Re: Annual Report Status?

["Karen Sandler" <karen gnome org>]

On Tue, February 28, 2012 9:29 am, Brian Cameron wrote:
>
> Dave:
>
> On 02/28/12 03:47 AM, Dave Neary wrote:
>> I hope I understand you correctly - are you suggesting that the annual
>> report is somehow a brochure we use for sponsor & AB recruitment?
>
> Yes, this was my suggestion.
>
> To be honest, I do not care if they are are a single or separate
> documents.  I mostly think they should be harmonized so that the
> documents all look like they came from the same organization.
>
> I think we need to consider how we should modify the way we approach
> potential sponsors so that we only need to approach them a single time
> instead of multiple times.  Having sponsorship options that better take
> into consideration how sponsors could be involved with both events would
> be an improvement.
>
> The current brochures on the table make funding both events at a Gold
> or Platinum level extremely expensive, for example.  Is this sensible?
>
>> While I think it is useful for that, because it's showing the value of
>> the foundation, I don't think that's its primary purpose. I see it as
>> our annual magazine, an opportunity to spread news about GNOME far &
>> wide.
>
> As you say, the Annual Report has multiple purposes.
>
>> I think that adding a donation form targeting individuals might be
>> a good idea, but I don't think that mixing advisory board budgets with
>> the annual report is appropriate.
>
> I do not understand your point.  Including some information in the
> Annual Report to highlight how organizations can sponsor upcoming
> events is just useful information and need not dig too deeply into the
> advisory board budgets.
>
>> In fact, advisory board budgeting is
>> necessarily very high-touch, hand-holding, and I wouldn't expect a
>> brochure to impact that budgeting decision at all. I see the GUADEC
>> brochure as being aimed at potential sponsors not on the advisory board,
>> or as an infoirmational document for advisory board members.
>
> Either way, it is just a way to communicate a good starting point for
> discussion.  A way to highlight the sponsorship levels and benefits.
> Personally, I think there is value in just having a single document
> for people to keep track of.  But I am not opposed to multiple
> documents if people prefer, though they should look more like they
> were designed by the same marketing team.
>
>> Also, I'm not sure we're in a position now to have a one-off "what's our
>> budget next year" conversation with most advisory board members.
>
> We currently have no sponsors for either GUADEC or GNOME.Asia, both
> events happening in the summer.

That's not entirely true - two funders confirmed their plans to sponsor
GUADEC some time ago, though it hasn't been finalized yet.

>> That's
>> a conversation to have in August and September, when the annual budget
>> is being finalised, not in March. So the GUADEC brochure may well end up
>> being a useful tool for advisory board members too.
>
> We need to approach our regular sponsors anyway before the summer to get
> sponsors for our upcoming events this year.  In other words, we will
> need to seek sponsorship around the same time we plan to have the
> Bi-Annaul Report done.

I agree with this though, and your ideas about the brochures - it would be
great to harmonize them, and I think it would make sense to offer annual
package deals to give discounts to sponsor everything together, and commit
in advance.

karen