[Marketing] FOSDEM 2014 material: request for refund

[Eli Adam]

On Wed, Jul 29, 2015 at 1:50 AM, Anne Ghisla <a.ghisla at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 28 Jul 2015 14:28:30 +0100
> Jo Cook <jocook at astuntechnology.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Anne,
>>
>> I assume that the business cards and fliers can't be re-used, or is
>> it just that you paid for them out of your own money and would like
>> to recoup this? I'm inclined to agree with Cameron that this sort of
>> expenditure should be agreed in advance because otherwise OSGeo could
>> end up with all sorts of requests for refunds and run out of money.
>
> Hi Jo, to answer your question, all flyers were handed out during the
> conference, and less than 20 generic OSGeo business cards were left. I
> paid them with my own money as it was the fastest lane to get the
> material ready in time, but I see it as an expense for OSGeo. My hotel
> and travel costs remain on my own budget.
>
> On a wider perspective, I would be glad if OSGeo supports this kind of
> expense, I see it as an investment. Giving away flyers at conferences
> that are not our own means a lot of positive publicity. Most of the
> people who visited OSGeo stand had no idea of our existence!

I agree that this is a great use of money!  I think that we should do
everything we can to spread OSGeo laptop stickers, t-shirts, flyers,
and anything else across the globe.  Also, anything to support people
like you who are doing this work of promoting OSGeo (which still
included spending personal funds - hotel, travel, etc) is a great
idea.  I'm not a Marketing Committee member but hope that one day this
type of request is routine and easy and that it facilitates numerous
people spreading OSGeo knowledge and promotion over all geographic
areas.  A key OSGeo asset is dedicated knowledgeable members in all
corners of the world, however, we do need to facilitate and enable
them for the most benefit.

>
> My proposal for the future procedure is that marketing budget has a
> dedicated section for consumables. Therefore it is impossible that all

I've argued for this as well.  I've even been given suggestions of how
to go through the process of seeing if the committee is willing to
adopt that.  Doing it has long be on my to-do list but I've become
more involved with the conference committee and haven't gotten to this
yet.  Maybe someone else will undertake that project?  If someone
wants to work on this, I would be willing to help.


> OSGeo money (or even only marketing money) ends up in flyers.
> The request for approval could ideally be done at least a month before,
> with answer in one week from the committee with a simple majority (or
> with three classes, depending on the planned expense: like for example,
> one positive vote for expenses less than X euros, simple majority from
> X to Y euros, unanimity for over Y euros).
>
> Thank you all for moving discussion forward. I hope that my first case
> will make future requests clearer and smoother.

I mildly agree with Cameron's concerns about proper process.  One way
to avoid that is to just say, "No, don't ask the Marketing Committee
but we support the Board reimbursing you."

Best regards, Eli


>
> Cheers,
>
> Anne
> --
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Aghisla
>
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