Hi Tyler - <br><br>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 ;)<br><br>
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.<br><br>Based on similar experiences (last but not least large condominium meetings), I would recommend providing some guidance on how to present information and interact.<br>
<br>for example:<br><br>a) presentation of each chapter/project/sponsor<br><br>- basic statistics (how many people, geographic reach,<br>- the three best things we did in the past year<br>- the three most interesting things we planned for the next year<br>
- three lessons learned/areas for improvement<br><br>this can be done in more or less 5 minutes per chapter.<br><br>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.<br>
<br>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 ;) ).<br><br>
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.<br><br>If you need assistance to arrange any of this, I should be available.<br>
<br>Hop this hlps!<br><br>Andrea Giacomelli - aka pibinko<br>vice president GFOSS.it - Italian OSGEO Chapter - <a href="http://www.gfoss.it">http://www.gfoss.it</a><br><font size="1"><i>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)</i></font><br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">2008/6/27 Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) <<a href="mailto:tmitchell@osgeo.org">tmitchell@osgeo.org</a>>:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Hi everyone,<br>
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!)<br>
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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.<br>
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Would love to hear your ideas. If you're keen to help, also let me know.<br>
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