[Europe] [OSGeo AGM 2021] [Action required] present the activities of Europe local Chapter at the OSGeo AGM

[Dirk Frigne]

Hi Till,

It took me a bit longer that I wanted. I hope it was worth the waiting...


Dear list,

As a preparation for the AGM of Friday 01 October 11:00 AM AST or 16:00 
CET, I prepared some input.
Till will go physically to  Buenos Aires. I will not make it but I'll 
try to connect online if possible.

It would be good if Till could present the Local European Chapter on 
stage during the AGM.

It would also be good if there is a specific meeting about the future of 
OSGeo Local Chapter, as we hit some damage during the last 2 years.

For those new to the content, a short recap:

*History* (See also: 
https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Local_Chapter_EU_History + update)
(please feel free to update where I missed some activities or actions)

the first ideas for OSGeo Europe Chapter were launched in 2014. Actually 
the first idea’s started in 2013 on the FOSS4G CEE Conference in Bucharest.

In 2015 there was some need to promote open standards for ICT 
procurement in Europe.
Proposal to start an initiative on the Foss4G conference in Bonn 2016.
Bylaws discussed and prepared during 2016 / 2017.

*Birth of the organisation*
Bylaws signed 20 July 2021 during the FOSS4G conference in Paris.

OSGeo was founded with a legal status as a non-profit organisation based 
on Belgium law. We have 2 bankaccounts and a legal status with rights 
and obligations.
One of the interesting rights is that we don’t have to pay value added 
tax (VAT) when buying goods, but when we sell services we need to apply 
for VAT.

2017 - 2018 was also the year I tried to find out how to behave as a ngo.

Some contacts where initiated with UN Committee, discussions amongst 
members how to work on a common tender, investigating what are the 
obligations to report for the Belgian authorities in a way we could 
recuperate the VAT.

November 2017: preparation for first board meeting OSGeo Europe

Board meeting 15 December 2017: no of the board members attended

Jan- February 2018:

Further administrative burden to check all the signatures and ID’s of 
the board members,
the publication of bylaws of the organisation in the Belgian registers. 
Opening the bank accounts.
(Since the terroristic attacks in Belgium, these procedures became more 
difficult than before).
This took more time as expected.

March 2018: Meeting in Brussels about the Copernicus program . Goal: 
promote OSGeo and promote Copernicus @OSGeo.

Jul 2018: FOSS4G Conference Guimrães:
Presentation of OSGeo EU initiative to promote OSGeo software and 
projects on non FOSS events.

Aug 2018: organisation of first initiative in collaboration with 5 OSGeo 
projects.
OSGeo Europe did the coordination of the INSPIRE 2018 event in Antwerp 
and in return we could promote OSGeo on that event.

26 – 30 Aug: FOSS4G Bucharest: short status update by Joachim

19 September  2018  there was a first event with OSGeo on the INSPIRE 
conference in Antwerp with a presentation about the eco-system of OSGeo. 
OSGeo had one of the big boots during the conference.

The goal was to promote OSGeo and the OSGeo projects, the companies 
behind them and to create a European contact point for information to 
the non FOSS world.

With 5 paying contributors we had a budget of 10.000 EUR to organise the 
event and the boot. By using the scale advantage, it was of intrest to 
the participants, OSGeo Europe could present itself as host and we had a 
small benefit of approx 1000 Eur to pay for the administrative overhead 
(the accountant responsible for the official registrations and 
publications).	

Plans for organising more events in Germany, France and other countries 
did not materialize.

But then all activities on my part were paused due to ...

*(Some personal notes)*

Nov 2018 - Nov  2019: black out for me (literally …)

Dec 2019 – Feb 2020: personally: try to find the energy to reboot the 
Local Chapter but I still missed the energy to do so.

And then there was Covid…

Engagement in a community (like OSGeo) takes a lot of energy.
Luckily this energy is fuelled by attending the activities, 
participating conferences, meeting other people and work together 
promoting FOSS and stimulating the FOSS industry.
When this falls away, like it was in times of Covid this is even more 
challenging (see the presentation 
https://callforpapers.2021.foss4g.org/foss4g2021/talk/3MNBBB/).
For me personally, it was very hard to find the energy back.

Personally I need a mission I want to work on.
The world is changing very fast, so the reasons I started engaging for 
FOSS now more than 15 years ago,  changed over time.
One of the strengths of FOSS is that it starts from *‘givving’*. But to 
be able to *‘give’* you need others who receive and who are glad with 
the *‘gift’*. I need to find the right focus where my contribution helps 
our community forward, preferably with other people.

It is this exercise we should do again.


