[OSGeo Finance] Budget - how to reach closure for the board?

[Ken Tamura]

Here are my suggestions:

1.  Review only the expense areas that are variable (the rest are fixed and have less ability to adjust).  In these areas we should confirm that these are reasonable and necessary amounts.

2.  The budget should factor in the FOSS4G event revenue AND expenses.  Based upon past performance, this generally nets a profit.  However, maybe conservatively this nets event.  Is there a committee for this event that can provide an estimate?

3.  Revenue forecasting targets are challenging, but necessary.  Generally Board members are responsible, along with the ED, for raising funds during the year.  They will need to affirm this role.

4.  One revenue stream that has not been considered is government grants.  I have to believe that this could be a revenue stream that covers more than one year.  Someone will need to commit time to write up the applications.  Maybe this is a focus this year to get at least one grant, however with no budget forecast of revenue this year.



Ken Tamura
Geospatial Solutions of Autodesk, Inc.
415-547-2114 (w)    415-299-1704 (c)

-----Original Message-----
From: finance-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:finance-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Frank Warmerdam (External)
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 12:14 PM
To: Finance List
Subject: [OSGeo Finance] Budget - how to reach closure for the board?

Folks,

The board will be meeting Dec 12th, and I think we need to recommend a
2009 budget to them at that meeting.

I have reviewed the budget and added one additional supporting (10K) and
one additional associate (3K) sponsorship to bring the budget essentially
into balance.  This means, overall, we need to bring in $63K in new
sponsorship in 2009 (an aggressive goal).

Howard is talking with SAC about what SAC might want in addition, or instead
of, the proposed $2500 for a new beefy server.  I'm not sure what will come of
that, but it seems unlikely we will have a detailed proposal in the next
few days.

Marketing has not presented any sort of budget proposal for how their proposed
$50K will be spent, though they are discussing it.

Ultimately I think it is the Finance committees job to ensure that
predictable expenses in the budget are realistic but that it is up to
the board to set policy like balancing SAC vs. Marketing spending - or
whether we will assume additional sponsorships.  So, I'm thinking we ought
to approve the budget as it stands now at:

   http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_Budget_2009

Before calling for a motion on this, I'd like to hear thoughts from others
on the Finance Committee.

Best regards,
--
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent

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