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

[Ravi]

Strengthening OSGeo local chapters will strengthen OSGeo's aims and endeavor. Much of the world awaits the Open GIS revolution to happen.
Local Chapters can make this happen.
Ravi Kumar 


--- On Tue, 23/2/10, Jeff McKenna <jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com> wrote:

> From: Jeff McKenna <jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com>
> Subject: Re: [Board] OSGeo Officers and their roles, liabilities, etc.
> To: "board at lists.osgeo.org" <board at lists.osgeo.org>
> Date: Tuesday, 23 February, 2010, 8:23 AM
> 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
> 
> 
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