[Board] Inquiry Regarding the Establishment of an OSGeo Student Chapter

[Vicky Vergara]

Hello Itzel,

Thanks for contacting us.
I have CC'd the OSGeo Board of Directors.

First of all, in order to reply to this email, you must join this mailing
list:
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board

We appreciate the idea of an OSGeo Student chapter at your university, but
if that were to happen it would be at an international level.

Having said that, we are non stoppers.

This is what can happen:

Create your university group (read note 1), make your guidelines, your
organizational procedure and follow your procedures to make decisions.
One of the first decisions is deciding the actual name of the group.

Note 1: Attached to your university or at a more generalized level, like
country wise or language wise which would include many countries.

Once you have your group up and functioning:

*Add wiki page*
You can add your group to
- https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Interest_Groups
You will need to create the wiki page about your group also.

*Discourse channel*
Currently we have the Mexico channel that you can use to communicate
https://discourse.osgeo.org/c/geoinquietos/mexico/20
To be able to post on the channel you need to register here:
https://discourse.osgeo.org/g/mexico

You might also want to join
https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/geoforall-iberoamerica/
Which is a group that is more on the focus of education
They create a monthly newsletter.
Start a conversation there (Spanish OK).

You can read more about local chapters here
- https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Local_Chapters

There are groups (not even mentioned on the wiki) on telegram:
GeoChicas, (Annual even in Mexico this year celebrating 10 years of
GeoChicas)
Comunidad Brazil
QGIS latam
That you can join to promote the "students group".
If you are interested let me know (reply only to me) so I can give you the
telegram handle.

Hope this is helpful.

Regards and good luck with your group!

Vicky Vergara
OSGeo Vice-President South America and Asia
https://www.osgeo.org/about/board/

This is the response from the mail received in info mailbox from Itzel
Alcantara
Copy/pasted down bellow.
*Dear OSGeo Education Committee,*
I am writing to express our enthusiastic interest in establishing an OSGeo
Student Chapter at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (UAEMex).
We are a dedicated group of undergraduate Geography students who actively
utilize open-source geospatial technologies,including QGIS and spatial data
analysis in R,for cartographic modeling, environmental analysis, and remote
sensing. We strongly believe in the principles of open science and open
data. Establishing an official OSGeo chapter would allow us to foster a
collaborative environment on campus, contribute to open-source projects,
and connect with the global geospatial community.
Could you please provide us with the necessary details and guidelines to
formally charter a student chapter at our university? We would specifically
appreciate information on the following:

   - The minimum number of students required to form a recognized chapter.
   - The expectations and responsibilities of a faculty advisor.
   - The official documentation, forms, or Memorandum of Understanding
   (MoU) needed for the application.
   - Any specific activities or annual reports expected from active student
   chapters.

Thank you very much for your time and guidance. We are eager to promote
open-source geospatial software within our academic community and look
forward to your response.
Sincerely,
*Itzel Evelyn Alcántara Rivas *
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