[Board] Resignation from Board

[Jeroen Ticheler]

Hi Michael and others,

Thanks for your email. I personally, and I think we as an OSGeo community will all respect Jeff's privacy. Jeff has always been careful on what to say and what not to say on public discussions to avoid any harm to the community and conference. However, you'll understand that it is hard for me to be satisfied with your response. You raised the same point earlier on that his travel was approved by a board motion. In reaction to that Jeff decided to forward a private board email that made it clear he was upset on how he was treated (see: http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2012-January/009364.html ). 

Without going into the discussion of who was right and who was wrong, I think it is in the interest of the community to be transparent about the reason why this issue was not resolved? We all see that the FOSS4G2012 progress is not what we expect and we likely all have great concerns about that. Jeff may have been able to help out on this by going to Beijing. There was friction, which is not a problem in itself. But it should have been resolved, some kind of solution should have come out of that and we as a community should know about that. 

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not finger-pointing or dramatizing the impact of Jeff's decision. Instead I am honestly concerned from my (!) community and business perspective. FOSS4G and OSGeo are important to me in many ways, I'm convinced we can not afford to see the conference nor the community fall apart because of unresolved issues. Can I encourage the board or someone else to stand up and try to mediate here? Or do you leave this as is and come up with a clear plan or statement of where we are going with FOSS4G in the future? What's the vision of the board and where's the action?

Thanks for listening, cheers,
Jeroen


On 7 feb. 2012, at 12:21, Michael P. Gerlek wrote:

> Jeroen:
> 
> As the December board meeting, a motion was passed to send Jeff to Beijing to report on the status of the Beijing team's preparations, as we had not had much communication with them as compared to the process in previous years.  Jeff was unable to make this trip, unfortunately.  However, in the past few weeks the Beijing team has been sending updates to the conference committee and things seem well underway; we're looking forward to a great conference in China.
> 
> Jeff's decision to resign from the board and the conference committee was his own decision, and I think his two emails covered what needed to be said.  This is sad, of course, but Jeff has his reasons and beyond that we should respect his privacy.
> 
> -mpg, board sec'y
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jeroen Ticheler [mailto:jeroen.ticheler at geocat.net]
>> Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 1:24 AM
>> To: mpg at flaxen.com
>> Cc: 'Jeff McKenna'; 'osgeo-board List'
>> Subject: Re: [Board] Resignation from Board
>> 
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> After a night of sleep this resignation made me pretty sad. It is because it is kind of weird to see such big OSGeo supporter move away
>> after a period of silence around the FOSS4G conference and after the board meeting you had last weekend. I'm sure this is no
>> coincidence and I'm sure we don't need to know all the details. But what I do know is that many of us wonder why. On your agenda
>> you had a specific point of discussion on Jeff's trip to Beijing that never took place. I also wonder what happened?
>> 
>> My questions to you are now if will you come up with a statement related to this and if you will make an announcement on OSGeo
>> Discuss before more discussion and gossip starts to take place.
>> 
>> Thanks, cheers,
>> Jeroen
>> 
>> 
>> On 7 feb. 2012, at 05:03, Michael P. Gerlek wrote:
>> 
>>> Jeff:
>>> 
>>> On behalf of the board, we accept your resignation.
>>> 
>>> I know this is difficult for you, but I also know that I speak for the whole community in thanking you for your work over the years and
>> in looking forward to more good things from you in the future.
>>> 
>>> -mpg, board secretary
>