Re: Budget and plans (2010)

[Dave Neary <dneary gnome org>]

Hi Germàn,

First off, great work! This is by far clearer than any budget I've ever
seen come out of the foundation (including the two I did).

Germán Póo-Caamaño wrote:
> On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am sending to you the GNOME
> Foundation budget and plans of the next fiscal year (2010).
> 
> It was prepared on September, but it could not be sent before because we
> were discussing the raising of the Advisory Board member fees.
> 
> Attached you will find two files: a summary and the spreadsheet with
> details.

You don't mention whether you expect/want feedback on the budget - I'm
assuming you do :)

I have a few questions:

First, the budget only goes to September next year. Is that deliberate?
Is the advisory board year also September to September?

We're planning on leaving only a $6,000 from GUADEC this year, if I read
correctly ($96,000 income, against $42,000 travel & lodgement & $48,000
organisation costs). Is that a good idea? Is there a GUADEC budget that
you can show us where the $48,000 is going? Have you thought it might be
wise to budget for a bigger margin of error?

I notice in the advisory board income that you have budgeted $180,000
income. In the explanatory notes, you mention that this is the way
advisory board fees arrived in 2008-09 - do you have a projection for
advisory board fees for 2009-10? Are there any anticipated changes in
the advisory board because of the increased fees?

In employee expenses, I see that Stormy is paid $8,000 per month, with a
discretionary bonus of $1,500 per quarter. Last year she also received a
substantial "annual goal-related bonus", IIRC - I don't see this in the
budget, though. Could you explain how the bonus figure for 2008-09 was
arrived at, and give an idea of how much that bonus might be, if the
budget happens as planned, in 2010?

Bank charges: Are we really paying $3,000 a year in bank fees? Is there
any way we could bring that down?

Finally, as you're aware, there is a GNOME Store opening soon in Zazzle
- have you any idea how much income that might bring in, and what effect
it will have on the affiliate income from Hackerthreads?

Thanks for your time! And really, outstanding job. The explanatory notes
are great, and the budget overall is very good. It's definitely a good
thing that it balances :)

One other question - how was the bank account at the start of the
period? Do we have money in the bank for a rainy day, if everything goes
pear-shaped?

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
Dave Neary
GNOME Foundation member
dneary gnome org