Proposed: Funding Open Source Accounting software

[Josh Berkus]

> As an example: wouldn't those money (+ a good deal of extra other) be
> better spent to pay a professional accountant than in this fund-raising
> initiative? I'm convinced that at SPI scale, that would make a real
> difference in the quality of service offered to affiliated projects.

If you look at last month's board meeting, you'll see a rather strident
proposal from me that we hire a new bookkeeper.  I think we need to do
that *also*.  I agree that that's more important than software we'll get
in a year.  Fortunately, we have the money to do *both*.

One of the problems we encounter, though, is that most bookkeepers won't
deal with our wonky ad-hoc system.  This puts a lot of ongoing burden on
the volunteer treasurer, and causes the bookkeeper so be less effective.

--Josh Berkus