FOSS4G SotM Oceania Conference 2024 in Hobart
On behalf of the below listed committee members, I am writing to request your endorsement of our bid to host the FOSS4G SotM Oceania Conference for the 5-8 November, 2024 in Hobart.
We have secured two options for the venue, one being the University of Tasmania (UTAS) and the other the C3 Convention Centre, and have agreed as a committee that C3 is the best option, due to their inclusion of AV, catering, their not-for-profit discount as well as the location. We'll use UTAS for workshops and the community day.
Our draft budget can be accessed in our Shared Drive folder, and is linked here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/150wqk7kK4_iO0_xOjmd8ixW74OIGexF--h03hkU4lLk/edit.
Note that our worst case scenario is 100 people, which is projected to return a surplus of $30,000 AUD. We can handle up to 500 people at C3, which is far more than we would expect to attend. We expect at least 150, which is what Auckland achieved, and would be excited to host 250, in which case we expect a surplus of $75,000 AUD.
Committee members:
Alex Leith (Chair)
Dawn Hendrick
Nick Forbes-Smith
Phil Wyatt
Tom Kimber
Elisa Puccioni
Leo Ghigone
Dorothy Pion
Emma Hain
Ponsyano De Jesus
Rhiannan Mundana
Kristy Petroff
Simon Nitz.
John Bryant Tue 27 Feb 2024 12:47AM
Thanks @Elisa Puccioni. I'm super keen for us to run this conference too, but if this decision is about approving the budget, we should do our "due diligence" before we make that decision. Once we've already committed, any effort to modify the budget would be much more difficult (and perhaps unfair to the LOC).
Essentially, we're making a 70k+GST spending decision (our entire bank balance), this is by far our biggest spending decision of the year. It will have a big impact on OO's finances and future community investment.
My preferred approach is for us as a group to fully understand the numbers, set some basic terms & conditions where needed, and then wholeheartedly endorse the budget with confidence.
John Bryant Tue 27 Feb 2024 2:09AM
Board, are we comfortable with the existing Finance Policy for oversight of this spending? Or do we want to defer this to a separate discussion?
Alex Leith Tue 27 Feb 2024 2:42AM
@John Bryant
Speaking as conference chair, I think the existing financial delegations in the Finance Policy are adequate.
Elisa Puccioni · Mon 26 Feb 2024 8:29PM
All good questions @John Bryant, do you think any of these points should prevent you or others on the Board to endorse the conference? I do feel like those things need to be addressed and discussed in depth, but on my opinion shouldn't stop the endorsement at this point. I'm anyway interested on what the rest of the Board is thinking on the matter. The board meeting is still 2 weeks away and it would be good if we carry on this discussion before it!