[Qgis-psc] UK QGIS user group

Tue Feb 11 03:25:41 PST 2014

Hi Simon,

Thanks for your email.  I have CCd the QGIS psc and community lists as
there are ongoing discussions in the former about this subject.  

Raising funding for the QGIS UK User group and Core QGIS project is a great
idea.  The UK user group is doing an excellent job of promoting
collaboration and knowledge sharing within similar public sector
organisations.  The QGIS Core Project also benefits greatly from donations
which it uses for many things, some of which include facilitating developer
conferences (two per year) and paying its ongoing infrastructure costs (e.g.
hosting).  

However, I believe that inviting sponsorship from companies may affect the
independence of the UK User Group which is, at present, an independent group
driven by its users.  If the user group is to be driven by sponsorship money
then a set of clear and transparent guidelines should be put in place
publically (such as the ones used at qgis.org
<http://www.qgis.org/en/site/getinvolved/governance/sponsorship/sponsorship.
html> ) to clearly describe what sponsors get in return for their money.  

I believe there are two steps for a longer-term and more sustainable
approach, both of which are funded by the users themselves:

1.       Short-term:  Charge a nominal fee on user-group tickets.

a.       £15-20 per ticket would more than cover the cost of catering.

b.      There already appears to be the infrastructure in place to allow
OSGeo UK to handle the money.

c.       Attendees suggest / vote where any surplus funds are donated
(during the meeting).

The advantages of this first option are its simplicity and the fact that
events are contained in terms of funding.  All those who paid in money are
present to have their say of where any excess cash goes.  The main
disadvantage is having limited spending power (compared with option 2
below).  

2.       Long-term:  Charge user group members an annual subscription

a.       Change membership to group members (e.g. £100 per year).

b.      Funds cover X user group meets per year. 

c.       Members can vote on how additional funds should be spent.

d.      I believe this is more aligned with the Swiss model

Although harder to implement and manage, this model would give the user
group the ability to fund significant features / enhancements / bug fixes in
QGIS which is exactly the position that the Swiss user group are presently
enjoying.  

Lets focus on continuing to be a growing, high quality and independent user
group.  

Kind regards,

Pete

Peter Wells

Lutra Consulting
23 Chestnut Close, Burgess Hill, RH15 8HN
www.lutraconsulting.co.uk
Tel:  +44 (0)1444 848012
Mob:  +44 (0)7704 781683
SIP:  1507403 at sipgate.co.uk

From: qgis uk [mailto:qgis.uk at gmail.com] 
Sent: 10 February 2014 11:46
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: UK QGIS user group

Dear sir or madam, 

As an organisation that offers either consultancy, training or technical
support for QGIS here in the UK, I would like to make you aware of the UK
QGIS user group and its efforts to promote QGIS as an alternative GIS
solution. We are currently looking at rising funds for the user group and
core QGIS project. 

As such we would like to invite you to make a minimum donation of £250 to
the UK QGIS user group for which your organisations logo and details will be
added to the UK QGIS user groups website, as well as having your logo placed
onto presentation slides at future QGIS meetings*. We will also promote your
QGIS services via Google+ and twitter. Your donation is in effect an
advertisement subscription and will last 12 months. QGIS usage here in the
UK is starting to grow both in the private and public sectors but as well as
within charities and with individuals. As a user for QGIS it is therefore in
your interest to see the development of this free and open-source solution
grow and usage increase.  

The UK QGIS is the main source for information on QGIS here in the UK via
its website and its growing google+ group.  The user group offers you a
prime position to advertise your services to this growing market. All
donations will be looked after by the OSgeo UK chapter, chaired by Ian
Edwards of the Met.Office and will help support future UK QGIS user group
meetings, as well as the core development of QGIS. 

Donation details 

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=36GQBC
LSH5JZ6> &hosted_button_id=36GQBCLSH5JZ6

UK QGIS website  

http://ukqgis.wordpress.com/

Future events

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/directory/?q=QGIS
<https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/directory/?q=QGIS&loc=United+Kingdom&spellchec
k=1> &loc=United+Kingdom&spellcheck=1

Please contact me if you would like to make an advertisement donation, so
that we can discuss matters further.  

If you think that you could help out the QGIS user group in other ways, such
as sponsoring future events (the South-East meeting is currently seeking
sponsorship towards catering costs), providing a venue for meetings or
offering to host the UK QGIS website then please do get in contact.  

Regards

Simon Miles 

*with the exception of the fore coming Scottish user group meetings which
has been totally funded by ThinkWhere

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