[Conference_dev] Conference Governance

[Frank Warmerdam]

Folks,

At our next conference meeting I think we need to work out some details
of how the conference is governed.  In the past (for instance 2006) it
was essentially run by the local organizers, with an international
steering committee being used as a sounding board for some issues.

For 2007 my original assumption was that there would be a "working core"
made up of local organizers and some members of the OSGeo Conference Committee
with other conference committee members providing feedback on a more occasional
basis.  But that the conference would essentially be run by the OSGeo
Conference Committee with the local organizers being defacto members of the
committee for the year.

Alternatively we can leave things more in the hands of the local organizers
with the OSGeo Conference Committee primarily operating as an advisory body,
much like last years steering committee.

Currently Paul has established a mailing list for management of the conference
at foss4g2007 at lists.refractions.net with various local folks, and some
OSGeo and conference committee folks.  I think one objective of the smaller
private-ish list was to be able to discuss sponsorship issues that might be
sensitive to do in public.

What I would like to ensure is that we establish a reasonably clear concept
of who is in charge, and where discussions will take place so that there isn't
a lot of confusion, and perhaps bad feelings later.  I'm don't have a strong
opinion on how it will be handled, though with OSGeo "on the hook" financially
I think it is important that we have some reasonable financial controls in
place.

Paul - perhaps you could describe how you would like to see things handled?

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org