Re: GUADEC Sponsorship price increases

[Paul Cooper <pgc openadvantage org>]

Comments are a long way down,
----- Dave Neary <dneary free fr> wrote:
[snip]
> > This also brings another question / issue. We've been debating how
> to
> > setup Gnome-UK to deal financially with GUADEC. Should we create
> > what's called here a clubs and societies account or should Bastien,
> > Thos, and I create a limited company, hire an accountant (as
> > recommended in Quim's HOWTO), and get a 'company' bank account (and
> > then wind it up and send any surplus to the foundation). Or just
> let
> > the Foundation hold all the money, with the downside that since
> it's
> > US based, we have to do some convaluted currency transfer for each
> > transaction and thereby lose a chunk of the sponsorship to the
> banks
> > charges.
> > 
> > Guidance from the Board on which (or another) road to take would be
> > welcome. Also how would the Board like us to report GUADEC progress
> -
> > I'm happy to join the conference call at a specific time or submit
> a
> > monthly progress report?
> 
> If guidance from the board is what you want, then guidance from the
> board is what you shall get :) /me opens the floor.
> 
> For progress reports, once a month is more than enough. A short email
> splitting things up into separate streams (say, conference schedule,
> marketing, volunteer organisation, accommodation, receptions,
> sponsorship/finances?) would be brilliant. A projected budget for the
> conference will help, if you can keep one and keep it up to date.
> 
> It's especially important that we're in the loop during delicate
> periods
> where the financial risk is the highest - securing the site, deciding
> a
> provisional travel budget for participants (which sponsorship catches
> up), putting you in contact with keynote candidates if we can. There
> are
> 3 board members on the GUADEC lists so as long as your process is
> open
> (all meetings are minuted pretty quickly, all discussions and
> decisions
> documented) we should be pretty well in the loop.
> 
> If you have questions (especially of a financial or confidential
> nature), then going straight to the board or guadec-planning will do
> grand. And if you feel there's a need, don't hesitate to ask for a
> few
> minutes of a board meeting to present particular concerns (we'll
> return
> the favour).
> 
> For the company, here's my two cents: you will need a bank account to
> receive money locally. I'd recommend against it being a private bank
> account. You will need to be very very careful about the tax
> implications (both for the structure you create, if any, in the UK,
> and
> for the foundation). If possible, I would recommend that all money go
> through an account owned by GNOME-uk (if one exists). If you don't
> have
> one, then partnering with an association might be the easiest thing
> to
> do - say linux.org.uk?

Gnome-UK doesn't have a bank account. The feeling amongst the 'membership' seemed to be that one isn't needed (other than for GUADEC) and not to bog down the community with the machinery  (an elected Chairperson, Treasurer, Secretary, articles of membership) needed to get a 'club and societies' account. 

Not sure of linux.org.uk financial structure (will investigate). There is Debian-UK which has a bank account but it was one of their officers that suggested it might be easier / more prudent to do the Ltd company thing. Other options might be the AFFS (Association for Free Software) or the UKUUG (UK Unix User Group). Of the two the UKUUG seems more organised and experienced to me (they organise two conferences a year).

Presumably it would be acceptable for them (whomever them might end up being) to charge a reasonable admin fee and perhaps offer their members a reduced entrance fee?

Paul

> I don't know if the overhead of creating a limited company and opening
> a
> company bank account is worth it - and that path certainly creates
> the
> greatest number of questions for me in terms of tax implication (an
> area
> I don't know squat about, and which scares me a little.
> 
> For those tax questions, we would probably have to ask our accountant
> and/or lawyer about it - in the meantime, I've added the Legal list as
> a
> CC so that they can comment.
> 
> >> As I mentioned to Paul this week, it will be useful to have a
> >> budget to know how much the conference will cost (rather than just
> >> saying "a bit more than last year", I mean) since I'd like the
> >> board to have a rough budget for the year before the end of
> >> January.
> > 
> > The budget will be the main point of order at our next meeting
> > (probably on the 20th).
> 
> Great. Thanks.
> 
> Cheers,
> Dave.
> 
> -- 
> Dave Neary
> dneary free fr


-- 
Paul Cooper                    |  Tel: 0121 634 1620
Assistant Director             |  Fax: 0121 634 1630
OpenAdvantage                  |  http://www.openadvantage.org