[Europe] Resurrect legal entity?

[andrea antonello]

Dear Maria,
thanks for bringing this up, even if all this really seems a nightmare. :-)

Since it seems bad to just let possible fundings for the osgeo
projects disappear without at least talking about it, I will start
with some comments to see if there is really no interest in trying to
find a solution (which might also involve not resurrecting the
entity).

Here we go:
* talking to people at Foss4g I just got the feeling that most see no
use in an Osgeo Europe entity. This might be one of the problems for
not finding volunteers in the first place
* one counterproposal was suggesting that the money coming from ESA
should be redirected to a local chapter that would then organise
community sprints or similar events with it. Not sure if that would be
even possible.
* I wonder if the involvement of ESA could attract other sponsors?
Would this be something different from the previous times this has
been tried? Something to start with?

Just a few sparse thoughts to fill the void this email created.

Best regards,
Andrea


On Fri, Aug 26, 2022 at 11:52 AM María Arias de Reyna <delawen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi!
>
> I know Claudia has already talked to some of you at the FOSS4G.  Looks like the ESA may be interested in throwing money and resources in OSGeo's direction to help develop geospatial FOSS.
>
> They need an European entity for this. Oops. I told her why we just closed our legal entity. She understood and asked me how much money would make resurrecting the legal entity worth it. Not promising anything, this is very early stages, but to have a reference.
>
> If we decide this is a good opportunity to do it, we would need not only volunteers to organize and help redirect the money *actively*,  but also look carefully where we can and should open the association, money and legally wise. Probably we should draft already a plan to help ESA decide.
>
> If not, she is looking for other ways to help us, always inside Europe. Sponsoring events is the obvious answer, but do we have other needs or opportunities? Some local chapters have legal entities but splitting resources through them may be too fine granular and  lot of bureaucracy.
>
> Cheers,
> María.
>
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