Re: [Fsfe-uk] RFC: Sponsorship

[Ramanan Selvaratnam]

[The previous   post to the list got blocked as I forgot to consider my
change of list subscription mail address. Apologies in advance to Marc
for the slightly amended re-post]

On Thu, 2003-10-16 at 07:46, Marc Eberhard wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 16, 2003 at 03:17:43AM +0100, Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
> > I think this is a pretty important issue, so I've been running
> > it around my head.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> > Here's my suggestion:
> [...]
> 
> I pretty much agree with your idea.

I like Ciaran's idea of pointing to a web page but would like to see a
clear separation maintained between membership, donors and sponsorship.
[this need not be a "ghetto" as good web design is one of our forte]  
 
An amended suggestion for text on sponsored promotional material would
be

"AFFS thanks [sponsor name| sponsor] for providing <promotional
material>  costs.
A list of *sponsors* can be found at
http://www.affs.org.uk/donors/#sponsors";


My understanding is that a donor provides to further our cause, trusting
us for the decisions we would make whereas a sponsor provides toward a
particular task that probably is mutually beneficial.  

We would then link to "/donors" where sponsors will be a sub section.
This would provide a chance for some one who got involved with us over a
particular sponsored material to consider more involvement (provided our
home page is attracting the correct type of traffic)


> > Does this sound like a good approach?
> 
> The only shortcoming is, that some companies insists on more PR for them.
> 
> I'm personnally more and more convinced, that we should rather turn a
> sponsor down than being abused for their own PR. This will loose us some
> donations, but I'm more than willing to accept this.

I agree with Marc's view here.

> It also avoids all the trouble of the right wording and size of boxes on
> printed material right from the beginning. It's a trade-off. Do we want
> donations under any circumstances or do we want donors to accept our strict
> rules?

I want donors and sponsors to be committed promoters of free software
themselves. 
If there are not many out there then the AFFS must [strive to] foster
such
organisations/businesses.

Not sure whether any of our rules are "strict" though. IMHO they are
mostly common sense to promote sustainable, high quality software and
healthy attitudes to the best of our abilities.


Regards,

Ramanan

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