British Columbia Chapter Meeting 2007-11-15

This page provides information on a regular scheduled meeting of the OSGeo BC Local Chapter

Meeting Info

Location:  Vancouver and Victoria
Chair:  Martin
Date:  2007-Nov-15 (in North America)
Time: 11:00am PST (Click for UTC time)

Initial Agenda

• Chapter Formation(1 hour)
  • Introductions (10 min):
  • Roundtable: Define OSGeo BC Charter (40 min):
  • Chapter Chair and Vice-chair elections (10 min): TBD

• Lunch (1 hour)
  • RSVP (state Vancouver or Victoria attendance) to Martin Kyle

• Committee Work (45 min)
  • Formation of 3 committees (TBD based on result of Chapter Charter)
  • Define Committee Charters and Terms of Reference
  • Committee Chair and Vice-chair elections

• Committee Reports (15 min)
• Next Meeting

Attendees

Rick Davidson, Dejan Horgas, Alison Rowles, Jonathan Morgan, Martin Kyle, Ken Sam, Max Bottoni, Tyler Mitchell, Daryl Getsheimer, Kevin Ji, Rob Frame, Brian Howden, Martin Davis, Yao Cui, Brian Young, Chris West, Dave Patton, Paul Ramsey, Dave Skea, Brian Low, Jason Birch, Ken Johansson

Minutes

Thanks to Max who scribed...

• Martin provided an overview of the meeting and time constraints.
• Discussion occurred over the growth of the BC chapter – organic vs. strategic.
  • Decision made: Grow core membership within Vancouver / Victoria and expand as feasible
  • Motion passes unanimously
  • Keep BC OSGeo as chapter name
  • Geographic region Vancouver / Victoria – there is also a strong probability that an interior Interest Group may form as there is a good deal of interest from Timberline within PG, Kamloops and Kelowna offices
  • Can expand to other geographic areas of BC and western Canada as interest and individuals join.
• Membership should be open to anyone with any interest in geospatial information, standards or systems – this should be in the charter to simplify the current wording.
• Mailing list administrator. Jason Birch accepted position
• Motion carried to send email reminder for mail list and future meetings at least two days prior to the schedule event.
• There is a potential issue with how the mail list is distributing email notices. Alison mentioned that she was not receiving any notices; however, her colleague from the same company is. It was suggested that it may be an internal setting within her email system. Jason to verify setting at the mail list side.
• Motion to establish two sub-committees based on geography.
  • Modified to rename them as local interest groups rather than committees.
  • Motion and modification carried.
  • Organizational chairs established for each GOI; Victoria – Rob Frame; Vancouver – Max Bottoni
• Discussion on projects / events / discussion groups on the localizing BC data to use within sample applications to promote OS Geo software, standards, and data.
• Discussion held on supporting other OS groups in local area that may lead to cross pollination of ideas and talent. Examples included the Vancouver Python Group. IT may be that OS Geo can present at one of their events and vice versa to build OS interchanges.
• Discussion held on actively building communication bridges to other GIS user groups. In particular, other GIS groups such as the Vancouver GIS Users Group
  • Next Vancouver (May 14, 2008) meeting to be held on a Wednesday evening prior to the local GIS users meeting in the hopes of attracting some of them over.
• Discussion had as to the relative importance of promote the use of OS data and data standards as hot topics with BC government and could potentially provide some quick wins for the OS community. OS Geo Software is not to be excluded in our activities.
  • Consensus reached was to allow individuals to self-organize in to groups of interest on topics on any OS Geo topic
  • Mission statement should explicitly mention all three areas of work: standards, software and data. Suggested phrase: “mission is the discussion and development of open source data, standards and software”
• Discussion on the development of OS Geo Software demo.
  • Use existing OS Geo components available fro OS Geo and other organizations
  • Assist the development of local data sets that would promote the use of BC data with the applications
• Focus on events / communications
  • Events may be informal meetings, talks or conference type gatherings
  • Events to be held quarterly and rotate between Local Interest Groups
  • Local Interest Group will organize the events on a rotational basis
  • Organizing chairs will rotate within the LIG each meeting.
• BC Chapter use of information technology
  • Discuss held on the lack of use of information technology by some existing user groups that has led to the decline of membership.
  • Promote the effective use of Web technologies for
    • Dissemination of information
    • Discussion forums
    • Collaboration
    • Etc.
  • Decision to have one page per meeting to record minutes.
• Organization Structure
  • Chair – Martin Kyle elected
    • Action: Post minutes of meeting
    • Action: forward Official Expression to form chapter to OS Geo Executive
  • Vice-Chair – Jason Birch elected
  • Two Local Interest Groups formed – Victoria and Vancouver. Potential for one or more interior groups.
  • Quarterly meetings to be held with ability to conference (video, voice, Webex).
  • More frequent informal meetings at the will of the LIG memberships
  • Each formal meeting with reserve ½ hour for Chapter business
• Victoria meeting overview
  • Date: Feb. 22, 2008 1300-1700
  • Place: Sierra Systems Group Inc. offices in Victoria
  • Org. Chair: Rob Frame
  • Paul Ramsey to send out invitation
  • Preliminary Agenda:
    • OS Geo Overview for new participants: 15 min
    • Series of technical sessions 10-15 min duration
    • Plan for next session
    • Chapter business 30 min
• Vancouver meeting overview
  • Date: May 14, 2008 1500-1700
  • Place: Sierra Systems Group Inc. offices in Vancouver
  • Org. Chair: Max Bottoni
  • Preliminary Agenda:
    • OS Geo Overview for new participants: 15 min
    • Series of technical sessions 10-15 min duration
    • Plan for next session 15 min
    • Chapter business 30 min
    • Open discussion 15 min
• Question as to whether the presentation can be capture with Webex to allow viewing after the fact.
  • Max to investigate and report back prior to next meeting.
  • At minimum, we would like to capture the presentation material to post on the web site.

Action Items

• [Done] HMK: Post minutes of meeting
• [In Progress] HMK: forward Official Expression to form chapter to OS Geo Executive