<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">+1 Bruce<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">However, I see this as initial advice only.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If we are serious about establishing our community, then we will then need to actively contribute to our community's development, including to the non-sexy process and administration aspects.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">This is about setting the ground rules about how we want to work together as a community.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We have a wealth of experience from many international open source communities amongst us. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We also have a healthy parent organisation within OSGeo that we can use as a starting point to borrow, adapt and improve processes. We don’t have to start with a clean slate.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">That said, I acknowledge the requirements to be compliant with relevant legislation.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Kind regards,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Bruce</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On 14 Aug 2019, at 20:23, John Bryant <<a href="mailto:johnwbryant@gmail.com" class="">johnwbryant@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class="">Hi all,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I'm eager to kick off a discussion about OSGeo Oceania membership, our AGM, and the election of directors, so that we're ready to execute these things by the time FOSS4G SotM Oceania takes place. But in contemplating how this may play out, I'm seeing a lot of moving parts. It seems possible we'll need to make amendments to our constitution, and obviously we need to make sure we're fully compliant with relevant legislation.<br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">So, before we begin the membership etc discussion, I'd like us to consider engaging some professional help to make sure we do this right, and to offer timely guidance along the way. There are organisations that specialise in assisting not-for-profit organisations through processes like this, and I'd lean towards engaging one of these. <br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I feel like once we begin the discussion, there will be a lot of questions we need to answer about what we can do, and having professional advice at the ready may keep us from getting bogged down. <br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">OSGeo (international) has part of their budget allocated to helping local chapters get off the ground, and this feels like it would fit the bill [1]. I'd like to ask them for USD $2k.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Also, Linux Australia recently launched a grant program [2], this might also be a good fit. I'd like to ask them for AUD $2500.<br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">With these two amounts, we'd have ample funds to seek professional advice in the short term to help fulfill our mandate in the OSGeo Oceania Terms of Reference [3], as well as have additional funds for specific accounting advice that we'll likely need as we bed down our accounting system.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If one or both of these funding requests are unsuccessful, I would still see us engaging professional advice, but we may need to be more conservative with it. I believe we already have agreement that we should spend money on professional advice where needed, but this funding would give us latitude to get more help, move faster, get a better result, and avoid burning out our volunteer base.<br class=""></div><div class=""> <br class=""></div><div class="">So, the motion: <b class="">We direct John Bryant to apply for funding from OSGeo and Linux Australia for funds to engage professional advice on developing our membership, AGM, and director election processes, and for additional accounting advice.</b><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Thoughts? What say you? If I get the go ahead with this, I'll put in applications for funds right away.<br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">John<br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">[1] <a href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_Budget_2019#OSGeo_Initiatives" class="">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_Budget_2019#OSGeo_Initiatives</a></div><div class="">[2] <a href="https://linux.org.au/grants/" class="">https://linux.org.au/grants/</a></div><div class="">[3] <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/13aZ6L08ke1-l32I7c00MahyEKgxeZkq8/view" class="">https://drive.google.com/file/d/13aZ6L08ke1-l32I7c00MahyEKgxeZkq8/view</a></div></div></div>
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