[North America] OSGeo Board Meeting and NA Chapter

Robert Hollingsworth reh2 at prodigy.net
Sat Dec 10 14:17:59 EST 2011


Mark,
Thanks for pursuing the NA Chapter idea with the OSGeo board.  I'd rather see you accept 'credit' rather than 'blame' for trying to push this through.

I don't think the absence of an OSGeo North American Chapter automatically precludes any possibility of a 2012 conference.  Mostly I see that, with or without the formality of an official chapter, there is a large list of formidable tactical hurdles to overcome in order to pull off such an event.  

Perhaps the readers of this list should form the core of an interest group that examines all options and issues, and reviews its collective internal resources for accomplishing assorted goals.

For example, I've had some recent conversations with a colleague whose own strong preference is for adding an OSGeo component to other events.  This tracks with the possible examples you've listed.  Or, if we were to form our own event, my colleague suggests it be strongly oriented around work groups achieving tangible outputs such as specific plans for outreach to higher education, structures for grouping customers from various industries with each other and with service providers, etc.  (Hopefully my colleague will expand on these ideas in this space soon -- You Know Who You Are..)

I recommend we always focus on what we all want out of whatever events or actions or structures we choose to pursue -- exchange of technical information, highlighting new products, connecting customers to developers, recruiting new customers, etc.-- and see how well the various event options can meet these goals.

Robert Hollingsworth

< I had some trouble with my last reply not reaching the list.   Let's hope this appears once instead of zero times or two times..>

Thought I'd status everyone on the board meeting and recent discussions.
The motion to approve the North America chapter was voted down.
There were many comments and a lot of discussion.  At the end, many of the board members decided there was no need to rush a decision.  Many, not all, encouraged that we continue to pursue the NA chapter and also a regional conference this year and that an official chapter approval was not needed to do that.
[9:44] NA chapter
much discussionmotion to approve chapter - MarkL/1, Jo/2...mpg -1, Frank -1, Jeff +0, Daniel +0, Jo +0, Mark +1, Arnulf (absent), Peter +0, Tim +0motion failed; concerns centered on organizational structure, concerns about the conference
Negative comments were that there wasn't enough work done on organizational structure, it seemed to reflect the work of one person (I assume that is me), that we haven't done proper coordination with all of the other existing chapters in NA, I think a few don't want an annual NA regional conference.  What about revenues?.  From my perspective, many of the same discussions that we have previously tried to address.
I'll certainly accept blame for trying to push this through.  My intentions were to be officially recognized and schedule a conference that did not conflict with Beijing in the Apr/May timeframe.  
I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts and comments on this.
GITA, MIL-OSS, and USGIF have all offered to include us in conferences they would host.
Mark




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