Dear OSGeo Board (Welcome new members!) and Conference Committee,<div><br></div><div>Thank you very much for your support to date in helping us get everything in place to be able to make financial arrangements for the FOSS4G North America Event in 2013. With the help of Peter and Daniel as indicated at the tail end of the last Board meeting we have worked over the last week to really put some "meat on the bones" of what all agreements must be in place for us to be able to leverage OSGeo to help the Twin Cities Local Chapter by acting as the financial backstop for this conference.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I do apologize for the rushed nature of this request, but I wanted to be able to present a full and accurate budget to the Board along with this request which we could not do until we had a full offer from our venue. And of course, getting the full offer from the venue then comes with a limited time to sign that contract.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Where we are at now. As attached here and presented to the Board and Conference Committee previously, we have a current offer for a venue that we have worked into our budget documents. As detailed before, we have made sure to be very careful in controlling for any liabilities. Our team has significant experience having hosted the 2003 and 2005 proto-FOSS4G events as well as experience working on other conferences including the annual comparably sized Minnesota GIS/LIS Conference.</div>
<div><br></div><div>In order to get the ball rolling and to sign the contract with our venue, we must put in place the agreements for the fiscal management of this conference. As the Twin Cities Local Chapter is not a legal entity, we have secured the local non-profit organization SharedGeo to act as our fiscal agent for this conference and are requesting that OSGeo establishes a service agreement on the behalf of the local chapter with SharedGeo for the fiscal management of this conference. OSGeo will retain the liability for the event as well as any net profits from the event.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Attached to this message along with the current budget is a draft agreement to be made between SharedGeo and OSGeo. Additionally, following this message is text to be considered as an agreement between OSGeo and the Twin Cities Local Chapter to make sure that all the right expectations are in place.</div>
<div><br></div><div>We look to the Board to provide any feedback on these documents (these are living documents right now, any changes are still welcome) and to take the following three actions upon satisfaction of the documents. If at all possible, we would hope that we will be able to address any concerns there may be and get these agreements together as soon as possible while making sure that we remain diligent about getting everything right.</div>
<div><ol><li>Accept and sign agreement between OSGeo and SharedGeo (attached)</li><li>Pass a resolution describing the expected relationship between OSGeo and the Twin Cities Local Chapter (below)</li><li>Provide a Board representative to help support this event</li>
</ol><div>We thank you for your support to date and will try to answer any questions that you may have.</div></div><div><br></div><div>David Bitner</div><div>FOSS4G North America 2013 Conference Chair</div><div><br></div>
<div>---------------------- Agreement between OSGeo and Twin Cities Local Chapter ----------------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">With reference to Board Resolution accepting the Services Agreement between OSGeo and SharedGeo, the OSGeo Board establishes a relationship with the OSGeo Twin Cities Local Chapter to create the Local Organizing Committee for the planning and running of the Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial North America Conference (FOSS4G NA) 2013 Conference to be held in Minneapolis, MN May 22-24 2013. </span><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">As part of this relationship, the Twin Cities Local Chapter agrees to:</div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<ol><li style="margin-left:15px">Establish a Local Organizing Committee (LOC). This committee shall fulfill all roles within the Services Agreement assigned to "The Committee". Specifically this encompasses all activities in the Services Agreement Section II.A other than "filing of any required post event Federal and State income tax returns".</li>
<li style="margin-left:15px">Establish a Conference Chair.</li><li style="margin-left:15px">Establish a Program Committee that responds to the Chair and the LOC and tries to represent the broader North American OSGeo interests.</li>
<li style="margin-left:15px">Establish an Executive Committee made up of the Conference Chair, the Conference Venue Chair, a representative from SharedGeo, and a representative from the OSGeo Board of Directors. No expenditures outside of the budget or changes to the budget are to be made without full consensus by this Executive Committee</li>
<li style="margin-left:15px">Communicate all major developments with regards to the conference with the OSGeo Conference Committee and OSGeo Board of Directors.</li></ol><div>The OSGeo Board agrees to:</div><div><ol><li style="margin-left:15px">
Provide an OSGeo representative to sit on the Local Organizing Committee</li><li style="margin-left:15px">Provide oversight over the budget through filling a seat on the Conference Executive Committee</li><li style="margin-left:15px">
Earmark a minimum of 50% of net conference profits for future FOSS4G North America events (excluding the main FOSS4G international event).</li><li style="margin-left:15px">File any required post event Federal and State income tax returns.</li>
</ol></div></div></div>