[Ncdxf-bod-sub] Navassa Island DXpedtion revised budget and letter of explanation...

[W6OTC]

       I agree with the following points made by Don:
       
       1.  QSL income (thanks to OQRS) has become more and more important to
the "most wanted" DXpeditions and has increased substantially over the past
5 or so years, and US hams are the major donors to OQRS.  Whatever the need
in EU/AS, those hams are not major contributors to DXpeditions.  QSOs for
this operation will certainly equal at least 150,000; I personally expect
200,000.
       2.  UEE finances are never transparent.  I don't know if he even
gives his own team all the real numbers especially re income.  We need
access to his raw data, particular the geographical distribution of OQRS
income.  That has been half-promised in the past but never delivered.
       
       I don't agree entirely with the following points made by Don:
       
       1.  EU should give more, especially where the need is greater for
them than for the US.  Yes, but the fact is they do not have a history or
culture of giving and indeed there is a strong faction in Europe (centered
in G-land and which we have discussed before) that thinks QSLs should be
instant and free for all--a view that would destroy the economic basis for
major DXpeditions.  The US does have a history and culture of private giving
to support public good, hence tax deductions for charitable giving and the
existence of the NCDXF.   I don't think our lesser contribution will produce
a greater contribution from EU.  I do think that since we are the big dog in
Foundation giving, we can and should be more assertive in conditioning our
grants on more full disclosure of financial results of DXpeditions we fund,
at least those above some significant grant level, perhaps $20,000.   But
that is a separate discussion for full implementation (e.g. the application
needs to be modified).
       2.  This is a Caribbean DXpedition, instead of a Southern Ocean or
the Pacific one so we should give less.  The specific location  is not
controlling for me.  The issues are rarity, the cost of the DXpedition and
the contribution/op.  If, as in the past, it was easy to get permission to
land on KP1 and KP5, we wouldn't be dealing with a 15-man UEE DXpedition at
all.  Many small groups would find more economic ways to go there
frequently.  But since UEE is the only one to have gotten permission to
reactivate these two entities (only once so far) we have to deal with him
and the idea of rare and large DXpeditions instead of frequent and small
DXpeditions.  To the list of likely future DXpetitions that Don lists, we
now know from today's Daily DX that we can add Palmyra which will have
similar problems.  I still say we deal with each application when it is
made, rather than let potential future DXpeditions influence what we give
now (whenever "now" is).  Some of the expected future ones may not
materialize in the near future; others we don't yet know may appear.  But
note that we have never developed a working philosophy of the amount of our
assets we should spend/yr.  That is another issue for separate discussion.

       
       So, at the moment, we have no stated opposition to the idea of making
a grant, and we have before us a range of $30-40k.   Please comment and/or
be ready to vote by tomorrow (Friday).  We need to make a decision on this
application.
       
       73, Glenn, W6OTC

-----Original Message-----
From: Ncdxf-bod-sub [mailto:ncdxf-bod-sub-bounces at kkn.net] On Behalf Of Don
Greenbaum
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2014 7:24 PM
To: ncdxf-bod-sub at kkn.net
Subject: Re: [Ncdxf-bod-sub] Navassa Island DXpedtion revised budget and
letter of explanation...

As I wrote earlier this month, the budget spreadsheet either totally
misrepresents the income they can expect from this expedition or it reflects
that it is not rare enough in North America to generate the 
QSL/donation responses one would expect from a top 5 needed entity.   As 
our studies have shown, expeditions today get the bulk of their income from 
North America.   This is based on both club and foundation funding (NCDXF 
is a major part of this portion of  fundraising) and US hams typically give 
more donation $ with their OQRS requests.   The demand in Asia and Europe 
far outstrips the demand in the US.   Why must the US finance the bulk of 
this operation if the entity is not as rare here?  Even so, this group of
15 should make a minimum of 150,000 QSOs given the proximity to NA and EU.

 From your Treasurer's point of view, so far this year we have taken in
around $70,000 in donations (95% North America).  We have given out so far
$30,500.  In the next year, we have expeditions to the South Atlantic,
Heard, Bouvet, and several more rumored in the Pacific.  If we finance a
Caribbean expedition to the tune of $40,000 or more what should the hard to
get to places expect next year?  What can we afford to give the hard to
reach destination DXpeditions.

This is a DXpedition in our back yard.   Fish and Wildlife specified a 
Helicopter must be kept on emergency standby, not that a Helicopter must
make all the trips to the Island.  The helicopter transportation is not the
cheapest route, but the fastest and easiest.  I am happy to see the team is
putting up a bigger chunk of money than originally stated and raised their 
contributions to $10,000 each.   By the way, even at $10,000 their share of 
the total costs is less than the total budget % than other 
mega-expeditions.  It scares me that KP1 is a mega-expedition.   Just last 
week a member of the team to KP1 who is also a board member here mentioned 
the 2.5X rule for funding.   That would make our contribution on that 
formula $25,000.

While we can also expect that if there is a surplus (as almost all of 
K4UEEs trips generate) KP1 will probably see a refund.   However, we have 
never gotten a full accounting of past K4UEE finances and we have no idea if
the refunds Bob makes are based on a formula.  Does our Foundation get back
the same percentage as other Foundations, team members, etc.  This lack of
transparency has always bothered some of the Board.

I would like to suggest a grant of $30,000 and if we are wrong in our
analysis, they can always ask for more when they return.

Don
N1DG


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