Explanation of the T3A 2017 budget

Introduction

A few months ago we started the process for receiving funds from the TYPO3 Association.

The application phase was followed by a discussion and a poll by the members. The results of this poll are meant to give the Expert Advisory Board (EAB) a guideline on how the members want to see the money spent. Within our discussion and decision process we thought it would be better and more efficient to focus on the most pressing topics, rather than to spread the quite low amount of available money on various budget requests. Nevertheless we really appreciate the ongoing contribution and involvement every budget applicant and the members of the TYPO3 community has made so far. We like to thank everybody for their continued efforts and really would like to encourage everybody to keep on going and come up with fresh and new ideas for interesting projects in the following years. Also we would like to offer to budget applicants who are facing cut or even declined budget, that we are open for discussion and try to find together other possibilities to fund their projects.

Availability

For 2017 the TYPO3 Association has received budget applications for a total of 1.181.436,00 EUR (2016: 1.440.673,00 EUR) whilst we expect an income of 640.000 EUR (2016: 580.000 EUR). Based on the members' poll the EAB discussed all budget applications in detail during our meet-up in late November 2016. The output of these negotiations is the complete budget for 2017 which is attached to this article. In the following weeks we informed the budget applicants about the status of their application. The Business Control Committee (BCC) has also received a copy of the granted budgets. The EAB will continue to work with the BCC and the TYPO3 Association's cashier to ensure the correct usage of the granted funds.

Application overview

• To organize the projects we have assigned them into one of six budget categories: 
• Research & Development
• Events
• Education, Certification & Documentation
• Management
• Marketing & Communication

Research & Development

We have accepted the following applications as is:

• TYPO3 Security Team (29.480 EUR)

TYPO3 CMS Core Team with a fixed amount of  350.000 EUR. The budget will be coordinated by the CMS Core Team Budget owner Matthias Schreiber. We declined all other code related budgets as we like to align these budgets and their developments to be handled within the central TYPO3 CMS budge. These budgets are

• TYPO3 Fluid
• Extension News
• TYPO3 Console
• T3Mask
• DMO

Nevertheless, we hope that some of these projects will be funded by sponsors. If you are interested in sponsoring any of these projects, please get in touch with us. We would be very glad to help to connect development and market interests. 

Events

The following application was granted as is:

• TYPO3 Developer Days 2016 (-250 EUR)

There are no detailed plans for a T3CON17 yet. If the event takes place it is supposed to generate no loss, thus being cost neutral.

Education, Certification & Documentation

The following applications were granted with reduction:

• Education Committee & Certifications (69% granted = 37.000 EUR)
• Documentation Maintenance and Improvement (48% granted = 12.000 EUR)
• T3Rookies (50% granted = 3.000 EUR)

The application for the “Official Editors’ Manual” has been declined, yet we are extremely happy the project will be realized on an alternative way as a high quality online manual for Editors is desperately needed. Parts of the “Document Maintenance and Improvement” we could not foster by T3A funds might get funded by the TYPO3 CMS budget.

Management

The following applications were granted as is:

• Expenses Lawyer (15.000 EUR)
• Backoffice (49.666 EUR)
• QSA meet-ups (11.790 EUR)
• BCC meet-ups (1.600 EUR)
• Academic Committee (2.000 EUR)

The following applications were granted with reduction: 

• President of the T3A (60% granted = 12.000 EUR)
• Memberships in other organizations (71% granted = 5.000 EUR)
• General Assembly (27% granted = 2.000 EUR)
• Expenses Accounting (75% = 6.000 EUR)
• Licensing Team (50% granted = 1.750 EUR)
• Expert Advisory Board (50% granted = 2.000 EUR)

The boards decided to include the GA within the first QSA and to not organize a community day in 2017 which will save us money in the GA budget. Accounting expenses could be reduced in 2016 and the budget application has been aligned accordingly. The following application has been declined: 

• T3CON travel and hotel
• GA travel and hotel
• Feel Good Management
• Community Manager

To be more transparent about (indirect) costs of the TYPO3 conference we declined all indirect budgets for this event. GA travel costs can be saved as the GA will be part of the QSA. For the applications Feel Good Management and Community Manager we do not have the funds to invest in neither of these two positions in 2017.

Marketing & Communication

The following applications were granted as is:

• typo3.org maintenance (39.500 EUR)
• Professional Services Listing PSL (-16.005 EUR)
• Academic Committee (2.000 EUR)
• General Communications Budget (49.250 EUR) 

The following applications were granted with reduction:

• Media team (58% granted = 4.000 EUR)
• TYPO3 server team (73% granted = 29.000 EUR)
• Italian Committee (22% granted = 2.000 EUR -> now getting the same amount as the Academic Committee)

The following applications were not granted:

• TYPO3 Marketing
• TYPO3 Design Team 

Marketing and Design shall get in line with the activities of the TYPO3 GmbH and thus all costs will be covered by the TYPO3 GmbH from 2017 on.

General Remarks

All decisions were taken in full consent and with the best expectations. Pretty much like every year the sum of the applied budgets exceeded the expected income for the next year considerably. Whilst this is a good sign of high activity within the projects it is also the reason we could not fund all applications we would have liked and had to reduce the applied budget significantly. We would like to ask you to consider upgrading your membership or sponsor one of these listed projects directly. If you need further information on how to proceed, feel free to contact us.

Outlook Work Time Costs 2018

We still have budgets with a considerably high amount of work time costs in some budgets. To prepare 2018 we ask to make a transition. If paid work is necessary to achieve goals, this should be done by the TYPO3 GmbH, especially to reduce the worktime rates and costs. Please get in touch with Mathias Schreiber early throughout 2017 to figure out how to achieve this transition. We will for sure drop the hourly rate for work time (currently 55 EUR) significantly in 2018. On behalf of the Expert Advisory Board,
Peter Pröll