Money from sales of printed copies of books

As well as working with the LibreOffice documentation team,
I am also involved (as Secretary-Treasurer) with an Australia-based
not-for-profit association, Friends of OpenDocument Inc., which
handles the money raised from sales of printed copies of OOo and
LO user guides and other books.

We are currently holding around AUD9,000 (more than USD9,000,
or around EUR7,250 at current exchange rates) in the (former)
OOoAuthors account and around AUD1,000 in the LibreOffice
Docs account. More comes in each month.

Money from LO book sales is exclusively for LO use. In addition...
With two communities (LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice)
replacing the former OOo, and with a large number of the people
who worked on OOo user guides now working with LO, it seems
only fair that the money in the former OOoAuthors account be
made available to LO as well as ApacheOO.

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.

We don't have a very formal process for people to request money, but
you would need to give enough info about what you want the money for,
how much, who's involved, and so on, so the Friends of OpenDocument
Inc's Management Committee can evaluate your request.

BTW, we welcome new members; no charge to join. Info about
membership is on the website, which is rarely updated except for
financial statements and notices of meetings required by law
(and the minutes of those meetings).

--Jean Hollis Weber
http://friendsofopendocument.com/

I should also specifically mention the possibility of funding
documentation-related activities.

WorldLabel is offering modest payments for completed video tutorials.
What activities do we think should/could be funded? IMO they would
need to be clearly defined, preferably do-able in a few months or
less, and require little supervision. And, of course, be within
budget.

If someone would like to make a suggesions or a specific proposal,
either here or directly to info@friendsofopendocument.com, please do!

--Jean