Board/Minutes/2024-02-15
Meeting on 2024 OSMF budget.
Minutes approved by the board during the 2024-02-29 meeting.
Date and time: Thursday, 15 February 2024, at 13:30 UTC
Video room at https://osmvideo.cloud68.co
using BigBlueButton.
Participants
Board members
- Craig Allan (joined 15' after start)
- Guillaume Rischard (Chairing)
- Mateusz Konieczny
- Dani Waltersdorfer
- Sarah Hoffmann
Not Present
- Arnalie Vicario
- Roland Olbricht
Officers and board
Biographies
Minutes by Dorothea Kazazi.
Guests
Meeting not announced.
On 2024 draft budget
2024-02-14 analysis and updated figures
- Currently, we face a shortfall of 20 days in our cash reserves to achieve a one-year buffer by year-end. This projection is based on the assumptions of:
- maintaining the same level of fundraising as the previous year, and
- that our Corporate Members either maintain their current tier or do not downgrade under the new pricing structure.
- Implementing a reduction of $17,000 in expenses would enable us to reach a twelve-month cash reserve target.
Changes in this version of the 2024 draft budget
- OWG: Nothing added to the overflow budget.
- CWG: lower - some things moved to the overflow budget. Overflow = EUR 2,500, for improvements to supporting.osm.org and www.osm.org
- LCCWG: lower - microgrants moved to the overflow budget. Overflow = EUR 21,500.
- EWG: Microgrants (EUR 25,500), travelling, hack-weekend and rest of vector tiles moved to the overflow budget. Overflow = EUR 80,000.
Craig Allan joined around 15' after start.
On suggestion to cut the board travel budget
Suggestion to trim the board travel budget by eliminating the proposed 2024 face-to-face meeting and selective attendance of board members at State of the Map 2024 in Nairobi. Kenya (link). While a face-to-face meeting can be useful, reallocating those funds to support initiatives e.g. EWG would be more advantageous.
- Mateusz volunteered to forgo attendance at SotM 2024.
- Disagreement, as i) past meetings have been productive ii) potential for under-spending in the budget, iii) fundraising might be improved.
- In-person interaction is important and especially to attend SotM 2024, in order for the community to meet the board and know that the board cares about it.
- By transitioning to screen-to-screen meetings, we can allocate the saved funds to the overflow budget.
Other suggestions
- Acquire new Corporate Members and enhance fundraising strategies.
- Incorporate the overflow budget presentation into the budget document.
- Present the budget to the community and vote during the February board meeting.
- Suggestion for impartial presentation.
- Communication strategy: emphasise in blog posts related to specific projects that their realisation is made possible by the generous support of our contributors.
Fundraising campaigns
- 2023 one started in August.
- 2024 one will start in March, so we might raise more funds.
In case of cash crisis
- Could implement cus to keep people employed and the board running - we're lean and funds could go quite far. Some non-profit organisations only have reserves for one or two additional months.
Other points mentioned during discussion
- Income projection is conservative.
- The Vector Tiles announcement raised EUR 200 in 24 hours.
- Martin Raifer (OSMF iD maintainer) is currently managed by Mikel Maron.
- Enquiry by Paul Norman (OWG) regarding OWG emergencies amount, which was already included in the budget.
- Dani will have a meeting with a company, and offered to talk to them about donating to OSM.
There seemed to be agreement to stay with the budget numbers presented during this meeting.
Mateusz shared a proposed text regarding the announcement of the draft budget to the community, highlighting that there was effort to produce it and some conflicting ideas and priorities.
Decision: Guillaume will present the draft budget to the community.