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<p>Hey Eric,</p>
<p>I believe I gave a report as the election process began last year
and I intend to do so again this year.</p>
<p>Without getting in the weeds, I've been waiting on some
information that will allow me to give a complete picture of
Thunderbird's finances at the end of last year.</p>
<p>I'm willing to share some high level information with the list
now, but I expect to share a more detailed report in the coming
weeks.</p>
<p>Firstly, last year saw another overall increase in donations, not
nearly as large as the previous year (300%), more like ~25%
overall.<br>
</p>
<p>We ended last year with over $2,000,000 in the bank. And the
Council has made moves to increase our staff size because of our
reserves (and a willingness to spend some of that).<br>
</p>
<p>Our money comes primarily and significantly from donations (like
>99%). As some have seen on this list, we are looking at
Enterprise Support contracts as a way to diversify. But we as a
unit (the Thunderbird team) do not have much institutional
knowledge/experience in this area. So we are working on a pilot
program. Coronavirus complicates things, as many businesses are
likely to act conservatively right now and may avoid starting a
new contract until things calm.</p>
<p>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">My impression is that several million dollars may have been raised and/or spent since the project became independent without any of the reporting that you would expect for the Council to be accountable to the community.</pre>
</blockquote>
I wanted to address this and reiterate, I released numbers to this
list last year. To which I received virtually no feedback. So I
didn't think more frequent reporting would be of interest. I'm
happy to hear you are interested. I will make sure that the next
treasurer is pointed at this email.<br>
</p>
<p>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">With elections coming up and the fiscal home changed to MZLA Technologies Corporation in order to "collect revenue through partnerships and non-charitable donations" how can the community provide feedback as to whether they think the Council is going in the wrong direction (or encourage them to keep doing what they are doing) without basic financial information about our current status?</pre>
</blockquote>
This is a good question. I think that our meeting reports offer
insight into planning. There is a problem in that we don't usually
share a partner until the deal is finalized (to protect both
parties in case the deal falls through). So, to some extent, the
project is a true representative democracy. In that you have to
put some level of trust into the representatives and ask them
questions during elections such as "do you think Thunderbird
should pursue X line of business?" and listen to what they say.</p>
<p>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">Will more information be provided about what type of partnerships are being pursued before the elections?</pre>
</blockquote>
I have talked more frankly about my feelings on partnerships in
the past during out weekly status meeting. But I think that
outlining what we are interested in on this list is good too. I
can only speak for myself here, but I believe there are incredible
opportunities to offer services through Thunderbird that are based
on open communication standards. Such as making it possible to
spin up a Matrix team in Thunderbird chat. Of course, there is an
opportunity to offer an email service, but I have yet to make up
my mind as to whether we are better as a neutral party introducing
people to their options - or if we should pursue creating our own
service. <b>These are my personal deliberations, I am not
speaking on behalf of any other Council member or the Council as
a whole. <br>
</b></p>
<p>Finally, making these decisions is hard and whilst I have put
forward multiple options to the Council for pursuing new
opportunities - there has not come out of those talks a true
long-term vision/strategy. I'm not blaming anyone, these are
really hard questions that affect where we spend significant time
and resources. But my ask as we head into elections is that
electors ask candidates what their vision is for future services
or how they intend to bring revenue into the project, and then
vote for the people most aligned with what you think.</p>
<p>I'll try to get the comprehensive report out in the coming weeks.
I'm happy to answer specific questions either in this thread or
via direct messages.</p>
<p>Ryan<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/9/20 7:18 PM, Eric Moore wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:afda2e35-045b-45dd-a6d0-70624407a35f@www.fastmail.com">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">1. Why hasn't there been an annual financial report that provided some high level numbers about where we are getting money from, what the run rate is, what the yearly budget is, how much (if anything) is being spent to get donations, how large are the reserves, etc.? Ideally this report would be available on <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.thunderbird.net">www.thunderbird.net</a>. Please note that I'm NOT asking about confidential information such as salaries, hourly rates, details of contracts etc. Buy it should include how much money did we earn from each business relationship and whether the current financial statement has been reviewed by an accountant.
My impression is that several million dollars may have been raised and/or spent since the project became independent without any of the reporting that you would expect for the Council to be accountable to the community. I'm NOT trying to suggest that anybody is doing anything improper but this seems a unacceptable practice. You wouldn't let a condo assoc. get away with this for example even if the law didn't require it. If the rationale is that there is no need as its all been reported to Mozilla, then I'd argue that we are not a community lead independent project despite what anybody says.
2. With elections coming up and the fiscal home changed to MZLA Technologies Corporation in order to "collect revenue through partnerships and non-charitable donations" how can the community provide feedback as to whether they think the Council is going in the wrong direction (or encourage them to keep doing what they are doing) without basic financial information about our current status?
3. Will more information be provided about what type of partnerships are being pursued before the elections? I'm talking about the general direction being pursued and how much impact this has on future development plans, not specifics. An analogy would be that Fastmail has gone from being a email provider that targeted IMAP power users and had family friendly plans to going upscale and targeting teams.
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</pre>
</blockquote>
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