[FOSS4G-Oceania] * Important - budget update *

Sun Sep 2 00:30:10 PDT 2018

Its good to see the budget summary info, thanks John.

I agree with Cameron principles and the seed fund is important, but I would
like to see this year's events  benefit as much as possible  as well.

So as an  idea, in light of the surplus, could we  increase the discount on
the conference ticket rate for presenters. Currently the presenter ticket
is  $300.  Could we lower it to the community ticket rate $150.

A number  of the presenters already have access to sponsor  or community
ticket rates, so the impact on budget would be for approx. 10 tickets  $1500

Only  2 have actually purchased their presenter rate tickets, so I was
about  to send out reminders to the others to register.

I feel the presenters are making a very valuable contribution to the
conference, and this could be one way to demonstrate the community's
appreciation.

But I  realise this is going backwards on a decision and it will be a bit
messy offering refunds for the presenters who have registered, but I
thought it still worthwhile putting the question out there.

On Sun, Sep 2, 2018 at 8:04 AM Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks John for the summary. It will be helpful for making decisions later.
>
> Talking to the principles of how we manage the surplus, I think:
>
> * Honour our agreement with SSSI, and ensure we continue to make our
> maximum budgeted surplus and SSSI is paid the agreed 50% of this for the
> risk they took in backing us.
>
> * The rest of the surplus should be put toward community value, whatever
> we decide that to be.
>
> * We should invite SSSI to contribute to the discussion about how the
> surplus is spent, which might include reserving some of the surplus for
> next year.
>
> On 1/09/2018 12:44 PM, John Bryant wrote:
>
> *TL;DR: based on conservative assumptions, in a 200 attendee projected
> budget, we are currently looking at a $30k+ surplus.*
>
> Hi team,
>
> As we push towards the event (80 days to go!), I want to provide an update
> on our financial position, as I think it will be important to have this in
> the front of our minds. There will be some financial decisions to make in
> the upcoming weeks, and we need to have this as context for this decision
> making.
>
> To date, we've operated with a fairly lean approach, budgeting
> conservatively, and making only modest adjustments to our budget. In our
> agreement with SSSI, we committed to aim for a surplus of $3k-$10k, and in
> fact have consistently guided our budget to a surplus more in the $15k-$20k
> range, to accommodate our uncertainty.
>
> Despite this constraint, we've done a great job of planning an exciting &
> interesting event, and our success on this front can be measured in part by
> our significant over achievement in the sponsorship area, and the high
> probability that we'll significantly exceed our target of 150 attendees.
> So, good job, us!
>
> But my point here, rather than to congratulate, is to raise awareness that *we
> are currently sitting on a much larger than expected surplus*. I wanted
> to understand this surplus better, so I set up a new 200 attendee scenario
> in our budget worksheet
> <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14yHWdvEPxshBSBgxjc4vWgJlg0Svk8Qg0G-D3kF-siM/edit#gid=1274394515>.
> If there are any doubts whether we can reach 200, keep in mind we're
> already over 125 regos sold or committed, 11 weeks out, without even
> announcing a program or going into a heavy promotion phase.
>
> This scenario is based on what I consider to be realistic & conservative
> assumptions (*listed in the worksheet, I'll repeat them here*). I don't
> want to prejudice our future discussions by including specifics like TGP &
> videorecording in these assumptions, we need to discuss these in a separate
> thread, but I include them as examples of significant expenditures we could
> add to our budget, and still have a large surplus.
>
> *Assumptions for 200 scenario:*
> 200 conf regos
> 150 half day workshop regos
> 120 dinner tickets
> CC tickets won't be taken up as much as expected
> increase student regos
> no additional sponsorship
> increase to TGP expense
> increase to keynote travel expense
> increase to paid staff expense
> include $5000 for swag
> include $4000 for video recording
>
> Even with all of these assumptions, which I consider to be generally
> erring on the side of caution, *we are looking at a $30k+ surplus*, which
> is large. See the budget worksheet
> <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14yHWdvEPxshBSBgxjc4vWgJlg0Svk8Qg0G-D3kF-siM/edit#gid=1274394515>
> for the detailed scenario (*extra scrutiny would be very welcome*).
>
> Recall that part of our partnership agreement with SSSI is that we share
> 50% of the surplus with them, so at present we don't have the option of
> simply retaining the full surplus for future years. However, I hope we can
> open a discussion with SSSI and see if there is appetite for investing part
> of any unexpected windfall into future events. But clearly, we need to
> honour the agreement we have in place, and respect our partner's wishes on
> how they wish to proceed on this front.
>
> So, as we go forward over the next 11 weeks and careen to the finish line,
> I suggest we need to keep this budget surplus in mind. We've had many
> discussions where we've opted out of doing things because we haven't felt
> like we could justify the cost, but I argue at this point that we need to
> adjust our thinking a bit on this front. The money is coming from the
> community (sponsors and attendees), and I feel we owe it to the community
> to make wise decisions on how we spend this money, while ensuring the best
> event possible. This doesn't mean we start spending like sailors, of course
> (no offense to sailors!), but I suggest we have latitude to spend some
> money on things that will benefit the community and the event.
>
> I suggest we don't raise specific motions on expenditure in this thread,
> rather if there are specific motions arising, they should be raised in
> separate threads.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> jb
>
>
>
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>
> --
> Cameron Shorter
> Technology Demystifier
> Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
>
> M +61 (0) 419 142 254
>
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