[Board] Fwd: How to retire membership status?

[Sara]

Hi Cameron,

Replying publicly since you said you didn't mind.

To answer your question of why I am leaving OSGeo: the short answer is that
I no longer wish to be affiliated with an organization that prefers to
silence rather than support its minority* voices. A longer answer follows.

Guido did a good job of summarizing much of the context earlier this year
(1). As a voting member of the organization, who was and still is
passionate about tending the garden of free & open source geospatial
software, in mid-2018 I chose to continue asking an OSGeo Partner (2) to
publicly share financial information that they previously claimed existed
and promised to make available (3). As a volunteer whose efforts directly
contributed to the salaries paid to this Partner's employees, I believed
that ensuring promises of transparency were kept was important and the
right thing to do.

As a result of my efforts, I was told by various OSGeo members to "let this
go", "get over it", and "just drop it". An OSGeo officer told me my
"demands" were "not appropriate", and attempted to threaten my employment
(4). Ultimately I cared more about my job than about OSGeo and
transparency, so I went silent and stepped back from all volunteer efforts.

To this date, as far as I am aware that promised financial transparency was
never fulfilled. No statements were retracted, no apologies were issued.
The OSGeo officer who tried to threaten my employment is still listed at
https://www.osgeo.org/about/board/ and remains in good standing among the
community. The Partner organization remains a Partner. I was very
effectively silenced by an OSGeo officer, the OSGeo community appeared more
than happy to allow the issue to fade out of memory, and to carry on as
usual. Likewise I carry no hope that the organization can or will change,
or that things might transpire any differently in the future. I no longer
have anything in common with OSGeo, and the community at large has made my
standing clear. Please let me retire my membership and move on to invest my
efforts in other, more constructive & more welcoming venues.

1) https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4GNA_Afterward
2) https://www.osgeo.org/partners/locationtech/
3a) https://twitter.com/TheaClay/status/992394814749577217
3b) https://twitter.com/TheaClay/status/993584128279957504
4) https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/conference_dev/2018-June/004774.html

*Although the gender power imbalance in this particular case is worth
noting, don't misunderstand me: I'm referring specifically to a voice which
amplifies a controversial or unpopular opinion as "minority" here.

On Tue, Dec 4, 2018 at 11:24 AM Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Sara,
>
> I'm emailing privately, but please do reply publicly if you feel you wish
> to.
>
> Companies often conduct exit interviews with employees when they leave,
> asking questions like "why did you leave", and "what could we have done
> better to retain a passionate person such as yourself".
>
> I suspect your answers will be difficult for us in OSGeo to hear, but if
> approached constructively, we can use your experience to do a better job of
> working with passionate people in the future. If you are answering
> publicly, I suggest not naming specific people.
>
> If you'd prefer to answer privately, and have me pass on the message via a
> message along the lines of "someone who left provided the following advice
> ..." or similar, then I'm happy to support you with this.
>
> If I have personally contributed to your decision to leave, then I offer
> you my apologies. Please do let me know how I might improve in future.
>
> Warm regards, Cameron
>
> On 5/12/18 2:54 am, Sara wrote:
>
> Board elections have come & gone and so I'm revisiting this request:
> please change my Charter membership status to "retired".
>
> Astrid - I've been told you have the ability to modify any relevant
> "master lists". If this isn't true please feel free to forward this to the
> right person.
>
> Vicky - similarly, I understand you have the ability to edit the web
> content at www.osgeo.org/about/charter-members/. If that's not correct
> either, please feel free to forward as needed.
>
> cc'd board at lists to help facilitate the request.
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: Sara <sara at sarasafavi.com>
> Date: Tue, Jun 19, 2018 at 12:00 PM
> Subject: How to retire membership status?
> To: OSGeo Discussions <discuss at lists.osgeo.org>
>
>
> Hello community,
>
> Can someone point me at the relevant documentation re: retiring current
> membership status? Specifically, related to Charter membership.
>
> I understand the processes to nominate & add new charter members but not
> clear on how current charter members can retire.
>
> To put it another way: how to edit
> https://www.osgeo.org/about/charter-members/?
>
> Thanks,
> Sara Safavi
>
> _______________________________________________
> Board mailing listBoard at lists.osgeo.orghttps://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
>
> --
> Cameron Shorter
> Technology Demystifier
> Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
>
> M +61 (0) 419 142 254
>
>
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