[OSGeo-Discuss] The Germans and The Brazilians...

[Daniel Morissette]

andrea giacomelli wrote:
> 
> I encourage ANY new chapter to consider this prior to opening a wiki 
> section on the OSGEO site as a local chapter (whiche does not mean I 
> don't like the OSGEO wiki).
> 
> I encourage ANY pre-existing local chapter that does not yet have a 
> local "formal entity" to re-consider their approach (and maybe decide 
> that they are fine without a local legal entity ;)...but as a result of 
> a full evaluation of existing options).
> 

Andrea,

Could you please elaborate a bit more on the reasons why a "formal 
entity" seems so important to you for a local chapter?

Your comment is interesting because we are in the process of starting a 
Quebec Chapter of OSGeo *without* a formal entity, exactly to avoid the 
overhead of a legal entity and since our initial goals are networking 
and sharing of expertise (in collaboration with the French Chapter with 
whom we share the French language). We figured that since we have no 
current plans to deal with money we are better build the networking 
tools first (wiki, discuss lists, regular meetings) and then get to the 
legal/formal stuff only later on if/when we really need it.

This is the model of the Ottawa chapter which has been operating without 
a formal entity since ~2004. It was the first OSGeo chapter and the 
group existed as MapServer Users Group and Grass Users Group before 
OSGeo was even created.

Since your experience seems to differ from ours and we are just about to 
create a new chapter without a formal entity I'd really like to learn 
more about your own experience and the reasons why we should consider 
the formal entity options.

Thanks

Daniel
-- 
Daniel Morissette
http://www.mapgears.com/