OSGeo Budget and Money guidance for projects, committees, initiatives and events #30

New Issue

jive · 2018-12-17T11:37:16-08:00

jive commented

2018-12-17 11:37:16 -08:00

Follow up to community sprint request for clarification:

Code sprint guidelines
Event funding
Project budget
Community project financial support
Committee budget

Draft

If you have an activity you would like to pursue that is in keeping with our goals perhaps we can help?

OSGeo is focused on pursuing our vision and goals
We use OSGeo finances to enable our members to act
We do not wish to take on staff in any capacity (we have done so in the past)

TLDR: If you are just looking at OSGeo as "just another" source of funds it probably won't work out. If you are approaching as a member of our community looking to help get something off the ground we will figure out a way to make it happen!

General Approach

OSGeo prefers to be part of your financial story, rather than a sole source of funds. So consider sponsorship in addition to OSGeo funding to achieve your goals.
We do take part in joint initiatives. Keep in mind our value as a partner is our contribution of free software, and our enthusiastic community, rather than as a source of revenue.

Reimbursement of Funds

Those asking OSGeo for reimbursement of approved funds should do so in 60 days or less from time of event. OSGeo understands there may be exceptions at which point the requestor shall approach the Board and ask for additional time in order to complete submission of reimbursement

Internal

Committees

About committees:

Each committee has a mandate to pursue, in addition to our goals as an organization!
- In keeping with their budget committees may setup contracts, or start initiatives throughout the year
OSGeo requires:
- Committee follow our code of conduct
- Nominate a project officer to act on their behalf, and act as contact point
- Committee document how they are conducted (mandate, how votes work, how you can participate)
- Committee representative to attend Annual General Meeting

Budget:

Committees are provided an annual budget
- Committees request a budget in Q4
If something comes up (an opportunity or unforeseen expense) please just attend a board meeting and we can revise the budget

How it works:

While acting within their budget and mandate committees can spend money
Committee makes a motion to spend money (contract, purchase, etc...):
- meeting: motion is approved and recorded in minutes
- email: motioned is carried via email thread voting
Project officer emails treasurer with motion details (link to minuets or email thread):
- The treasurer has a couple different ways to pay on your behalf; or
- When asking the treasurer for reimbursement please do so in a timely fashion (within 60 days).

OSGeo Project

OSGeo projects are handled as a committee above:

We ask that each project nominate a project officer (to act on their behalf finanially and as a contact point) even if the roles has no further use within the project
Projects are allocated an annual budget
Project are required to follow our code of conduct, publish how they operate, and attend our annual general meeting

In addition OSGeo projects have a very specific mandate as outlined in the incubation process.

Initiatives

An initiative is started by a committee
- Cannot spend money directly, attend a committee meeting (see above)
- Many initiatives just attend one of the monthly board meetings as a quick way to operate

Examples

Travel Grant program is under the direction of the conference committee
Community projects inititive has been started by the board to promote innovation (applications are handled by the incubation committee)
Local Chapter Initiative is started by the board to pursue regional advocacy.
- Board has occasionally caught legal advice on behalf of groups forming a local chapter.
- To be effective Local Chapters are usually completely distinct legal entities incorporated in the appropriate region. As such their may be some consideration around "donating" or "sponsorship" to consider in order to be viewed legally as an independent entity.
Google Summer of Code initiative started by interested parties, attends a board meeting to kick off each year, and would request any funding required by attending a board meeting

Staff

Employees:

We do not wish to take on staff in any capacity
- We have done this in the past, and the amount time required to secure sponsorship for their continued employment distracted from our outreach mission

External

Contracts

General guidance:

Each committee has a annual budget which is published in the wiki, while you are welcome to propose work in excess of this amount keep in mind the committee will need to pursue sponsorship and additional funds.
Each committee has a mandate or objective to keep in mind, consider approaching multiple committees if appropriate
Please ensure contract has a clear list of deliverables associated with payment. Our community is enthusiastic and always has additional ideas to pursue.

Examples

The system admin committee has done a series of short term contracts focused on specific maintenance activities
For larger contracts we have the $50000 example of the marketing committee setting up an expression-of-interest to redo the website.
- The expression of interest and selection of a vendor was done in public with a range of organizations responding from around the globe
- No preference was given to community members, indeed none applied
- The community had several previous attempts to support this activity with volunteers prior to use of an an EOI process
OSGeo marketing committee has recently done a small $4500 contract for some design work

Events

Community and Outreach Events

We would rather host then sponsor
- We are not looking for marketing visibility, we want to enable you to promote the use of free software.
- Acting as a 'host' rather than sponsor gives us an opportunity to offer you a financial backstop (so if something goes wrong we can pay rather than your organizing team). We like to be careful (obviously) and like to go over a budget covering costs and expected sponsorship

If possible we would like to provide seed money for your event:

Sponsorship is often slow to arrive (often after the website is visible)
Having access to funds, or working with the osgeo treasurer, to secure a venue / event organizer / catering early in the planning process may be valuable to you?

