[FAmSCo] FY14 Budget update

[Jiří Eischmann]

Christoph Wickert píše v Út 02. 04. 2013 v 14:13 +0200:
> Am Donnerstag, den 28.03.2013, 06:39 -0700 schrieb Robyn Bergeron:
> 
> > The total amount for FY14 regional support is $91,600; for reference,
> > the budget in FY2013 was $71,500; in FY2012 was $80,000; in FY11 was
> > $100,000.
> 
> Why is our budget declining year after year?
> 
> Until now I thought it was all due to Max leaving, but it seems that's
> only part of the problem as the budget continued to decline.
> 
> When Max was still the budget owner, we had 100k and he managed it very
> well. Then he left and the budget was handed over to somebody else, who
> obviously did not manage it well. Instead that person told us we were
> out of money, so we had to cut our spending. It later turned out the
> information was wrong and we had money left. While we were still unsure,
> we continued to be conservative with our expenses.
> 
> As an event owner, I cut the budget for my events as far as possible:
> Take Linux-Tag for example, one of the biggest events in EMEA. While we
> still delivered a good show (and even free hotdogs) last year, we only
> had 6 ambassadors there and spent ~3000 EUR. This is enough to run a
> booth, but it turned out to have a negative impact on our community.
> These events are not only about presenting Fedora but also about
> bringing people together. Let them meet other community members, let
> them discuss face to face, let them meet new people. This is what builds
> a community and emerges new projects.
> I recall years where we had 15-20 Ambassadors at Linux-Tag, some from
> overseas, and spent nearly 15.000 EUR. I'm not saying we need to spend
> that much again, but to grow our community, we need to invest some more
> money than the bare minimum.
>  
> But instead our budget is cut year after year. If we save money, we
> effectively lose it because we get less the following year. For me the
> only logical consequence is: Spend all the money! Don't try to cut
> costs, use everything you reasonably can use. Of course you need to
> spend it wisely and not waste it, but if you think it helps our
> community, go for it! I encourage all FAmSCo members, ambassadors and
> contributors to do the same.
> 
> What I would like to know: How does Red Hat make the budget for Fedora?
> How does decision making happen? What parties are involved? Do these
> people really know Fedora, what we are doing and what they are doing to
> the community? What numbers or assumptions is the budget based on? AFAIK
> it cannot be based on previous budgets because we hardly have a clue how
> much we've spent.
> 
> This means: We need strict accounting. We need to know how much we spent
> and how much is left. And we need to know it in a timely manner. I don't
> know if we ever had reliable numbers for FY11, if we will ever have some
> for F12 and when we will see some for FY13. This needs to happen ASAP
> please.
> 
> Robyn, Ruth, please share some insight on this. I don't want to point
> fingers at anybody, but I want to understand what is going on and I want
> the decision makers at Red Hat know what they are doing to their
> project.
> 
> Kind regards,
> Christoph

I agree with you. It's going to have an impact on our community. When we
planned the EMEA budget, we didn't leave much fat aiming the most honest
budget, so any cuts harm the scope and quality of our activities. I
hoped that this year would give a spin to the EMEA community. We finally
had a clear plan and we'd know how much we could spend. But all I've
been thinking about in the recent days is how we're going to maintain
the last year's level of activity after such a budget cut.

Yes, I agree that the only way to make the budget bigger next year is to
spend all the money we've been given. And I think EMEA won't have a
problem to spend all $22,100 if we planned to spend $30,000. What I
don't agree with is that we should make any expense if we think it is
reasonable and has a positive impact on Fedora without reflecting the
financial situation. Red Hat trusts us enough to give us money to spend
without asking for it every time we want to make an expense. We have to
be responsible and spend only what we've been given. We can't spend $30k
if we got $22.1k although we know the $30k is what we need for our
plans. So yes, let's spend every penny of the money we've been given to
have a valid argument when asking for more next time. Let's not spend
more money than we've been given just because we think we ought to get
more.

The financial reporting in Red Hat is slow and doesn't work very well.
That's not only our experience. It's an experience throughout the whole
Red Hat. We can't do much about it, and AFAIK Ruth or Robyn can't do
much about either.
The only way to track our expenses is doing it ourselves. We have
treasurers in every region. I'm doing it for EMEA. I'm already hunting
all expenses we make. I search for them in EMEA, FAmSCo tracs, look at
Joerg's payments etc. I think it's quite reliable tracking and it's in
our hands.
The only problem is that our budget is accrual-based, not cash-based
(expenses belong to a period to which they logically belong to, not to a
period in which the payment was done) while RH budgeting is cash-based.
That could make differences. For example someone buys a ticket to an
event that take place in January, but Joerg reimburses him in March.
While on the accrual basis, it belongs to the past fiscal year, on the
cash basis, it ends up in the current fiscal year.
Quite frankly after two years in Red Hat, I have no idea if the whole
budgeting in cash-based, or accrual after all. The accounting needs to
be accrual after all, but the budgeting is somehow unclear.

Jiri