[OSGeo-Discuss] a question about speaking out for, or as part of, the Foundation

[Markus Neteler]

On 3/14/06, Jo Walsh <jo at frot.org> wrote:
> dear Frank, thankyou for your consideration of this,
>
> On Mon, Mar 13, 2006 at 08:46:39PM -0500, Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> > >- Would Markus be empowered to sign our letter, in his capacity as a
> > >  board member of OSGeo?
> > Markus can certainly sign the petition.
>
> Sorry if i was unclear, i meant the more specific open letter we are
> also sending to MEPs, on top of the bigger public petition, which i
> would be *shocked* if Markus had not already signed, in his capacity
> as a concerned private individual.

To avoid confusion: I signed it "long" time ago as #52.

> The letter would be a lot higher
> profile, one of just a few names/orgs in question, and so the terms of
> your judgement call below would definitely apply.
>
> > He could sign "as a board member" without further approval I think.
> > Signing on behalf of the foundation is more questionable, and would
> > generally require an act of the board.
> >
> > An unanimous vote of the board by email would be fine to authorize
> > him to do so on behalf of the foundation.
>
> Okay, this makes complete sense to me.
>
> > >- More generally, if one of us has a message that would travel better
> > >  if it was "on behalf of OSGeo", is there a process for deciding on
> > >  whether the message is a good fit? Is this a situation where the
> > >  board collectively is the only authority empowered to speak out?
> >
> > I am personally of the opinion that we need to be fairly conservative
> > about the foundation taking official positions on things, and anyone
> > speaking "on behalf of the foundation".

Agreed. I would appreciate an official mandate.

Markus