[Board] Motion: Support visit to meet with the emerging Vietnam Chapter with funding

[Arnulf Christl (aka Seven)]

On Fri, 2010-02-12 at 11:07 -0500, Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> Jeff McKenna wrote:
> > By the way, I can't seem to remember anyone else making a similar 
> > request like this.  Can someone point to me the process for deciding how 
> > we spend OSGeo budget on travel?  What is the process for these 
> > decisions?  How do we decide how the budget is spent on travel for OSGeo 
> >  members (Directors, EDs, officers)  I must be missing these email 
> > threads with those travel requests...I just see messages about notice of 
> > travel, but never do we vote on what events are important to spend 
> > budget on.  I guess I am missing something here?
> 
> Jeff,
> 
> Generally there have not been many travel funding requests, except for Tyler
> who has a dedicated travel budget he can spend on travel as he sees fit.
> 
> One exception has been Wolf B. travelling to GSoC meetings in California.
> I believe I have approved those as treasurer on the basis that it is a
> cost of participation in the GSoC program and is just consuming a bit of
> the GSoC mentor money which is normally left with OSGeo.
> 
> Early in the foundation's establishment we had a number of requests for
> funding to get directors to meetings.  These were mostly paid by ADSK out
> funds outside the OSGeo budget though we certainly can't expect that anymore.
> 
> On one or more occasions we have also provided travel funding to people out
> of Tyler's travel budget, particularly when he wasn't able to travel much and
> there was lots left over.  Such a decision would (arguably) be one that Tyler
> can make on his own.
> 
> You mention "events", and often attending events to promote OSGeo falls
> within the marketing budget.  Such travel and expenses just need to be
> approved by the marketing committee.  I'm not sure if the marketing
> committee would feel that meetings to promote the launch of a local
> chapter falls within their objectives or not.
> 
> But if the money isn't coming out of an existing budgeted area with the
> agreement of the part of the organization responsible for that budget then
> it generally comes down to a request to the board as a motion.

I suggest that we support this type of initial contact. This support
does not mean that OSGeo in general funds local chapters but that we do
have an initial hook that we can offer to folks. In the past there have
been requests regarding some kind of Local Chapter Committee or at least
mailing list to coordinate this kind of thing, this might be a good idea
to by able to better organize. 

It has been very helpful for several local chapters that I have been
involved with to visit them. My personal circumstances have allowed me
to do this out of my own pocket in the past but this should not be a
requirement. 

I motion to support the formation of the emerging Vietnam Local Chapter
of OSGeo by funding a visit of Jeff McKenna and paying for local travel
cost of two representatives of the chapter in formation. 

Flight:       700 USD
Hotel:        300 USD
Local travel: 600 USD

If someone cares to second this motion we can make a vote to be able to
go ahead to not block things. We need to confirm this motion at the next
board meeting in a voice vote. 

Please continue to discuss if there still are open questions. This
motion is mainly meant to keep things moving and potentially allow Jeff
to go ahead with his plans. 

Best regards, 
Arnulf

> I personally would not have any objection to passing a special motion
> authorizing up to $1100 USD for flight/hotel for Jeff to visit Vietnam
> and promote establishment of a local chapter.   Based on my experience
> in China, I'm thinking that $600 for local travel (taxis?) is rather high
> and I'm less comfortable with that.
> 
> Best regards,



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