[OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G Handbook - Financial expectations

Cameron Shorter cameron.shorter at gmail.com
Sat Sep 10 01:29:24 PDT 2016


Hi Venka,

I think that you are on the right track discussing "lower budget" foss4g 
conference in "lower income" countries.

While the Global FOSS4G is firstly an international "gathering of the 
tribes" and should prioritise needs of the international attendees, we 
should recognise that historically over half the attendees come from the 
local region. I agree that it makes sense to see what can be done to 
help attract local attendees. If that means minimising costs, maybe by 
selecting budget venues etc, then a LOC should have the flexibility to 
suggest such options. However, selection budget options, should not 
translate to reducing the core items which are expected in FOSS4G 
conferences.

Warm regards, Cameron


On 10/09/2016 1:47 PM, Venkatesh Raghavan wrote:
> Hi Cameron,
>
> My comments inline.
>
> On 9/9/2016 9:05 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>> Hi Venka,
>>
>> Thanks for suggesting specific ideas to implement.
>>
>> For this email thread, I'd like to focus on your suggestions related to
>> financial expectations, so we can take it through to resolution. Namely,
>> your item 5. Defining how profit should be returned to OSGeo.
>>
>> I suggest it is safer to define budget returned to OSGeo as a percentage
>> of profit. As profit closely aligns with number of attendees, profit
>> will be larger for larger events. Europe and US have historically
>> attracted larger attendance than "Rest of World" and hence will return
>> larger profit. As such, OSGeo should expect to earn less in "Rest of
>> World" years.
>
> Yes, I agree with above. However "Rest of the World" include only 
> low-income countries and not high-income countries like Australia, 
> Japan, Korea etc. FOSS4G Conferences in low-income countries may spend 
> less (lower venue and food costs) and also earn less compared to events
> in Europe and North America.
>
>> I thought the RFP defined an expected budget to be returned to OSGeo
>> under conservative estimates, but I can't find reference to it. (Maybe
>> someone else can point to it).
>>
>> For management of special interest programs and sponsorship, I suggest
>> refer to the email thread "FOSS4G Simplicity" started by Eli Adam,
>> suggesting the be coordinated outside of the FOSS4G LOC (Like the
>> academic track).
>
> I agree to making thinks easier and simpler coordinating Academic Track,
> Awards, Travel Grants outside the LoC.
>
> Best
>
> Venka
>
>>
>> On 9/09/2016 10:03 AM, Venkatesh Raghavan wrote:
>>> My Comments inline.
>>>
>>> On 9/9/2016 7:40 AM, Steven Feldman wrote:
>>>> Maria
>>>>
>>>> Nice image, what are you suggesting in terms of the RfP? ______
>>>> Steven
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> On 8 Sep 2016, at 22:03, Maria Antonia Brovelli
>>>>> <maria.brovelli at polimi.it> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> <equity.jpg>
>>>>>
>>>>> Dear Cameron I prefer to take into account the differences among
>>>>> countries. We want to elicit people developing and using open
>>>>> source and we want to walk all together toward this result.
>>>>> Equality often is not the best choice. Best regards Maria
>>>
>>> +1 for Maria's suggestion.
>>>
>>> I would suggest the following;
>>>
>>> 1) There was some comment on issue of too many people
>>> requesting for free conference passes.
>>> We need to clearly decide a guideline for offering free passes.
>>> Free passes only offered to main Workshop Trainer, Keynote speakers and
>>> student volunteers? Apart from that *no one* gets a free pass.
>>>
>>> 2) continue the discounted conference fee model for
>>> low-income countries. This model has been successfully
>>> used in FOSS4G-2015
>>>
>>> 3) Offer Travel support only for participants who are
>>> have their presentation accepted at the FOSS4G conference.
>>>
>>> 4) Are we considering live streaming in future FOSS4G events?
>>> In that case, request local chapters to organize local "FOSS4GFest"
>>> during the duration of the main FOSS4G Conference and
>>> take advantage of watching the live-streaming along with
>>> the local community members who are unable to physically make it
>>> to the FOSS4G event.
>>>
>>> 5) Consider recommending LoC to return a minimum fixed amount
>>> of profit to OSGeo. Taking into account, that OSGeo annual
>>> budget for 2015 is $75,000, we could consider having $50K-$60K
>>> returned from the profit to OSGeo foundation when FOSS4G is
>>> organized in high-income countries and $25K-$30K when FOSS4G
>>> is organized in low-income countries (they can retain part of
>>> the profit for organizing events to grow local communities, but
>>> should submit a budget report in subsequent FOSS4G conferences
>>> as to how the profits were used). This will help the foundation to
>>> sustain the "Travel Grant", "Student Award" and "Code Sprint" at
>>> FOSS4G events.
>>>
>>> 6) If the LoC of FOSS4G event is able to generate more profit
>>> that stated in item 5 above, let them have a say in planning
>>> how such "extra" profit will be used in future.
>>>
>>> 7) Consider a upper cap on the conference registration fee.
>>> I would suggest $100/day of conference event when organized
>>> in high-income countries. This would be much lower when FOSS4G
>>> is organized in a low-income country
>>>
>>> Best
>>>
>>> Venka
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Sent from my Samsung device
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> -------- Original message -------- From: Cameron Shorter
>>>>> <cameron.shorter at gmail.com> Date: 08/09/2016 22:53 (GMT+01:00) To:
>>>>> conference <conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org> Subject: Re:
>>>>> [OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G Handbook - Financial expectations
>>>>>
>>>>> Ok, lets start working through Steven's list one item at a time,
>>>>> starting a new email thread for each.
>>>>>
>>>>> Once we have resolution (probably concluding with a vote) we can
>>>>> finalise it in the foss4g handbook.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 8/09/2016 9:12 PM, Steven Feldman wrote:
>>>>>>> 1) Overall financial expectations re surplus and sharing of
>>>>>>> surplus with OSGeo - possibly setting slightly different
>>>>>>> expectations for RoW to NA & EU
>>>>>
>>>>> We have draft principles on Finances in the handbook here:
>>>>> https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_Handbook#Finances
>>>>> <https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_Handbook#Finances>
>>>>>
>>>>> I suggest using this existing text as the basis for guidance. I
>>>>> personally think it has the right principles in place. In
>>>>> particular, it is recommending each conference aim to hand over a
>>>>> fixed percentage of profits as surplus to OSGeo. 85% is suggested.
>>>>> I prefer this advise over the suggestion that low income countries
>>>>>  retain more profit.
>>>>>
>>>>> -- Cameron Shorter M +61 419 142 254
>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>
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-- 
Cameron Shorter
M +61 419 142 254



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