[California] Planning for Exhibits, help needed

[Landon Blake]

Alex,

I have attached a (very) rough draft of a sponsorship letter based on
the information that you have given me. I did not include any letterhead
with the OSGeo logo at this point. I figure we can do that if we make it
past the marketing/conference committees.

I have placed my contact information in the letter, but that could be
easily changed to your contact information (or the contact information
for someone else).

I also used a name for our group. My heart isn't set on that particular
name, but I needed to use something.

Feel free to cut my letter up however you like. :]

Landon
Office Phone Number: (209) 946-0268
Cell Phone Number: (209) 992-0658

P.S. - Since we are starting to actually DO SOMETHING as a "group"
perhaps we should take another hard look at what we need to do to become
an actual chapter. I don't think it is a great idea to operate as this
"pseudo" chapter any longer than we have to. This would make it easier
to:

- Solicit help from new members.
- Assign tasks and responsibilities. (For example: We could pick an
official secretary or public relations person and use their contact info
on this type of letter.)
- Avoid confusion on our exact "status" and relationship with the OSGeo.
- Set up a decision making body based on some warped form of democracy.
:]

Any thoughts?

-----Original Message-----
From: Alex Mandel [mailto:tech_dev at wildintellect.com] 
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 2:06 PM
To: Landon Blake
Cc: california at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [California] Planning for Exhibits, help needed

Landon,

Don't worry about the details, I need the draft for tomorrow night so I
can clarify those exact points with the marketing committee.

In terms of website I think we should stick to the osgeo wiki for now
and if we ever need something more get it from them.

Logo's are online:
http://trac.osgeo.org/osgeo/browser/marketing

AAG - Osgeo already put $500 down on a $1000 booth
CGS - Will be cheap and some of us already plan to go
Where 2.0 - Paul Ramsey is coming and plans to run the booth, so thats
also a go pending funds(table is probably free but we'll need
materials).

I'm not sure if the letter's are going snail mail or email yet so just
put in place holders(examples or likely info) for those kinds of things.

Does that help?