Please keep in mind:

Each committee has a different mandate, perhaps one is in position to help your event?
- The board has a mandate to help you, please attend a board meeting, or send an email to the board list and explore options on how OSGeo can assist.
- The marketing committee has a very board outreach mandate and should often be your first stop (often with branding material for the event, and information packets for attendees)
- Local chapters often have ready to go branding material from prior events
Education events that just focus on GIS skills and education are valuable, but do not quite match our mandate. Please talk to GeoForAll about including open source use (and participation) and see if they have funds available!

About sponsors:

Sponsorship is an easy way to help raise funds for an event
- Sponsors contributing to an OSGeo event can be cross listed on the OSGeo website (this is a perk you can offer) with their total across all events for the year being used to determine their sponsorship level.
- Do consider that sponsorship is often marketing driven, so visibility of sponsors (at the event, in electronic communication, and so on...) is part of the relationship you are negotiating.

Code Sprints

Code Sprints are a passion at OSGeo - an event directly adding value to our open source projects - sign us up!

With this in mind they hit all the boxes for local events above:

We would rather host than sponsor a code-sprint:
- We are looking to enable you to run the code-sprint, rather than looking for a marketing or visibility perk
- We are looking to assume financial risk ("back stop") rather than simply hand over sponsorship money
- We like to roll profits from one code-sprint over to support the next
Budget
- We do ask for a budget upfront just to get an idea that you have thought things through
- Seed money? Can help get you funds to reserver a space? (Sponsorship often comes too late to be effective, a venue is often more expensive than an individuals bank account can support)
We really want to take on the financial risk (if sponsorship does not come through or unforeseen expense occurs).
- We value all our members, but those willing to organize have our undying gratitude. The last thing we want is something to go wrong and these individuals paying out of pocket.

Keep in mind:

We approve so many code-sprints we have code sprint guidelines to help
- Code sprints get a separate line item in the OSGeo budget as a spending priority
- We roll profits from one event over to the next to run as many code sprints as we can
Adding a code sprint to the end of a conference is not great value as a code sprint
- For outreach many attendees have left the conference already
- Even for our members those attending on behalf of their employer have probably left (due to cost involved in extra days accommodation and travel)
- Limited time reduces sprint activities to meetings and planning rather than any detailed technical work

Industry and Partner Conferences

What kind of things will we do:

We would love to speak to your attendees
- Keep in mind our speaker is contributing their own time to attend
- While we do not encourage speaker fees, conference pass, travel and accommodation costs would be appropriate.
We can often setup hands-on workshops which are of great value to your attendees
We may be able to help some of our community members attend if your event has a community area set aside in the exhibit space
We are willing to booth swap between events so you can reach our members (keep in mind we would financially supporting our event organizers to set aside an area for partners)

What kind of things won't we do:

We do not want to take a booth or sponsor your event from a marketing perspective
- asking our volunteers to pay their own way into a conference, and then spend their time doing outreach has not proven effective
- the prices of a booth at events is often priced for industry which expects a financial return based on reach customers. We are giving our software away for free and do not have the same justification for the prices asked.
Inviting us to provide a workshop for free, and then ask us to pay for the space or provide money for catering?
- If your workshops are geared towards an additional revenue stream from companies offering co-located events you probably did not mean to ask us.
- Keep in mind we provide value to your attendees and can help attract greater attendance

