[OSGeo-Discuss] Board and Representational tasks (was: Geographic Diversity)

[Arnulf Christl]

1,73 Euro-Cent

Dearest all non-Directors,
this interesting thread is void of relevance as long as we have no better understanding of what the title "OSGeo director" is good for. 

Let me share my experience as a director over the past 1,5 years and maybe you can help me to understand what this thread is really about or where I could have better leveraged my position as an OSGeo director. 

To me the title ""OSGeo" "Director"" in February 2006 came surprisingly and with many quotes around it. I felt flattered but for no good reason (this is an important detail to ponder). I remember sitting in the lobby[1] of the Chicago Hotel somewhat stunned together with Markus wondering what this actually meant to us. In the following months we learned that in the first place it meant a load full of work. We actually started right away still sitting in the lobby[2] by checking out how the Apache foundation worked and counting lines of GRASS code that we would need to check (we are still counting.. :-).

In the following weeks and months the board performed on an impressive set of tasks sorting out the bylaws, deciding where to migrate the development platform, how to implement committees and how to support their awakening to action and how to get things to run in the first place. I bow my head to all people (directors and non-directors) who were involved in this initial phase because it was a really painful time with a heavy load of work. Check the Wiki board minutes to see what was done by the board:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Board_of_Directors

We usually met (by phone calls) in weekly turns and at least once a month. Once the groundwork was done the high priority stuff subsided. One great relief for our work load was the decision to appoint a CEO (a decision that I opposed to due to my belief that OSGeo should keep as low a financial profile as possible). (Nonetheless) I fully support our current CEO because Tyler really does a great job and relieved us (8 boars, one sow) of many things and brought a stability into operation that we (as a volunteer board) could never have managed. From then on more formal functions bubbled up informally sometimes referred to as "rubber stamping" things:
* Incubation applications (the decision itself already being taken in the Incubation Committee)
* Appointing committee chairs (the decision itself already being taken in the respective committees) 
* Deciding whether and how to participate in events and conferences (the decision itself already being taken in the VisCom Committee)
* Design and layout of the website (the work being done itself already being taken in WebCom). 
* Approving contracts for hardware and hosting (the decision itself already being taken in the SAC Committee)
* and so on

Tantalizing and thrilling things that save the world.

This year saw much less board activity, simply check the board meetings again, in 2007 up to now we managed to meet only 5 times in January, February, twice in March, May and today in August, not even monthly. Initially I feared that the reason might be that the directors have burned out but then it turned out that the board tasks actually receded. The amount of work to be done is simply getting less and the board is more used and able to acknowledge what the OSGeo members have come to decide in the committees via Wiki, mailing lists and local meetings. Issues can be assigned to the resolving parties directly through Trac. Less jobs for the board, better for the Foundation and transparency.

The voidness that I mention above refers to my limited understanding of what else the *title* of a director actually means to the people who spoke up on this topic. (for it is a long thread full of little concrete content and lots of hazy wishes). From this thread I gather that having the title obligates the director to use it as a means to achieve things. What things? Something related to visibility? Then please feel free to revive VisCom and get active there, it is the committee that makes the difference in perceiving the impotence  - ahm - importance of FOSSGIS. The chair position is semi vacant (me not living up to my own lowest expectations) - and you even become an OSGeo officer (aint that even way cooler than being a director?). My limited personal capacity prevents me from doing any of these tasks well. How can a lowest troll ever be a good director? Now that I see all this I feel that I should probably better resign to make space for someone with more potential in le
veraging The Director's powers. (Look at that sentence with so many I's. Is it not that we strive for the ego boost that lives in carrying the title of a Director?)

What it boils down to is that if having the OSGeo Director title is so helpful in achieving things then we should simply produce more of them. How that? By giving more importance to the local chapters (first ridding this belittling name) and having Directors, Officer, Gurus, CxO or whatever-it-takes to make people appear important enough to impress others. 

Initially I had hoped that being an OSGeo *member* (I do not call them "simple" or "standard" on purpose) would actually help to do that. But we (the board) have not done a good job in conveying that the status of an OSGeo *member* is actually all you need to be "important". Instead we have promoted the charter members so that all now believe that those people actually *do* things. What on earth did they ever do? Nothing much at all! They voted for the initial directors and then they voted for some more buddies to also become charter members who then voted for the next set of directors. There should be no merit from simply having the  status of a charter member or a director if you do not actually *do* things. 

I apologize for having started to <rant> somewhere on the way and close it here </rant>. Watch the the board conference meeting on IRC in 1h38min if you want to see what little we do. And if you don't like it, rant on discuss. 

Best regards, 
Arnulf. 

[1] http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&p=hPXz..&search=Machtgruppe
[2] http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&p=hPXz..&search=Interessenvertretung