<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=iso-8859-1"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">Not sure if everyone from the board is on conference-dev.<div><br></div><div>Best regards,</div><div>Bart<br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>From: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';">Eli Adam <<a href="mailto:eadam@co.lincoln.or.us">eadam@co.lincoln.or.us</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';"><b>FOSS4G 2015 bidding selection process</b><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>Date: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';">4 Feb 2014 08:17:28 GMT+1<br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>To: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';">Bart van den Eijnden <<a href="mailto:bartvde@osgis.nl">bartvde@osgis.nl</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>Cc: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';">Jeff McKenna <<a href="mailto:jmckenna@gatewaygeomatics.com">jmckenna@gatewaygeomatics.com</a>>, OSGeo-Conf <<a href="mailto:conference_dev@lists.osgeo.org">conference_dev@lists.osgeo.org</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>Reply-To: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';"><a href="mailto:eadam@co.lincoln.or.us">eadam@co.lincoln.or.us</a><br></span></div><br><div>Hi Conf-dev (and to some extent Board),<br><br>The follow views are my own, not necessarily shared by the PDX LOC or<br>others. I invite others, especially members of LOCs that were<br>involved in bid selection ties (somewhat common: PDX, DC, Prague, and<br>Beijing), to share their thoughts as well.<br><br>Perhaps the board should make an expression of financial viability and<br>risk preference (if any) *before* the conference committee votes since<br>it is impossible (or at least very difficult) to do *after* the<br>conference committee has made a recommendation. This could take the<br>form of something like, "The OSGeo Board finds all these bids to be<br>financially viable and of acceptably low risk and will be happy to<br>approve any of them recommended by the Conference Committee"<br><br>When there are ties it means that there are great proposals. When<br>there are great proposals, lightheartedness, not overly serious<br>deliberation, is needed. A decision between great proposals is more<br>inconsequential than important (either would be great events). If the<br>rare case of two very poor bids comes in, they should both be rejected<br>and new bids sought.<br><br>My opinion on conference committee selection is that kicking<br>irreconcilable ties to the board is a form of escalation and what is<br>needed is deescalation. It is better for the conference committee<br>chair and the loc chairs sort it out. A video call with a coin flip<br>would work. I think that the chair deciding is fine too and if we are<br>in a case where the chair is abstaining, then the tie breaker must be<br>allotted to some other conference committee member in advance. In all<br>cases, the conference committee should come to some conclusion even if<br>it is by arbitrary methods. Escalation to the Board unnecessarily<br>raises the stakes which does not benefit anyone and does not improve<br>the quality of the decision.<br><br>Best Regards, Eli<br></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>