[Board] Board task: finalize liability agreement with FOSS4G 2016 committee
Suchith Anand
Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk
Tue Oct 6 03:40:19 PDT 2015
Dear Maxi,
Thank you for your response and also pleased to know your support for the Bonn LOC request .
I am sure, the OSGeo Board, the Conference Committee, Charter members and the whole OSGeo community should discuss your queries and fine-tune the process over the future.
In my humble opinion, as we have dedicated committees for different aspects (for example the Conference Committee), it makes sense that we make use of their expertise to find the best solution and as you rightfully said OSGeo Board should have oversight of the whole process to make sure whichever decision is adopted is in the longterm interest of OSGeo.
Thank you for your support and contributions to the OSGeo Board and community.
Best wishes,
Suchith
PS: I am also not a native English speaker (trying to learn and improve as i go ) so don't worry and i can understand :)
________________________________
From: massimiliano.cannata at gmail.com [massimiliano.cannata at gmail.com] on behalf of Massimiliano Cannata [massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch]
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2015 10:49 AM
To: Suchith Anand; OSGeo Discussions
Cc: Jeff McKenna; osgeo-board List
Subject: Re: [Board] Board task: finalize liability agreement with FOSS4G 2016 committee
Dear Suchith,
Dear all,
sorry to maybe be rough, but I would like to clearly express my vision of the role of the BONN question and BOARD role to the whole community.
Maybe it is because i'm not native English speaker... but I'm working with the Board as a team and this is why I sent my point of discussion.
I have already stated that I'm going to approve the financial request from BONN so that they could proceed with the amazing work they are doing.
What I want is to pay attention on consequences of our decisions and our transparent process of decision which in my opinion is NOT defined and clear.
(next CHINA-like organizer may ask 100k euro more then 1 year in advance? Why shall we decide of not giving the money? based on what rules or principle?)
It may be a silly and tedious and unnecessary point of discussion for someone but I believe the board role is to define rules and procedures that make the participation to OSGeo at all level impartial, transparent, fair and inclusive in the interest of OSGeo.
Also I gratefully thank the tireless work of conference committee and I think it is great, really.
At the same time I feel that the board has the mandate (given by the charter members who elect the members) to supervise and define strategies and policies, not only to like or dislike a motion.
For this reason, I request that the OSGeo charter members express their point of view on this topic (FOSS4G conferences) which I believe is essential for our community:
- what is the maximum amount of money that could be asked for liability and seed money?
- when is it possible to access to this resource? (before of the ending of the previous conference, before of the budget report of the previous conference?)
- shall this value be included in the proposal and be an element of selection?
- shall the organizer earn money from the event? if yes, what percentage at maximum?
- how OSGeo visibility shall be ensured and guaranteed?
and many many other question I think could be rised.
Some of these questions may already have an answer, some may not.
So why not to define the rules commonly in a discussion WORKING AS A TEAM and not as an individuals?
THIS IS MY ONLY POINT AND AIM.
Best Regard,
Maxi
2015-10-06 10:54 GMT+02:00 Suchith Anand <Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>>:
Dear all,
I am just an ordinary OSGeo member (not a Board member), and had been following these discussions on this over some weeks. I understand that lot of our experienced volunteers in the conference committee have put their time and efforts going through the agreement for Bonn .As it is approved by the whole OSGeo Conference Committee, we should have full confidence in the decision. My humble request to all is let us all think of how we can support the Bonn LOC so that we can ensure a successful FOSS4G conference in 2016. Esp. with time critical decisions , i request the Board to work as a team and make this possible. Thank you all for the amazing work you all do for OSGeo Board.
Best wishes,
Suchith
________________________________
From: board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> [board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>] on behalf of Jeff McKenna [jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com<mailto:jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com>]
Sent: Monday, October 05, 2015 9:57 PM
To: Massimiliano Cannata
Cc: osgeo-board List
Subject: Re: [Board] Board task: finalize liability agreement with FOSS4G 2016 committee
Hi Maxi, all of your answers are in the original document link I provided. If no objections I will call a vote for this on Thursday. If you have objections, please meet with me on Thursday, I will work around your schedule. We need to get this in place for the 2016 committee.
As for 2017 and beyond, we will use the same document as a start, but each year brings new players to the table.
-Jeff
On Oct 5, 2015 5:44 PM, Massimiliano Cannata <massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch<mailto:massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch>> wrote:
Hi Jeff
I'm not blocking anything.
