[OSGeo-Conf] Board discussion about RFP for FOSS4G-2019

[Venkatesh Raghavan]

Dear Conference Committee,

Regarding the RFP for FOSS4G-2019, there was some discussion
on the Board list [1] after going through the last years RFP.
I summarize the suggestions that came out of the discussion
below;

a) OSGeo AGM could be conducted as an independent/exclusive session
and not while sessions are running in parallel. The 2019-LoC could consider
scheduling the session in the morning or evening time. There was also
suggest to host the AGM at lunch time or combining with ice-breaker.
The idea is to allow as many of OSGeo officers and charter members
to take part in the AGM.

b) Page 5 states "Labs should have computers ready, “bring your own”
causes time loss, because software has to be installed.".

The workshops at Boston were all BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) style [2] and
and it seems to have worked pretty well.
So, the statement regarding computer ready labs need to be changed

c) Page 6, "OSGeo Community events and activity" as
  "OSGeo Community events and activity at FOSS4G” or
  "OSGeo Community events at FOSS4G” could suffice.

d) "Hosted (or Presented/Produced) by OSGeo" need to be mentioned in the 
conference website.
This can be added at an appropriate section of the 2019 RFP.
OSGeo need not be listed as Sponsor (although it receives all the 
benefits of sponsorship at
the highest level).

e) "Rest of the World" mentioned at several places in the 2018 RFP. 
There were some good
suggestions about the terminology on the conference ML [3] and an 
agreement to use "Other
Regions" instead of "Rest of the World"

f) Page 11 mentions "We hope to keep cost per participant under $650 USD 
for the conference
plus workshops."
I (Venka) am not aware of how the affordability discussion went on at 
f2f in Boston. However a
more specific statement could be better for the 2019 RFP. e.g.
"We strongly recommend to keep the cost per participants under $XXX USD 
(early bird) and
$YYY USD for the conference and workshops."

g) Page 12, mentions, "The conference committee will then propose the 
location to the OSGeo Board, who must formally approve of the decision.".

This could be re-phrased as   "The conference committee will then convey 
its decision to the OSGeo Board for its approval.".

h) If time permits, the RFP could be made available for a few days for 
public comment before
final release.

Best

Venka

[1] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2017-August/010510.html
[2] http://2017.foss4g.org/workshops/.
[3] 
https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/conference_dev/2017-February/004308.html