[OSGeo Oceania] membership - elections - AGM

[John Bryant]

Hi all, really pleased to see all this input, thanks for your time & energy.

This is obviously a topic that people feel strongly about, which is great.
I feel that we're all aligned on the key principles: that we want to make
the organisation accessible to new members, and we want it to be run
responsibly, ie. members should be able to influence how it's run. There's
a bit of distance between the various proposals on the table so far, but
they're all aiming at these principles. To make progress, it looks like
we're going to need to make some compromises.

I fully agree with Edoardo's reasoning for preferring a home-grown approach
to membership. We're an OSGeo local chapter, but we're also more than that,
notably (as Ed mentioned) we're in the process of applying to be a local
chapter of OSMF as well. We need to ensure we wholeheartedly embrace the
parts of our community that don't fall under the OSGeo umbrella.

I think we're roughly all on the same page re: voting membership, ie. we
need members who vote, and they should pass some sort of eligibility
threshold.

The key point of disagreement seems to be whether we have a 2nd tier of
membership with a lower eligibility threshold, one where anyone can join,
but there are no rights/responsibilities associated with it. There have
been some questions asked about what real value this provides to such a
member and to the organisation, which I struggle to answer. I'm also
concerned about the extra messaging that would be required to communicate
this to the community to overcome any potential confusion... this
translates to work, and as a volunteer-run organisation, our time & energy
have limits. Finally, I don't see that the eligibility threshold we're
considering for membership is so high that it functionally excludes anyone
who truly wants to be a part of this.

I strongly identify with the value proposition of making the organisation
accessible to everyone though, so this is difficult for me...

But in the interest of moving forward, and focusing on the most urgent
outcome (determine a process for a voting membership), let me ask this
question: *Can we live with a single membership type for now, which
includes voting privileges?*

I believe this single membership type will sufficiently address our key
priorities (voting membership, protect the org).

Once we establish this membership type, I feel we could very easily extend
it with some process whereby people in the community can self-identify as a
"community member", or "citizen", or something like that. But there is much
to do in the next 2-3 months, and I feel we really need to stay focused on
that which *must* be done.

Something needs to give, so I'm hoping for some compromise.

Thanks
John
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