[FOSS4G-Oceania] Governance

[Martin Tomko]

My +2c – I would also suggest to check how others in AU/NZ do that – PyConf, Linux ( they have a foundation I think), etc.
There may be something to learn, even if they are not spatial.
M.

From: FOSS4G-Oceania <foss4g-oceania-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> on behalf of adam steer <adam.d.steer at gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, 4 December 2018 at 8:21 am
To: "foss4g-oceania at lists.osgeo.org" <foss4g-oceania at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: Re: [FOSS4G-Oceania] Governance

hey folks

had a great and deep discussion with John about governance over #geobeersCBR yesterday - we traversed much territory mostly revolving around how to create as few rules as possible - the conundrum being that if we create lots of rules to govern an organisation, we end up rule-ing ourselves into corners the organisation can’t easily move from in the future, and risks becoming constrained and stale. On the other hand, if the rules are too few or too vague, we risk being a chaotic organisation.

I think we can agree that we wish to form a legal entity to back future conferences and other things.

Looking over the governance doc again, it seems we’re bootstrapping it. A course of action might be to review (again) governance models of organisations we like, and seek to emulate; and then return to our doc and see what bits fit and don’t - if we haven’t already done that (apologies if so). I’d suggest OSGeo would be one model, based on the fact that they’re still here and have survived multiple crises. OSMF might be another model, which also survives multiple crises and manages to do good. EFA is another model we might look at - I don’t know much about them. Please suggest any others of interest!

Another organisation I’m involved in (Earth Observation Australia, http://eoa.org.au<http://eoa.org.au/>) is also going through parts of this conversation - transition from a collective of volunteers to a formal organisation - although they already have a name and a governance model in mind - which makes things easier. They’ve chosen the company limited by guarantee path.

Happy to be involved in future discussions, cognisant that this conversation is so far a chat between mid-career white blokes - I’ll tap a few folks directly on the shoulder and invite them to join in.

Cheers
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