Re: Annual Report Status?

[Brian Cameron <brian cameron oracle com>]

Emily & Karen:

> > As for the combination, that absolutely makes sense, should I/we contact
> > GNOME.Asia&  GUADEC now re: how we're going to publish this or wait a
> > while
> > longer?  If we're going to include their respective brochures for this
> > year, do we still want/need their sections in the international events
> > section? Or do we want to include the brochures along side/within that
> > section?
>
> I'm not sure I really understand the idea to bundle them together - the
> sponsorship brochures seem really single focus to me.

We should consider, though, how we could better harmonize our marketing
efforts to gain sponsors and to better simplify things.  I think the
brochures are good, but we benefit more by harmonizing them.

Many advisory board members have told us that they would prefer being
approached just once in the year and asked for a single amount.  They
have told us they do not like being approached separately for each
event, as we have tended to do in the past.  So do two brochures make
sense?

Currently, for example, the Platinum sponsorship level for GUADEC is
$25,000 and for GNOME.Asia is $12,000.  Since we raised the yearly
advisory board fee to $20,000 two years ago, this means an organization
on the advisory board would need to donate $57,000 to The GNOME
Foundation in 2012 to cover their fee and get Platinum level for both
events.  Is it just me, or is this unrealistically high?

Both organizations seem to have unique perspectives about what sort of
deals to offer.  GUADEC offers a discount to repeat sponsors while
GNOME.Asia offers discount to smaller local sponsors.  We could take
the best ideas from both communities and do things like provide both
kinds of discounts.

Today at the GUADEC planning meeting, the organizers were discussing
charging an admission fee to professionals, with much lower options for 
GNOME Foundation members, students and hobbyists.  Something similar to
what was done at Den Haag where the professional fee was 250 Euros.
The GUADEC organizers are planning on taking those who pay the
professional fee to a networking dinner.

It probably makes sense to give sponsors a number of free professional
passes and benefits like a dinner at both events.  By taking the best
of both brochures and combining the information into the Bi-Annual
report, we have the opportunity to put together a more simple and
coherent sponsorship program.  This way, recipients of the report have
a good idea of what we have accomplished the past few years, and how
they can help.

> I love the idea of
> bundling them together to give to sponsors, and even link to them from our
> web published versions, but I don't really understand how it would work to
> actually include them in the report.
>
> Brian, could you explain your idea a little bit more?

Perhaps a good last section of the Bi-Annual report could be a section
which explained our sponsorship options, and encouraged individuals to
consider donating.  We could, for example, encourage donations to our
Friends of GNOME a11y campaign.

I think we can highlight our many achievements over recent years,
such as a successful GNOME 3 launch with enthusiastic parties around
the world, record numbers of productive hackfests and events.  We
have a good track record and have plenty of evidence to show that we
have been using our funding to really grow the GNOME volunteer
community.  Lots more has been getting done, I think.

We need to make it more clear that by giving to The GNOME Foundation,
many organizations benefit themselves.  The GNOME Foundation ensures
that the community manages many important activities through volunteer
effort.  By providing even a small amount to The GNOME Foundation,
individuals and organizations can make sure that people in the
community are well trained and busy attending productive hackfests,
that the sysadmin team is keeping common resources humming along, etc.
Organizations can expect that they will benefit more as the
community continues to grow, and it would be hard to do so much without
all the contributions.

We really need to make sure that all of our past sponsors understand
we really appreciate all of their help.

Does this make sense?  Thoughts?

---

Brian