Board Meeting 2006 05 19

The 10th board meeting is planned for Friday, May 19th, 2006 at 15:00 UTC (fixedtime), by phone and IRC (#osgeo) at the same time.

From Skype call : +99038275318640

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Your Conference Room Number is: 5318640.

Agenda

• Appoint meeting chairperson and secretary.
• Discuss having a permanent board chair responsible for agendas, and meeting scheduling.
• Review and approve prior meeting minutes
• Discuss and adopt Committee Guidelines
• Hammer out details of Face to Face Meeting Summer 2006.
• Discuss OSGeo Japan and our approach to local chapters.
• Discuss Fundraising delay pending budget from board.
• Discuss and approve Ned Horning's letter of support for LDCM
• Discuss about promoting OSGeo in Asia

Minutes (Formalized)

MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE OPEN SOURCE GEOSPATIAL FOUNDATION A Delaware non-stock corporation.

On May 19, 2006, at 8:00 am Pacific time, pursuant to notice duly given, the Board of Directors (the "Board") of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (the "Foundation" or "OSGeo") held a meeting by teleconference.

Present at the meeting were the following members of the Board: Frank Warmerdam, Mark Lucas, Jo Walsh, Chris Holmes, Arnulf Christl, Venkatesh Raghavan, and Dave McIlhagga. Gary Lang did not attend the meeting. Also present at the request of the Board was Daniel Brookshier, VP Website Committee and Ned Horning, member. All participants on the call indicated that they could hear one another. Additionally, Internet Relay Chat was used for backup purposes (#osgeo on irc.freenode.net). Mr. Warmerdam was appointed chairperson of the meeting. Finding a quorum present, Mr. Warmerdam called the meeting to order. Jo Walsh was appointed secretary of the meeting.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The Board first approved by general consent the minutes of the meeting held on May 5th, 2006.

ROTATING BOARD CHAIR

It was decided that that the board needed a clear chair responsible for scheduling meetings, creating basic agendas. It was decided that the chair role would rotate on a monthly basis with Frank Warmerdam doing it for June, and Mark Lucas for July.

COMMITTEE GUIDELINES

Committee Chair item is postponed because there are some legal issues about what officers can commit the Foundation to doing that are yet to be clarified.

FACE TO FACE MEETING

The need to publicise the face to face meeting was agreed on, and ???? agreed to post to the discuss list.

Availability of travel cost sponsorship by OSGeo for folks travelling to the face to face and similar meetings was discussed. No firm conclusion was arrived at, but for the time being there are not funds available for OSGeo to disperse for such activities. It was agreed that in some circumstances this would be desirable and it ought to be budgeted for.

VISCOM STATUS REPORT

Some discussion of VISCOM activities and Arnulf agreed to translate a german summary page about LinuxTag for the board.

OSGEO JAPAN AND LOCAL CHAPTERS

Reviewed Venkatesh's briefing (by email) on OSGeo Japan Branch.

Some discussion of what a local chapter should do (translation, maintain local language mailing lists), might do, and shouldn't do (make commitments on behalf of all of OSGeo).

Frank, Arnulf and Venkatesh take an action item to prepare a more detailed proposal for local chapter guidelines.

Daniel and WebCom will work with OSGeo Japan Branch on how to maintain a translated subdomain on the CollabNet machines.

Venkatesh raised issue about Asian region geospatial shows that OSGeo ought to be represented at, but this issue was determined to be in VISCOMs area of responsibility.

FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE

Frank Warmerdam reports that the Fundraising Committee is holding off on developing a fundraising program until the board prepares a budget providing them with an objective, and an indication to sponsors what the money will be spent on.

BUDGET

It was agreed that the board needs to develop a one year budget.

Frank takes the action to prepare a Budget wiki page to get discussions going, with the intent of bringing the budget into good shape at the Face to Face for final board approval. In the meantime everyone should contribute to the budget page with ideas. We also need to determine costs for things like a CollabNet support contract.

LDCM PROPOSAL

Ned Horning and Mark Lucas talk about the LDCM proposal Ned has prepared. Mark makes a motion for OSGeo to provide a statement of support for the LDCM proposal with the caveat that the final version of the proposal be distributed to the board and that if any board members raise a concern within one week (before final submission) then the OSGeo support would be withheld. Chris seconded, and the motion is carried.

ADJOURNMENT

Minutes (Rough Notes)

This is rough notes for the minutes

Frank raises question of whether the Board needs official meeting chair - like committee chair - having responsiblity to schedule meetings and create basic agendas - does one person want to do it all the time? or should the responsibility rotate monthly. Decided to rotate responsibility and frank will do June and Marc will do July, and this can be decided ongoingly.

The minutes from last week are approved by everyone present

Committee Chair item is postponed because there are some legal issues about what officers can commit the Foundation to doing that are yet to be clarified.

Frank raises discussion of the F2F meeting, do we need to work on any detail of it.

