Good food for thought Howard, can’t say I disagree with anything you say here.
The only thing we need to consider is that for some countries 50 or 70 USD can still be a lot of money. Best regards, Bart On 23 Jun 2014, at 16:12, Howard Butler <how...@hobu.co> wrote: > > On Jun 20, 2014, at 7:38 AM, Cameron Shorter <cameron.shor...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> Thanks Paul, Dimitris and Peter for your thoughts. >> >> Comments inline. >> >> On 20/06/2014 4:31 am, Paul Ramsey wrote: >>> http://www.aag.org/cs/membership/individual_membership >>> http://www.aag.org/cs/membership/individual_membership/dues >>> >>> >>> Both simpler, and better for the bottom line of OSGeo, if you want to >>> be a member, sign up as a member, collect your t-shirt, see you @ >>> foss4g. >>> >> Yes Paul, "pay for membership" is simple, but I'd argue that the value of >> OSGeo and OSGeo communities is the volunteer time we contribute, and "pay >> membership" wouldn't capture that. > > This property is the nature of a professional organization, which in my > opinion, OSGeo clearly is. There are a number of strong reasons why small > annual fees for membership are very attractive. The first is there's no > struggling with members who've dropped off, haven't voted, are no longer > participating. Second, anyone who wants to associate themselves can simply do > so by paying dues. Finally, a consistent, if small, operating revenue. > > The voting process has been an ad-hoc affair since the beginnings of the > organization. Every year it the rules are tweaked. Every year members who've > dropped off need to be nagged. Every year we end up just taking everyone > who's nominated anyway. It's a lot of overhead and volunteer cost for very > little gain. > > It is certain there are people who wish to be professionally associated with > OSGeo who are unable to become members because they haven't generated enough > public profile to be nominated. You can't nominate yourself. It's a chicken > and egg problem that simply dissolves with paid-but-small membership dues. > > OSGeo's main revenue stream is the FOSS4G conference. It is an event run on > the backs of local chapter volunteers. Please correct me otherwise, but I do > not think any local chapter who has hosted FOSS4G has ever put in a proposal > to host it again. This well may eventually run dry. Or, it may run dry for a > year or two. 80-100k/year (~$50-70/year * 1500 persons) of membership dues is > plenty to keep the lights on through droughts and still allow the > organization to move forward. > > At the inception of the organization, a driving factor toward our current > membership structure is because OSGeo is a volunteer organization, it > shouldn't require members to pay money. I think this is misguided. Every > other professional organization of which I'm a member requires membership > dues. As an IRS classification, a professional organization has a clear path > forward. > > I am a professional open source Geo/GIS software developer. I want to belong > to a professional organization that represents me. I would be happy to pay > some nominal membership dues that a) signify my membership, b) provide > financial buffer for the organization to achieve its mission, and 3) clearly > signal what the rules are to become a member. > > My $0.02. > > Howard > > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@lists.osgeo.org > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
