[OSGeo-Board] Spending Approvals, Money, etc

[Arnulf Christl]

On Wed, August 23, 2006 20:16, Gary Lang wrote:
> And in case I wasn't clear, OSGeo is not comprised of children. So let's
> not use child rearing techniques to manage the business of OSGeo.

:-)

In near future VisCom needs:
$500 for shirts to go to Asia (last mail by Venka, prob. all giveaways,
I'd suggest to have Venka make good use of any leftovers)
$500 for shirts at the FOSS4G (maybe people will pay / cash? i'll be
sitting in the booth and can collect it..:-) Real(!) cool would be to have
one shirt  for every conference registrant. But thats more than $500,-.
I'd be prepared to suggest this to VisCom as a good investment but I do
not because from all that I know OSGeo does not have any money to do this.
Thoughts?
$100 for shirts at EuroOSCON (booth staff, if OSGeo doesn't get it done I
will)

Booth equipment, infrastructure at both EU events are taken care of by
Tina Mena, Autodesk. Thanks a lot. Autodesk will be displayed on the
booth, so attribution is in place. There will be no additional expenses
(afaik) to OSGeo VisCom by operating the booth.

> --- Original Message ---
> From: "Gary Lang" <gary.lang at autodesk.com>
> Sent: Wed 8/23/06 2:08 pm
> To: "Frank Warmerdam (External)" <warmerdam at pobox.com>
> Cc: "board at board.osgeo.org" <board at board.osgeo.org>
> Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Board] Spending Approvals, Money, etc
>
> So OSGeo doesn't think it's been spending it's own money? That's news to
> me.

Its basically what Markus is asking: How much money is there on the OSGeo
account? From what I can see nothing, so OSGeo can also spend nothing.
Hence Franks 6k suggestions (cool, thanks for the initiative). And as it
is we (All of OSGeo) are indebted a lot to Autodesk.

> Certainly children need to experience the physical sensation of holding
> money in their hands to understand its worth.

So yes sometimes it does fell a little like OSGeo "...needs to experience
the physical sensation of holding money..." in a bank account. :-) Ideally
we get sponsoring going real soon and have some money of "our own".

Regards, Arnulf.

> At any rate, I'd like to know what the budget is I'd be sponsoring
> activities for so that I can go to finance and explain why we should
> donate the money. If it's within my quarterized budget, they'll approve.A
> list of activities should do it.
>
>
> So we need a budgeted amount. Maybe something from Jo on the OSU stuff,
> hosting for the site, travel to FOSS4G, etc.
>
> And it won't be a loan, which means it really will be OSGeo's money.
>
> Gary
>
> --- Original Message ---
> From: "Frank Warmerdam (External)" <warmerdam at pobox.com>
> Sent: Wed 8/23/06 1:44 pm
> To: "Gary Lang" <gary.lang at autodesk.com>
> Cc: "board at board.osgeo.org" <board at board.osgeo.org>
> Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Board] Spending Approvals, Money, etc
>
> Gary Lang wrote:
>> Rather than do that, let's just look at the budget and whoever eants to
>> (us included) can deposit money based on cash flow expectations.
>
> Gary,
>
> Well, I'd assume anyone else, adsk included, would be welcome to
> deposit money.
>
>> Right now, we'd end up paying you unless funcom starts getting traction.
>
> I have every expectation that funcom will have no problem raising 30 or
> 40K
> within six months.  And if we didn't, I'd be willing to take the loss
> rather than expect someone else to cover the amount.
>
>> So I am not sure what the point is. Also, I'm not sure OSGeo needs debt
>> at this stage of it's life..
>
> Well, the problem, as I see it, is that I don't feel write telling MPG
> to go ahead and spend 500 dollars on shirts when I know it will likely
> just be paid by ADSK instead of by OSGeo.   I think we need to have
> money of our own so we can treat it more seriously.  This is a bit like
> why I make my kids keep their own money, even if I pay them an allowance.
> Otherwise they are always asking me to pay for stuff without any real
> effort to balance desires off against each other to prioritize.
>
> Now it feel like we are operating in a vacuum - a vacuum that sucks
> modest, but still poorly accounted for money out of Autodesk.
>
> As for the debt issue, what are the negative ramifications of having debt?
>
> Best regards,
> --
> ---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
> I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam,
> warmerdam at pobox.com
> light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
> and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org
>
>
>
>
>

-- 
Arnulf Christl
http://www.ccgis.de