[OSGeo-Discuss] Annual General Meeting at FOSS4G

[andrea giacomelli]

Hi Tyler -

I did not attend the Annual General Meeting last year, and I am not sure if
I will be able to attend this year, but I have ideas in this respect and I
hope they will still reach the mailing list ;)

With the growth of the community (and of the number of chapters) such a
session will grow in complexity and length. It could get VERY confusing.

Based on similar experiences (last but not least large condominium
meetings), I would recommend providing some guidance on how to present
information and interact.

for example:

a) presentation of each chapter/project/sponsor

- basic statistics (how many people, geographic reach,
- the three best things we did in the past year
- the three most interesting things we planned for the next year
- three lessons learned/areas for improvement

this can be done in more or less  5 minutes per chapter.

b) I would then open the floor to discussion, questions, in relation to
specific points of interest highglighted in part (a), always with a fixed
time to talk, a fixed time to respond, and somebody acting as a moderator.

I have attended a fair amount of workshops, meetings etc, conferences and
one thing I noted is always appreciated is the respect for people's time
(although we as a community are more focused on space ;) ).

all chapters, projects, sponsors have wiki pages, blogs, web pages etc - so
if anybody wants details, they will be available, while the meeting should
really help the community to focus.

If you need assistance to arrange any of this, I should be available.

Hop this hlps!

Andrea Giacomelli - aka pibinko
vice president GFOSS.it - Italian OSGEO Chapter - http://www.gfoss.it
*Se voce quiser vou Ihe mostrar - a nossa Sao Paulo terra da garoa - Se voce
quiser vou Ihe mostrar - Bahia de Caetano nossa gente boa. (Benito de Paula)
*

2008/6/27 Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) <tmitchell at osgeo.org>:

> Hi everyone,
> Last year at FOSS4G I ran an Annual General Meeting that lasted a couple
> hours.  Personally, I thought it was great to hear about the interesting mix
> of reports from local chapters, projects and committees.  (I realised at the
> last moment that sponsors would have been great to hear from too!)
>
> I'd be interested in feedback about the meeting from those of you who were
> in attendance and if you had any more ideas for this year.  Last meeting was
> 90+ minutes which can seem long, but with the great mix of work going on it
> the community - I felt it was worth it.  How about you?  There would seem to
> be no way to shorten it since our communities have only continued to grow -
> projects, sponsors and more.  There's a lot to talk about too - occasionally
> people suggest topics that warrant discussion at such an event.  Perhaps we
> need more time to talk about some ideas or make decisions.
>
> Would love to hear your ideas.  If you're keen to help, also let me know.
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20080627/14740846/attachment-0002.html>