One of the things I've learned in dealing with budgets is that the size
of your reserves significantly influences the size of the risk you can
take - with any steering group with financial responsibility, they will
not take risks where the potential downside is larger than the reserves
of the organization.
This means that an organziation without reserves is, by necessity, a
timid organization.
Some of that can be mitigated by depending on other organizations'
reserves (like IETF depends on ISOC), but it's not necessarily a good
thing for either organizations to be in such a relationshiop.
The IETF needs to be the very opposite of timid going forward.
Reserves will help that.
I see the IETF Endowment as a means of making sure the IETF has the
reserves to take the risks it needs to take without asking our leaders
to abandon financial responsibility.
I'm proud to have my name on the list of sponsors.
Harald
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