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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Am 15.12.2020 um 02:27 schrieb Allan
Mustard:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Salaries for the iD maintainer and fulltime
paid sysadmin do not figure into the calculation of reserves
to cover expenses. As currently envisioned, in a worst-case
scenario, which we do not anticipate but for which we must
plan, OSM would revert to all-volunteer staffing, and expenses
would amount to hardware refresh, software licenses, and
bandwidth, which are circa $120K. In other words, we could
revert to status quo ante and cut expenses to the bone, with
no paid software maintenance or development, and possibly
higher downtime / slower network response due to lack of a
paid sysadmin. In other words, the higher budget is to be
viewed as a luxury that can be dispensed with in the event we
face financial hardship. We do not anticipate this but are
prepared to deal with it if necessary.</p>
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<p>That's why I would be happy with two years, 1 year continuing as
is. Even with maximum foresight and control you are not going to
realize that things are going wrong immediately so you are going
to be well in to the fiscal year in any case. If the OSMF then
sees no recovery in income, enough time to wind down operations in
a responsible manner, with some reserves left.<br>
</p>
<p>Naturally some of this depends on the legal obligations towards
the employees (I would argue that it actually depends on the
ethical obligations regardless of what kind of contractual
arrangements were made out of convenience, but that doesn't seem
to be a popular POV).</p>
<p>Simon<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal">We do anticipate that with passage of the
AoA amendment allowing Board committees to include Foundation
members who are not on the Board, a fund-raising committee
will be able to assure a steady income stream from donations
into the future. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Cheers,<br>
apm<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="border:none;padding:0in"><b>From:
</b><a href="mailto:simon@poole.ch" moz-do-not-send="true">Simon
Poole</a><br>
<b>Sent: </b>Monday, December 14, 2020 7:30 PM<br>
<b>To: </b><a href="mailto:osmf-talk@openstreetmap.org"
moz-do-not-send="true">osmf-talk@openstreetmap.org</a><br>
<b>Subject: </b>Re: [Osmf-talk] Operating reserves</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p>Given that I'm on the record as suggesting the same more than
once, though I would be happy with two years, I obviously
support this.</p>
<p>I do have to point out that I believe that your annual
expenses number is too low, I suspect that the 2021 budget
will be more like 250-300k€. No inside knowledge here, but we
all know what the OSMF has indicated what it wants to do going
forward and that will increase expenses substantially. As a
result we should be looking at increasing the reserves by
quite a bit.</p>
<p>Simon</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Am 14.12.2020 um 22:47 schrieb Jean-Marc
Liotier:<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p>As a new member of the Board, I wish to start term my with
a fundamental topic - the Openstreetmap Foundation's
operating reserves.</p>
<p>In answer to a guest question during the December 12th
General Meeting, Alan Mustard mentioned that the
Openstreetmap Foundation strives to keep a reserve amounting
to three years of operational expenses. <a
href="https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/w/images/1/12/OpenStreetMap_Foundation_Limited_-_Profit_and_Loss_2020.pdf"
moz-do-not-send="true">The Treasurer's report's profit and
losses</a> show yearly operating expenses amounting to
130k£ and the <a
href="https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/w/images/2/25/OpenStreetMap_Foundation_Limited_-_Balance_Sheet_2020.pdf"
moz-do-not-send="true">Balance Sheet</a> shows net assets
at 621 k£ - of which even the 400 k£ in the reserves savings
account does cover about three years. From a cursory survey
of non-profits, three years is at the prudent end of the
range, so I think it is a reasonable goal to continue
pursuing.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, this satisfactory state of affairs remains
the informal result of the Board's cautious management. In
keeping with my pledge of reinforcing the Openstreetmap
Foundation's financial sustainability, I wish to take it a
step further and advocate for the Board to produce an
Operating Reserve Policy for a Board-Designated Operating
Reserve.</p>
<p>As a novice in the business of operating reserves policies,
I have sought best practices and found the <a
href="https://www.giarts.org/sites/default/files/Operating-Reserve-Policy-Toolkit_1stEd_2010-09-16.pdf"
moz-do-not-send="true">Grantmakers in the Arts' Operating
Reserve Policy Toolkit for Nonprofit Organization</a> to
cover a lot of ground - interested individuals might wish to
take a glance.</p>
<p>Among other things, an Operating Reserve Policy would need
to include procedures, governance and conditions for
drawdown and replenishment.</p>
<p>This comes too late to be made a topic of the 18th December
Board meeting, so I'll propose it for the January meeting.
Meanwhile, let us please discuss the desirability of such
policy and what it might entail.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<pre>_______________________________________________</pre>
<pre>osmf-talk mailing list<o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre><a href="mailto:osmf-talk@openstreetmap.org" moz-do-not-send="true">osmf-talk@openstreetmap.org</a><o:p></o:p></pre>
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<pre style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;margin-left:.5in"><a href="https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/osmf-talk" moz-do-not-send="true">https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/osmf-talk</a></pre>
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