[OSGeo-Discuss] Charter members and local chapters (was: RE: Board Candidate Manifestos: 3 questions)

Thu Oct 12 14:00:46 PDT 2017

Hi Vicky, 

Thanks for your answer to my question.

Regarding the number (9) of charter members in the Dutch local chapter:

By time we started the local chapter there were just 3 charter members, I guess.

To my opinion in regard to setting up and running a local chapter being an OSGeo.org charter member is of no (that is: zero) importance. 

Charter membership is an OSGeo.org category, not related to the Dutch organisation.

>From my point of view, OSgeo.org charter membership is more like a sort of title, given to people who in the past few year have made themselves in one way or another valuable for the OSGeo community.

In our local chapter we have a sort of loose membership,  which is simply a fact of writing your name on the wiki. (by this time 126).

In daly life, that list is just one of 3 indicators of connectivity; the Dutch mailinglists holds some 240 people (mostly developer-oriented) and our Meetup group has 329 members (mainly end-user based)

The Dutch local chapter is a legal foundation, and foundations simply don't  have such a thing as membership. As opposed to associations. 

The German speaking chapter (FOSSGIS), for instance is organized as a association, and thus has formal members (who pay an annual fee).

Kinds regards, 

Gert-Jan

Van: Vicky Vergara [mailto:vicky at georepublic.de] 
Verzonden: donderdag 12 oktober 2017 20:37
Aan: Gert-Jan van der Weijden - Stichting OSGeo.nl
CC: OSGeo Discussions
Onderwerp: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Board Candidate Manifestos: 3 questions

Hello all, Gret-Jan

In my view section of my manifesto I mention OSGeo  is here to serve the people of the world.

People in the world are Geographically distributed, have different cultures and using some number about the languages, for example, only in Mexico there are around 60+ languages and 6000+ languages around the world.

So, we are here to serve the people regardless of the Geographical diversity, culture diversity, DNA diversity, gender diversity, political diversity, religious diversity.

I don't think that is compulsory to have a representation of every continent/country/language/DNA/gender  on every cycle of the Board, but I think it would help if from time to time the  diversities are also represented.

I hope the above answers your question. And I also hope that the following raises some internal questions:

I will talk about  what I know:

Spanish is the second most spoken language on the world (first is mandarin) and is the official language of 20 countries, 19 are located in Latin America 1 is located in Europe.

Since OSGeo started there has not being a person  in the Board  from any of those countries. [1]

Some truth reality: [2] (Using data before this last charter member election)

Total Spanish Speaking charter members: 24 = 16 (Spain) + 1 (Uruguay) + 6 (Argentina) + 1 (México)

Total Latin American charter members: 8 = 1 (Uruguay) + 6 (Argentina) + 1 (México)

Total charter members from Peru + Bolivia: 0

Total charter members from Netherlands: 9

Some questions arise:

Why it is possible with 9 charter members, to create a local chapter? [3]

Are the people on the photograph of Netherlands local chapter registered as OSGeo users?

If so, what haven't they done to become a charter member?

Why with 0 charters members people can start building a local chapter? [4]

Are these working Peruvians registered as OSGeo users?

If so, and having the fact that they are working to build the local chapter, why they are not a charter member?

Maybe some answer to those questions will give a hint of:

Why Geoinquietos Argentina [5] can organize FOSS4G and with 6 charter members, there is no Argentina local chapter?

Why on countries with at least 1 charter member (on Uruguay and Mexico) no one is starting a local chapter on those countries?

Is it because we are waiting for more OSGeo charter members?

Is it because we don't know who is a user?

Is it because we  need to learn how to be open?

Is it because people that use OSGeo do not register as users?

Is it because we don't understand English?

Is it because only 58% of people who starts High School finishes High School? [6]

  I don’t know the Netherlands education situation, so maybe we are similar, if it is the case, then I would ask:

  How could you make your local chapter, when this kind of desertion from school happens?

Regards

Vicky

[1] http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/board_and_officers.html

[2] http://www.osgeo.org/charter_members

[3] https://osgeo.nl/

[4] http://www.osgeo.org/content/chapters/index.html

[5] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Category:Geoinquietos_Argentina

[6] http://www.milenio.com/region/Solo-ingresan-preparatoria-terminan-Inegi_0_276572391.html

On Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 11:00 AM, Gert-Jan van der Weijden - Stichting OSGeo.nl <gert-jan at osgeo.nl> wrote:

Hi Board member candidates (and fellow voter members),

Thanks to Helena, Astrid, Jody and Sanghee for adding their Manifestos [1].

Really much appreciated, and at least now we have 6 known candidates to cast our 5 votes to!

I hope that Dirk, Venga and Jeff will take the opportunity to add their manifestos as well before the end of this campaign week.

After reading them, I have 3 questions:

= One to Sanghee: 

I really like your personal review of the last 2 years as a Board member. Not just fun parts, but also some harder times. 

Could you please elaborate on the "Sometimes I saw the 'Desire to the Innocence' from the community"? I simply don't quite understand what you mean by this.

= One to Astrid:

Almost all of your objectives seem outreach-related (PR, OSGeo Live etc.)

What  are the advantages of doing so as a Board member, instead of (or in addition to) begin a member of the recently revived Marketing Committee

= And one to all of you:

Some of you talk about being an inclusive organization. 

For the geographical and probably cultural aspect of inclusiveness, do you think the Board should have it's roots in as much continents / languages as possible, so preferably 1 Board member from every continent (not counting for Antarctica, ha!)

Wishing you all the best and success in your campaigns, 

Gert-Jan

[1] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Election_2017_Candidate_Manifestos

Van: Discuss [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] Namens Sanghee Shin
Verzonden: donderdag 12 oktober 2017 10:14
Aan: OSGeo Discussions
Onderwerp: [OSGeo-Discuss] Board Candidate Manifestos: Sanghee Shin

Dear All, 

I’ve posted my manifestos here: https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Election_2017_Candidate_Manifestos#Sanghee_Shin 

Thanks for the nomination. 

Kind regards, 

신상희
---
Shin, Sanghee
Gaia3D, Inc. - The GeoSpatial Company
www.gaia3d.com 

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