[Oceania-Board] 2024-2025 budget

Sun Apr 21 18:03:56 PDT 2024

I'm really glad to see Alex and John engaging on the very important topic
of financial probity. I probably shouldn't have raised my hand as
treasurer, considering my lack of experience and annoying work commitments,
but I'm glad to be more involved in the process - I'm learning a lot
already.

On Mon, 22 Apr 2024, 08:53 Alex Leith via Oceania-Board, <
oceania-board at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:

> Hi John
>
> For this FY, here's some comments:
>
>    - I requested travel grant funding from OSGeo a week ago for $3,500
>    USD. That should be received this FY, I expect.
>    - The other hard to forecast difference is sponsorship and ticket
>    sales for the conference, which should start happening this FY. I'm hoping
>    to start reaching out to potential sponsors, and some organisations like
>    spending money in the current FY. I expect to have some money flowing in
>    soon.
>    - I want to note that since our term deposits matured in December, and
>    we received ~$1,800, we haven't now got any cash earning interest. I think
>    it would be a good idea to put money away in a 12 month term deposit, as we
>    can now achieve 4.75% interest, so on $50 k, that's over $2,000 of free
>    money!
>    - We perhaps need a budget line for conference 2024, since we have
>    paid the deposit for the venue at $14 k.
>
> For the 2025 budget:
>
>    - The $25 k surplus is quite conservative. I think we'll do better
>    than that for the conference, but it's nice to be conservative in budgeting!
>    - We have earmarked $20 k for the TGP for the Hobart conference. With
>    $5 k coming from OSGeo, that leaves a worst case of $15 k from OO. (This
>    will be topped up by the conference with a portion of sponsorship going to
>    TGP.)
>
> And just a note that we should be doing budgeting with the balance sheet
> in mind too. We currently have $60 k in the bank, which is unusually low,
> mostly because we have started paying expenses for the 2024 conference, but
> haven't got any income yet.
>
> Now it's a fairly minor thing, but I would prefer to have a separate line
> for conference income and conference expenses. We sometimes have smaller
> regional events, and it's good to see the difference in expense/income per
> event.
>
> And one of those boring reminders too that as Board Directors, we need to
> remember that we are all individually accountable for the financial health
> of the organisation, we can't delegate that responsibility to others, so
> please engage with this important work and make sure you understand it!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alex
>
> [image: image.png]
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> On Sun, 21 Apr 2024 at 12:58, John Bryant via Oceania-Board <
> oceania-board at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:
>
>> 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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>> Oceania-Board mailing list
>> Oceania-Board at lists.osgeo.org
>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/oceania-board
>>
>
>
> --
> *Alex Leith*
> m: +61 419 189 050
> https://auspatious.com
> _______________________________________________
> Oceania-Board mailing list
> Oceania-Board at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/oceania-board
>
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