*Status of the ngo OSGeo Europe vzw*
To fulfil all the obligations the Belgian law describes, I asked a 
account to help me with the legal stuff.
This costs some money.
Almost every year,  laws change in Belgium (and I think also in Europe), 
this also has impact on  ngo’s.
The reporting becomes more demanding. f.i. a UBO-register is a new 
obligation. (https://financien.belgium.be/nl/E-services/Ubo-register).
As we have an international board, this is a bit more complex than with 
only Belgian id’s.

Also, as intrest rates are below zero, banks that previously provided 
free services now also charge a monthly fee. This also takes money from 
our accounts.

June 30, 2021 we closed our accounts with a claim on the VAT tax 
department of dept to the accountant of 314,30 EURO. This is the amount 
of money we get back from government because we aply to the VAT rules.
But for the work done by the accountant the last 3 years, we have an 
unpaid dept of 693,55 EURO. Every quarter this grows a bit.

The status on the accounts is (OSGeo EU : 38,43 EUR, GRASS: 1389,57 EURO).

The income of OSGeo Europe is zero.

Without organising events that produce the necessary income and VAT 
taxes that we can recuperate, this has no sense.

So it is no rocket science that we only have 2 options (imho):

Option a:
Find the money to pay for the current depts.
Find a way to get the minimal income to pay for the necessary Yearly 
costs (+/- 1000 Euro / Year)
Organise elections for a new board
Define/update/reactivate the mission and activities OSGeo Europe wants to do

Option b:
Execute the liquidation of the ngo

option b would be a real shame, since we've devoted a lot of energy and 
community discussions to building this organization.
If there is no other option, then this is unfortunately the only way to go.

If option a is chosen, I want to organize the elections and help find 
the new mission. I am also available to engage myself if I can 
contribute to the mission and get the necessary energy from it.

In case it becomes option b, I will take steps in October to organize 
the liquidation.

Any comments are welcome,
Thanks in advance for your contribution.

Dirk


On 24/08/2021 09:07, Till Adams wrote:
> Hi Dirk,
> 
> thanks for the "food" - that's a good idea. No, I am not going to
> Finland, it's tha AM on FOSS4G Buenos Aires ;-)
> 
> Till
> 
> 
> Am 19.08.21 um 14:40 schrieb Dirk Frigne:
>> Hi Till,
>>
>> I will give you some food for tought, later today.
>> Good to hear you go to Finland!
>> I've not yet decided.
>>
>> Dirk
>>
>> On 19/08/2021 08:10, adams at osgeo.org wrote:
>>> Dear European chapter!
>>>
>>> I know there was not much activity, but at least we planned (and
>>> postproned) a FOSS4G Europe! Did any further activities under the
>>> European chapter umbrella take place and is someone willing to
>>> present them.
>>>
>>> In case no one wants to, I can also present them, as I will join the AM
>>> anyway - but I need some "food" for this ;-9
>>>
>>> Regards, Till
>>>
>>> Am 18.08.21 um 18:13 schrieb Astrid Emde (OSGeo Secretary):
>>>> Hello Europe Local Chapter,
>>>>
>>>> we invite you and your team to present the local chapter at the OSGeo
>>>> AGM 2021.
>>>>
>>>> This year we will publish the OSGeo AGM video in advance of FOSS4G [1].
>>>>
>>>> You find all important information about the AGM at [5].
>>>>
>>>> It would be great if someone could volunteer to present the status at
>>>> the AGM. Please send me an email and I will provide an upload link for
>>>> the video.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Timeline
>>>> -----------------------
>>>> - 2021-08-30: upload your video and update the AGM slides [2]
>>>> - 2021-09-10: AGM 2021 complete video will be published
>>>> - 2021-10-01: 11h Argentinian Time Zone (14:00 UTC) Join the OSGeo AGM
>>>> 2021 meeting at FOSS4G [3] [4]
>>>>
>>>> If you have questions or problems with the upload of your video please
>>>> let us know secretary (at) osgeo (dot) org.
>>>>
>>>> Stay safe,
>>>>
>>>> Astrid Emde
>>>> OSGeo Secretary
>>>>
>>>> [1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDvJEf8hXbyeVqaYaS8sLvw
>>>> [2]
>>>> https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1brbBb7-sKRI6U4dZ7LKnBT_-NnWzyS2TaZqVXzy8RDo/edit#slide=id.p4
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> [3] https://callforpapers.2021.foss4g.org/foss4g2021/talk/WDEW3P/
>>>> [4]
>>>> https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meetingdetails.html?year=2021&month=10&day=1&hour=14&min=0&sec=0&p1=51&p2=26&p3=49&p4=155&p5=217&p6=312&p7=250&p8=71&p9=248&p10=240
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> [5] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Annual_General_Meeting_2021
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Europe mailing list
>>> Europe at lists.osgeo.org
>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/europe
>>>
>>
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> 

-- 
Dirk Frigne
President OSGeo Europe

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