[Board] UNOFFICIAL minutes from yesterday's meeting

[Jeff McKenna]

To be honest I'd rather paste this draft into the wiki and we can have
at 'er there.  Let me know if u want me to do that....

-jeff



On 13-02-27 12:22 PM, Michael P. Gerlek wrote:
> Below are the lightly edited notes I took.
> 
> Please check to see if I quoted you incorrectly or anything. I'll post the real minutes to the wiki in a couple days after I get feedback.
> 
> -mpg
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [10:20] call to order
> 
> roll call
> - Cameron - Au
> - Daneil - Canada
> - Frank - US
> - Jacym - Cz
> - Jeff - Ca
> - Michael - US
> - Anne - Italy
> - (Hobu and Matt Wilkie lurked)
> 
> [10:23] review of minutes from Jan 17
> - motion to approve - 1/Frank, 2/Cameron 2nd, all +1
> 
> [10:26] on to regular business
> 
> geotools new contribution agreement
> - motion to approve - 1/Cameron, 2/Jeff, all +1
> 
> Anne to be GSOC mentor
> - motion to approve - 1/Frank, 2/Daniel, all +1
> 
> [10:32] open discussion about osgeo priorities
> 
> - http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2013-February/010516.html
> 
> - mpg: do what osgeo members want to do and will do, and do not try / wring-hands over other things
> - mpg suggests 4 lists: "I+" (where income comes from), "I-" (where income not expected from), "E+" (planned expenses), "E-" (expenses we don't want)
> - I+: conference income primary source
> - E+: expenditure to main & regional conferences
> - mpg: "accept, but not chase" spnsorships
> - cameron: size of risk/income/expense should all be in proportion
> - jeff: small regional confs unsure if they can come to osgeo proper for support? - yes, they can - need to make this explicit
> 
> - cameron: minimum suggested amount in bank - 50-80K?
> - mpg asks: how much return on investment for events?
> - cameron: suggests 1.10x, i.e. $1K investment ideally yields $1.1K return
> - jeff: does this mean each foss4g must generate 100K?
> - cameron: worst case scenario to break-even -- get back what we invested
> - cameron: codesprints supported by excess funds, different category from events
> - noted that "codesprint is a pure loss-making activity"
> - all generally in favor of "matching funds" policy
> - noted that these are principles and guidelines, not strict rules
> - jeff: "we're here to support"
> 
> - cameron: we should not be paying for booths
> - frank (on IRC) clarifies: I think the idea is that paying for booth space at tradeshows can be very expensive and not a particularly good use of our funds.
> - jeff: line item for 'advocate travel' -- still valid? -- if they want us, they should pay for us
> - mpg/daniel: distinguish between "advocate" travel and "board business" travel
> - (anne speaks, but audio is poor - can't transcribe much)
> 
> - frank: speaks of our "corporatist" beginnings, via Autodesk, but moving now towards grassroots
> - mpg applauds this sentiment
> - various terms suggested: "cheap", "scrappy", "spunky", "lean", "minimalist"
> - anne notes: would like to see more cooperation among projects and osgeo funding the meetups of osgeo projects' communities
> - mpg wonders aloud what mlucas and pmbatty would say to these discussions
> - aghisla: foss4g barcelona was not appealing for developers, more for presenting technologies and make a great "show" - forgive the term
> - frank: we are not all things to all people
> 
> - jeff: "an environment in which osgeo service providers could thrive"
> - cameron: if the service provider effectiveness was important, how come no one has stepped up to fix it?
> - mpg: is SPD a core priority for us?
> - various: go to discuss list, throw a little money at it, have a contest, kill it, ...
> 
> - cameron: livddvd at conferences
> - mpg: support for communities that already exist… or support incubation of new ideas w/o a community yet?
> - cameron: livddvd aimed at value to users, which means projects already extant
> - jeff: traveling for educational purposes... "osgeo labs"...  big success, goes back to an MOU with ICA
> - anne speaks to the value of Suchith's work - http://nottingham.academia.edu/SuchithAnand
> - mpg - points to osgeo labs as model if success -- low $ but high visibility, and no work from board to date
> - frank: "we just have to be supportive", stay out of their way (which is not to imply that we have been in their way)
> - jeff: we are farther than just "…and we support education too"
> 
> - discussion turns to local chapters
> - mpg: LCs are low overhead for board, but big impact - another example of how ogee foundation is a win
> - mpg notes half his dev team came out of local chapter, promises to write some stuff about value & benefits of LCs
> - anne: speaks on osgeo journal, asks about value of the local chapter reports
> - anne: italian chapter was created long before becoming osgeo local chapter and connection is still weak
> - jeff: gets asked "why create a chapter?"
> - various: local events, networking, language affiliation, ...
> - cameron: note no need for overhead, funding, etc
> - daniel: local chapter "precursor" can be helped to perceive when it's appropriate to form a formal local chapter
> - anne points to local chapter mailing list to share experiences on how and why to establish local chapters
> - frank points to http://www.osgeo.org/content/chapters/guidelines.html
> 
> [12:15pm] on to budget discussion
> - budget draft: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Av9Xf1ehZXz-dHJRdGhXZlo4ako2b21qd2lXbVVMdGc#gid=0
> - (did not caputre details of line-items discussions)
> - noted that "co-contributing" == "matching funds"
> - cameron noted that livedvd featured at ~40 events, jeff thinks that is low(!)
> - daniel asks: should we support the DVDs or the Projects?
> - cameron: ~150 people contributing
> 
> - Q: should the board be paid travel expenses to the annual mtg?
> - mattw: "as an outsider, I think board members should be helped/encouraged to make the annual FOSS4G's, and funded to do so."
> - and what about conference registration expense?
> - frank says this is anti-scrappy
> - straw poll taken (I did nto record votes, sorry)
> 
> - agreed to take rest of issues to mailing list and/or next meeting
> 
> [1:20] adjourn
> _______________________________________________