[FAmSCo] FY14 Budget update

Tue Apr 2 15:25:37 UTC 2013

Robyn Bergeron píše v Út 02. 04. 2013 v 10:33 -0400:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Jiří Eischmann" <eischmann at redhat.com>
> > To: "Fedora Ambassadors Steering Committee" <famsco at lists.fedoraproject.org>
> > Sent: Tuesday, April 2, 2013 6:00:45 AM
> > Subject: Re: [FAmSCo] FY14 Budget update
> > 
> > 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.
> 
> I don't mean to be rude, but did you guys *actually read* what I wrote?
> 
> The regional budget total for 2013 (aka, FY14) is $91,600.
> 
> The regional budget total for 2012 (aka, FY13) was $71,500.
> 
> That's a 20 thousand dollar INCREASE, not a decrease.

I really didn't mean it as complaint even though it might have sounded like that. The whole amount is definitely a success.
I think mine and Christoph's mails representing views from EMEA for
which it is a decline because EMEA's share of the whole cake is smaller
for two reasons:
1. NA asked for much more than us because they included reserves, we
didn't (lesson learnt)
2. APAC and LATAM asked for more they spent in the last years (it's
positive because they've always struggled to have a concrete plan of
activities, and this made them create it).

In EMEA, the community is IMHO on the rise, we have a solid base of
active ambassadors and it's growing (we had 25 ambassadors at one of the
last regular meetings), so we hoped to expand our activities this year
which is why having less money for EMEA was kinda disappointment. But I
think we can suck up and work it out.
We're all on the same boat, so if some region has a trouble to spend
money allocated to them, it can always be transferred to a region where
it's needed, or if we have concrete plans we can ask for additional
money like you say.
We have a proverb: "A cake is never eaten hot taken right from the
oven", so it will work in the end and as I said it's an improvement
overall.
And I think if we provide solid date of how much we asked for and how
much we actually spent, we can even improve our position when asking for
the next year's budget.

> Yes, the budget declined, year after year, EVEN WHILE MAX WAS HERE (FY2012, aka March 2011-2012, when we went from 100k to 80k, was while max was still around), because we NEVER spent it all.
> 
> Other problems listed aside, and I do agree that having the clarity around what is being spent is important, esp. if we are to expect that we are spending our money and know what there is or is not remaining to spend in a time period -- I think that "asking for clarity around the budget shrinking" is, well, a bit odd, in light of a 20k increase.
> 
> As for how does Red Hat make its budget: Everyone makes their requests/wish lists, and then managers basically get told how much of that they are actually getting. I can assure you that Fedora getting a decent increase here is the result of showing more significant planning, as well as my general butt-kissing all the way up to the CTO office.
> 
> And seriously: If you want to spend 15k at LinuxTag, or FOSDEM, make a specific plan as to how that will positively impact the Fedora community, outline what the costs are, and I will go to make that special request. The same goes for any other "large scale" event or any plan in general; if we in Fedora want to do something extra-special and awesome, extra outside-the-budget requests can get made.
> 
> > 
> > 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.
> 
> It's based on when the actual payment is done. In the case of Joerg, or any other community card holder, it is actually based on when the card is actually paid (which tends to be a month or less *after* the payment is made), because that is when the expense report is completed. Basically, the expense is accounted for in the quarter in which the expense report is filed. 

I'm tracking expenses based on what event they belong to because my main
goal is to track how much we spend on each activity/event, it will
mostly match with cash-based tracking, but we should maintain these
differences with Ruth because only someone who has access to the
financial data of Fedora's cost center has an idea when they payments
actually land in RH accounting. I can just guess.

Jiri

> 
> > 
> > Jiri
> > 
> > 
> > 
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