[Fundraising] First Meeting - May 9th

[Frank Warmerdam]

Michael P. Gerlek wrote:
  > A couple thoughts/comments:
> 
> - I like having silver/gold/triple-platiunum levels, as it gives
> companies something specific to aim for, an idea of what a "good" amount
> would be.  That said, I'm curious about your trinary-biased choice of
> dollar amounts...  :-)

Michael,

The amounts were designed for each division into 2/3 and 1/3 portions.
Other than that, the 3/9/27 points seemed convenient scalings though I'm
not web to the amounts.

> - you mention "general use" funds for "foundation wide" needs.  What
> does this include?  Is it for things like a paid director, hosting fees,
> etc, or something else you had in mind...?

I would like to see us able to explain this more clearly to potential
sponsors, but it would include things like a paid executive directory,
hosting feeds, booths, printing for promotional materials, legal, etc.
Basically anything that isn't project specific, including providing
services that are shared by all projects.

> - can/should PSCs develop "wish-lists" for potential sponsors?  I'm
> thinking something like "Project Foo wishes for $5K to add a WXS
> interface".

I am not adverse to this, though it wasn't my intention that sponsors
would identify a specific item on which projects are expected to spend
their sponsorship contribution.  But if a project can identify a project
they would like to do, and the funding they require to proceed it could
encourage sponsors to sign up.

In the case of GDAL my intention was to initially focus on using funding
to provision the project with a maintenance/support developer on a limited
time contract basis rather than identifying particular new features that
would be added.  But other projects might take other approaches.

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