[Fundraising] Re: [OSGeo-Board] Re: [Fundraising] RE: [OSGeo-Board] German OSGeo Chapter formation, bank account

[Arnulf Christl]

Gary Lang wrote:
> I also wonder what the impetus is. It seems like another governance 
> issue, wherein local chapters could register their localized 
> dissatisfaction with global decisions by funneling funds while enjoying 
> the benefits that we provide.
> 
> I can't think of a practical reason for doing this.

The practical reason is that Autodesk does not have to ship one set of 
posters around the world in all languages but that all languages can 
take care of it themselves. We need local money to pay for local 
expenses. Else a lot simply ends up in superfluous transactions fees.

 > enjoying the benefits that we provide.

Who is "we"? Are you talking of the core OSGeo PSC? That would be the 
board. The board currently has a heavy Northern-American, 
English-language bias. Ponder for a second why the US is the only 
country without an own country code top level domain? I do not think 
that this will apply to OSGeo. Hmmm. I'd rather say it more pro 
actively. I want to prevent OSGeo from becoming just that. Probably I am 
being too political and problematic again. Sorry. Guys. Uh - thats 
another one, we have a male bias too...

 > global decisions by funneling funds

This gives the impression that global decisions are directed by funds 
which is not what we have set down in our charter. It would immediately 
exclude any less monetary potential funders to influence global 
decisions. I do not see a problem in a local chapter using local OSGeo 
sponsoring for local OSGeo activities. This is just basic globalization, 
think global, act local. The "global thinking" part will start to cost 
money when we get an ED. The "act local" part is already happening 
everywhere with people spending time and resources on OSGeo activity.

Regards,

> Gary
> 
> --- Original Message ---
> From: "Dave McIlhagga (External)" <dmcilhagga at dmsolutions.ca>
> Sent: Mon 8/21/06 9:34 am
> To: "fundraising at fundraising.osgeo.org" <fundraising at fundraising.osgeo.org>
> Cc: "Arnulf Christl" <arnulf.christl at ccgis.de>, "board at board.osgeo.org" 
> <board at board.osgeo.org>, "discuss-de at visibilitycommittee.osgeo.org" 
> <discuss-de at visibilitycommittee.osgeo.org>, "brassat at geo-consortium.de" 
> <brassat at geo-consortium.de>
> Subject: [OSGeo-Board] Re: [Fundraising]         RE: [OSGeo-Board] 
> German OSGeo Chapter formation, bank account
> 
> Yup - just thinking that if this ends up being a model for other
> organizations around the world and somehow needed to be coordinated
> under a common OSGeo entity - yikes that sounds really complex,
> financially and legally.
> 
> Probably the net result is the need for an arm's length entity with
> OSGeo affiliation -- but I'll let Gary do his homework with the
> legal/financial guys on that one.
> 
> Dave
> 
> 
> Gary Lang wrote:
>  > I have no idea what the ramifications of doing this are on the corporate
>  > body that is OSGeo, but I suspect it can create headaches for us. I'll
>  > find out.
>  >
>  > Gary
>  >
>  >
>  > -----Original Message-----
>  > From:   Arnulf Christl [mailto:arnulf.christl at ccgis.de]
>  > Sent:   Sun 8/20/2006 1:54 AM
>  > To:     board at board.osgeo.org; fundraising at fundraising.osgeo.org
>  > Cc:     discuss-de at visibilitycommittee.osgeo.org; 
> brassat at geo-consortium.de
>  > Subject:        [OSGeo-Board] German OSGeo Chapter formation, bank 
> account
>  >
>  > Hello,
>  > the German FOSSGIS group has organized a few conferences starting with 20
>  > and growing to 80, 180 and 300 participants in the past years. An 
> informal
>  > group started to organize funding and sponsoring. It consolidated into an
>  > organizing committee:
>  > http://www.fossgis.de/wiki/index.php/Organisationsteam_06
>  > You will also find most of these people in the German OSGeo Local Chapter
>  > member list:
>  > http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Deutsch#Mitgliederliste
>  >
>  > We ended up with a small plus in 2006 - just a few thousand Euros 
> (some of
>  > the Where 2.0 OSGeo t-shirts were funded with that money).
>  > The FOSSGIS team voted to join efforts with the OSGeo Foundation and
>  > planned to donate the money to OSGeo. But international transaction fees
>  > are a nuisance. Therefore the German Local Chapter requests for a
>  > dedicated (Germany based) banking account.
>  >
>  > Currently the money is on the bank account of the Geo-Consortium but we
>  > want to move it to a dedicated spearate account at the latest by the end
>  > of our fiscal year, the sooner the better as we plan to spend some money
>  > on the Open Source Park at the Intergeo 2006:
>  > http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Intergeo_2006
>  >
>  > All transactions will then be public and we can be as transparent as we
>  > would like to be. What kind of fomral entity do we need to set up and get
>  > approved by OSGeo to do that?
>  >
>  > Torsten Brassat consented to continue doing the paperwork involved 
> for the
>  > time being.
>  >
>  > I motion to appoint Torsten Brassat as treasurer of the German Local
>  > Chapter  banking account (formally he would be a sub-treasurer of Gary?).
>  >
>  > What else do we need to do?
>  >
>  > Best regards,
>  > Arnulf.
>  >
>  >
>  >
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