017 um 07:18 schrieb Jody Garnett:
>>> Jeff you helped set up this current approach 
>>> <https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/2015_Sponsorship_Drive_Working_Group> in 
>>> 2015, and you make it out to a lot of events, do you have any 
>>> suggestions for improvement?
>>>
>>> On Tue, Nov 7, 2017 at 10:11 AM Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com 
>>> <mailto:jody.garnett at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>     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 <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
>>>
>>>
>>>