[wlug-committee] Google Ads on WLUG

Hi, 

I'd like to ask the committee to consider allowing the addition of
Google Ad's to the Wiki at the next committee meeting. 

I believe there are many potential benefits to WLUG from doing this,
primarily in the financial area. While WLUG has never struggled
financially currently our only source of income is memberships which
tends to bring in about $1000/year if my recollection is correct. Our
only real outgoings so far have been on the end of year BBQ and a few
other miscellaneous things. 

I think in part our low spending has been because we have wanted to keep
some kitty in the bank in case we ever have to pay for a meeting venue
or hoiho hosting. This is a wise approach and should be continued. 

However, the approach does prevent us from spending money on other
things that would be cool. Some schemes that I would like to see the LUG
trying
* Sponsorship of members to things such as LCA
* Spot prizes at meetings
* Supporting members involved in OSS development (purchasing hardware
etc)

I don't think we need to get too stuck up on exactly what to spend the
money on, but I think a general focus of "supporting and growing the
Waikato Linux community" covers it. Something like a mini version of the
Linux AU grants scheme could be neat too. 

A rough estimate of how much WLUG could expect to bring in from this is
in the order of $100/month I think. 

I've prepared a mock up of what the site could look like with google
Ads, as you can see they are fairly unobtrusive:
http://www.wlug.org.nz/~matt/wlug-google.png

It's minimal work to get it up and running, I'm happy to deal with all
the liason with Google etc.

All that is needed from the committee is an OK. 

So, what so you?

-- 
Matt Brown
matt@m...
Mob +64 275 611 544 www.mattb.net.nz