[Fundraising] Shirt funding

[Frank Warmerdam]

Tyler Mitchell wrote:
> Hi all,
> I know the FunCom committee meeting didn't really happen this week, but 
> I want to bring up one item that I believe needs some fairly quick 
> resolution: how do we order more shirts?  I know, logistically how it 
> happens, but need to know how to financially handle it.  We need to have 
> a long term process set up to handle ordering more shirts as needed.
> 
> For example we have some new members who are helping at OSCON who do not 
> have OSGeo shirts and really should have one for managing the booth and 
> building our image.  Similarly they couldn't really buy them or order 
> them personally even if they wanted to (due to high setup costs).
> 
> Can FunCom (or Board) give me and VisCom some direction on how to handle 
> this?  If I knew there was a budget and a way to expense the set up and 
> delivery, I would gladly help organise this.  But as it is I don't know 
> where to start on the finance end.  I think our budget covers it off 
> nicely, but how/when do we (VisCom) get to start spending some more?  
> Are all the items on the budget on hold until FunCom starts working?
> 
> We have a similar issue around reproducing brochures, banners and 
> eventually for booth equipment rental.  These are all items that we need 
> to get some movement on soon.  I know it's likely too late to meet the 
> needs for OSCON, but I would sure like to try and at least have the 
> process nailed down for the next conference.

Tyler,

I don't think this is a fundraising committee issue.  My suggestion is to
work out what purchase viscom wants to make (re: shirts) with some reasonable
degree of detail with regard to costs, and pass a motion in viscom to do
the purchase (perhaps also with some indication of how the shirts will be
used).  Then bounce this up to the board to authorize for the next board
meeting.  Once authorized by the board, it is up to the "spender" and
the treasurer (Gary) to work out the logistical act of payment.

In a rush any officer can go to Gary with a request for money up to about
$10K I think, but for substantial amounts of money we really prefer to get
authorizations from the committee wanting to spend the money from it's
budget, and for now from the board.

Eventually I imagine committees will be able to spend from their budget
without a detailed request to the board as long as it all seems routine
to the treasurer.

I'm not sure what we have in the bank now, you would need to ask Gary.
I think we might have the money from CCGIS (or the German users group?)
intended for the first batch of shirts.

PS. I personally think having shirts for volunteers working in the booths
or otherwise representing OSGeo is a great, and high leverage use of funds.
If we are happy with the shirts it would be nice to order a fair sized
batch of them far enough in advance that we don't pay rush fees.

Best regards,
-- 
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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    | President OSGF, http://osgeo.org