Board Meeting FOSS4G2007

The OSGeo Board of Directors will meet in a face-to-face meeting prior to the FOSS4G2007 conference event. Space is limited to accomodate the board only. General OSGeo meeting / discussion will be possible during Annual General Meeting the following day.

Venue

• When: Sunday, September 23rd, 9am - 5pm
• Where: Harbour Towers Meeting Room - 203
• Breakfast, lunch and morning/afternoon foods and beverages will be provided

Agenda

• Report from ED and overview of following year position
• Review of sponsorship programme - who the sponsors are, who could be approached, what seem to be their expectations of value in return
• Sustainable Funding
  • Review of Current Model
  • Discuss Conference Driven Model
  • Discuss Certification Driven Model
• Financial management / treasurer discussion (Ken Tamura available for call in, scheduled for 11am)
• 2008 Conference program, local conferences
• Review and Update of OSGeo Priorities
• Possibility of and conditions around support fund for OSGeo members to get to conferences
• Legal situation with GeoTools in particular, access to legal support generally.
• Budget Preparation for 2008
• Francophone Local Chapter to present their proposal to form officially (Vincent Picavet & Yves Jacolin scheduled to come at 4pm)
• Whether and how well the current committee structure is working to coordinate Foundation activities
• Revisit and better define membership roles

Minutes

IRC Logs

Board members Dave McIllhagga, Arnulf Christl, Paul Ramsey, Chris Holmes, Jeroen Ticheler, Frank Warmerdam, Bob Bray, and Jo Walsh were present, with Markus Neteler on the phone intermittently. Also in attendance were Tyler Mitchell, Ken Tamura (partial), Vincent Picavet (briefly) and Yves Jacolin (briefly). Meeting chaired and minuted by Frank Warmerdam.

1. General report from Tyler on activities, status, and financial situation.
2. Reported that Autodesk is committed to cover ED and systems costs through 2008.
3. Agreed that the Sponsors page needs to be carefully kept up to date in all languages, and that any sponsor related pages such as http://www.osgeo.org/sponsors/autodesk should not be translated without the cooperation of the sponsor. Action filed for webcom.
4. Agreed that generally we need to improve our visibility on sponsor web sites. Unclear yet how to pursue this.
5. Agreed that the board should meet at least monthly, and that we would have regular board meetings the first friday of each month. The ED is to submit a brief status report at least two days in advance of these meetings to the board.
6. Discussed OSGeo financial administration with Ken Tamura.
7. A motion to name Dave McIllhagga as Treasurer was approved.
8. A motion to create a Finance Committee chaired by the Treasurer (Dave) and including Ken Tamura, Tyler Mitchell, Jo Walsh and Paul Ramsey was approved.
9. White paper by Paul Ramsey on sustainable funding was reviewed and discussed.
10. It was agreed that OSGeo Sponsors and project PSC defined contributors would get preferential placement on the Service Provider Directory. Action: FrankW to prepare a detailed proposal for the next meeting.
11. There was majority support for aiming to make a profit at FOSS4G conferences (starting after 2008) with details to be worked out.
12. It was agreed that getting a general membership list operational is a priority. Action: Arnulf and Tyler.
13. It was agreed that VisCom can file SAC tickets to get osgeo.org email addresses for anyone needing this for promotional needs.
14. A motion dissolving the Fundraising committee was approved, with fundraising responsibility falling back on the board.
15. It was agreed that it is appropriate for the foundation to provide limited funding for board members to attend a face to face meeting. An approach to general travel funding for OSGeo members was discussed but no consensus was reached.
16. A conservative preliminary budget (add in!) was agreed to.
17. The proposal for a Francophone Chapter was approved.