Re: Annual Report Status?

[Emily Gonyer <emilyyrose gmail com>]

Ok, so maybe what we should do is focus on getting one consistant design/theme for GNOME documents/brochures/etc for 2012, so that the Annual Report *looks* the same as the brochures for GUADEC & GNOME.Asia, then when anyone looks through them they know instantly that they are all from the same organization... in which case I think we need someone with design skills to help :) (Which, I'll be the first to admit, I seriously lack!) Any volunteers? 

As for the Annual Report, what I'm hearing is a conflict somewhat in what the vision for the annual report is/should be. Do we want it to be an overview of what has gone on in GNOME over the last year (or in this case, two years) - ie the quarterly reports condensed into one report? Or do we want to focus on one or two 'important' areas of each teams work for the last year? I can see the benefits to each vision, and I'm honestly not sure which one is preferable, although I lean towards the second.

The only real problem I see with it is time - if we want to get the annual report out within the next month, the second route will be much harder to accomplish. I think I should be able to read through the quarterly reports and hash something together for each team fairly easy in the next couple weeks, but writing completely new content/articles will take longer. Alternatively we can start contacting the bloggers as suggested by Dave and see if any of them would be willing to contribute, and go from there.

Emily

On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 6:03 PM, Karen Sandler <karen gnome org> wrote:

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

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