[Board] Funding for OSGeo President to attend global FOSS4G
Daniel Morissette
dmorissette at mapgears.com
Tue Jul 16 05:10:42 PDT 2013
+1 here as well.
Daniel
On 13-07-15 5:00 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
> I acknowledge comments of Jeff and Peter.
>
> I'm +1 to funding OSGeo President's travel to FOSS4G, as proposed by Peter.
>
> On 15/07/2013 9:03 PM, Peter Batty wrote:
>> Cameron,
>>
>> I don't think we should get into this level of detail about the
>> duties. The main specific reason the President is there (IMO) is to
>> give a talk on the state of OSGeo, and in general to be a
>> representative of OSGeo as needed (as always).
>>
>> I don't think that the organization of the OSGeo booth should be an
>> automatic duty of the President. We are a volunteer organization and I
>> would hope the work would be spread around. Since the President needs
>> to prepare and give a keynote talk (which I know from experience is a
>> lot of work), I would hope that in most cases we could find some other
>> volunteers to take care of the booth. I'd expect that any board
>> members who are at the show, President included, should spend some
>> time on the OSGeo booth, but I don't think that is directly related to
>> this motion.
>>
>> I'm okay with saying that we can fund someone else to go if the
>> President can't make it, but not sure if we need to specifically say
>> that here, the board at the time could make that decision as needed.
>> In practice I suspect that if the President couldn't make it, we would
>> probably only fund someone else to go if there wasn't a suitable
>> stand-in already planning to attend via other funding. But if the
>> general feeling is that we should add a clause like this, I would have
>> no problem with that.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Peter.
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Jul 14, 2013 at 4:00 PM, Cameron Shorter
>> <cameron.shorter at gmail.com <mailto:cameron.shorter at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Peter, I'm in favor of the principle, but would like to broaden
>> the discussion before voting.
>>
>> 1. First, I suggest that the global FOSS4G should cover the travel
>> expenses of one OSGeo board member to attend the conference to
>> speak on behalf of OSGeo, defaulting to the OSGeo president in
>> most cases.
>>
>> 2. The OSGeo Advocate page has a guide for expenses here:
>> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_Advocate#Expenses
>> This includes a speakers fee (to cover loss of wages), which can
>> be waived. I suggest that the global FOSS4G conference should
>> cover travel and expenses, but not this speakers fee. My reasoning
>> is that I think it improves the reputation of the board's
>> integrity if we are not perceived to be doing the job as a money
>> making exercise.
>>
>> 3. As Jeff has already volunteered to do for this conference, I
>> think that there should be an expectation upon the paid OSGeo
>> delegate to coordinate the OSGeo booth and marketing at the
>> conference.
>>
>>
>> On 15/07/2013 5:55 AM, Peter Batty wrote:
>>> 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.
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Board mailing list
>>> Board at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:Board at lists.osgeo.org>
>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
>>
>>
>> --
>> Cameron Shorter
>> Software and Data Solutions Manager
>> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
>> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>>
>> Think Globally, Fix Locally
>> Geospatial & Data Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
>> http://www.lisasoft.com
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Cameron Shorter
> Software and Data Solutions Manager
> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>
> Think Globally, Fix Locally
> Geospatial & Data Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
> http://www.lisasoft.com
>
>
>
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--
Daniel Morissette
http://www.mapgears.com/
Provider of Professional MapServer Support since 2000
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