[Board] OSGeo Officers and their roles, liabilities, etc.

[Jeff McKenna]

Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) wrote:
> Hi all,
> I thought this might be a good time to discuss this topic, since as part
> of our 501c3 application we have to supply a list of officers and
> directors.
> 
> As you can see here:
> http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/board_and_officers.html
> 
> there are a ton of officers, one for each project steering committee and
> more.
> 
> If I recall correctly, at a board meeting not too long ago it was agreed
> to no longer automatically make local chapter liaisons into official
> "officers" of OSGeo.
> 
> In the past I've talked to a couple officers (one committee VP and
> another project VP) who were unaware they were even on the list.  PSC
> chairs have been elected by the board as officers, seemingly without the
>  chairs knowing.
> 
> Further to that, after finding out he was on the list, one of them was
> concerned about his exposure to the US tax service (IRS) by being signed
> on as an officer one.
> 
> If we can help address these questions, I think it would help get us
> closer to clearly discussing who/what should be officers.  Naturally, we
> can't promote people to positions without them knowing/agreeing, so
> getting some public documents outlining this would help for all involved.
> 
> * Why are project chairs considered officers?
> * What does it mean to be an officer?  What roles and responsibilities
> do they have?
> * What does being an officer mean under our bylaws and with regards to
> the US IRS in particular?
> * Is it a requirement for incubating projects to identify a PSC member
> to be an officer?  If no project rep wishes to be an officer, then what?
> * What personal liabilities are officers exposed to?
> * What benefits does officers gain?
> 
> I'm sure there are many more good questions, hopefully we can clear this
> up.  Feel free to point me to past discussions.  The main one I found
> was here, a good summary from Frank:
> 
> http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2008-February/002311.html
> 

Hi Tyler,

Thanks for putting your thoughts together on this.  I read your 
comments, and then went to the board_and_officers page, and honestly my 
first thoughts were "where are the local chapter officers?".  I then 
read Frank's archived email and I see that local chapter officers were 
removed.

My personal feeling is that if each local chapter lead was made an OSGeo 
officer this would bring a strong sense of connection to the 
international foundation, and bring a sense of role as well.  I see 
local chapters as being crucial in the next phase of OSGeo, so let's 
make their involvement in OSGeo formal.  I see other local chapters 
around the world and they take their roles and hierarchy very very 
seriously.  So I think putting each local chapter lead ("VP", "chair", 
whatever you call it) on the board_and_officers page is a good step.

This might mean that we need a more formal 'local chapter application 
process', well so be it.

Those are my thoughts.  Thanks for listening.

-jeff