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

Fri Sep 7 12:31:33 PDT 2018

Hi, I thought I'd share my thoughts from the perspective of a regional
FOSS4G organiser, for what it's worth. (FOSS4G SotM Oceania, coming up in
November in Australia)

For context: to save the trouble of setting up a financial entity of our
own, we partnered with SSSI (an Australian spatial industry body). They
didn't provide any seed funding - it wasn't necessary, as our other partner
(Uni of Melbourne) is providing the venue. SSSI took 100% of the financial
risk on the event, and in exchange we agreed to return 50% of any surplus,
with some explicit targets. They have a seat on our organising committee
for oversight, and their staff do the accounting and handle incoming &
outgoing funds. It has worked very well for us, I can recommend it as a
model for regional events.

I think we'd probably have trouble with a commitment to return 85 or 90% of
the surplus as unrestricted general funds, in exchange for a loan. 50%
would be more palatable. (I'm assuming we're talking about returning from
the surplus left *after* repayment of the seed funding.)

We've had incredible support from partners, sponsors, and the community,
and have been conservative with our budget, so we're expecting a decent
surplus. We're looking forward to re-investing our share of this surplus
back into another iteration of the event, and having control over that
gives us confidence to take some risks and grow our impact. I think the key
here is self-determination, autonomy, and empowerment. Losing control over
the lion's share of the surplus would feel disempowering.

On a practical level, unsure if OSGeo handling money for regional
conferences is on the table. In our case, we need to manage funds in
Australian dollars. It has been helpful to have quick turnaround on
invoices & payments. Providing this kind of support in a local timezone &
currency might be difficult for OSGeo.

We love OSGeo and consider ourselves to be part of the family... looking
forward to sharing all our lessons learned along the way!

