On Thu, Apr 03, 2025 at 01:17:48PM +0200, Lucas Nussbaum wrote: > Hi, > > Quoting Andreas' reply in an earlier thread: > > On 18/03/25 at 16:14 +0100, Andreas Tille wrote: > > Understanding Debian's financial situation is essential for the DPL, as > > one of the DPL's responsibilities is making decisions on funding > > requests. However, it is important to emphasize that the actual > > financial management-including tracking income, expenses, and > > reporting-is handled by the treasurers. Their work ensures that Debian's > > finances are well managed and accounted for, and the DPL relies on their > > expertise to make informed decisions. > >◃ > > For a long time, financial decision-making was relatively > > straightforward. In his Bits from the DPL talk, Neil once mentioned at > > DebConf15 that he approved every single funding request he received, and > > Debian's financial reserves still grew during his term. Unfortunately, > > these simpler times seem to be over, and the need for careful financial > > planning has increased. I'd love to be in Neil's shoes, and I hope that > > future DPLs will see those times return. > > > Do you see this as a problem? What solutions do you envision, and what > will be your strategy as DPL when dealing with finances? For example, > identify where costs can be reduced? Instead, increase revenue (how?)? > Both? > > Also, why do you think we aren't anymore in the comfortable situation we > were in ten years ago?
It seems we're spending a significant amount more than we have donations on a yearly basis, leading at least the SPI assets to shrink by almost 100k per year and hence running dry in 2-3 years if it continues ( especially if we had 430k at the end of 2024, and now 300k as previously reported; and we had 700k a couple years ago). I think this was because there was a larger donation year a couple years ago; rather than just low spending, but I don't quite recall the details. I think it would be optimal if we had a buffer that accounts for 2 years of expenses, and have expenses that match the regular donations. A large part of that would be to have regular donors, I suppose, rather than one-off donors. -- debian developer - deb.li/jak | jak-linux.org - free software dev ubuntu core developer i speak de, en
