[Board] Recent events...

[Tyler Mitchell]

Hi all, It feels like I'm still playing catch up after being away for the OSGIS Nottingham event last month.  But here are a few brief notes for background and hopefully will free up some time during tomorrow's meeting instead of going through it ad-hoc...

OSGIS Meeting 
- As usual, this was a very well organised event, involving several of our sponsors which I got to meet with and talk about ideas for future work together.  One idea was to organise an event focused on National Mapping Agencies, I'm following up on this opportunity.
- At OSGIS I organised a day of workshops and talks which were very well attended and well received - this was building on the idea of finding more OSGeo + OGC collaboration points.  It worked out better than I had hoped.  I gave a talk on future vision concepts for OSGeo, similar to the emails I've sent you over the past few months.  Stay tuned for the videos to come online.
- As per our MOU with the University of Nottingham, there was  also a stakeholders meeting, including the Advisory Board for the OSG lab they set up.  This was also a packed room to hear about the various projects that happened under this group (which is under our MOU).  A lot got done in the last year, I believe 5 research projects were funded as part of it.
- Since there were many academics around, we also spent an afternoon talking about the idea of establishing a network of academic institutions.  This would be akin to the MOU idea but more of a peer-to-peer group working alongside OSGeo.  It was good discussion too and several action items came out, all which will help OSGeo further its reach and develop educational opportunities (a important point for our members).
- I was also able to catch up with the gvSIG crew to talk about the gvSIG Association and other ideas - it's very interesting to follow their work as there may be some ideas worth copying.

FINANCE 
- I'm continuing to touch base with sponsors that are renewing.  I've had to deliberately follow up with those who did not yet renew, which has led to some more discussions this week.  Some more have also renewed just this week.  Similarly, FOSS4G has brought in another sponsor last week.  Overall, this is encouraging.

FOSS4G
- Providing various planning and operational support for LOC.  Held meetings with GITA to set up an operations agreement that we didn't have already.  Registration is going well, our hotel rental rate is pretty good too.  There is a short promo video coming soon.
- Working on event liability and cancellation insurance for FOSS4G as required by GITA and venue.
- Helped on some website items for conference too
- I was working one-on-one with a few potential 2012 bidders, including some interesting discussion with various parties in Brazil, India, Vietnam.  In the end, only Vietnam has plans to bid.  We can discuss more if you have questions or more thoughts on the topic.

ON THE HORIZON
- Charter and Director elections - confirm who is/isn't running again.
- Systems - Migrating our main web site over to new infrastructure.  This represents a cost savings ($600/mo) once it's done, unfortunately I don't have a lot of time for systems work but hope to get back to it this month.
- FOSS4G - OSGeo booth planning, speaking plans, board meeting?, AGM coordination.
- Sponsorship - continuing discussions with potential sponsors.  Any leads, let me know!
- Paid Membership - still on the list, will tie to a general membership tracking system
- Strategy - tie-in to "business plan" ideas

Also a bunch of general email, marketing, and planning... otherwise that's about the main points for now.  Let me know if you have any questions.  Talk to you soon.

Tyler