[Board] Board task: finalize liability agreement with FOSS4G 2016 committee

[Jeff McKenna]

I will delay the start of the vote, until today's possible meeting 
timeslot.  So please, speak up if you have any questions regarding the 
2016 agreement; otherwise we will start the vote later today.

Thanks!

-jeff



On 2015-10-08 9:20 AM, Jeff McKenna wrote:
> Hi Board,
>
> Here we are at Thursday now, and as suggested earlier, the plan is to
> start the vote today regarding financially supporting the FOSS4G 2016
> Bonn event, specifically to approve the signing the proposed agreement
> with the Bonn local committee[1].  As I mentioned, since we are already
> meeting as a Board next Thursday, today I am willing to meet with anyone
> who has concerns with the agreement.  Please note that this vote is
> about the 2016 agreement only, and that any further details of the Board
> developing "rules" is not affecting or delaying this vote today.
>
> If you do have questions of the proposed 2016 agreement, please send
> them here to the Board or you can also meet today at the suggested
> timeslot[2].  We can meet in IRC, and if someone wants to talk we can
> then move to a hangout.
>
> Thanks everyone,
>
> [1]
> https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/foss4g/2016/financial_stuff/agreement_with_osgeo/Agreement-between-OSGeo-and-FOSSGISeV-2016.pdf
>
> [2]
> http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?year=2015&month=10&day=8&hour=18&min=0&sec=0%2015.00UTC
>
>
>
> -jeff
>
>
>
> On 2015-10-05 2:24 PM, Jeff McKenna wrote:
>> 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
>>
>>
>>