[OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G-NA -- request for financial records

[María Arias de Reyna]

On Fri, Jun 15, 2018 at 5:26 AM, Rob Emanuele <rdemanuele at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> My understanding of what is happening here is this: a LocationTech
> employee mis-spoke about the organization's intentions about reporting
> financial data, which was never a requirement put on the organization nor
> the intention of the organization. The result has been a set of valid
> questions, which should be answered clearly.
>
> I can confirm that the FOSS4G NA core committee never required the Eclipse
> Foundation or LocationTech to report financial data as part of brining them
> on as the logistics organizer.
>
> Moving forward, if the community decides that it's right and fair that the
> organization receiving sponsor money and taking ticket money for the
> conference report on a specific level of P/L data, then that requirement
> can be put into place and clearly communicated before any commitments are
> made. We (the core committee) had asked LocationTech if it was possible
> to report financial data in past years, and they politely declined for the
> reasons listed (I believe fairly), and we dropped the issue. This could
> represent a failing on our part to uphold the ideal of transparency, and if
> that is the case, then this misunderstanding is on us. One could argue we
> should have forced the issue, and if LocationTech had not acquiesced, we
> should have not used them as the LO. I was not of that opinion at the time
> and remain that way, though I understand and respect why transparency is
> important, and could very possibly be wrong. However, I believe
> LocationTech ran great conferences with honest and hard effort, for the
> good of the community. I appreciate the work they put in, while
> simultaneously hoping that the next conference committee, LO, and the core
> committee can do better in the future.
>
> Thanks,
> Rob
>
>

Hi,

If I can give my 2 cents:

As a member of the community I would like to know all budgets. Not only
from events, but from everything. This way, I will be sure that money is
well spent. And, if I see something that could be improved, I can help in
improving it. I like transparency in all my teams, my own company included.
Maybe I won't read all of them, but, if I suspect something is not
efficient enough, I can take a look and improve it. Or point any nasty
thing, if there is such a thing.

As someone who wants to run conferences, I would like to know all budgets
so I have input about the possible problems and outcomes that can surprise
me when organizing one. If every LOC has to run based on their own
experience, we will be reinventing the wheel every year.

And finally, as someone who has run several conferences as chair, I know
that it is not easy to close the final budget right after the conference. I
know that the bigger the conference is, the more it gets delayed. I
wouldn't expect any reliable final data until three or four months after
the conference ends. And that is if and only if the organizers keep working
right after the conference closes. Which, in the case of volunteer work,
that usually don't happen. I was once chair of a biannual event (every two
years) and got some income money still running into the bank account from
the previous (two years ago!) event while we were already running our own.
So, yes, this things take time, specially when it is based on voluntary
work, which is not usually constant.

So, if possible, I would like to ask all FOSS4G to be transparent and
publish all their data. That will help us also in generating statistics of
what are the best approaches and strategies for getting better conferences.
Like the discussion on twitter about giving discounts to speakers or not.
Does it really push better speakers to the front? Or it  is just money
"wasted"? Is it better to invest on the TGP directly? Is it better to
invest on... Without data, it is only guessing and wishful thinking. So,
please please please, keep the data running, it is always useful.

Said this, on this particular situation: if LocationTech haven't promised
any budget disclosure, we can kindly ask them, but not force them into
anything. What we can do is impose a rule that says something like "If you
want to use the FOSS4G name, you should comply with some community rules
like transparent budgets.".

And I was completely out of the conversation, so I am trusting all of you
about this situation in particular. That's why I am so quiet about what
happened to FOSS4GNA: I have no first hand info.

Have a happy weekend!
María
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