Cheers
John

On Sat, 8 Sep 2018 at 03:09, María Arias de Reyna <delawen at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I think we should ask less porcentage for smaller events. Money that stays
> on the local communities can help them grow, so it's good to let them keep
> some. I would go for 50% instead of 90%. In net numbers, we add global
> shouldn't notice much difference, but for them it may mean being able to
> host another event without seed money or not.
>
> El vie., 7 sept. 2018 18:59, Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com>
> escribió:
>
>> We already have a “standard” agreement for seed funding a FOSS4G Global
>> conference - an example (2016, Bonn) is at
>> https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/foss4g/2016/financial_stuff/agreement_with_osgeo/
>>
>> In return for seed funding and a limited financial guarantee the
>> conference agrees to remit 90% of any surplus to OSGeo. I think in the
>> FOSS4G Cookbook we may have changed that to at least 85%. I don’t know if
>> that would be acceptable to the NA team? We need to have a consistent
>> policy for regional and global events seeking seed funding and/or a
>> financial guarantee (any guarantee should be limited otherwise we could
>> bankrupt OSGeo if something goes disastrously wrong).
>>
>> I think that a financial transparency clause should be added to the
>> funding agreement going forward and also to the FOSS4G Cookbook (I’m not
>> sure that we can make financial transparency mandatory if we are not
>> providing seed funds or a guarantee but we can encourage it).
>>
>> Do we have a funding agreement with Bucharest?
>> ______
>> Steven
>>
>>
>> On 6 Sep 2018, at 18:45, Eli Adam <eadam at co.lincoln.or.us> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I don't track the OSGeo budget or Treasurer reports very closely.
>> I'd like to hear from the Treasurer pertaining to what amounts are
>> available and keep in mind several events.  FOSS4G 2019 Bucharest is
>> the next focus.  FOSS4G 2020 LOI and selection will start soon as well
>> and there are potentially expenses that they may encounter early.  I'd
>> also like to hear from the BLOC about 2019.  We have to be guided by
>> what is financially possible which should be information that should
>> come from the Treasurer and Board informed by the Conference
>> Committee, FOSS4G 2019 BLOC, and FOSS4G2020 LOC.  The Board and
>> Treasurer also get to determine the level of risk they want to assume
>> (i.e. how much liability beyond seed money vs reserve levels and
>> anticipated income).
>>
>> Based on the premise of financial feasibility, I potentially support
>> seed funding for FOSS4G-NA and think that it could be a good model to
>> expand to regional conferences.  The international event is the first
>> and second priority though.  Regional events would be lower priority.
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 6, 2018 at 3:42 AM, Ian Turton <ijturton at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I think it would be nice to get an agreement to report (at least) the
>> heads
>> of the accounts back to OSGeo - so what was spent on each major category
>> of
>> expense (e.g. conf centre, food, promotion, speakers, etc) if we are
>> putting
>> seed funding in
>>
>>
>> For using OSGeo money, I'd like to get more information than this.
>> The last decade of the international FOSS4G event has shown that it
>> can be done with remarkable transparency.  But yes, at a minimum, an
>> outline of expenses and income and where the money goes.
>>
>> Ian
>>
>> On Thu, 6 Sep 2018 at 09:56, María Arias de Reyna <delawen at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> 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.
>>
>>
>> I think it has been discussed a few times, I don't remember if it was
>> ever done though.  We have some things to follow based on the
>> international event.  Here is a draft that covers some of it,
>> https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_Handbook#Finances  We also have a
>> few years of agreements with LOCs to use as an example.  I took a
>> quick look through SVN and found a few things,
>> https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/foss4g/2016/financial_stuff/.  Maybe
>> additional years are in the Board documents?  Searching the email list
>> provides lots of results.  For instance,
>> https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/conference_dev/2016-March/003584.html
>> (and the attachments).  And other year,
>>
>> https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/conference_dev/2015-September/003196.html
>> (links too).  Steven has provided a previous summary of some past
>> years,
>> https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/conference_dev/2015-September/003223.html
>> (see link in that email).
>>
>> Insight from Michael Turner and Guido Stein, Till Adams and others
>> might be useful here as they recently went through working this out
>> for conferences that they ran.
>>
>> 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.
>>
>>
>> The agreement that is typically made for the international FOSS4G is
>> typically much higher than 50% (closer to 90-100% but with some
>> portion taken out to fund continuing local/specific events, or
>> different percents at different dollar amounts.).  And it comes back
>> as unrestricted general funds.
>>
>> 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.
>>
>>
>> Good idea Cameron.  Much of this work has been done for the
>> international event.  Coming up with something for regional events
>> would take some more work but is possible and logical.
>>
>> (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,
>>
>>
>> Hi Jeff and Rob,
>>
>> 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
>>
>>
>> This sounds like a great event!  How grass roots are you thinking?
>> Will there be a PCO?  In a practical matter, who will write checks or
>> sign contracts?  (there are different ways to do this, OSGeo, PCO,
>> LOC, companies, etc).
>>
>> 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.
>>
>>
>> This is really good.  Onerous venue contracts make things much more
>> difficult.  Congrats!
>>
>>
>> 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.
>>
>>
>> The international FOSS4G events which have gotten seed funding have
>> gone through a rigorous process of of review including detailed budget
>> review.  Do you have more information or details on your budget and
>> whole organizing plan?  I guess this is my main question, do you have
>> more information and details?  That would answer who is signing
>> contracts, writing checks, etc.
>>
>>
>>
>> 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.
>>
>>
>> I think that seed funding will probably be possible (pending the
>> Treasurer and Board have funds in addition to the international events
>> and want the risk).  Trailblazing seed funding for regional events
>> will require some amount of work.  You're both familiar with that.
>> There is a lot of existing material for guidance from the
>> international event.
>>
>> Best regards, Eli
>>
>>
>>
>> Jeff & Rob (SDLOC Co-chairs)
>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> --
>> Jody Garnett
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Cameron Shorter
>> Technology Demystifier
>> Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
>>
>> M +61 (0) 419 142 254
>>
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>>
>> --
>> Ian Turton
>>
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