[OSGeo-Conf] 2012 Next Step: Voting on Letters of Intent

[Jeff McKenna]

Thank you to all teams for responding to the committee's questions 
regarding your letters of intent.

How to Vote
-----------

Now we will begin the vote on these letters.  Each OSGeo conference 
committee member must send a private email to me, containing the 
location of the letter that you wish to select to move on to the next 
stage (Beijing, Prague, Rome, or Hanoi).  Please send your vote by 
Wednesday.  As stated in the RFP (page 6):

*****
"If more than one letter of intent is received, members of the OSGeo 
conference committee will vote by
each selecting a single letter as their choice. A letter must receive 
the backing of at least two members
to move on to the bid stage. Exact voting results will not be released."
*****

Who is Voting
-------------

Just for the record, the OSGeo conference committee contains the 
following community members:

- Thierry Badard
- Lorenzo Becchi
- Arnulf Christl
- Gavin Fleming
- Steve Lime
- Dave McIlhagga
- Jeff McKenna
- Helena Mitasova
- Markus Neteler
- Claude Philipona
- Venkatesh Raghavan
- Paul Ramsey
- Cameron Shorter
- Frank Warmerdam

Selection Criteria
------------------

As mentioned in the previous email by Frank, we need to clarify the 
selection process for 2012.

As stated on page 6 of the RFP: "2012
event will be aimed at regions anywhere other than North America or 
Europe".  And then later on that page "If there are no submissions from 
groups in those
regions, letters from any region will then be solicited."

What happened is that we did not receive any submissions before the 
initial deadline, and then we opened the bidding to all areas, and then 
we received 1 submission from the desired region and 2 from Europe, and 
then a late submission from the desired region.

My opinion is that the stated desired region is in fact still the 
desired region, and that all OSGeo conference committee members should 
keep this information in their head as they vote. (meaning: all 4 
letters are an option for this voting stage, but the preferred region is 
'anywhere other than NA or Europe')

Reviewing the Letters
---------------------

All submissions are available at: http://www.osgeo.org/conference/rfp/

Thank you everyone!

-jeff