[OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G Handbook - Financial expectations

[Venkatesh Raghavan]

I do not think we need to select a "budget venue".
Wonderful venues (perhaps, better than what we have seen thus far)
are available at a lower price in low-income countries.

I do not talk of any compromise on "core items" expected in
FOSS4G conferences. Is video streaming a "core item" which
was only recently possible in FOSS4G conferences?
If we say that this is a "core item", that is as good as
saying that FOSS4G conferences will be organized only in
OECD countries.

Venka


On 9/10/2016 5:29 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
> 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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