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<p>For those of you who might not know Bruce, I thought I should
provide some background.</p>
<p>Bruce was on the organising committee of FOSS4G 2009, and
previously an active contributor within the OSGeo Aust-NZ email
list, among other things.</p>
<p>I've had a deep respect for Bruce's ability to deeply analyse
open technology problems, from a technical, social and business
context. And if you manage to pick a topic he is passionate about,
he has a track record of stepping up and following through.</p>
<p>He will also call bullshit on you (in a pointed, yet constructive
manner), and it is usually wise to listen to him when he does.
(Exhibit A at the start of the email thread).<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/8/19 10:12 pm, John Bryant wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAHY5hn8KKW2Onw-2YVp7jKFbEPCH0m=sJMqSryVj7nMTM6n1RQ@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">
<div>Hi Bruce,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Thanks a lot for raising this. I see it as a critical issue
and I appreciate your candid comments. I believe we're 100% in
agreement about the importance of appropriate community
engagement.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>By way of a brief outline, here's how we've arrived at this
point:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Immediately after the 2018 conference, the topic of
governance was raised and discussed at length in a Nov 2018
thread on the FOSS4G-Oceania list [1], culminating in a Terms
of Reference [2] for an organisation called OSGeo Oceania, and
an interim Board of Directors (ratified by motion on the list
in Dec 2018 [3]). Your suggestion from August 2018 [4] to '<i>have
separate bodies for the Local Chapter and the Conference
Committees</i>' was taken on board and incorporated at this
stage.<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The Terms of Reference broadly outlined an agenda for this
organisation for 2019:</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div><i>- determine a process for recruiting and managing an
appropriate general membership<br>
- determine a process for renewal of board membership,
including accountability to the general membership, and
clarify such items as term limits and staggering of terms<br>
- determine a process for inviting expressions of interest
and selecting groups wishing to host the annual FOSS4G
SotM Oceania event<br>
- determine and formalise an appropriate non-profit
structure<br>
- submit an official expression of interest to the OSGeo
board to form an OSGeo local chapter<br>
- apply to the OpenStreetMap Foundation board to form an
OpenStreetMap local chapter</i></div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Forming a non-profit was the first priority, as it was seen
as a foundational piece for the other items. Following the
TOR, a rather extensive piece of research led to a draft
recommendation in March 2019, which was posted on the lists
for community feedback [5 & 6]. At that time you pointed
to some earlier advice/comments you'd offered (<i>determine an
open process, understand liability, understand who has the
right to establish this entity, understand how we will
replace this person/people/organisation when appropriate</i>),
which we considered in drafting the recommendations. I hope
the TOR and entity recommendation documents sufficiently
address these concerns, and I'll also point out that we're
still in the process of determining how this will work - on
the agenda for the coming months ahead of the conference.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The entity was formed, based on the recommendation and
professional advice, on 1 May 2019.<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I'm now realising the distinct possibility that many people
in the community aren't subscribed to the foss4g-oceania list,
and thus the lengthy discussion that happened there may not
have been visible to some of the people who needed to see it.
This is unfortunate, and I only really see this now in
hindsight. I'm cc'ing the foss4g-oceania list so that anyone
who's on that list and not the Oceania list can also see this
discussion.<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>ALSO... I acknowledge that we can and will do better at
transparency. But I also ask for your patience. This isn't
easy work, we're all volunteers, and everyone is trying the
best they can. We've worked <u>very</u> hard to keep the
community apprised of what we're doing, seek input and
feedback, and try to address whatever comes our way.<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>If anyone feels they've been kept out of the loop, I
apologise for that, and I hope that in the coming months we
can find ways to make sure nobody is left behind.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>John<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>[1] <a
href="https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/foss4g-oceania/2018-November/001049.html"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/foss4g-oceania/2018-November/001049.html</a></div>
<div>[2] <a
href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/13aZ6L08ke1-l32I7c00MahyEKgxeZkq8/view"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://drive.google.com/file/d/13aZ6L08ke1-l32I7c00MahyEKgxeZkq8/view</a></div>
<div>[3] <a
href="https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/foss4g-oceania/2018-December/001163.html"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/foss4g-oceania/2018-December/001163.html</a></div>
<div>[4] <a
href="https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/oceania/2018-August/001929.html"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/oceania/2018-August/001929.html</a></div>
<div>[5] <a
href="https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/foss4g-oceania/2019-March/001313.html"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/foss4g-oceania/2019-March/001313.html</a></div>
<div>[6] <a
href="https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/oceania/2019-March/001989.html"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/oceania/2019-March/001989.html</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, 2 Aug 2019 at 13:29,
Bruce Bannerman <<a
href="mailto:bruce.bannerman.osgeo@gmail.com"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">bruce.bannerman.osgeo@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="auto">
<div dir="ltr">Hello John, Cameron and fellow OSGeo Oceania
community members,</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">I’m in two minds as to how to address this
email:</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">- Firstly, I’m happy to see some momentum
around OSGeo-Oceania.</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">- Secondly, I’m very disappointed to see that
we have what appears to be a fait accompli [1] presented
to us.</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">I have not seen any suitable discussion on
how we want to establish a local community, the rules that
we want to work to, how we are going to select and
reselect our community leaders etc, etc.</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">The last that I recall was when I dug out an
older email where I listed a number of concerns related to
creating a legal entity about five months ago [2]. I have
not seen these addressed, or had the opportunity to
participate in the follow up discussion.</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">Perhaps I have missed all of this discussion?
</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">I have looked through the Oceania email
archives, but cannot see the relevant discussion. So I
wasn’t imagining not seeing it.</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">Can someone please outline how we have
arrived at this point without suitable community
engagement and discussion? </div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">Kind regards,</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">Bruce</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">[1] <span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"><a
href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/fait-accompli"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/fait-accompli</a> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr"><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"><br>
</span></div>
<div dir="ltr"><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica">[2] </span><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"><a
href="https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/oceania/2019-March/001993.html"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/oceania/2019-March/001993.html</a></span></div>
<div dir="ltr"><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"><br>
</span></div>
<div dir="ltr"><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"><br>
</span></div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
On 2 Aug 2019, at 19:31, John Bryant <<a
href="mailto:johnwbryant@gmail.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">johnwbryant@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>I agree with this approach. <br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>My feeling is that board discussions should
default to using this mailing list except where
they're sensitive, ie. about specific people and/or
incidents, or relate to other confidential matters
eg. financial arrangements with partners. It's
valuable to the community to see how we operate, not
only for accountability, but also because it allows
people to watch over time, and potentially become
contributors.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Meeting notes/minutes are already published here:
<a href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Oceania"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Oceania</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Re:opening board meetings to the public, I'm
generally in favour. There will be times when
confidential discussions need to happen, but these
are the exception rather than the rule. If the board
is OK with this, maybe we can do this for next
meeting and see how we go?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Cheers</div>
<div>John<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr"><span>_______________________________________________</span><br>
<span>Oceania mailing list</span><br>
<span><a href="mailto:Oceania@lists.osgeo.org"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Oceania@lists.osgeo.org</a></span><br>
<span><a
href="https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/oceania"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/oceania</a></span><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
FOSS4G-Oceania mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:FOSS4G-Oceania@lists.osgeo.org">FOSS4G-Oceania@lists.osgeo.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g-oceania">https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g-oceania</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier
Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
M +61 (0) 419 142 254</pre>
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