[Board] Board discussion about RFP for FOSS4G-2019

[Venkatesh Raghavan]

Sorry, used the wrong mail address to send this
mail out. Forwarding again.

Venka

On 8/22/2017 8:26 AM, Venkatesh Raghavan wrote:
> Dear Conference Committee,
>
> Regarding the RFP for FOSS4G-2019, there was some discussion
> on the Board list [1] after going through the last years RFP.
> I summarize the suggestions that came out of the discussion
> below;
>
> a) OSGeo AGM could be conducted as an independent/exclusive session
> and not while sessions are running in parallel. The 2019-LoC could consider
> scheduling the session in the morning or evening time. There was also
> suggest to host the AGM at lunch time or combining with ice-breaker.
> The idea is to allow as many of OSGeo officers and charter members
> to take part in the AGM.
>
> b) Page 5 states "Labs should have computers ready, “bring your own”
> causes time loss, because software has to be installed.".
>
> The workshops at Boston were all BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) style [2] and
> and it seems to have worked pretty well.
> So, the statement regarding computer ready labs need to be changed
>
> c) Page 6, "OSGeo Community events and activity" as
>  "OSGeo Community events and activity at FOSS4G” or
>  "OSGeo Community events at FOSS4G” could suffice.
>
> d) "Hosted (or Presented/Produced) by OSGeo" need to be mentioned in the
> conference website.
> This can be added at an appropriate section of the 2019 RFP.
> OSGeo need not be listed as Sponsor (although it receives all the
> benefits of sponsorship at
> the highest level).
>
> e) "Rest of the World" mentioned at several places in the 2018 RFP.
> There were some good
> suggestions about the terminology on the conference ML [3] and an
> agreement to use "Other
> Regions" instead of "Rest of the World"
>
> f) Page 11 mentions "We hope to keep cost per participant under $650 USD
> for the conference
> plus workshops."
> I (Venka) am not aware of how the affordability discussion went on at
> f2f in Boston. However a
> more specific statement could be better for the 2019 RFP. e.g.
> "We strongly recommend to keep the cost per participants under $XXX USD
> (early bird) and
> $YYY USD for the conference and workshops."
>
> g) Page 12, mentions, "The conference committee will then propose the
> location to the OSGeo Board, who must formally approve of the decision.".
>
> This could be re-phrased as   "The conference committee will then convey
> its decision to the OSGeo Board for its approval.".
>
> h) If time permits, the RFP could be made available for a few days for
> public comment before
> final release.
>
> Best
>
> Venka
>
> [1] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2017-August/010510.html
> [2] http://2017.foss4g.org/workshops/.
> [3]
> https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/conference_dev/2017-February/004308.html
>