[Board] Re: [OSGeo-Conf] Re: 'OSGeo Teach-in

[Frank Warmerdam]

Markus Neteler wrote:
> Frank,
> 
> (taken over from conf list)
> 
> On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 4:08 PM, Frank Warmerdam <warmerdam at pobox.com> wrote:
> ...
>> PS. I will abstain from any vote on a motion as I feel I may suffer
>> a conflict of interest since I have some hopes of participating in such
>> an event.
> 
> this is unclear to me: if I expect to participate in such event during
> the rest of my life (or limited to Paul's and Jeff's event only?) then I shall
> not vote? What is the time frame here?
> If the former, we won't be able to vote at all, nobody from the board
> can realistically exclude it. Sorry for my naive question.

Markus,

First, it seems clear I am exercising an excess of caution in declaring
a conflict of interest on this topic.  According to the policy anyone who
feels they have a conflict of interest under the terms should declare it
and abstain from voting.

If you don't feel a conflict of interest then you just don't declare one,
and vote normally.  If someone else feels you have a conflict of interest,
then they can raise the issue and ask for a vote on whether you should
be considered as being in a conflict of interest.

Certainly voting on the policy recommendation is quite a step further
from a conflict than voting on the particular event proposal itself.

At this point, the only thing I would be concerned about were if Paul
chose to vote on his concrete proposal at the board level.  Beyond that
any declared conflict of interest is just being extra (over?) careful I
think.

I must also admit that abstaining allows me to stay nominally on the
fence on this potentially contentious issue.  So perhaps I'm just in
avoidance mode. :-)

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org