Alex

Landon Blake wrote:
> Alex,
> 
> I think we need to nail down a couple of issues before I can move
> forward with a draft letter asking for sponsorships:
> 
> - We aren't an official OSGeo chapter just yet. That can complicate
> things. Are donations made to our group tax deductible? I don't think
> they will be unless we give them directly to the OSGeo. We should
check
> with the conference folks at the OSGeo about accepting donations on
our
> behalf. What do we use for a mailing address a logo?
> 
> - Do we know what specific conferences we would like to have a booth
at?
> You mentioned the AAG and CGS conferences. I assume you mean the
> Association of American Geographers and the California Geographic
> Society conferences for 2009. Do we have other specific conferences
> where we would like to have a booth? I should list these specific
events
> in the letter.
> 
> Let me know what your thoughts are. 
> 
> I'm happy to use a PO Box of my own as a mailing address, and we can
use
> the little web page I've set up here for a temporary web address:
> 
> http://www.redefinedhorizons.com/calosgeo/
> 
> I suppose we can call our little group "The California OSGeo Chapter
> Incubator" for the time being. "The California OSGeo Chapter Formation
> Group" or something similar would also work.
> 
> Landon
> Office Phone Number: (209) 946-0268
> Cell Phone Number: (209) 992-0658
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alex Mandel [mailto:tech_dev at wildintellect.com] 
> Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 12:25 AM
> To: Landon Blake
> Cc: tech at wildintellect.com; california at lists.osgeo.org; Michael
> Treichler; Michele Tobias
> Subject: Re: [California] Planning for Exhibits, help needed
> 
> Landon,
> 
> Any chance you can take a crack at the letter this week. I want to try
> and have a few reviewers so we can get it ready in time for the
> marketing meeting in 1 week and get them out to prospective donors
after
> that.
> 
> Thanks,
> Alex
> 
> Landon Blake wrote:
>> Alex wrote: "Howdy chapter..."
>>
>> Well, we're not really a chapter just yet. More like an idea for a
>> chapter. :]
>>
>> Alex wrote: "The designs aren't quite done yet, all we have is the
new
>> logo, it hasn't been set into item specific sizes yet, etc if someone
>> has talent and time it would save us money that can be spent
> elsewhere."
>> Does this mean we need some graphic design? I'm fairly handy with
GIMP
>> and Inkscape, if that is what you are talking about.
>>
>> Alex wrote: "We need to attain additional funding for our exhibit to
> pay
>> for materials(the booth is 1/2 paid for already by OSGeo). I'm
>> estimating we need to raise $2000 for the AAG, $250 for CGS and an
>> unknown amount for other conferences this year. In order to do this
we
>> need some sort of letter asking for sponsorship. I think we can offer
>> some type of visibility, ie company name and logo at the booth in
>> exchange but someone needs to draft a letter to work with."
>>
>> I can draft the letter if you will review it. Let me know.
>>
>> Alex wrote: "Of course that also means we need the
names/numbers/email
>> of some companies to ask for sponsorship. I plan to ask O'Reilly
> Books,
>> anyone else have any ideas? Companies that are not already sponsors
of
>> OSGeo."
>>
>> I'm thinking our best bet in this area may be local or regional
>> companies that are not already involved in GIS at a national level. I
>> would think that our fund raising efforts will be difficult with the
>> state of the US economy. Still, we could each try and come up with a
>> list of possible sponsors in our local communities.
>>
>> Will the OSGeo be accepting the donations? I think we'll need an
>> "official non-profit" so those donations will be tax deductible. Who
>> will we be working with at the OSGeo to coordinate this management of
>> donated funds?
>>
>> Thanks for all of your effort and energy.
>>
>> Landon
>> Office Phone Number: (209) 946-0268
>> Cell Phone Number: (209) 992-0658
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: california-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
>> [mailto:california-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Alex Mandel
>> Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 1:03 AM
>> To: california at lists.osgeo.org
>> Cc: Stacey Ellis; Michael Treichler; Michele Tobias
>> Subject: [California] Planning for Exhibits, help needed
>>
>> Howdy chapter,
>>
>> Just got done talking with the OSGeo marketing committee. Good news
is
>> the budget is looking good to help us get all the materials we need
to
>> exhibit all over the State this coming year.
>>
>> However there is much work to be done and I could use some help.
>> We've got the basics of materials listed:
>> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Exhibition_Pack
>>
>> In anticipation of the AAG in Vegas in March where a bunch of us UCD
>> folks will be tabling at we need to get moving and get the larger
> items
>> ordered in January, ie table skirt, banner etc.
>>
>> 1. I plan to go get some quotes on stuff this week but if anyone else
>> knows of some vendors please chime in.
>>
>> 2. The designs aren't quite done yet, all we have is the new logo, it
>> hasn't been set into item specific sizes yet, etc if someone has
> talent
>> and time it would save us money that can be spent elsewhere.
>>
>> 3. We need to attain additional funding for our exhibit to pay for
>> materials(the booth is 1/2 paid for already by OSGeo). I'm estimating
> we
>> need to raise $2000 for the AAG, $250 for CGS and an unknown amount
> for
>> other conferences this year. In order to do this we need some sort of
>> letter asking for sponsorship. I think we can offer some type of
>> visibility, ie company name and logo at the booth in exchange but
>> someone needs to draft a letter to work with.
>>
>> 4.Of course that also means we need the names/numbers/email of some
>> companies to ask for sponsorship. I plan to ask O'Reilly Books,
anyone
>> else have any ideas? Companies that are not already sponsors of
OSGeo.
>> http://www.osgeo.org/content/sponsorship/sponsors.html
>>
>> I've started a list of other conferences we probably want to do in
> 2009
>> and annually, please feel free to add.
>> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/California#Events
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Alex
>>





Warning:
Information provided via electronic media is not guaranteed against defects including translation and transmission errors. If the reader is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this information in error, please notify the sender immediately.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: January_2009_Sponsorhsip_Letter.pdf
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 15559 bytes
Desc: January_2009_Sponsorhsip_Letter.pdf
Url : http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/california/attachments/20090112/2237c89c/January_2009_Sponsorhsip_Letter-0001.obj