[Aust-NZ] meetups or other activates for the new year?

[mapbutcher]

I tend to agree with Cameron on this issue, I am unclear of the benefits of
being 'formed'? In fact quite the opposite, if I remember correctly one of
the reasons groups such as the Melbourne Open GIS group sprung up a few
years ago was because a few of us had attended fledgling Osgeo chapter
meetings and we're dissatisfied by the proportion of bureacracy to content,
so we felt our time was better spent actually organizing something people
were interested in rather than redundant process and procedure.

In this modern age of 'meetups' do such chapters have a place? What does a
chapter actually provide?

The organic development of groups across the country in the past year has
evidenced a growing interest and adoption of open source. It has not
required a chapter to support this growth. There are adequate means of
communication to support cross pollination between these groups IMO. We
even managed to organize a conference without a chapter if my memory serves
me correctly

I would not support such an effort unless clear benefits were apparent, and
if we close of this thread with a decision, perhaps we could update the
wiki to state 'alive but unformed'

Simon

On Friday, January 6, 2012, Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Right, so osgeo aust-nz would change from unofficial to official in the
eyes of osgeo. I see very little benefit from that. I don't think we will
attract any more osgeo converts from such a title. (If we need an official
title, we can always call upon the greater OSGeo organisation).
>
> However, I do see a large drain on volunteer time. As soon as we require
money to run, we need to worry about chasing people or organisations for
membership fees, which is an unpleasant task which sucks up lots of
valuable volunteer times.
>
> On 05/01/12 11:06, Jody Garnett wrote:
>
> The benefit would be an OSGeo local chapter; right now we have not
"formed" as I understand it and are still listed as under construction on
the OSGeo wiki.
> While I don't mind speaking as a OSGeo charter member at functions; it
would be nice to have a local chapter in the region.
> My understanding is that OSGeo seems to be taking a real turn for getting
out of the way and letting local chapters do the work. I expect the
 formation of a "north american" local chapter to be the final step in this
process.
> --
> Jody Garnett
>
> On Wednesday, 4 January 2012 at 6:14 AM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>
> On 03/01/12 13:12, Jody Garnett wrote:
>
> Where did we get to on this Aust-NZ local chapter stuff? As I recall
> we still need to register as a non profit; have a meeting with
> minuets, and set up a back account. Pretty sure that should be in
> reverse order.
>
> Before registering, setting up accounts etc, I question what value we
> gain by setting up such official structures.
> Registering, collecting minutes, running a bank account all suck a large
> amount of volunteer time, with no net gain.
> I see our primary goals being the promotion of OSGeo values in a local
> context - like the meetups you mentioned. This can be achieved without a
> bank account.
> _______________________________________________
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> Aust-NZ at lists.osgeo.org
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>
>

-- 
S
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