[Oceania-Board] 2024-2025 budget

[John Bryant]

Hi board,

The 2024-2025 financial year (FY25) begins on 1 July.

It would be good to move the FY25 budget forward, ideally we can approve it
in May but I'm sure there will be some discussion required. Perhaps we can
discuss in this thread over the next couple of weeks and put it on the
agenda for further discussion at the May board meeting?

My ambition with this is to:

   - come up with a realistic set of numbers we can use to guide spending
   decisions in the upcoming financial year
   - set targets for income, community investment, and ultimately, a
   surplus to help keep us solvent
   - provide clear and visible financial targets and priorities to the
   community

Can you please review the attached PDF and/or the Google Sheet
<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gRWZXt1bZqTqNMf5sr7Ff5dH4Sp_Nabe4QoZHPPPpmw/edit#gid=61568483>?
I've listed several questions that I hope will help us move it forward.

Your comments and questions please!

Thanks
John

On Fri, 29 Mar 2024 at 16:15, John Bryant <johnwbryant at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> We discussed at the February board meeting that we should get moving on a
> budget for next year. I want to kick off a discussion towards hopefully
> having a first draft within the next few weeks, and a final draft for
> approval in May.
>
> I have a sheet here
> <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gRWZXt1bZqTqNMf5sr7Ff5dH4Sp_Nabe4QoZHPPPpmw/edit#gid=0> with
> the current year projected and actual amounts for context.
>
> For now, do you have any specific items on your wish list for next year?
>
> I have a few suggestions and questions:
>
>    - *Distinct "Operational" & "Community Investment" expense categories*.
>    By doing this, we make sure we allocate enough to keep the lights on, and
>    then we have better sight of what we can afford to invest in community
>    programs.
>    - *Separate grants and sponsorship*. They're accounted for separately
>    in Xero and I think it caused some confusion this year when we overspent on
>    the combined item. We ultimately increased the budget amount but for a time
>    the Grants committee was unsure if they should hit pause. By separating
>    these, I think we add clarity.
>    - *Remove "Special Interest Groups"?* We don't really have any SIGs
>    (OSM SIG has never been active, QGIS SIG wound up in June 2022). I still
>    think we should make these kinds of investments in OSM and QGIS community
>    groups of course, but maybe we do it under sponsorship and grants line
>    items?
>    - *TGP:* At the last board meeting there was talk of ~10k for the
>    Travel Grant Program, is this the right amount? It sounds like the Hobart
>    conference may have about $5000 to add to this, depending on sponsorship
>    (Alex correct me if I've got this wrong!).
>
> Also I think we'll need to make a projection on the conference surplus,
> perhaps this is an item for discussion at the next board meeting on the 3rd.
>
> Your thoughts?
>
> Cheers
> John
>
>
>
>
>
>
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