[OSGeo-Conf] Proposal: Invite Andrea Ross, from LocationTech to join the OSGeo Conference Committee

Dave McIlhagga dmcilhagga at mapsherpa.com
Thu May 26 10:28:06 PDT 2016 

Steven,

I couldn’t agree more — this committee has probably the single biggest impact of any OSGeo activities on the Foundation, particularly from a financial perspective.

If we’re going to look at this — I think we should look at the whole picture of how we do things here. It has long been a concern of mine that the most important decision that OSGeo makes every year is effectively delegated away by the board who is the elected group in fact charged with representing the interests of the membership.

The number 1 change I would recommend is that this committee provide all of the logistical services to review conference options, help local organizing committees, and all of the other leg work a committee exists to handle. But the over-riding guidance of what the international FOSS4G annual conference should be all about, how OSGeo decides where/how conference is hosted and run each year, should really be in the domain of the Board.

This group can help that process out extensively given the breadth of experience of the members. If it makes sense to continue the RFP process as we have in the past (which I’m not convinced of) - then this committee can manage that whole process, but I don’t believe we should be casting the votes. It’s too important a decision for the Foundation. Providing experience, perspective, and commentary on proposals to the board is reasonable — but I feel it’s time that the board take back this decision making authority.

Technically, the board does approve the decision of the committee — but this has never been overturned, and in my opinion, the year we failed in China was a direct outcome of this process - I don’t think we’ve really learned our lesson from that yet.

Dave



> On May 26, 2016, at 12:40 PM, Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Andrea
> 
> Definitely not my intention to indicate support no process. 
> 
> Conference Committee is imho second most important committee of OSGeo, my view is it should have process for selection, clear bounds of authority and expectations on members. 
> 
> Would be good to hear views from a broad cross section of current and past members
> 
> Steven
> 
>> On 25 May 2016, at 22:01, Andrea Ross <andrea.ross at eclipse.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Steven, All
>> 
>> Are you stating no process or criteria because you believe that's best, or to draw attention to it being a very bad idea? I can't tell through email. :-)
>> 
>> Andrea
>> 
>>> On 25/05/16 13:08, Steven Feldman wrote:
>>> I thought that had been agreed by nearly everyone who commented although there may have been one or two objections including mine.
>>> 
>>> It seems that if you want to join conference committee there is no process or criteria, you say you want to join and then you can. Quite what happens when you go silent I don't know? Membership allows vote for location of FOSS4G which raises question about potential "packing" of vote but so far we've not had a problem so maybe not an issue.
>>> 
>>> If Maxi wants to be a member, I guess he is one. @Maxi, feel free to add yourself to the current members list
>>> 
>>> Steven
>>> 
>>>>> On 24 May 2016, at 15:19, Venkatesh Raghavan <venka.osgeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> On 2016/05/24 20:13, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>>>>> Conference Committee,
>>>>> I'd like to propose that we invite Andrea Ross to join the OSGeo
>>>>> Conference Committee.
>>>> Firstly, we need to decide on the request from Maxi to join
>>>> the conference committee which was seconded by me.
>>>> 
>>>> Venka
>>>> 
>>>>> +1 from me, Cameron Shorter.
>>>>> 
>>>>> My reasoning is that Andrea has a lot of experience running conferences,
>>>>> especially through his involvement with LocationTech, and there are
>>>>> synergies that could be gained by aligning OSGeo and LocationTech
>>>>> effectively.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I note that there have been concerns aired previously about LocationTech
>>>>> competing to take over OSGeo's flagship FOSS4G event. I'm of the opinion
>>>>> that we should be mindful of this, but we should discuss the options
>>>>> openly and I believe we can find a solution favourable for all. An
>>>>> effective way to support this conversation is to invite Andrea to be one
>>>>> vote among our conference committee.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Warm regards, Cameron
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On 24/05/2016 6:31 am, Andrea Ross wrote:
>>>>>> Dear Steven, & Everyone
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I've not been invited to the conference committee, but I will be in
>>>>>> Bonn, and I'm always glad to chat/meet.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Kind regards,
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Andrea
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> On May 22, 2016 3:04:03 AM EDT, Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>   Who is going to be in Bonn for FOSS4G?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>   It's an opportunity for the Conference Committee and interested
>>>>>> people to meet face to face, we could discuss some of the topics on
>>>>>> the 'outstanding
>>>>>> list'http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Conference_Committee_2016_Priorities
>>>>>> and we could start preparing the call for 2018
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>   Anyone interested?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>   Steven
>>>>>> 
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