[Oceania-Board] 2024-2025 budget

Mon Apr 22 00:12:44 PDT 2024

Oh, I thought we agreed on $20 k like last year?

Apologies if I remembered wrong.

Was the $10 k you thought we agreed including the OSGeo money?

*Alex Leith*
m: +61 419 189 050
https://auspatious.com

On Mon, 22 Apr 2024 at 5:11 PM, John Bryant <johnwbryant at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks everyone, great comments so far.
>
> Alex, one question, you said "We have earmarked $20 k for the TGP for the
> Hobart conference"... all I'm aware of is a discussion at the March
> board meeting where the outcome was: "Intent to allocate 10k to TGP
> (pending FY24/25 budget discussion and approval)"
>
> Where does the $20k figure come from?
>
> Cheers
> John
>
> On Mon, 22 Apr 2024 at 09:04, Jonah Sullivan <jonahsullivan79 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> 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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