[OSGeo-Conf] Fwd: FOSS4G North America 2013
Cameron Shorter
cameron.shorter at gmail.com
Mon Aug 6 13:35:28 PDT 2012
Daniel,
Any progress on YTD information?
David,
I'm +0 on OSGeo acting as a financial backstop to FOSS4GNA based upon
Daniel's comments so far. I'll change to +1 after a stronger statement
from Daniel re OSGeo's financial viability.
Re: "We would request that some percentage of any revenue turned over to
OSGeo will be ear marked for future FOSS4GNA events."
I think this is a valid request, but think that in order to avoid
disappointment over misinterpretation later, I suggest that there should
be a clearer statement about this request. By "certain percentage" are
you referring to 10% or 90% or "providing financial backstop" to future
events? Is this request extending to codesprints in NA or similar that
you would like to see OSGeo sponsor?
On 06/08/12 23:59, David William Bitner wrote:
> Hey all, thanks for the support so far. Do you think there is a chance
> that we could get closure on having a recommendation prior to the
> August 9th Board Meeting?
>
> Cheers!
>
> David
>
> On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 6:41 AM, Daniel Morissette
> <dmorissette at mapgears.com <mailto:dmorissette at mapgears.com>> wrote:
>
> 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>
> <mailto: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 <tel:%2B61%20%280%292%208570%205050>
> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254 <tel:%2B61%20%280%29419%20142%20254>
>
> Think Globally, Fix Locally
> Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
> http://www.lisasoft.com
>
>
>
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>
>
> --
> Daniel Morissette
> http://www.mapgears.com/
> Provider of Professional MapServer Support since 2000
>
>
>
>
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>
>
> --
> ************************************
> David William Bitner
>
>
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--
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
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