Follow up to community sprint request for clarification: * Code sprint guidelines * Event funding * Project budget * Community project financial support * Committee budget # Draft If you have an activity you would like to pursue that is in keeping with our goals perhaps we can help? - OSGeo is focused on pursuing our vision and goals - We use OSGeo finances to enable our members to act - We do not wish to take on staff in any capacity (we have done so in the past) TLDR: If you are just looking at OSGeo as "just another" source of funds it probably won't work out. If you are approaching as a member of our community looking to help get something off the ground we will figure out a way to make it happen! ## General Approach * OSGeo prefers to be part of your financial story, rather than a sole source of funds. So consider sponsorship in addition to OSGeo funding to achieve your goals. * We do take part in joint initiatives. Keep in mind our value as a partner is our contribution of free software, and our enthusiastic community, rather than as a source of revenue. ### Reimbursement of Funds Those asking OSGeo for reimbursement of approved funds should do so in **60 days or less from time of event**. OSGeo understands there may be exceptions at which point the requestor shall approach the Board and ask for additional time in order to complete submission of reimbursement # Internal ## Committees About committees: * Each committee has a mandate to pursue, in addition to our goals as an organization! * In keeping with their budget committees may setup contracts, or start initiatives throughout the year * OSGeo requires: * Committee follow our code of conduct * Nominate a project officer to act on their behalf, and act as contact point * Committee document how they are conducted (mandate, how votes work, how you can participate) * Committee representative to attend Annual General Meeting Budget: * Committees are provided an annual budget * Committees request a budget in Q4 * If something comes up (an opportunity or unforeseen expense) please just attend a board meeting and we can revise the budget How it works: * While acting within their budget and mandate committees can spend money * Committee makes a motion to spend money (contract, purchase, etc...): * meeting: motion is approved and recorded in minutes * email: motioned is carried via email thread voting * Project officer emails treasurer with motion details (link to minuets or email thread): * The treasurer has a couple different ways to pay on your behalf; or * When asking the treasurer for reimbursement please do so in a timely fashion (within 60 days). ## OSGeo Project OSGeo projects are handled as a committee above: * We ask that each project nominate a project officer (to act on their behalf finanially and as a contact point) even if the roles has no further use within the project * Projects are allocated an annual budget * Project are required to follow our code of conduct, publish how they operate, and attend our annual general meeting In addition OSGeo projects have a very specific mandate as outlined in the incubation process. ## Initiatives * An initiative is started by a committee * Cannot spend money directly, attend a committee meeting (see above) * Many initiatives just attend one of the monthly board meetings as a quick way to operate Examples * Travel Grant program is under the direction of the conference committee * Community projects inititive has been started by the board to promote innovation (applications are handled by the incubation committee) * Local Chapter Initiative is started by the board to pursue regional advocacy. * Board has occasionally caught legal advice on behalf of groups forming a local chapter. * To be effective Local Chapters are usually completely distinct legal entities incorporated in the appropriate region. As such their may be some consideration around "donating" or "sponsorship" to consider in order to be viewed legally as an independent entity. * Google Summer of Code initiative started by interested parties, attends a board meeting to kick off each year, and would request any funding required by attending a board meeting ## Staff Employees: * We do not wish to take on staff in any capacity * We have done this in the past, and the amount time required to secure sponsorship for their continued employment distracted from our outreach mission # External ## Contracts General guidance: * Each committee has a annual budget which is published in the wiki, while you are welcome to propose work in excess of this amount keep in mind the committee will need to pursue sponsorship and additional funds. * Each committee has a mandate or objective to keep in mind, consider approaching multiple committees if appropriate * Please ensure contract has a clear list of deliverables associated with payment. Our community is enthusiastic and always has additional ideas to pursue. Examples * The system admin committee has done a series of short term contracts focused on specific maintenance activities * For larger contracts we have the $50000 example of the marketing committee setting up an expression-of-interest to redo the website. * The expression of interest and selection of a vendor was done in public with a range of organizations responding from around the globe * No preference was given to community members, indeed none applied * The community had several previous attempts to support this activity with volunteers prior to use of an an EOI process * OSGeo marketing committee has recently done a small $4500 contract for some design work # Events ## Community and Outreach Events * We would rather host then sponsor * We are not looking for marketing visibility, we want to enable you to promote the use of free software. * Acting as a 'host' rather than sponsor gives us an opportunity to offer you a financial backstop (so if something goes wrong we can pay rather than your organizing team). We like to be careful (obviously) and like to go over a budget covering costs and expected sponsorship If possible we would like to provide seed money for your event: * Sponsorship is often slow to arrive (often after the website is visible) * Having access to funds, or working with the osgeo treasurer, to secure a venue / event organizer / catering early in the planning process may be valuable to you? Please keep in mind: * Each committee has a different mandate, perhaps one is in position to help your event? * The board has a mandate to help *you*, please attend a board meeting, or send an email to the board list and explore options on how OSGeo can assist. * The marketing committee has a very board outreach mandate and should often be your first stop (often with branding material for the event, and information packets for attendees) * Local chapters often have ready to go branding material from prior events * Education events that just focus on GIS skills and education are valuable, but do not quite match our mandate. Please talk to GeoForAll about including open source use (and participation) and see if they have funds available! About sponsors: * Sponsorship is an easy way to help raise funds for an event * Sponsors contributing to an OSGeo event can be cross listed on the OSGeo website (this is a perk you can offer) with their total across all events for the year being used to determine their sponsorship level. * Do consider that sponsorship is often marketing driven, so visibility of sponsors (at the event, in electronic communication, and so on...) is part of the relationship you are negotiating. ## Code Sprints Code Sprints are a passion at OSGeo - an event directly adding value to our open source projects - sign us up! With this in mind they hit all the boxes for local events above: * We would rather host than sponsor a code-sprint: * We are looking to enable you to run the code-sprint, rather than looking for a marketing or visibility perk * We are looking to assume financial risk ("back stop") rather than simply hand over sponsorship money * We like to roll profits from one code-sprint over to support the next * Budget * We do ask for a budget upfront just to get an idea that you have thought things through * Seed money? Can help get you funds to reserver a space? (Sponsorship often comes too late to be effective, a venue is often more expensive than an individuals bank account can support) * We really want to take on the financial risk (if sponsorship does not come through or unforeseen expense occurs). * We value all our members, but those willing to organize have our undying gratitude. The last thing we want is something to go wrong and these individuals paying out of pocket. Keep in mind: * We approve so many code-sprints we have code sprint guidelines to help * Code sprints get a separate line item in the OSGeo budget as a spending priority * We roll profits from one event over to the next to run as many code sprints as we can * Adding a code sprint to the end of a conference is not great value as a code sprint * For outreach many attendees have left the conference already * Even for our members those attending on behalf of their employer have probably left (due to cost involved in extra days accommodation and travel) * Limited time reduces sprint activities to meetings and planning rather than any detailed technical work ## Industry and Partner Conferences What kind of things will we do: * We would love to speak to your attendees * Keep in mind our speaker is contributing their own time to attend * While we do not encourage speaker fees, conference pass, travel and accommodation costs would be appropriate. * We can often setup hands-on workshops which are of great value to your attendees * We may be able to help some of our community members attend if your event has a community area set aside in the exhibit space * We are willing to booth swap between events so you can reach our members (keep in mind we would financially supporting our event organizers to set aside an area for partners) What kind of things won't we do: * We do not want to take a booth or sponsor your event from a marketing perspective * asking our volunteers to pay their own way into a conference, and then spend their time doing outreach has not proven effective * the prices of a booth at events is often priced for industry which expects a financial return based on reach customers. We are giving our software away for free and do not have the same justification for the prices asked. * Inviting us to provide a workshop for free, and then ask us to pay for the space or provide money for catering? * If your workshops are geared towards an additional revenue stream from companies offering co-located events you probably did not mean to ask us. * Keep in mind we provide value to your attendees and can help attract greater attendance

