Board Meeting 2006 12 15
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The 22th board meeting has been tentatively scheduled for the 15th of December at 16:00 UTC (fixedtime), by phone and IRC (#osgeo) at the same time.
Communication will use the new Conference Call facilities.
Agenda
- Appoint meeting secretary
- Review and approve Twenty First Board Meeting minutes
- Establish a process for consulting legal advice
- Update from Tyler
- Confirm selection of Victoria for FOSS4G 2007, discuss financial controls.
Minutes
- 15h07 - 22nd board meeting called to order
- Board members present: Frank Warmerdam, Jo Walsh, Chris Holmes, Markus Neteler, Gary Lang, Venka Raghavan
- Others present: Tyler Mitchell (Executive Director), Heather Meeker (GT Law, legal counsel via Autodesk), Laura Rivera (Autodesk)
- Tyler as scribe, Frank as chair
Motion to accept previous meeting minutes
- Reviewed minutes from previous mtg.
- Gary moved to accept, Frank second, all voted in favour
Legal advice process
- Discussed formalising a process for asking/receiving legal counsel (Frank leading)
- Goal is to not overuse/misuse available resources and to keep the board in the loop
- Chris mentioned a software law group that may provide pro bono support for osgeo as a non-profit, they have open source IP experience, can also help with incorporation stuff. Chris to bring back more details about building a relationship with this group.
- Heather explained that they remain available for helping OSGeo as well
- Discussed what we have been doing already, some questions from Geotools developers are soon to be answered via Heather
- All agreed there should be 1-2 personal contacts established as gateways to/from legal counsel.
- Frank to be primary contact for software IP, incubation types of issues
- Tyler to be primary contact for other general issues
- Q&A will be posted to wiki FAQ pages as a legal knowledge-base
Executive Director Update
- General update on various facets of work Tyler has been doing
Fundraising / Sponsorship
- Starting to get more interest
- Wrote up several docs. in course of dialogue with sponsors (help sponsor osgeo, summary/overview of organisation, fundraising invitation letter)
- Invoicing procedure in place now, need some follow-up on A/P now :)
- 1Spatial background - unsolicited interest, via Geoff/Gary, various discussions/emails
- At least 2 more sponsors waiting in wings for new year
- Several GDAL sponsors
- Planning for meeting in Ottawa, it went well, believe we can find common ground.. requires follow-up recommendations
- continuing to polish our pitch and documents
- Open Tec. Development - Wash. D.C. conf. shaping up.. need OSGeo part to start iron out
- Sponsorship web pages needed now (?)
- Confusion about how other local chapters tie into the overall sponsorship plan
Finance
- summarising various account payables, ensuring invoices are being paid, answering questions as needed
- day-to-day expenses are now more manageable,
- worked with Laura regularly
- weekly follow-up discussions
- TODO: In near future - need detailed summary of accounts... etc to build transparency, waiting for software to arrive
- TODO: Tyler/Frank to discuss final approved budget
Infrastructure
- negotiated final pricing and coordinated hosting provider contract
- several other DNS-related services now subscribed to and ready for changeover
- regular semi-weekly meeting/touching base with indictrans, CN, Bob, Shawn, Jason re: various migration tasks, reviewing migration plan and priorities
- setting up various applications and services as required for testing on community.osgeo site
- following development of content porting - focused on primary content / tools, new features are secondary
Promotion & Visibility
- Booth/attendance at GISIDEAS successful
- AU event
- Helped organise booth at AU with Nathalie/Heather, etc.
- MapGuide OS user meeting sounded great
- Great OSGeo promotion from on-stage - Andrew M, Andy M, Carsten, etc. met Liam
- Met many faces.. many more opportunities to suggest direction to MGOS marketing, education potentials, etc. .. OSGeo well received with all I spoke to
- Three specific upcoming events that have approached us: GeoTec, Location Intelligence, Where 2.0 (sort of)... how to best connect?
- Various branding/design items are wrapping up final vers. - likely by year end
- Potential to work with new sponsors marketing groups now
- Discuss conference bid with Victoria bid group
- Spoke at Ottawa local chapter meeting (~20 people)
- Newsletter status - migration to osgeo, provided editorial
Legal
- no significant progress made
- some review of budget started.. will pass crystal ball past board
- this needed also for sponsorship solicitation
- need to go through application form in more detail
- question of insurance for officers/directors
- TODO: Tyler to gather quotes for O&D insurance
Office / General
- now have a public mailing address (PO Box)
- Do we need to set up a permanent address for foundation - my office PO box is fine, otherwise need virtual service.
- Set up pretty well with supplies, etc. - will aim to get some good letterhead, etc.
- Can order biz cards if wanted
- Tracking expenses
- Various benefits forms, etc. completed
- Available more now in IRC :)
- Gary recommended a service called http://remotecontrolmail.com
- Generally agreed this was a good idea to get for OSGeo
- TODO: Tyler to check into options for this service
Motion to confirm FOSS4G conference venue
- Victoria, BC, Canada was chosen by Conference Committee as venue for 2007 conference
- Frank motioned to confirm this selection, Jo seconded, all were in favour
- Discussed need to have point person for helping contract set up for venue confirmation needed, etc.
- Agreed to ask conference committee to come up with a process for how to manage funds, etc. approval process, and have board agree on process
- Tyler will be available for signing, coordinating on behalf of OSGeo proper
Other Items
- Discussed support request for some training events in India next year
- Tyler to follow up with indictrans/schuyler to see if OSGeo India has funding already and if this is an official OSGeo India initiative
Motion to close meeting
16:00UTC - Gary moves to close, Jo seconded, all voted in favour