Summary: I propose a scheme for LibreOffice supporters to get materials to
use at events. I ask for collaborators and I request an OK for the Board.
== Explanation ==
You may recall that Jean Hollis Weber made a great offer to LibreOffice from
the Friends of OpenDocument group a few weeks ago (March 11th). She said they
hold a comfortable sum of money on behalf of LibreOffice and went on to say:
> Instead of giving the LO money to The Document Foundation
> for general expenses, we think it is better to make it available to
> cover expenses that The Document Foundation can't or won't
> deal with. Some examples might be the cost of marketing
> materials (including copies of the user guides) for tables at events,
> attendance at events aimed at potential and actual customers
> (librarians, educators, etc), or just about anything that would be
> valuable for spreading awareness and growing the community
> and the customer base.
I contacted Jean offline and asked more about this. We talked through the
proposal I'm going to make now, and in order to make it feasible I applied to
and have been granted membership of Friends of OpenDocument Inc.
=== Proposal ===
It would be great if LibreOffice advocates around the world were able to get
hold of posters, leaflets, maybe even t-shirts and table displays, in support
of LibreOffice at user groups, conferences and the like. One way to do this
would be to create items on an online store such as Lulu, CafePress or
SpreadShirt (or equivalents accessible to other geographies) run on behalf of
both TDF and Friends of OpenDocument. We at the Friends could then purchase
items at cost and have them shipped to the event organiser.
I am willing to set up and administer such a store and work with the Friends to
authorise and make purchases, but I have no graphic skills whatsoever so would
need others to help create items, upload and maintain them.
It's not my proposal at this stage to create a TDF Store for public purchases,
but it's obviously a possible future development.
== Call for Action ==
* Who would be willing to collaborate with me on this?
* Is there an upcoming event we can set as a goal so we have a target (lat
May-early June)?
* Board: Will you give this scheme your agreement please?
Cheers,
S.
