[Board] F2F meeting

[Frank Warmerdam]

Howard Butler wrote:
> 
> On Nov 5, 2009, at 7:09 PM, Arnulf Christl (OSGeo) wrote:
> 
>> I really mean to get all of us meet in one place
>> for two days.
> 
> I don't see how this is remotely possible given our budgetary 
> constraints.  There's no way I can afford footing a F2F board meeting 
> out of pocket right now, and OSGeo has never been in a position of being 
> able to support board member's travel to F2F meetings.

Folks,

I have been somewhat hesitant about this in the past, but if we can afford
it I think it would be reasonable for OSGeo to pay for travel + 2 days
hotel stay for board members to attend FOSS4G to enable face to face meetings
of most of the board.  I think FOSS4G is the highest leverage event to use
for a F2F since many directors will already be attending, we hold the
AGM there, and it is a great opportunity for the board members to do other
OSGeo related things at FOSS4G itself. (I am suggesting FOSS4G as opposed to
a code sprint for instance, though I realize this puts out a next F2F
roughly a year).

This still leaves the board members out 2-4 days of their own time,
a significant issue in itself.

Of course, can we afford it is quite up in the air.

> We should see if we can procure reliable low-cost tele/video 
> conferencing before putting the squeeze on members to spend a day of 
> travel on each side of a two day F2F.  Our meeting situation (IRC + free 
> skype) is awful.

Skype is certainly not working smoothly for me - I find the voice calls
barely functioning.  I'm not so down on IRC myself, but it does not
constitute an official meeting and it isn't the same as F2F.  I'm dubious
about  video conferencing, but I wouldn't mind being proven wrong.

Best regards,
-- 
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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    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent