[Board] 2012 FOSS4G Decision

[Seven (aka Arnulf)]

On 09/12/2011 11:13 AM, Jeff McKenna wrote:
> Board,
> 
> We (the OSGeo Conference Committee) finally has a strong decision on the
> 2012 FOSS4G host: Beijing. The final vote was 9 to 5 for Beijing.
> 
> (background: the initial vote was a tie, 7-7, and we did not have a
> tie-breaker established, so we did a re-vote over a week)
> 
> As quickly as possible I would like approval from the Board on this
> decision.  There is a 10 minute slot in the final plenary on Friday (at
> FOSS4G Denver) to announce/invite everyone to 2012.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> -jeff

Board,
it took me long to take this hard decision but my vote on Beijing as
conference venue for 2012 is -1. This is not lack of trust in the
Beijing team but instead - lack of trust in OSGeo and the board and
most of all lack of trust in myself (because I seem to not be doing a
good job as president). The board has a history of not following through
with decisions which is why I feel I have to take this route.

Rationale for veto:
Every single FOSS4G so far has been in "our" cultural context, China is
very different to what we are used to. This single reason alone is
responsible for many broken businesses and there is not reason why we
should be an exception. FOSS4G is currently our single only source of
revenue.

Lausanne had Claude as a chair, even then a well versed Open Source
leader. Victoria with Paul was beyond doubt the first event of the new
large scale FOSS4G we now see happen every year. South Africa was a big
risk - but worked out great in the end - even if it took more than a
year after the conference until the cash was wired to the OSGeo account
(which we could not afford in our current situation). But even in Cape
Town the core language was English and communication was straight forward.

Sydney was again beyond doubt from an organizing perspective with
Cameron in the lead - but as it was half way round the nice, blue side
of the world we did have less attendees than we would have had elsewhere.

Barcelona was the first time that the Local chaps spoke a different
language and I can assure you it was a massive pain until we even got
the contracts done - and this even although we had Lorenzo, a highly
capable local fluent in Eglish, Spanish, Catalan and Italian - and me
backing things up who also speaks Spanish. None of you took much notice
of this constant back channel issue about language.

Now in Denver it is a home rum - and looks like it will be the greatest
FOSS4G ever.

Now on to Bejing: We have no representative here as we did with Lorenzo
in Barcelona, Gavin and Peter Batty in Victoria - the first missing
link. The official Chinese Local Chapter is very much invisible to me
and has no record of experience with FOSS4G events as far as I can tell.
Again - this is not to criticize the Beijing offer or the people
involved - it may well be my massive ignorance only. So please do not
feel offended.

Next thing is that 70% and more revenue generated by FOSS4G conferences
is generated within the local hosting country. I am simply anxious that
we will not be able to generate enough monetary interest in China to pay
our bills. Additionally Beijing is far off so that - just like in
Australia - many of the regular attendees may well not be able to come
at all.

Solution to resolve veto:
It is a very simple proposal: Allocate 20k US$ budget to fund our
conference chair Jeff McKenna to help organize the Beijing FOSSG
conference. With him in the backbone of the conference I feel safe to go
ahead with a +1 for FOSS4G 2012 in Beijing. Ideally this money comes
right back with the conference - but we will have to back it up as a
foundation with a vote - now!

Jeff,
I know that you will not be able to support FOSS4G in Beijing for free
without hurting your business, so please do not step up and say anything
at all - you are out and should probably abstain from saying anything
until we have taken this decision (unless you do not accept this offer
at all).


Board,
one reason why I take this painful route is because I can still not
believe that we were too miserly to back up 12k for a code sprint.
FOSS4G means we will be backing up several 100k - and with all of the
above said in mind the risk we take is a lot higher than we would have
done with that comparatively small sprint.


Motion:
Arnulf Christl motions to allocate 20k funding for the conference chair
to co-organize FOSS4G 2012 in Beijing, to be paid within the next year
to the account of Jeff McKenna.


Please let us have a discussion here - if necessary, then we need
someone to second this motion and votes.


Please refrain from physically hurting me until I am done with my
keynote, after that feel free to do whatever you deem appropriate.

:-)

Thank you for you consideration,
Arnulf

-- 
Exploring Space, Time and Mind
http://arnulf.us