[OSGeo-Conf] Fwd: FOSS4G North America 2013

[Daniel Morissette]

Hi Paul, Cameron,

I'll try to update the YTD info in the budget in the next couple of 
days, but short answer is that thanks to the big surplus from the Denver 
FOSS4G our current financial status is not bad, even taking into account 
zero revenues from FOSS4G 2013 which is what we were expecting anyway.

That being said, I agree with Cameron that we need to be careful with 
our commitments towards regional events as we could not support losses 
on multiple events on the same year for instance. We need to play that 
role, but we have to measure and manage the risk properly. I don't think 
his questions are too alarmist at all. I'd have the same ones.

Daniel



On 12-08-01 7:57 AM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>
>
> On 1/08/2012 7:34 AM, David William Bitner wrote:
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 3:54 PM, Paul Ramsey <pramsey at opengeo.org
>> <mailto:pramsey at opengeo.org>> wrote:
>>
>>     You're not on the board yet :) stop worrying about these quotidian
>>     details...
>>
>
> Paul, I'm pretty sure you are saying this tongue in cheek, but it is a
> valid comment, so I'll reply anyway.
>
> We, the OSGeo Conference committee, should be assessing the full impact
> of these types of financial requests, and then recommending a course of
> action to the board, along with our reasons for our decision. The board
> should have enough information from our recommendation to vote without
> needing to do further research.
>
> Hence we should be providing:
> * Potential financial risk, including total exposure, also described as
> a percentage of OSGeo working capital.
> * Probability of risk
>
> We should also be taking into account that what we provide for one
> regional event, we should be providing for other regional events too.
> OSGeo might have enough capital to back one regional conference, but
> does OSGeo have enough working capital to back 5regional conference at
> one time?
>
> It is possible I might be seen to being alarmist, but I've just been
> helping Beijing decide to cancel foss4g 2012, which someone would have
> lost a lot of money on, and I was also chairing foss4g 2009 in the year
> the Global Financial Crisis hit (and which only just made a mild profit,
> after some nail biting time when we thought we were going to be running
> at a loss).
>
>>     I'm pretty sure the budget information is on the wiki
>>     http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_Budget_2012
>>     However you'd have to get YTD info directly from the Treasurer
>>     (DanMo).
>>
>
> Daniel, any chance you could provide an update on the OSGeo financial
> position?
>
>>
>>     I'd guesstimate the largest potential loss for the conference in the
>>     $20K-$30K range, depending on venue cost, the assumption being you
>>     sign contracts and pony up deposits, then cancel the event, thereby
>>     maximizing your expenses and zeroing out your revenue. It seems
>>     unlikely that OSGeo will rise or fall on that.
>>
>
>
>>
>>
>> As is detailed in the original message, we have a maximum venue
>> liability of $75,000 at one month out from the conference date (our
>> food minimum), 3 months out = $56,250, 6 months out = $37,500, 9
>> months out = $18,750. We have no room block liabilities.  There, of
>> course, will be other expenditures along the way (see the budget
>> attached in the original email), but the venue costs are by far the
>> most significant costs here.
>>
>> David
>
> David, I suspect that worst case scenario would be a decision to cancel
> the conference after looking at early bird registrations and making the
> decision that the conference will not go ahead. I assume early bird will
> be ~ 3 months before the conference? So maximum liability would be ~ $56K?
>
> That said, I think that FOSS4G-NA has excellent prospects, based upon
> the experience of the team, and success of past events.
>
> --
> Cameron Shorter
> Geospatial Solutions Manager
> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>
> Think Globally, Fix Locally
> Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
> http://www.lisasoft.com
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Conference_dev mailing list
> Conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev
>


-- 
Daniel Morissette
http://www.mapgears.com/
Provider of Professional MapServer Support since 2000