[OSGeo Oceania] [Aus-NZ-QGIS-group] Community consultation: OO Org QGIS Special Interest Group Charter

[Adam Steer]

Hey Andrew and all the QGIS SIG proposers

Thanks, I think this is a perfect use of OSGeo Oceania as a backing
organisation :)

My only reservation with any SIG proposal is that effort isn't
duplicated about events and marketing, and also that a funding from a
small pool of interested parties (relative to other parts of the
world) is able to be effectively spread among the whole community. For
an example it would be a bit awry to see a SIG gather a heap of
funding at the expense of conference sponsorships. I guess in that
case the SIG could also sponsor conferences? This goes the other way
too - the existence of a well connected SIG makes it easier for OO to
fund a QGIS feature (for example) if it decides to do so.

I think clear, constant and open communication between OO and the SIG
will make those concerns go away.

In writing this I did work my thoughts through to  a serious question:
How will the SIG deal with conflicts of interest? A stated aim of the
SIG is to fund development, what will the SIG do if all the key QGIS
developers in the region are also in the group of people making
decisions about buying developer time?

My only comment on the charter itself is that if you want, you can
link to the existing Berlin Code of Conduct:
https://berlincodeofconduct.org/ - with which the upcoming OO CoC
should be 100% compatible.

Cheers,

Adam


On Thu, 26 Nov 2020 at 04:37, Andrew Jeffrey <aljeffrey83 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> The OSGeo Oceania board has approved an initiative for members to form Special Interest Groups (SIGs) within the OO community.
>
> A SIG is a way for community members to collaborate around common interests which in this case is QGIS.
>
> In establishing a SIG, the OO board requires that the group proposing the SIG put forward a charter which outlines the Aim and Scope under which the SIG will operate.
>
> Myself, Emma Hain, John Bryant, Nathan Woodrow and Nyall Dawson would like to start a QGIS SIG which can be used to benefit QGIS users in our community. To get things started we have come up with a charter that we would like to make available for community consultation. As this charter currently reflects our input we would like to put this out for discussion to see if what we are proposing is on the right path for the community. At the moment everyone with the link below has "comment" permissions, but "edit" permissions can be granted on request if you would like to get more involved and you're welcome to do so.
>
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lrewntrC0N1r6mfZdo1AdPhe2qTEaN5hDA2pcL0mrvI/edit?usp=sharing
>
> I also just want to be upfront that this SIG is proposing that there be a membership fee associated with the group. The funds raised by the membership will be stored with the OO org and then used by the SIG on items as scoped out in the charter. The idea with the membership is not to "make money" but to pool our small contributions to give us better "buying power" for lack of a better term. As a SIG within the OO org we can participate in crowdfunding campaigns, engage a dev to develop a feature important to us but might not be recognised as important to the larger QGIS project, or engage a trainer to provide professional development via Zoom, the types of things that are hard to do as individuals or as a user group with no funds etc. The membership arrangement also allows us to offer membership to organisations which will become a way for them to support QGIS and their local QGIS community. Ideally, this is where a majority of the funds would come from as we don't want an individual to be excluded due to a "fee", which is also covered in the charter. I'm available as I'm sure the other proposers are to discuss the intention of this further and in the open on this list.
>
> Any questions feel free to ask or if you prefer to comment on the charter that is fine too.
>
> I look forward to discussing this with you.
>
> Thanks
> Andrew
>
>
>
>
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