[FOSS4G-Oceania] Governance

Thu Nov 29 04:35:44 PST 2018

Hi all, great discussion and thanks John/Daniel for starting a governance
document.

re. incorporating an association - Greg/Daniel mainly: any difficulties
forseeable with international currency movement? ie for wellington 2019? I
suppose we can follow OSGeo and charge for things in a dominant regional
currency.

naming: yeah tricky. OSGeo Oceania seems allright to me, but I’m biased and
lazy. I’d like to keep the OSM folks involved, a few talks at the event
were perfect for bringing less technical folk along for the ride - so it’d
be fantastic to have that connection/window open into different worlds.

Also trying to cast 10 years into the future and see what’s going to be
relevant, I still can’t come up with any better idea (see bias). I’m sure
we can find sustaining local sponsors to cover costs; and conferences will
be the primary means of income…

On Thu, 29 Nov 2018 at 23:04, Greg Lauer <gregory.lauer at gmail.com> wrote:

> I support Daniels comments. Setting up an entity is similar in each state.
> I have done this in QLD and NZ. I think an entity is the way to progress.
>
> I am on a plane at 12pm (finally going home) so will miss the meeting
>
> Greg
>
> On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 5:35 PM Daniel Silk <dwsilk at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> If for example, incorporating in Victoria:
>> https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/clubs-and-fundraising/incorporated-associations/become-an-incorporated-association/register-as-an-incorporated-association
>>
>> The requirements are:
>> 1. At least 5 members
>> 2. Non-profit
>> 3. We have a name (the hard part!)
>> 4. We have rules (a constitution)
>> 5. We have a purpose
>> 6. We hold a meeting (with 21 days advance notice required) and vote to
>> incorporate
>>
>> Later:
>> 7. We must have an AGM within 18 months of incorporation and then within
>> 5 months of the end of every financial year at which a financial report is
>> tabled and signed off by at least two members
>> 8. We must maintain a list of members including each members name,
>> address and date they became a member
>>
>> Seems like that's about it.
>>
>> Note that the incorporated associations material for Victoria refers to a
>> "committee", not a "board".
>>
>> ------
>>
>> In regards to governance then, here is my proposal.
>>
>> For simplicity, let's incorporate as "OSGeo Oceania" but with a clear
>> purpose statement that supports not just open source geospatial software,
>> but open geospatial data as well. If we are an incorporated association and
>> name one committee member as the primary contact point with the OSM
>> Foundation, then we satisfy all requirements to apply to be an OSMF local
>> chapter.
>>
>> This is similar to FOSSGIS in Germany which is also the local chapter for
>> both OSGeo and OSMF. The Belgian and Italian OSMF local chapters are also
>> organisations that are the local chapters for multiple international
>> organisations.
>>
>> I realise that this may be seen as diluting the importance of the OSM
>> aspect and am happy to be challenged on this. I think it is very important
>> that we continue to work together and I really enjoyed that we had strong
>> open source geospatial, open data and OpenStreetMap aspects to our
>> inaugural conference. I do think that it is hard to come up with a name
>> that cohesively brings all of that together. It would be great to continue
>> to work on that snappier name for next years conference. For the
>> association though, the purpose statement is much more important than the
>> name. OSGeo has already shown that it is keen to support OpenStreetMap so I
>> think we can achieve our broader goals under "OSGeo Oceania".
>>
>> Cheers
>> Daniel
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 7:36 PM Alex Leith <alexgleith at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi John and others
>>>
>>> I'm not clear yet what the minimum we can do is, in terms of a legal
>>> entity. Do others have experience here? I had a quick read here
>>> <https://www.ato.gov.au/Non-profit/Getting-started/In-detail/Registration/Overview-of-legal-structures/>,
>>> but determined that I need an adult to help me with the choices!
>>>
>>> I have served on the board of SSSI, and understand the structures of
>>> that organisation, which is a not-for-profit in Australia, and there's a
>>> fair bit of governance and documentation. I think the minimum if we had an
>>> organisation like that would be a constitution and a board + the conference
>>> organising committee for each year.
>>>
>>> I think that creating an entity would be a great thing to achieve, and
>>> we certainly have the core to start with, with our enthusiastic committee
