[OSGeo-Conf] Need to define rules for %age of backflow of FOSS4G surplus

[Darrell Fuhriman]

I might flip Eli’s formulation a bit — say 90% to OSGeo on the first $100k, then 50/50 thereafter, or perhaps some “bonus structure”. If the primary goal is to help OSGeo, then the incentive structure should reflect that.

As far as cost, it’s actually pretty hard to bring the cost down for a conference in the 1000-attendee size. The biggest knobs you have to turn are catering costs (i.e. don’t have food) and/or to bring in more sponsorship to subside the cost.

For most attendees, the cost of travel is the bulk of the cost of attending. So while it certainly can make a difference at the margins, I’m not sure it’s the driving factor for most people. (This would actually be an excellent question to survey past and prospective attendees — having data around this would really help our decision-making.)

FWIW, I know I’m often the lone voice in the wilderness on the topic, but this is a good case for investing in an individual, even if part time, to help find sponsorship dollars. It’s a very specific skillset, one which the LOCs may often not have, and one that would really benefit from building and maintaining long-term relationships in a way the current model of throwing all new people in the mix every year doesn’t.

More sponsorship money = more money for OSGeo and cheaper costs for attendees.

Darrell
 


> On Jan 3, 2020, at 7:15 AM, Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> We should be clear that granting permission to host a global FOSS4G comes with an expectation of returning a material surplus to OSGeo to fund all of our activities. 
> 
> Eli’s suggestion sets a formula which helps to grow the local OSGeo chapter and channels the bulk of the surplus back to OSGeo.
> 
> We may also wish to discuss how we balance the desire for a low cost of conference pass and a substantial travel grant programme to encourage accessibility with the need to generate surpluses to fund OSGeo. In the past ticket prices of $650 plus strong sponsorship have delivered surpluses of $100,000-200,000, unless we can increase conference sponsorship lower ticket prices will reduce the surplus.
> ______
> Steven
> 
> Unusual maps in strange places -  mappery.org <http://mappery.org/>
> 

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