I just want that a discussion in the board happen. Did you call a vote? Maybe i've missed it. You ask for a comment and i did it. I just want a discussion and to understand what is the point of view of people.. not just +1 or -1. I have motivated several time my view of things but not many comment was raised.
I talked with Till in Seoul and i'm not blocking him and Bonn.
So what is the decison? Are we going to give 100k euro for all the coming events with 100K max liability? What is the % of revenue thay go back to osgeo? What are the obligations for organizers? Hosting the osgeo community meeting in the middle of the event with no other presentations or things going on? There is a maximum fee? Shall the conference pay for president flight and allowance?
The document addressed this? This are to me the rules we need... and not just passing a motion and then the next year find out to be in the same situation....
Just my 1 cent of swiss franc ;-)
maxi
Il 05/Ott/2015 22:12, "Jeff McKenna" <jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com<mailto:jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com>> ha scritto:
Hi Maxi,
What do you mean by "rule", can you give an example? The document that was created by the OSGeo Conference Committee, the Bon LOC, and some board members (including myself) will be used for each upcoming FOSS4G event (that we have such a document now is a great thing). I am just wondering what you are missing, what is wrong with that document? Related to what I was saying about the issue with timing before the Seoul event, have your past concerns now been addressed? If yes, then maybe we can move forward (+1) with that document, and then the Board can create a "rule" in the next 10 months or so. I think many of us worked very hard behind the scenes to get that document in place, and I see no need to delay the 2016 planning because the board needs to make a rule. Because of this delay, the 2016 committee is looking at other options, which include less profit returned to us, for own own event, so please let us not delay. Please explain yourself.
-jeff
On 2015-10-05 3:56 PM, Massimiliano Cannata wrote:
Dear all
What i would like is that the board defines a rule that is valid for
Bonn but also for the next meetings.
I think we cannot handle case by case without a defined rule that is
impartial and guarantee transparence in decision making.
What do you board members think about?
Maxi
Il 05/Ott/2015 19:24, "Jeff McKenna" <jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com<mailto:jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com>
<mailto:jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com<mailto:jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com>>> ha scritto:
Hello Board members,
This will be the first public task of the new Board, and may be the
most important one we deal with all year. And yes, it is extremely
time sensitive.
Some background (instead of pointing to 5 different threads spanning
as many different mailing lists):
The FOSS4G Bonn local committee needs OSGeo to financially guarantee
the event. The OSGeo Conference Committee worked very hard on
producing an agreement, that passed many keen experienced eyes, both
on the OSGeo side as well as on the Bonn committee side. This
agreement was approved by the entire OSGeo Conference Committee and
the Bonn local committee, and 8 of the 9 OSGeo Board members. One
OSGeo Board member voted -1. The original agreement exists at:
https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/foss4g/2016/financial_stuff/agreement_with_osgeo/Agreement-between-OSGeo-and-FOSSGISeV-2016.pdf
As for past FOSS4G agreements, Seoul was the first time that the
OSGeo Board had a direct signed agreement with the local committee,
between Sanghee and myself, agreeing on such details as profit
sharing; for all of the other FOSS4G events, those details were
handled in the agreement between the professional conference
organizing company (PCO). Steven Feldman compiled some details from
some of the recent FOSS4G events, in a Google spreadsheet (I just
sent each board member an invite to that document).
At the time that this 2016 agreement was being initially proposed,
it was before FOSS4G Seoul, and it was honestly a little tricky to
be signing such a commitment before we knew the outcome of the
FOSS4G Seoul event (like any event, we could have lost money). But
now, I feel everything is more clear for the Board: FOSS4G Seoul was
successful, the break-even point was 400 attendees, and we went over
that to roughly 560 attendees. So OSGeo doesn't have to worry about
that, and now we can financially guarantee the 2016 Bonn event, for
100,000 euros, as was originally proposed.
I want to make sure that each Board member supports this, and I will
personally do my best to meet privately with whoever has questions.
Maxi, now that we are through FOSS4G Seoul, do you yourself have any
concerns not handled now? If you do (or any Board member) I suggest
that we meet through Google Hangout on this Thursday. Possible time:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?year=2015&month=10&day=8&hour=18&min=0&sec=0%2015.00UTC
(sorry Venka/Sanghee that time is not do-able for you, but you can
voice your opinions here or to me privately, sorry about this one
meeting time)
I'm getting many direct emails on how this is important for the 2016
committee. We OSGeo must get this agreement passed. It is on next
week's Board agenda, but I hope we can solve this this week. It
will be a team effort.
Thanks all,
-jeff
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