[Board] Funding for OSGeo President to attend global FOSS4G

Peter Batty peter at ebatty.com
Sun Jul 14 12:55:39 PDT 2013


Dear Board,

I (and the Nottingham LOC) just recently found out that Jeff was not going
to be able to make it to FOSS4G Nottingham because of lack of funding.
Steven and the LOC would really like to have Jeff there, and I would too.
While I support the growth of regional events, I think there's something
special about the global event and I think it's important for OSGeo that
our President is there.

We have talked to Jeff and he has indicated that he will be able to attend
if his expenses are covered. The LOC has budget for funding keynote
speakers as needed, and could just go ahead and fund Jeff's attendance from
that, which is a fallback option.

However, I'm raising this with the board as I think we should establish a
principle that OSGeo should pay the President's expenses to go to the
annual global conference every year (unless he or she is in a position to
fund travel by other means). I think this is a very reasonable thing to do
- like I said, I really think it's important for the Foundation that the
President should be there each year. But it's not reasonable to expect
whoever is President to fund that from their own pocket. I was opposed to
automatically funding the whole board to go, just because that becomes a
significantly larger expense for OSGeo and quite a number of board members,
myself included, work for larger companies who are willing to fund them to
attend. And while it's good to have a reasonable number of board members
there, I don't think it's critical to the event to have all board members
in attendance. But I do think it's really important for the President to be
there.

Financially of course, it would ultimately amount to the same thing for
OSGeo whether the LOC just approves the expense or whether the board
approves this. But I think we should agree to do it on an ongoing basis.

Procedurally I don't know if I should propose this as a motion at the next
board meeting, or whether we can just have a vote via email. Just in case,
I propose a tentative motion:

OSGeo will refund reasonable travel and living expenses for the OSGeo
President to attend the global FOSS4G conference each year. The President
has the option of declining this funding if he or she can obtain funding
from another source.

Please let me know what you think.

Cheers,
    Peter.
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