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