[OSGeo Oceania] Ex-chair's perspective (OSGeo Oceania 2019-2020)

Fri Nov 27 15:09:24 PST 2020

Dear John

I've exported our minutes to PDFs, published them and linked to them from
the wiki, so you should be able to access them here:
https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Oceania#Meeting_minutes.

This was a process oversight on my part.

For now, for what it's worth, you can read all the minutes of the Board
meetings, including what was my last as Chair.
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V-w95HXHu3rxvNG_-K4CABGbcLxyrnx6>

To the list

It's been a ridiculous year, and all I'd like to say in response to John's
message is that we're lucky that we live in the region we do, reasonably
unaffected by the global pandemic that is very real. It's been an honour
and a privilege serving as Chair, and as you can see from John's message,
it's a thankless task of triviality, complexity and community...

I'm looking forward to seeing what we can achieve in the future. I'm also
very excited by the two special interest groups that are starting up, and I
think we have important work to do, seeking ways to ensure that we remain a
viable organisation that can continue to provide a hub, or at the very
least, a bank, for our community long into the future.

So, from a soon-to-be ex-Chair's perspective, I encourage you all to get
involved, to contribute in code, or policy, or training or conference
organising and let's keep sharing what we learn and supporting each other.
I'll write more in our annual report
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1La_49XKSBUMTQ_l-FcONU_HgSi2NfkDpqp5QM222UBg/edit>,
soon.

Kind regards,

Alex

On Thu, 26 Nov 2020 at 11:16, John Bryant <johnwbryant at gmail.com> wrote:

