[sakai2-tcc] Letter to the OAE steering committee?

[Seth Theriault]

Aaron Zeckoski wrote:

> I believe it was all the money Ian was willing to commit to for 
> the position. I (and others) said it needed to be full time but 
> Ian said they could not afford that. I won't claim to 
> understand foundation funding, however, the records are public 
> and the foundation took in about 1.1 million last year. I'm 
> sure a lot of that goes towards operation expenses (flights for 
> the ED, etc.) and staff salaries (ED, 50% anthony, etc.) and 
> supposedly there is debt which needs to be handled as well. I 
> guess 60k is what is left over.

You should outright ask for the current financials because the 
990s (the required federal tax filing) tend to be a year behind 
(2011's filing uses 2010 figures) and the rest is most likely 
conjecture.

On the subject of money coming from the Foundation, I wouldn't 
count on it, especialy in the post-merger world (one of the 
announced goals of the merger is "synergies" and reduction of 
expenses). Our best hope is institutions and others with 
dedicated commitments. For example, Samoo has piped up to say 
they will commit some QA resources in light of the recent 2.9 
status announcement.

Finally, I think a survey is long overdue. There is far too much 
guessing about what the community wants/expects and it is colored 
by the bias of whoever is announcing it.

Seth