[Local-chapters] Regional Chapters

Tue Sep 3 13:33:22 PDT 2013

I'd be fine with either way -- indeed, can't we have it both ways?

-mpg

-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Morissette <dmorissette at mapgears.com>
Date: Tuesday, September 3, 2013 12:39 PM
To: <local-chapters at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: Re: [Local-chapters] Regional Chapters

>Hi Arnulf, and all,
>
>Just a quick note to let you know that I like the idea of having
>"representatives of the existing local chaps form a higher level group"
>to coordinate their activities for things such as a regional conference.
>I have been thinking about and discussing this concept with a few others
>when FOSS4G-NA came to life and the need for an OSGeo-NA chapter arose.
>
>What form this takes in the end is up for discussion. One option is to
>create the concept of "meta-chapter", which is really just a group of
>local chapters in which the members are reps of existing local chapters
>in the given region. e.g. OSGeo-NA could be a chapter whose members are
>all local chapters in North America, the continent, not just USA, same
>for an OSGeo-Europe for instance.
>
>The problem with this approach that was raised in past discussions is
>that it creates an artificial hierarchy that some people don't like, so
>we may be better with something that is more free-form, i.e. we decide
>that it is okay to allow overlapping chapters, and then OSGeo-NA is just
>another chapter in which members are individuals who care about a NA
>presence of OSGeo, same for Europe. The members of OSGeo-NA or
>OSGeo-Europe may also be member of another local chapter (e.g. OSGeo-Qc
>and OSGeo-Fr in my case), but their participation in the regional
>chapter would be as individual and not as a rep of another chapter. Note
>that allowing overlapping chapters means that we may be creating some
>confusion in the outside world when they see multiple chapters
>apparently addressing the needs of the same group or region.
>
>In summary, we'd have two options to consider with their own pros and
>cons:
>
>1- Create the concept of Meta-chapters (better name welcome) in which
>members are local chapter reps
>
>2- Allow overlapping chapters in which the members are individuals and
>NOT acting as reps of other local chapters.
>
>Daniel
>
>
>On 13-09-03 10:11 AM, Arnulf Christl wrote:
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>> NA Local Chaps;
>> I think it is high time for a North America Chapter. Maybe it suffices
>> to start with slightly formalizing the existing team which already
>> selects and organizes the conferences. I am sure that eventually a
>> full-fledged Regional Chapter will form so it is just a questions of
>> when to officially start. As we all know publish early and release often
>> is the way to go. It seems like we are almost beyond publishing early.
>>
>>
>> All,
>> we are thinking about similar ideas in Europe with a strong CEE group
>> already under way and Germany, UK, Spain, The Netherlands and Italy
>> pretty strong already we will eventually have to coordinate anyway. One
>> way to go forward would be to have representatives of the existing local
>> chaps form a higher level group. The Spanish speaking group has gone a
>> different way and organizes around a language regardless of location.
>> Both can be good.
>>
>> If you have ideas how to do this we'd be interested in learning about
>> them and sharing experiences. Please subscribe to the Local Chapters
>> list and let us know:
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/local-chapters
>>
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Arnulf
>>
>> On 30.08.2013 17:12, David William Bitner wrote:
>>> With the second FOSS4G North America in Minneapolis in the history
>>>books
>>> and looking forward to the "Big Show" in Portland next Fall, I'd love
>>>to
>>> start the ball rolling to drum up interest in hosting FOSS4G North
>>> America in the Spring of 2015.
>>>
>>> There are two parts here:
>>>
>>> 1) Who's interested? If you have a local community that you think would
>>> be great to host, speak up! If you have questions as to what it takes,
>>> ask. If there's a city you'd love to see take this on - start pestering
>>> them.
>>>
>>> 2) If there is competing interest, we'll need identify the selection
>>> process/committee. We can take the easy route here and do something
>>> simple like prior Conference & Program Chairs make up the committee, or
>>> we can try (again) to create a more formal group for North America to
>>> handle things like this. If you have $.02 on this - bring it up now!
>>>
>>> I'd love to see us be able to move on this and be able to select a
>>>venue
>>> by the end of November if possible to make sure there is ample time for
>>> planning. Important thing right now is to start the discussion and get
>>> folks thinking about what we need to do to make the next FOSS4G NA
>>> another awesome event!
>>>
>>> Cheers!
>>>
>>> David
>>>
>>> --
>>> ************************************
>>> David William Bitner
>>> dbSpatial LLC
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Discuss mailing list
>>> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>>
>>
>>
>> - --
>> Arnulf Christl (Executive Director)
>> Open Source Geospatial Software, Data and Services
>> http://www.metaspatial.net
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>
>
>-- 
>Daniel Morissette
>http://www.mapgears.com/
>Provider of Professional MapServer Support since 2000
>
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