[GNUz] [RMS to visit NZ] Great Hall Sponsorship Application

[Rik Tindall]

Don's letter:

Edits I'd recommend  (some Tim/RMS's) please feed back any necessary 
changes.

(Background:)

Don Gould wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> Further to discussions last night below is my draft for application for 
> sponsorship for the Great Hall at the Arts Centre.
>
> The venue seats 280 people and would typically cost $480 + GST for the 
> night, so we really would need to make a concentrated effort to fill it 
> or risk looking just a bit silly.
>
> The application needs to go to Nigel Shatford - Business Manager - 
> nigel at artscentre.org.nz
>
> I am told that Nigel would typically take about a week to consider our 
> application and it would most likely be discussed with the marketing 
> manager.  Sponsorship at this level should not need to go to the board.
>
> The person I talked to at the Art Centre this afternoon made it quite 
> clear that they would be wanting to know what they would get in return. 
> Hence in my draft I have made a number of small commitments to promote 
> their facilities.  Please don't flame me, if you have issue then let's 
> hear why.
>
> I have included quite a number of random comments about GNU/GPL, etc. 
> I'm not proposing we use my draft in full.  I suggest that we do some 
> editing.  I am just trying to help get the juices moving in the brain.
>
> It occurred to me that spending time to write a submission is a waste of 
> time if the hall is already booked, so I called them to confirm it's 
> available.  It is, and I have made a tentative booking to reserve us the 
> space if we want it.  The centre will hold the booking for a month 
> without any commitment, however it would be polite to get our collective 
> skates on! :)
>
> Cheers Don
> -----------------

(Text:)

> Dear Nigel,
>
> We are writing to you today to ask the Arts Centre Trust to consider sponsoring our use of the Great Hall, or the Hurst Seager Room, on Monday 18th of August from 7pm 
> to 10:30pm. [Ooops. Hurst Seager is out for "earthquake 
> strengthening", still?]
>
> We propose an open public event where Mr Richard Stallman, from 
> Massachusetts USA, will speak.
> Donations will be invited to cover the cost of bringing Mr Stallman to
> Christchurch. We are hopeful that his presentation will
> generate enough interest to cover the necessary plane fares and leave 
> a surplus towards other hosting costs.
>
> We would like to ask the Arts Centre to sponsor the entire cost of the
> venue, but would also be happy to meet some of this cost if the event
> does raise funds to a point that would allow us to do that.
>
> As the founder of the Free Software Foundation and GNU software project,
> Richard Stallman is a world renound public speaker; see http://gnu.org
>
> Richard Stallman is to free software what Bill Gates is to proprietary
> software. It is both an honour and privilege to have him speaking in 
> Christchurch, on the last leg of his New Zealand tour in August.
> Mr Stallman will be presenting a talk about the philosophy and the
> history of free software around the world.
>
> Free software is what powers most of the internet. Without it we simply
> wouldn't have the quality of communications network that we all enjoy 
> today.
>
> Canterbury people and businesses benefit from free software every day 
> without
> realising it. Thousands of New Zealanders use free software
> directly on their PC desktops too. Google is run on free software and simply wouldn't exist if the people 
> who built it had been forced to use proprietary licensed software.
>
> GNU software is all 'open-source'.  This means it can be used in 
> education for students to learn how programs and computers work: 
>
> "source code is to software what a recipe is to a cake".
>
> In line with the Free Software philosophy, we will not be charging a fee for people to hear 
> Mr Stallman, but will request donations to cover his expenses to get here. Mr Stallman
> continues to inspire others to learn and grow through community development around licensed
> free software development.
>
> Mr Stallman's point of view is important for both commercial and educational 
> arenas to understand, relating to computer infrastructure. His work has inspired many to do great things, such as the "Linux" software distributions that are the best known expressions of free software.
>
> Mr Stallman presenting in our city is a gift of immeasurable value.  We 
> would like the city to present him the gift of being allowed to present 
> in the Great Hall.  We do not have a great choice of free or low cost but spacious venues, and 
> understand that Mr Stallman enjoys historic architectural surroundings.
>
> The BSD-GNU/Linux User community will be hosting Mr Stallman's visit to 
> Christchurch.  The group is made up of local software enthusists and has 
> not financial standing.
>
> Free software drives more innovation and development within the commercial software field, by helping keep that commercial world in check and healthy. It makes a huge difference to every local community. There are large but mostly unreported contributions made by free software
> to the public good, through science and education as well as through telecommunications.
>
> What we can offer the Arts Centre in return for support of this educational and cultural event is to host web 
> site advertising, that will be notified on public emailing lists and provide links to the Arts Centre's web site.
>
> We will fund a poster advertising promotion ourselves, and
> use community notices, word of mouth and personal contact also to communicate the event.
> We will hand out a small information sheet to attendees on the 
> night and we are happy to include a logo and contact details on all such flyers.
>
> Regards etc.
>   

Referee: Christoph ______, St Albans Community Resource Centre manager.
[I will talk to Christoph about this tomorrow, but we know he's very 
supportive of FOSS and probably happy about doing this].

Viz last post Don, I reckon you can just about give the Great Hall 
Sponsorship Application a go now. - Unless there's any different views 
posted before you can hit Print tomorrow and head on down there.

Thanks for picking up the ball. Great try! Whatever printing we might 
need you to do, will of course be paid for Don.

Can we nominate Sue and Warwick as event treasurers please?

Good luck.

-- 
Kind regards,
Rik Tindall