> I've been invited to contribute to the upcoming OSGeo Oceania annual
> report, as ex-chair. I was the chair of the organisation from its formation
> at the end of 2018 until I resigned on 29 May 2020. I'd like to offer a
> contribution here, on the public list, relating my perspective on the year.
>
> 2019-2020 was a two-act play, and the two halves of the year could hardly
> stand in greater contrast from each other.
>
> *Act One:*
> At 1 July 2019, we had just recently created the formal entity OSGeo
> Oceania Ltd, the Wellington conference team was in full swing, and there
> was much to do. In our inaugural Terms of Reference, we had laid out an
> ambitious plan for 2019 to deliver a number of key foundational pieces,
> while striving to maintain the high level of transparency and
> accountability this community expects and deserves. In 2019, we worked at a
> furious pace, cooperatively and collaboratively, and I feel we achieved
> everything we set out to do, to a high standard. There were many
> highlights, and a few low points.
>
> A few highlights:
>
>    - organising a truly wonderful event in Wellington, thanks to a highly
>    engaged organising team
>    - being recognised as a local chapter
>    <https://wiki.osgeo.org/images/7/7d/Face_to_Face_Meeting_2019_Bucharest.pdf>
>    by OSGeo at FOSS4G in Bucharest
>    - working through a challenging community consultation (on-list
>    <https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/oceania/2019-September/002115.html>)
>    to produce a robust Membership Policy, so that we could recruit formal
>    "members" to keep the board accountable
>    - establishing a "Membership Working Group", enabling more people in
>    the community to get involved in running the organisation, and running a
>    successful membership drive
>    - engaging with "Team Pasifika" to develop a successful proposal for
>    the 2020 conference
>    - successfully organising and running our first election, empowering
>    the community to elect the board in a clear and transparent process,
>    establishing a direct line of accountability
>
> Some low points:
>
>    - realising we hadn't been fully living up to our promise
>    <https://drive.google.com/file/d/13aZ6L08ke1-l32I7c00MahyEKgxeZkq8> to
>    operate transparently, thanks to those who raised it on the list
>    <https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/oceania/2019-August/002047.html>
>    - realising our initial constitution had been adopted in haste, with
>    an inadequately defined purpose, requiring a major effort to update it
>    <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pgwoyjRCwvG6a76u5__rdExrmcidjfaf08RgaQCGjzs>
>    (fortunately we had some professional assistance, funded by OSGeo)
>    - some internal conflict between directors over transparency and
>    process, occasionally working at cross purposes
>
> All in all, I think we ended 2019 on a high point, feeling like we were
> moving in the right direction as an organisation, with a renewed board, and
> a highly engaged, activated community, with members from across the region
> ready and willing to participate.
>
> I had concerns about how we could fully restore our commitments to the
> community regarding transparency and accountability. I hoped that early in
> 2020, we could prioritise an update to our original Terms of Reference to
> make them relevant again, renew our commitments, and firm up some board
> processes, so that we could reduce conflict and move forward with purpose.
>
> *Act Two:*
> The year began well:
>
>    - We held our first meeting of the new board on 9 Jan
>    <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tlpx17SNeUpsuP10XorP0YqnZLpknA41>,
>    appointed directors to formal roles (ie chair, deputy chair, treasurer,
>    secretary), and kicked off a review of the Terms of Reference.
>    - We began to look for ways to become more efficient as a board. One
>    particularly promising development was the adoption of Loomio, making it
>    easier to track decisions, improve clarity, and enhance transparency.
>    - The Fiji organisers began to build momentum, forming a team,
>    developing good collaborative processes, and empowering new people to step
>    up and get engaged.
>
> At the end of February, the Terms of Reference review
> <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jcBeJQddyVHtNgOokLyKIKlE-MpXxhDSi9GdmFVhMm8>
> was completed and brought to the board. It was met with general support,
> but our commitment to open-by-default became a point of debate. I would
> have loved to resolve this debate, but the timing was poor, with a couple
> of other major issues competing for our attention: 1) the looming prospect
> of a global pandemic, and 2) an internal board matter causing deep conflict.
>
> As COVID captured everyone's attention, we agreed to pause board
> activities for a while. The new Terms of Reference never made it to a board
> vote, and we missed the opportunity to clarify a significant sticking point.
>
> When we returned from the pause in mid May, we had a positive board
> meeting, where Jonah brought forward the idea of a hybrid
> in-person/online conference
> <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qBSFrj_m6u7nYk4uMuZWGj5ZmOdxfE_f2dUooodH3Fs>,
> meeting with support from the board. This was the last board meeting with published
> minutes
> <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i1OP74QsTx0wh1FskCK_4vKUkRFQPZUW>.
>
> Unfortunately, the internal board matter from before the pause hadn't gone
> away, and couldn't be resolved. I felt deeply conflicted, I couldn't
> persuade the board to take action, and I found myself ethically unable to
> continue to participate. On 29 May, with profound regret, I handed in my
> resignation.
>
> *Epilogue:*
> In my opinion, transparency itself isn't the goal, but a vital tool to
> promote community health. When organisations operate transparently, the
> communities they serve can more easily find ways to engage, contribute, and
> hold leaders accountable. It's a fundamental part of how open communities
> work, and we can look at OSGeo and OSMF for examples of how openness can
> help a community thrive.
>
> In the last several months, we've seen an overall decline in board
> transparency, but some mildly positive moves to improve the situation, such
> as the creation of a public board mailing list
> <https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/oceania-board/>. This (read-only) list
> offers a small peek behind the curtain, revealing some apparently broken
> processes, which is helpful because if we know they're broken, we can fix
> them.
>
> I'm hopeful that a major board renewal at the upcoming election will help
> move things back in the right direction. After the election, most of the
> board will be made up of new directors. It may be challenging for them to
> navigate the gap between OO's policies and practices, which hasn't been
> explained. But if the discussion is brought back into the open, there will
> be a whole community ready to support them. This is a wonderful community,
> full of positivity, made up of passionate people who want to see this
> organisation succeed in its mission.
>
> I encourage the community to vote thoughtfully, hold OSGeo Oceania
> accountable, and help it evolve into the organisation it needs to be.
> _______________________________________________
> Oceania mailing list
> Oceania at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/oceania
>

-- 
Alex Leith
m: 0419189050
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