Jo suggests that news of the meeting could be posted around a bit more - to different committee lists - frank thinks it's okay to take this action item

Chris asks about the general potential for sponsorship of attendance at events by OSGeo. Frank says this sounds reasonable, if people have a need and will make a significant contribution to what is going on. Mark asks about where the funding will come from and what is available. Daniel responds that he will have to consult Gary.

Frank talks about VisCom and what is going on. Arnulf joins the call. VisCom acitivity is pretty visible on the different committee lists. Arnulf wants to talk about the booth at LinuxTag and wants to give a report on it at the f2f. Frank asks for an email version, Arnulf offers to translate a German press release about it.

Frank raises question of OSGeo japan and asia activities. Venka's email to the board list - briefing

Venka seems to have dropped off, can hear but only talk through irc.

Mark remarks that a lot was carried out by Japanese associates of Venka quite independently.

Frank raises question of: a) What the local chapter must surely do b) What the local chapter is expected/entitled to do c) What the local chapter is not expected/entitled to do

Daniel(?) suggests that OSGeo should be translating some of the main site into Japanese. How will this work out with an English sidebar asks Frank. Daniel says he thinks everything can be translated. Venka asks who will translate pages, notes adsk japan is already doing this for MapGuide. Venka asks on IRC " How to get a sponsor or financial patronage in Japan?" If ADSK Japan could assist with this. Venka asks about hosting costs external to CN, that may be a lot.

1:27 < Raghavan> If we have a separate web server from Collabonet, it will be high cost. 11:28 < arnulf> Raghavan: Not if we host it at a university 11:28 < Raghavan> Basically these are the questions from some members of the preparatory committee in Japan. 11:28 < dbrookshier> the server is japanese enabled, it is just a matter of translating content

Frank asks what other countries can be getting local chapters. Arnulf is starting a German chapter. Indecision as to whteher to do it as a sub-domain / sub-project on CN, or get it delegated. Will talk to WebCom / Daniel about it. Frank wants to compile guidelines for how local chapters govern themselves. Local chapters become foundation projects. If some guidelines could be made available, it will be very helpful. Frank asks for volunteers for compiling guidelines. Arnulf wants to see Frank's initial description which Arnulf and Venka will both add to and produce for the next board meeting.

Frank looks at the rest of Venka's email. Chris suggests that its other issues raised are in VisCom's remit and should be discussed there. Frank speculates if Toru Mori will be able to come to the F2f before attending Where2.0. Volunteers for contacting him personally? Venka can email.

1. Will the brochures will be available soon?

Venka talks about a lot of conference promotion activity. Arnulf and Frank agree that VisCom is the place for this. Frank recommends lurkign on viscom as a pastime to all board members.

Next item.

Fundraising committee basically postponed doing anything until the board gives it a budget for its activities. Frank raises how we are going to figure this out and suggests creating a wiki page. Asks for commentary on how we are going to do this. Mark(?) suggests we need a guideline for what we have in trust with ADSK at the moment. Frank talks about this as a long-term budget, Sept = 1Y and is about what the foundation would *like* to support. Chris talks about prioritising different kind of wants. Chris also asks about CN costs, and how we can get the information - what is going the be the cost of renewal. Frank asks Daniel, who suggests that he get an account rep to talk about it, so that is an action item for Daniel.

I dropped off the phone for a couple of minutes. MLucas wrote: 
we need a   budget for our non-profit status 
cover basic infrastructure, promotional materials, critical travel
trying to determine basic costs for Collabnet continuation

Returning Dave M(?) talking about needing a definite statement of options on the 'supply side' in terms of getting support

Frank points out we can't budget without some concept of what CN is asking for. Dave will talk to Gary about it too. At the F2F is where is is going to be worked out suggests Frank.

Arnulf asks about what sponsorship possibilities there are - how can predict what budget is feasible. We need a financial plan and Board oversight of it. Budgeting / fundraising. FunCom meanwhile isn't doing anything.until the boar comes up with a judgement. Frank takes action item of creating budget wiki page to bootstrap discussion at the F2F.

Mark talks about Ned's letter. It is a good proposal. Mark says 'to my knowledge there's no formal process [for getting a letter of support]' but considered interest is relevant, asking for support. Ned is on the phone also. Describes his proposal to USGS. Geocoded picture database, linked to landsat imagery. land useage / land cover change analysis work, open standards. Encouraging public involvement in data production. Frank points out that in general he wants to see as much detail of a project, in these circs. as is possible. This project has done that though, there has been a lot of email about it. Chris asks about detail on the proposal, even out of curiosity. Public distribution may not be appropriate for this kind of proposal. Frank mentions the nonpublic board-priv list.

Frank suggests that we approve the letter, but board members get a week to veto on second thoughts. But this proposal is due on the 26th. Next Weds is deadline for rejection. Ned offers to send his material to Mark for distribution of the board.

Mark raises a motion, Chris seconds, markus, arnulf, frank, jo +1

This is the end of the meeting and there is a motion to that effect.

Venka has one more question to raise.

Daniel brings up the motto discussion and that it is due to conclude today.

Venka asks if wiki space is available to discuss promotion in Asia. Arnulf says the current wiki should handle japanese pages.

The board meeting ends.