[OSGeo Oceania] Board - sharing budget doc

[Daniel Silk]

Hi Bruce

Surely not a certainty that a PCO reduces the event risk - engaging a
company would create a lot of new risks:
 - will they meet the standard we've set?
 - will they know how to engage with the community to ensure that it still
feels like a community run event and not a copy+paste corporate conference?
 - will we have to raise prices and cut back on things like our Good Mojo
program in order to mitigate the extra expense?
 - we would absolutely need to meet sponsorship and registration targets,
rather than enjoying some elasticity because of our lean expenses

There has certainly been a lot of volunteer effort going into these events
but that's an absolutely fantastic aspect to them. It's a time consuming
experience but a rewarding one. I hope that all of the organisations that
have been so willing to support this effort will also (continue) to provide
in-kind employee time so that it's less dependent on volunteer time.

Regardless, I don't understand why we would struggle to obtain a
competitive quote from a PCO if we released this information.

Cheers
Daniel
Conference Chair - FOSS4G SotM Oceania 2019


On Tue, Aug 20, 2019 at 8:47 PM Bruce Bannerman <
bruce.bannerman.osgeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi John,
>
> For FOSS4G-2009 we used a Professional Conference Organising (PCO) company
> to help us put the event together.
>
> This proved to be very helpful to the LOC in getting the event organised
> and run smoothly.
>
> I would recommend this approach in future events as it reduces the event
> risk and the LOC volunteer load considerably.
>
> There are of course costs involved...
>
> I don’t know if this factor is included in the information that you have
> below.
>
> I do know that PCO treat their budgets as intellectual property that must
> be protected. Therefore, this is a situation where we need to be careful
> with what is made public.
>
> In addition, if PCO costs are not included in the budget info below,
> making the budget public may also be detrimental to us obtaining a suitable
> competitive quote should we decide to use a PCO later.
>
> Therefore, I recommend not making this specific information publicly
> available.
>
> By all means use a process that makes the budget info available to
> registered potential bidders via other means.
>
> My 2c.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Bruce
>
>
> On 20 Aug 2019, at 17:18, John Bryant <johnwbryant at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi OO board,
>
> I think it would be helpful for those considering a proposal for 2020 to
> have access to the 2018 budget. I've prepared a redacted version that
> removes transaction data, and any specific references to people or
> companies, in the interest of privacy. But I still think it contains a
> wealth of useful information to future event organisers.
>
> You can see this version here (login required):
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vBpexZ4wTbpmQMENEePEj6SYWjqPbfNxOE_5EBAK9HY
>
> Rather than provide it privately to those who ask, I'd rather open it up
> to the public... I see this as 1) more fair & transparent, and 2)
> significantly easier to manage. Do you see any issues with sharing this
> document with the public?
>
> Cheers
> John
>
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