[Board] Request to OSGeo for chapter startup financial assistance

[John Bryant]

Thanks Jody. In response...

*> The AUD $5000-6000 do you have a quote or experience with another
organization leading to this estimate?*
The estimate is based on two components: not-for-profit association advice,
and accounting advice. We've had discussions with professionals, and have
quotes for services, in both components. We've already done a lot of the
work in entity formation though, and have some of the accounting apparatus
in place, so at this stage we're looking for professional advice on tying
up loose ends and making sure we're doing it right. As such, it's a bit of
a "how long is a piece of string" question, since we don't yet know what we
don't know... the AUD $5000-6000 figure represents our best guess at what
it will cost, given what we do know.

*> Is there a good way to handle this? Donation or sponsorship or paying
for the accounting/legal services ...*
I think donation would probably be the simplest way, but open to
suggestions. We could provide a reconciliation of costs at the end of the
project.

*> Want to avoid catch-22 where you need to be setup with a bank account
for OSGeo to provide financial support to help setup ...*
We have an OSGeo Oceania bank account in Australia, so we're already able
to receive payments.

Thanks!
John

On Mon, 19 Aug 2019 at 06:38, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com> wrote:

> That sounds good John, we should add this to our next board meeting.
>
> Two questions:
> - The AUD $5000-6000 do you have a quote or experience with another
> organization leading to this estimate?
> - Is there a good way to handle this? Donation or sponsorship or paying
> for the accounting/legal services ...
>
> Want to avoid catch-22 where you need to be setup with a bank account for
> OSGeo to provide financial support to help setup ...
>
> --
> Jody Garnett
>
>
> On Fri, 16 Aug 2019 at 00:00, John Bryant <johnwbryant at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi OSGeo Board,
>>
>> OSGeo Oceania already has an item on the next OSGeo board meeting agenda
>> to discuss the formation of an Oceania regional chapter of OSGeo [1]. I'd
>> like to add a request for financial support, and it likely makes sense to
>> bring it up at the same meeting. The details of this request are as follows:
>>
>> We are in the process of establishing a set of ground rules for how we
>> operate as a community, including:
>> * how we recruit & retain our membership
>> * how we run AGMs
>> * how we replace directors on an ongoing basis
>> * ultimately, how we can best develop a body that's accountable to an
>> engaged community.
>>
>> As a regulated entity, we face some complexity with regard to how we
>> conduct ourselves legally and financially, so running through this process
>> will require updates to our constitution and entity registration. We also
>> have a fairly complex tax situation, operating in multiple tax
>> jurisdictions, so we need to do some groundwork to make sure we're doing
>> this right.
>>
>> We see a clear benefit in engaging professional advice at this stage. Our
>> experience has shown that while a DIY approach is possible, it requires a
>> huge amount of volunteer energy and comes with increased risk of error and
>> re-work. This is a situation with high risk of burnout, and we'd like to
>> avoid it. We estimate in the range of AUD $5000-6000 on not-for-profit
>> organisational and accounting advice, as a one-off expense over the next
>> few months.
>>
>> *We're requesting funding from OSGeo to cover 50% of the cost of this
>> project, ie. USD $2000, and we will cover the rest from other sources.*
>>
>> Thanks!
>> John Bryant
>> on behalf of OSGeo Oceania
>>
>> [1] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2019-July/012228.html
>> _______________________________________________
>> Board mailing list
>> Board at lists.osgeo.org
>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
>
>
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