[OSGeo-Discuss] Report from the OSGeo Board meeting

[Michael P. Gerlek]

Arnulf and Frank have already spoken up, and I think they've captured the
sentiment of Sunday's board decision well.

To emphasize three points, if I may:

* Our foundation has been financially backed by a small set of donors and
the FOSS4G conference.  We have lost ground on former source, and the latter
source has proven to be extremely volatile.  From a business standpoint,
this is not a sustainable path. The ED has been the single largest financial
cost to the foundation, and so given our current funding model, the cost for
the functions performed wasn't justified.

* I wrote recently that there three kinds of functions needed here:
administrative (bookkeeping, answering mail, etc), tactical (project
management, sys admin), and strategic (fundraising, outreach).  The first
can be done by a mixture of outsourcing and volunteers, and we're already
taking steps for that.  The second is done already by very competent
volunteers.  The third requires a very specific set of skills we will likely
hire or contract out for; in the near term, the board and other non-board
volunteers will shoulder this (as they have been doing for years, though
often unacknowledged).  This will be an evolving process, of course, and the
discussion with the community is now underway.

* There is considerable difficulty in discussing personnel matters with the
community.  Some board members have discussed these matters with other
individuals privately, both proactively and reactively, to consider the
foundation's positions and options.  However, those were private
discussions: the board cannot discuss personnel issues on a public mailing
list.  I'm sure you all can appreciate that.

Thanks -

-mpg