[volunteers] potential new sponsor for SVLUG

[Paul Reiber]

Mark - awesome feedback.  Exploring how RHT could be a financial
sponsor is a good vector.

Another vector: RHT has some skills/services which might assist SVLUG
members.  These are along the lines of:  - resume review - skills
assessments - career planning - representation (they can work almost
like an agent for you) and more.  I'm not sure which of these would
make sense for a sponsor to provide gratis to the group, but there may
be some things.  They're open to exploration.

On the financial side - maybe they could be our "Petty cash sponsor"?
Then they do the treasury, hold the funds, etc. and we simply have
volunteers get an officer's OK for any expenses that should come from
"petty cash".  We might agree to try to hold the yearly total below
some reasonable threshold like, say, 5 or 10 K.

Another financial sponsorship approach would be a "Bounty sponsor" or
a "Project sponsor" - we might set goals that, when met by a
volunteer, get them a bounty.  Or, list off some really important
projects that RHT and SVLUG are ready to "put money where their mouth
is".

Gotta get back to work... but this is all good.
Thanks!
-Paul


On 1/30/07, mark weisler <mark at weisler-saratoga-ca.us> wrote:
> On Monday 29 January 2007 12:28, Paul Reiber wrote:
> > Hi there, SVLUG Volunteers!
> >
> > My contact at Robert Half Technology mentioned that she'd like to have
> > RHT be an SVLUG sponsor.
> >
> > She didn't have a specific idea in mind, but rather asked what we
> > need.  So... I'm asking all of you - what do you think?
> >
> > RHT - http://www.roberthalftechnology.com - is a placement firm.
> > There are all SORTS of ways that SVLUG might benefit from their
> > skills.  I have a few ideas in mind already, but I want to collect
> > ideas from the group as well.
> >
> > So... think outside the box, inside the box, and around the box - how
> > would YOU recommend that RHT help as an SVLUG sponsor?
> >
> > Thanks in advance!
> > -Paul Reiber
> > President, SVLUG
> > http://svlug.org/~pbr
> Some thoughts...
>
> * we could use another sponsor. While our needs are modest, a sponsor's
> contribution of cash could help us pay for some of the electricity to run our
> servers.
>
> * what form would the sponsorship take? Monetary contribution? If so, what
> would we use the money for?
>
> * if we begin taking money how would that change  things? Would we need a
> treasurer, bank account, etc.? Probably.
>
> * Some sponsors can give us goods or services that we directly use in SVLUG. A
> current example is the donation of rack space, power, and Internet access by
> Via.net in Palo Alto. An indirect example is the donation of rackable server
> hardware by Alvin Oga and Linux Consulting to the members of SVLUG at past
> meetings. Or the recent contributions of hardware by Drew Bertola and Eric
> Nalor.  Or the contribution of pizza at meetings by Open Country. But some
> potential sponsors might not have goods or services that we can make direct
> use of and may want to contribute cash. What should we do in this case? We
> might ask such prospective sponsors to buy the good for us (disk drives for
> example) or pay a service provider (such as Via.net) for something we could
> make good use of. This can relieve us from needing to form treasury functions
> and allow us to remain the relatively simple organization we have been.
>
> * I know little about Robert Half Technology but I think that they are players
> in the open source world. And the organization has been present in the valley
> for many decades.
>
> * we need to give some thought to whether taking on someone as a sponsor means
> we are endorsing them, even a little. Sponsorship might be looked upon as
> mutual, i.e., two-way, endorsement. For example, I know that on
> http://linuxmafia.com/bale/other.html one of our distinguished open source
> enthusiasts gives a list of Bay Area enterprises that can be of genuine use
> to the open source community and have some role in that community. To remain
> on that linuxmafia list implies good citizenship and I think similar
> principles should apply as we enter into a sponsor relationship.
>
> * recognizing sponsors. We do this now and I think reasonably well but we need
> to review this periodically.
>
> --
> Mark Weisler
>
> _______________________________________________
> volunteers mailing list
> volunteers at lists.svlug.org
> http://lists.svlug.org/lists/listinfo/volunteers
>