[FOSS4G-Oceania] Governance

Thu Nov 29 04:04:13 PST 2018

I support Daniels comments. Setting up an entity is similar in each state.
I have done this in QLD and NZ. I think an entity is the way to progress.

I am on a plane at 12pm (finally going home) so will miss the meeting

Greg

On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 5:35 PM Daniel Silk <dwsilk at gmail.com> wrote:

> If for example, incorporating in Victoria:
> https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/clubs-and-fundraising/incorporated-associations/become-an-incorporated-association/register-as-an-incorporated-association
>
> The requirements are:
> 1. At least 5 members
> 2. Non-profit
> 3. We have a name (the hard part!)
> 4. We have rules (a constitution)
> 5. We have a purpose
> 6. We hold a meeting (with 21 days advance notice required) and vote to
> incorporate
>
> Later:
> 7. We must have an AGM within 18 months of incorporation and then within 5
> months of the end of every financial year at which a financial report is
> tabled and signed off by at least two members
> 8. We must maintain a list of members including each members name, address
> and date they became a member
>
> Seems like that's about it.
>
> Note that the incorporated associations material for Victoria refers to a
> "committee", not a "board".
>
> ------
>
> In regards to governance then, here is my proposal.
>
> For simplicity, let's incorporate as "OSGeo Oceania" but with a clear
> purpose statement that supports not just open source geospatial software,
> but open geospatial data as well. If we are an incorporated association and
> name one committee member as the primary contact point with the OSM
> Foundation, then we satisfy all requirements to apply to be an OSMF local
> chapter.
>
> This is similar to FOSSGIS in Germany which is also the local chapter for
> both OSGeo and OSMF. The Belgian and Italian OSMF local chapters are also
> organisations that are the local chapters for multiple international
> organisations.
>
> I realise that this may be seen as diluting the importance of the OSM
> aspect and am happy to be challenged on this. I think it is very important
> that we continue to work together and I really enjoyed that we had strong
> open source geospatial, open data and OpenStreetMap aspects to our
> inaugural conference. I do think that it is hard to come up with a name
> that cohesively brings all of that together. It would be great to continue
> to work on that snappier name for next years conference. For the
> association though, the purpose statement is much more important than the
> name. OSGeo has already shown that it is keen to support OpenStreetMap so I
> think we can achieve our broader goals under "OSGeo Oceania".
>
> Cheers
> Daniel
>
>
> On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 7:36 PM Alex Leith <alexgleith at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi John and others
>>
>> I'm not clear yet what the minimum we can do is, in terms of a legal
>> entity. Do others have experience here? I had a quick read here
>> <https://www.ato.gov.au/Non-profit/Getting-started/In-detail/Registration/Overview-of-legal-structures/>,
>> but determined that I need an adult to help me with the choices!
>>
>> I have served on the board of SSSI, and understand the structures of that
>> organisation, which is a not-for-profit in Australia, and there's a fair
>> bit of governance and documentation. I think the minimum if we had an
>> organisation like that would be a constitution and a board + the conference
>> organising committee for each year.
>>
>> I think that creating an entity would be a great thing to achieve, and we
>> certainly have the core to start with, with our enthusiastic committee and
>> successful event. I'm a little hesitant, though, as I see that we can make
>> it work without one... we have a lot of avenues for support, in terms of
>> juggling finances and contractual agreements. SSSI, SIBA, Locate, LINZ,
>> etc...
>>
>> One more comment about the draft document is that I think limiting
>> committees to those that are absolutely essential is important. So if the
>> legal entity needs a board, we have a board, and a conference committee. If
>> it just needs an annual meeting, we have an annual meeting and a conference
>> committee! My $0.02.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Alex
>>
>> On Thu, 29 Nov 2018 at 16:12 John Bryant <johnwbryant at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi committee, time for the most exciting topic of all - governance!
>>>
>>> Over the last several months, and especially last week, there were a
>>> number of conversations among committee members about 'what next', and many
>>> of these have touched on the topic of how we organise this committee in the
>>> future.
>>>
>>> I expect there will be quite a few ideas around this, and a range of
>>> opinions, so I'd like to kick off a discussion so that we can choose our
>>> path and move forward.
>>>
>>> We've had a productive year of working together, culminating in a
>>> successful event. We managed to do this quite informally, using consensus
>>> building to foster a shared sense of ownership of the conference. I'm
>>> extremely happy with how this group has worked together.
>>>
>>> I feel we are at an inflection point though, and I don't think we can
>>> assume that what worked this year will automatically continue to work. Now
>>> that we have people's attention with a successful event and an energised &
>>> engaged community, I feel it would be wise to come to more robust terms on
>>> how we manage this.
>>>
>>> Because we need to kick off a new conference planning cycle in the new
>>> year, we also need to determine how to bring in new people (importantly,
>>> including some New Zealanders), how to appoint a new chair, etc etc.
>>>
>>> At a bare minimum, I believe our next iteration of governance should
>>> include an updated Terms of Reference, outlining processes for managing
>>> committee membership, processes for appointing leadership and executive,
>>> rules/norms for decision making, and expectations around levels of
>>> participation.
>>>
>>> But there are good arguments to be made for creating a
>>> legally-recognised entity:
>>>
>>>    - it would enable us to manage our own funds when the time is right
>>>    (whether we choose to do this immediately or not)
>>>    - it would enable us to enter into agreements as a body (Alex and I
>>>    had to personally sign our partnership agreement with SSSI, as individuals)
>>>    - it normally comes with a well-developed set of rules for
>>>    governance that we can adjust to our liking
>>>    - I believe that committee members would be somewhat protected from
>>>    personal liability
>>>    - it would provide a strong signal to the community that there is a
>>>    persistent body in place to steward the conference and other initiatives,
>>>    and ideally lay out a strong foundation for the long term
>>>
>>> I have definitely heard people warn against the administrative overhead
>>> of setting up a formal entity, but having done this in the past (in Canada
>>> mind you), and reading through the docs, I don't see this as especially
>>> onerous. But there is more work to do on understanding the details.
>>>
>>> In any case, we need to figure out how to move on to the next phase. In
>>> terms of timing, I think *we should try and come to agreement on a
>>> clear path forward within about 2 weeks (14th Dec)*, so that we can
>>> begin the new year with purpose and direction.
>>>
>>> Daniel and I had a good chat about this stuff this morning, and have
>>> started a draft document
>>> <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KkUl-qwb2pE5OomHy-0RwKSsXJDOkFx0dpW6Dhfv624/edit>
>>> we can use (in addition to this email thread) to focus our efforts.
>>>
>>> *Your thoughts/questions/ideas/concerns please!*
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>> John
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> FOSS4G-Oceania mailing list
>>> FOSS4G-Oceania at lists.osgeo.org
>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g-oceania
>>>
>> --
>>
>> Alex Leith
>> 0419 189 050
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>>
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