[Board] Support fot OSGeo officers (Re: My attendance in Portland)

[Jorge Sanz]

2014-07-18 14:15 GMT+02:00 Jachym Cepicky <jachym.cepicky at gmail.com>:
> I just would like to make my position clear on this point as well, as
> being board member:
>
> Thank you, Arnulf, for you letter, you said, you would write something
> like this and I'm very thankful, this happen (sorry, if I missed some
> of yours previous e-mails on this topic)
>
> Thank you, Jeff, for being such president, you are. I'm not writing
> "such great president", because everybody knows, how tall you are. I
> appreciate and support the way, how you do it, because of I think,
> it's representing our most important aspect - the community - very
> well. Even I might disagree with you on some points.
>
> Arnulf stated it clearly: regardless which "types of business cards
> you have", it does not make your profit any higher, when being
> president.
>
> Therefore, we should always ask: do we want to have our president at
> some event? Can it be covered by some other member of the community?
>
> I've meat so many people within and around OSGeo community, and I do
> *not* remember, if there would be someone, who would ask for refunds
> from OSGeo, if it could not be covered from custom/other resources.
> And I'm sure, such guy would *not* be elected as board member and
> later president. And since we all, even members of academic community
> are living in real world, we all are pretty aware, that bills must be
> clean, so getting payed means you show all bills at the end (no reason
> for specially asking for it).
>
> My point: When someone within this board of directors is asking for
> financial cover, the only question should not be "how much", or "shall
> we", but "do we need him/her at the event"? Everything else is
> pointless. He is putting himself into very embarrassing situation. And
> if we say "yes", the other question must be "mr. President, would you
> please be so kind and invest a little of your time, so you could be
> participating on the event on behalf of OSGeo?", since nobody is
> covering other expenses, or time he has to invest. Remember: we are
> all volunteers, even president is.
>
> I'm always looking forward to see Jeff and I'm glad, I had the chance
> to see him at FOSS4G-Europe this week, but I do not thing, it's
> required and if Jeff would be asking for cover to come to Europe, I
> would probably not support it.
>
> But FOSS4G is still considered *the* *our* conference and I'm strongly
> supporting Jeff's appearance there as OSGeo President. And I'm kindly
> asking him to volunteer to go there. And everybody says that: the
> conference is *so* expensive, that common developer can not cover the
> costs by himself. I've personally failed as this point as board member
> and I would like to find some solution for this.
>
> Longer than I wanted, sorry
>
> Jachym
>
> P.S. Remember last year's discussion, whether OSGeo covers costs for
> the OGC-OSGeo boards dinner? I could not allow to be there and thank
> you for covering it at the end, after discussions. Ask again: was I
> elected for the board for being rich, so I will not require anything
> from it or because I was considered valuable person? If the first
> reason, I move for every board member candidate shall deposit certain
> amount of money before elections to prove, his situation is
> appropriate. Same applies for President candidate, but at least three
> times higher.  And btw: Jeff shall take his personal business cards as
> well. Just for the case, anybody would ask.
>
> P.P.S If you think, I'm hysterical at the moment, it's not the case.
> Just said, we need talk about this topic and that we are talking about
> it for so long.
>


Sharing my thoughts now the rush of foss4g-e has passed. Sorry for the
lengthy text.

Frankly, I was shocked when I read Arnulf mail, and I appreciate a lot
his and Jeff sincerity about the difficulties of the President role.
It's clear that in the way they've doing the job, they are effectively
sponsoring the foundation at a very high price, in fact (just kidding)
we should place a photo of his very face at the principal sponsors
logos section on our web page (!!)

So it seems clear the model doesn't support itself. IMHO we need a
clear procedure to "protect" our President of being in the position to
accept invitations that are far over what we as a Board expect to
support, but also allowing him to plan travels and activities that he
or she thinks are worth to.

If an event wants to have our President there, probably we need to:

1) ask the President if he is available to volunteer that time (do he
have a deadline for a project? he or she had planned a trip
elsewhere?)
2) assure the event covers ALL the costs
3) reserve the right to kindly reject the invitation without having to
give more explanations
4) if by any means we say no, try to offer and *strongly support* a
good advocate that maybe is cheaper to invite and is willing to
volunteer (probably because he's closer to the event). For that
purpose the OSGeo Advocate initiative Cameron started is superb

The President probably has to decide and agree with the Board which
events over the year are strategic, which ones maybe he has to attend
even non being invited so the foundation covers the travel costs and
in general have a more elaborated plan for the year so we the Board
have a better understanding of where our President's and other members
efforts go.

Again, it's just me thinking aloud but as I said yesterday at the
meeting, I see a clear deviation of what our President role is being
asked for (by others or himself) and what we the Board think it should
be.

If we can't afford a President role that attends 20 events a year all
over the world, we shouldn't force the situation or let him go over
what's sensible.maybe

Best

-- 
Jorge Sanz
http://www.osgeo.org
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Jorge_Sanz