[Board] draft guidance for budget/money

[Jody Garnett]

María I went ahead and put some time into
https://git.osgeo.org/gitea/osgeo/todo/issues/30

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Draft

If you have an activity you would like to pursue that is in keeping with
our goals perhaps we can help?

   - OSGeo is focused on pursuing our vision and goals
   - We use OSGeo finances to enable our members to act
   - We do not wish to take on staff in any capacity (we have done so in
   the past)

TLDR: If you are just looking at OSGeo as “just another” source of funds it
probably won’t work out. If you are approaching as a member of our
community looking to help get something off the ground we will figure out a
way to make it happen!
General Approach

   - OSGeo prefers to be part of your financial story, rather than a sole
   source of funds. So consider sponsorship in addition to OSGeo funding to
   achieve your goals.
   - We do take part in joint initiatives. Keep in mind our value as a
   partner is our contribution of free software, and our enthusiastic
   community, rather than as a source of revenue.

InternalCommittees

About committees:

   - Each committee has a mandate to pursue, in addition to our goals as an
   organization!
      - In keeping with their budget committees may setup contracts, or
      start initiatives throughout the year
   - OSGeo requires:
      - Committee follow our code of conduct
      - Nominate a project officer to act on their behalf, and act as
      contact point
      - Committee document how they are conducted (mandate, how votes work,
      how you can participate)
      - Committee representative to attend Annual General Meeting

Budget:

   - Committees are provided an annual budget
      - Committees request a budget in Q4
   - If something comes up (an opportunity or unforeseen expense) please
   just attend a board meeting and we can revise the budget

How it works:

   - While acting within their budget and mandate committees can spend money
   - Committee makes a motion to spend money (contract, purchase, etc…):
      - meeting: motion is approved and recorded in minutes
      - email: motioned is carried via email thread voting
   - Project officer emails treasurer with motion details (link to minuets
   or email thread) and treasurer has a couple different ways to pay

OSGeo Project

OSGeo projects are handled as a committee above:

   - We ask that each project nominate a project officer (to act on their
   behalf finanially and as a contact point) even if the roles has no further
   use within the project
   - Projects are allocated an annual budget
   - Project are required to follow our code of conduct, publish how they
   operate, and attend our annual general meeting

In addition OSGeo projects have a very specific mandate as outlined in the
incubation process.
Initiatives

   -

   An initiative is started by a committee
   - Cannot spend money directly, attend a committee meeting (see above)
      - Many initiatives just attend one of the monthly board meetings as a
      quick way to operate

Examples

   - Travel Grant program is under the direction of the conference committee
   - Community projects inititive has been started by the board to promote
   innovation (applications are handled by the incubation committee)
   -

   Local Chapter Initiative is started by the board to pursue regional
   advocacy.
   - Board has occasionally caught legal advice on behalf of groups forming
      a local chapter.
      - To be effective Local Chapters are usually completely distinct
      legal entities incorporated in the appropriate region. As such
their may be
      some consideration around “donating” or “sponsorship” to
consider in order
      to be viewed legally as an independent entity.
   -

   Google Summer of Code initiative started by interested parties, attends
   a board meeting to kick off each year, and would request any funding
   required by attending a board meeting

Staff

Employees:

   -

   We do not wish to take on staff in any capacity
   - We have done this in the past, and the amount time required to secure
      sponsorship for their continued employment distracted from our outreach
      mission

ExternalContracts

General guidance:

   - Each committee has a annual budget which is published in the wiki,
   while you are welcome to propose work in excess of this amount keep in mind
   the committee will need to pursue sponsorship and additional funds.
   - Each committee has a mandate or objective to keep in mind, consider
   approaching multiple committees if appropriate
   - Please ensure contract has a clear list of deliverables associated
   with payment. Our community is enthusiastic and always has additional ideas
   to pursue.

Examples

   - The system admin committee has done a series of short term contracts
   ** Focused on specific maintenance activities
   - For larger contracts we have the $50000 example of the marketing
   committee setting up an expression-of-interest to redo the website.
      - The expression of interest and selection of a vendor was done in
      public with a range of organizations responding from around the globe
      - No preference was given to community members, indeed none applied
      - The community had several previous attempts to support this
      activity with volunteers prior to use of an an EOI process
   - OSGeo marketing committee has recently done a small $4500 contract for
   some design work

EventsCommunity and Outreach Events

   - We would rather host then sponsor
      - We are not looking for marketing visibility, we want to enable you
      to promote the use of free software.
      - Acting as a ‘host’ rather than sponsor gives us an opportunity to
      offer you a financial backstop (so if something goes wrong we can pay
      rather than your organizing team). We like to be careful (obviously) and
      like to go over a budget covering costs and expected sponsorship

If possible we would like to provide seed money for your event:

   - Sponsorship is often slow to arrive (often after the website is
   visible)
   - Having access to funds, or working with the osgeo treasurer, to secure
   a venue / event organizer / catering early in the planning process may be
   valuable to you?

Please keep in mind:

   - Each committee has a different mandate, perhaps one is in position to
   help your event?
      - The board has a mandate to help *you*, please attend a board
      meeting, or send an email to the board list and explore options on how
      OSGeo can assist.
      - The marketing committee has a very board outreach mandate and
      should often be your first stop (often with branding material for the
      event, and information packets for attendees)
      - Local chapters often have ready to go branding material from prior
      events
   - Education events that just focus on GIS skills and education are
   valuable, but do not quite match our mandate. Please talk to GeoForAll
   about including open source use (and participation) and see if they have
   funds available!

About sponsors:

   - Sponsorship is an easy way to help raise funds for an event
      - Sponsors contributing to an OSGeo event can be cross listed on the
      OSGeo website (this is a perk you can offer) with their total across all
      events for the year being used to determine their sponsorship level.
      - Do consider that sponsorship is often marketing driven, so
      visibility of sponsors (at the event, in electronic communication, and so
      on…) is part of the relationship you are negotiating.

Code Sprints

Code Sprints are a passion at OSGeo - an event directly adding value to our
open source projects - sign us up!

With this in mind they hit all the boxes for local events above:

   - We would rather host than sponsor a code-sprint:
      - We are looking to enable you to run the code-sprint, rather than
      looking for a marketing or visibility perk
      - We are looking to assume financial risk (“back stop”) rather than
      simply hand over sponsorship money
      - We like to roll profits from one code-sprint over to support the
      next
   - Budget
   - We do ask for a budget upfront just to get an idea that you have
      thought things through
      - Seed money? Can help get you funds to reserver a space?
      (Sponsorship often comes too late to be effective, a venue is often more
      expensive than an individuals bank account can support)
   - We really want to take on the financial risk (if sponsorship does not
   come through or unforeseen expense occurs).
      - We value all our members, but those willing to organize have our
      undying gratitude. The last thing we want is something to go wrong and
      these individuals paying out of pocket.

Keep in mind:

   - We approve so many code-sprints we have code sprint guidelines to help
      - Code sprints get a separate line item in the OSGeo budget as a
      spending priority
      - We roll profits from one event over to the next to run as many code
      sprints as we can
   - Adding a code sprint to the end of a conference is not great value as
   a code sprint
      - For outreach many attendees have left the conference already
      - Even for our members those attending on behalf of their employer
      have probably left (due to cost involved in extra days accommodation and
      travel)
      - Limited time reduces sprint activities to meetings and planning
      rather than any detailed technical work

Industry and Partner Conferences

What kind of things will we do:

   - We would love to speak to your attendees
      - Keep in mind our speaker is contributing their own time to attend
      - While we do not encourage speaker fees, conference pass, travel and
      accommodation costs would be appropriate.
   - We can often setup hands-on workshops which are of great value to your
   attendees
   - We may be able to help some of our community members attend if your
   event has a community area set aside in the exhibit space
   - We are willing to booth swap between events so you can reach our
   members (keep in mind we would financially supporting our event organizers
   to set aside an area for partners)

What kind of things won’t we do:

   - We do not want to take a booth or sponsor your event from a marketing
   perspective
      - asking our volunteers to pay their own way into a conference, and
      then spend their time doing outreach has not proven effective
      - the prices of a booth at events is often priced for industry which
      expects a financial return based on reach customers. We are giving our
      software away for free and do not have the same justification for the
      prices asked.
   - Inviting us to provide a workshop for free, and then ask us to pay for
   the space or provide money for catering?
      - If your workshops are geared towards an additional revenue stream
      from companies offering co-located events you probably did not
mean to ask
      us.
      - Keep in mind we provide value to your attendees and can help
      attract greater attendance
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