[Board] Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Board of Directors meeting minutes

[Cameron Shorter]

Arnulf,
Pending analysis of costs, I'm strongly in favour of having a "FOSS4G" 
support role. I'd actually like to see this role expanded to be a 
continuous role which supports an element of support for all FOSS4G 
events around the world.

As it stands, FOSS4G international events all employ professional 
conference organisors (PCO) to run our events for us. However, from year 
to year, we haven't had continuity from one local organising committee 
and PCO to the next. This has resulted in a significant increase in 
effort for each set of organisors.
I would like to see a trusted FOSS4G veteran be available to support 
events from year to year.

I see this role as being an advisor, who would virtually attend FOSS4G 
committee meetings, providing advice to local committees.

On 18/11/2011 10:28 PM, Arnulf Christl (OSGeo) wrote:
> Folks,
> the OSGeo Board of Directors meets once a month in a public meeting on
> IRC. We then discuss the agenda which has been prepared on the OSGeo
> Wiki [1]. Thanks to Gary Sherman the meetings are logged [2]. We hold
> the meetings openly and every now and then somebody outside of the board
> has an interjection - which can be very helpful indeed. At the last
> meeting Gary Sherman suggested that we should circulate the results from
> our meetings because not that many people follow the board mailing list
> [3] read the minutes [4] or even the logs [5].
>
> Currently we meet every second Thursday of a month at 17:00 UTC on IRC.
> We also aim at meeting in person at least once each year, usually during
> the FOSS4G conference.
>
> One item I was explicitly asked to highlight to the broader community
> relates to FOSS4G 2012 in Beijing [6]. There has been a lot of talk
> about the challenges of this next edition of FOSS4G, these include
> language and cultural differences, sheer physical distance of the venue
> for many active OSGeo members, competing regional FOSS4G events,
> including a new one very likely in North America and that we are already
> very late in planning (we never had this little time to prepare).
> Therefore in a mail from September [7] I voted against having FOSS4G in
> Beijing but at the same time proposed a motion to hire Jeff McKenna for
> money to help organize the FOSS4G 2012 in Beijing. Jeff is the chair of
> the conference committee and helped organize every single FOSS4G we
> have celebrated so far, so he is a perfect fit. But he cannot spend as
> much time as will be required for FOSS4G in Beijing as a volunteer. The
> motion was not accepted by the board and so there was no decision but
> it started some thinking.
>
> Jeff is a member of the board of directors and to avoid a conflict of
> interest he will abstain from any decision as suggested here [8]. The
> next step will be a proposal from Jeff describing the required work load
> and budget to get going. Then the board of directors will have to decide
> how to go forward – and all of this must happen asap.
>
> You can see, this is a long ongoing process and all of it is openly
> available but, as Gary pointed out, many will probably not know anything
> about this.
>
> So what do you think in general. Is this type of informative mail
> enough, or should we blog about the meetings in more detail, make a
> video or fully socialmedialize them? (...please bear in mind that we
> will then not be able to do other stuff, so it should better be
> important, not just a nice to have).  Suggestions are welcome.
>
> Thanks,
> Arnulf
>
> [1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board
> [2] http://irclogs.geoapt.com/osgeo/   ...starting at 17:03:02
> [3] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
> [4] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2011-11-10#Minutes
> [5] http://irclogs.geoapt.com/osgeo/%23osgeo.2011-11-10.log
> [6] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2012
> [7] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2011-September/008872.html
> [8] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2011-September/008894.html
>


-- 
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Solutions Manager
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

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