delawen was assigned by jive

2018-12-17 11:37:24 -08:00

jive commented

2018-12-27 12:54:54 -08:00

Poster

Updated project description so we can edit in place

delawen commented

2019-01-13 10:26:08 -08:00

Thanks :)

jive commented

2019-01-19 14:01:40 -08:00

Poster

I am going to add this to the meeting for review since it in part informs our budget decision making process.

jive changed title from ~~OSGeo Budget and Money guidance for projects, initiatives and committees~~ to OSGeo Budget and Money guidance for projects, committees, initiatives and events

2019-01-19 14:03:31 -08:00

tomkralidis commented

2019-01-21 08:40:13 -08:00

As per https://www.loomio.org/d/zPVNZ4js/approve-60-day-period-for-anyone-asking-osgeo-for-reimbursement-of-funds- we should add the following verbiage:

Those asking OSGeo for reimbursement of approved funds should do so in 60 days or less from time of event.

The goal here is to ensure requests for funding are:

approved
once approved, submitted in a timely fashion from time of event/transaction

The goal here is to keep reimbursement from going stale and to try to keep to budget years as close as possible. We understand there may be exceptions at which point the requestor shall approach the board/treasurer for additional time to complete submission of reimbursement

As per https://www.loomio.org/d/zPVNZ4js/approve-60-day-period-for-anyone-asking-osgeo-for-reimbursement-of-funds- we should add the following verbiage: > Those asking OSGeo for reimbursement of approved funds should do so in 60 days or less from time of event. The goal here is to ensure requests for funding are: - approved - once approved, submitted in a timely fashion from time of event/transaction The goal here is to keep reimbursement from going stale and to try to keep to budget years as close as possible. We understand there may be exceptions at which point the requestor shall approach the board/treasurer for additional time to complete submission of reimbursement

jive commented

2019-02-06 15:50:57 -08:00

Poster

That sounds great @tomkralidis please just edit in place. I would like to submit this for board approval next meeting.

tomkralidis commented

2019-02-07 03:55:51 -08:00

@jive done (see General Approach section of draft).

jive commented

2019-02-26 09:02:07 -08:00

Poster

Meeting action - take this into our LibreOffice template and send to board for approval.

jive self-assigned this 2019-02-26 09:02:24 -08:00

jive commented

2019-05-15 12:46:02 -07:00

Poster

This document has been approved!

jive commented

2019-05-15 12:47:40 -07:00

Poster

FOSS4GNA Code sprint update:

Michael Smith removed sponsor and host
Michael Smith removed financial section to the end
https://github.com/OSGeo/osgeo/pull/215

FOSS4GNA Code sprint update: - Michael Smith removed sponsor and host - Michael Smith removed financial section to the end - https://github.com/OSGeo/osgeo/pull/215

jive commented

2019-05-15 12:48:32 -07:00

Poster

OSGeo code sprint update: