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

[Jeff McKenna]

Hi Venka,

If you prefer a version of the agreement with USD, here it is: 
https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/foss4g/2016/financial_stuff/agreement_with_osgeo/Agreement-between-OSGeo-and-FOSSGISeV-2016-usd.pdf

Although I find keeping the agreement in the local committee's currency 
easier to understand, with exchange rates etc.

Anyway there it is :)  I expect we can start voting on this in a few 
hours, after today's meeting timeslot (roughly 2 hours and 20mins from now).

-jeff




On 2015-10-08 9:59 AM, Venkatesh Raghavan wrote:
> Hi Jeff,
>
> As you have guessed, joining today's meeting at the
> time below is not doable for me.
>
> I agree to Maxi about framing of some rules for
> advancing the money. Budget matters are a responsibility
> of the board and Conference Committee need to be
> involved nor should have any say regarding advancing
> money to LoC. Also, sorry, I do not recall if there was
> any reason assigned in increasing the amount from
> 50,000USD (as in case of FOSS4G-Seoul) to 100,000Euro
> in case of FOSS4G-2016.
>
> Also, since the OSGeo Foundation operates from USA, all
> figures could be in USD. There is sizable difference between
> 100,000Euro and 100,000USD.
>
> Best
>
> Venka
>
>
> On 2015/10/08 21:26, Jeff McKenna wrote:
>> 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
>>>>
>>>>