>>> and successful event. I'm a little hesitant, though, as I see that we can
>>> make it work without one... we have a lot of avenues for support, in terms
>>> of juggling finances and contractual agreements. SSSI, SIBA, Locate, LINZ,
>>> etc...
>>>
>>> One more comment about the draft document is that I think limiting
>>> committees to those that are absolutely essential is important. So if the
>>> legal entity needs a board, we have a board, and a conference committee. If
>>> it just needs an annual meeting, we have an annual meeting and a conference
>>> committee! My $0.02.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Alex
>>>
>>> On Thu, 29 Nov 2018 at 16:12 John Bryant <johnwbryant at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi committee, time for the most exciting topic of all - governance!
>>>>
>>>> Over the last several months, and especially last week, there were a
>>>> number of conversations among committee members about 'what next', and many
>>>> of these have touched on the topic of how we organise this committee in the
>>>> future.
>>>>
>>>> I expect there will be quite a few ideas around this, and a range of
>>>> opinions, so I'd like to kick off a discussion so that we can choose our
>>>> path and move forward.
>>>>
>>>> We've had a productive year of working together, culminating in a
>>>> successful event. We managed to do this quite informally, using consensus
>>>> building to foster a shared sense of ownership of the conference. I'm
>>>> extremely happy with how this group has worked together.
>>>>
>>>> I feel we are at an inflection point though, and I don't think we can
>>>> assume that what worked this year will automatically continue to work. Now
>>>> that we have people's attention with a successful event and an energised &
>>>> engaged community, I feel it would be wise to come to more robust terms on
>>>> how we manage this.
>>>>
>>>> Because we need to kick off a new conference planning cycle in the new
>>>> year, we also need to determine how to bring in new people (importantly,
>>>> including some New Zealanders), how to appoint a new chair, etc etc.
>>>>
>>>> At a bare minimum, I believe our next iteration of governance should
>>>> include an updated Terms of Reference, outlining processes for managing
>>>> committee membership, processes for appointing leadership and executive,
>>>> rules/norms for decision making, and expectations around levels of
>>>> participation.
>>>>
>>>> But there are good arguments to be made for creating a
>>>> legally-recognised entity:
>>>>
>>>>    - it would enable us to manage our own funds when the time is right
>>>>    (whether we choose to do this immediately or not)
>>>>    - it would enable us to enter into agreements as a body (Alex and I
>>>>    had to personally sign our partnership agreement with SSSI, as individuals)
>>>>    - it normally comes with a well-developed set of rules for
>>>>    governance that we can adjust to our liking
>>>>    - I believe that committee members would be somewhat protected from
>>>>    personal liability
>>>>    - it would provide a strong signal to the community that there is a
>>>>    persistent body in place to steward the conference and other initiatives,
>>>>    and ideally lay out a strong foundation for the long term
>>>>
>>>> I have definitely heard people warn against the administrative overhead
>>>> of setting up a formal entity, but having done this in the past (in Canada
>>>> mind you), and reading through the docs, I don't see this as especially
>>>> onerous. But there is more work to do on understanding the details.
>>>>
>>>> In any case, we need to figure out how to move on to the next phase. In
>>>> terms of timing, I think *we should try and come to agreement on a
>>>> clear path forward within about 2 weeks (14th Dec)*, so that we can
>>>> begin the new year with purpose and direction.
>>>>
>>>> Daniel and I had a good chat about this stuff this morning, and have
>>>> started a draft document
>>>> <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KkUl-qwb2pE5OomHy-0RwKSsXJDOkFx0dpW6Dhfv624/edit>
>>>> we can use (in addition to this email thread) to focus our efforts.
>>>>
>>>> *Your thoughts/questions/ideas/concerns please!*
>>>>
>>>> Cheers
>>>> John
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> FOSS4G-Oceania at lists.osgeo.org
>>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g-oceania
>>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Alex Leith
>>> 0419 189 050
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
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-- 
Dr. Adam Steer
http://spatialised.net
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Adam_Steer
http://au.linkedin.com/in/adamsteer
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0046-7236
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