Board Meeting 2010-01-14

Special Fundraising Meeting

This board meeting is scheduled for the 14th of January 2010 at 16:00 UTC, on a voice call.

Agenda

• Appoint meeting secretary
• Review agenda

Brainstorming:

• Key industry areas in 2010
• Types of funding organisations - sponsors, grant makers
• Role of FOSS4G
• Events to present at
• Engaging community as fundraisers, donors
• Licensing OSGeo brand - events, certification
• Relationships with sponsors, project, foundation, FOSS4G
• Budget related
• ...

Minutes

This was a special fundraising discussion meeting done via a voice call.

Attendees

Directors:

• Arnulf Christl (co-chair)
• Christopher Schmit
• Jeff McKenna
• Geoff Zeiss
• Ari Jolma
• Others?

Staff:

• Tyler Mitchell (co-chair)

Action Summary

1. Each director identify 2 contacts for each month and report to board.
2. Tyler to set up wiki for capturing contacts, etc. Setup templates for capturing info. (**DONE**)
3. Compile list of large governments moving to FOSS. (Tyler emailed OSGeo discuss list and got a few pointers)
4. Consider event package idea.

Detailed Minutes

• Agenda review

1. Arnulf: More formal Fundraising Committee needed?
   1. Agreed that a regular meeting of this style was more suitable. Best to have special board meetings rather than make new committee.
2. Arnulf: Hoping to get board more actively involved in fundraising. Proposed: each director contact 2 sponsorship opportunities per month.
3. Jeff: Key job for board members, perhaps clarify the key responsibility for the board
   1. Need face to face for finalising some bigger ones
4. How can we define a product? To what extent is it necessary?
   1. Some specific examples given, e.g. corps depending on our libraries and need help using them. Others using geodata and have licensing issues we could help with. Leads to the question: what can we 'do' for them to leverage funding?
5. General approach discussed:
   1. Identify key large sponsors, several follow ups for larger amount
   2. Several small ones with a more general approach
6. Tyler to set up private wiki for collecting contacts and sensitive notes
   1. capture contacts, potential, history
   2. template for following up, keeping history
7. FOSS4G / Conference is a key product
   1. Marketing budgets are more accessible than sponsorship budgets in corps. FOSS4G helps to access these funds.
   2. More events could help raise funding
   3. What kind of overlaps/opportunities are there with local chapters? Some ways to encourage/help them start events that raise funding.
      1. This could be done by creating a virtual product package that local groups/companies/members could take and use - e.g. a proactive approach that others can 'buy into' - with requirements for branding, costs/benefit, content ideas. So local folks can take the package and deliver a successful event.
      2. Key benefits - income, but also coverage/promotion
8. Other product ideas, high level meetings or training sessions, maybe following other events
   1. OSGeo could provide a public list of potential speakers. Promoted as "have OSGeo at your event! contact us... get a speaker, develop a training sessions, host a roundtable", etc.
      1. e.g. organised by partners, invite people in a region for shorter or longer events
      2. need a training event for a particular product? we can help provide a presenter or team
   2. Coupling a board/director meeting with an event, e.g. experts meeting in India. face-to-face but with potential to making money by hosting an event, or meeting with potential sponsors.
      1. More money available for 'training' than esoteric reasons
      2. Some increased 'virtual' attendance at events, Autodesk University had 20k attendees at $99/ea
9. Various aspects to fundraising opportunities: geographic, industry sectors and corporation/orgs that fund/sponsor via grants. Geoff give several updates.
   1. US government - 5 key sectors, one is geo and one is open source
   2. Open source for america - geo is there, is energy/trans?
   3. Energy/transportation - foss penetration = zero. URISA presentation good place to connect.
   4. Municipal gov needs - smaller budgets but don't have $ for proprietary stuff. Their own revenue is getting smaller with tax crunch/stretch. Utilities in particular.
   5. Rural coops? local govs that could use help (NRECA)
   6. Which other vertical areas? miltary, utilities, gov, each with their own industry association
10. Geo perspective - easy to have smaller event in big cities, draw folks from 2-3 hour driving (no flying!)
    1. What about different regions/countries - where is the biggest need/market
    2. e.g. some gov't officially moving to FOSS. How can we help them by giving them sponsorship opportunities along with guidance. likely need help implementing their vision (Indonesia: IGOS eg)
       1. Coupling events along with other foss training/events