[Board] Request for seed funding for FOSS4G-NA 2019

Thu Sep 6 01:56:08 PDT 2018

Hi,

Right now there is money to lend 20k. Not in the initial budget for
this year, but the money is on the bank. So the decision would be if
we want to prioritize this investment instead of others (existing or
future). Remember this is the year when the main FOSS4G don't give any
funding back. Which I don't think it will be a problem, as FOSS4GNA is
important to our community and should be helped. But I wanted to say
this explicit so it is clear that we are not just lending money
blindly.

I am happy to give seed funding to events, this is really something we
can do and will make a difference to many LOCs. But, of course, we
need to setup some requirements for this. Not saying that you don't
fit on them, but it is something we should discuss, specially if we
want to extend this seed funding to other events that request it. It
won't be nice if some other regional event come and then we ask them
more than we ask you :) Is this the first time a regional event ask
for funding? I don't remember any previous one.

So, about requirements: what is the planning to return the money? Are
you going to share the profit (if any) with OSGeo? I think it makes
sense to ask for a returning percentage of the profit to have more
money in the bank and be able to help more events. I understand some
conferences will be even and have no profit, but those who have profit
can help growing the community. Maybe a 30~50% of profit back to
OSGeo? So at least half of it can be saved for future FOSS4GNA events.

Other thing I would request is that you share statistics and knowledge
after the event. For example, if you experiment with new ways to
attract people, did it work? Are demographics balanced? Was it more
business, user, developer oriented? What did people enjoy more that
can be reused for other events? Did something fail that could be
organized on a better way? Did you have unexpected budget changes?
What percentage of the budget did go to what (catering, venue,
communications,...)? In summary, any info that can help us organize
better events. I understand there are details we can't disclose, but
anything that can be shared, please, share it.

And, of course, as sometimes people go to FOSS4G and they don't know
what OSGeo is, I would request that OSGeo has a special place in the
conference. Not only a booth, but also that it should be explicitly
mentioned and explained in (at least) opening and closing. This can
help us growing the community and keep them engaged the whole year,
not only for one conference.

Did I miss something important?

On Thu, Sep 6, 2018 at 10:34 AM Cameron Shorter
<cameron.shorter at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Jeffrey, Jody,
>
> I'd suggest looping in the OSGeo Conference committee (conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org) on wider FOSS4G-NA topics such as these, as hopefully there should be useful opinions and support from within the community.
>
> (You'd get supportive feedback from me in the first instance).
>
> Cheers and good luck, Cameron
>
>
> On 6/09/2018 4:13 AM, Jeffrey Johnson wrote:
>
> The total venue cost is $40k total with no requirements to commit to a hotel block at catering. They require a 1/2 deposit so $20k would be better. Not sure if that much budget would be available?
>
> Happy to discuss at the IRC meeting.
>
> On Wed, Sep 5, 2018 at 11:09 Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks Jeff,
>>
>> We can of course amend our budget to help (kind of thought we had until next year but opportunity waits for no one).
>>
>> 10k seems ... a bit low. Your venue must indeed be inexpensive.
>>
>> On Wed, Sep 5, 2018 at 8:59 AM Jeffrey Johnson <ortelius at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Folks,
>>>
>>> Our San Diego Local Organizing Committee would like to request seed
>>> funds for FOSS4G-NA 2019 which we are organizing for mid-april next
>>> year. The past few years have seen this event organized by
>>> LocationTech and with a professional conference organizer, and while
>>> we will strive to put on a really great event, we are going to try to
>>> be budget conscious and run a more grass roots event. We have a great
>>> location on Mission Bay in SD that imposes very few restrictions on
>>> what we can and cant do, giving us alot of freedom to do things a bit
>>> differently than they have been done before.
>>>
>>> We are shooting for an overall budget of $150k-200k and expecting 500+
>>> people. I'm not quite sure the level of seed funding provided in the
>>> past for these types of regional events, but we would like to ask for
>>> $10k if possible.
>>>
>>> Do let me/us know if you have any questions/concerns that can be
>>> answered and hope to see some of you in April next year.
>>>
>>> Jeff & Rob (SDLOC Co-chairs)
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Board mailing list
>>> Board at lists.osgeo.org
>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
>>
>> --
>> --
>> Jody Garnett
>
>
>
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> --
> Cameron Shorter
> Technology Demystifier
> Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
>
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