Board Meeting 2014-07-17

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This board meeting is scheduled for the 17th of July 2014 at 20.00UTC through IRC and follow up voting by email.

Agenda

  • roll call
  • appoint meeting chair, meeting scribe/secretary
  • Review and approve past minutes: Board Meeting 2014-06-12
  • Board elections (who will re-stand)
  • Jeff/President attendance in Portland / request for 'strategic travel' funding
  • Updates on Annual General Meeting in Portland
  • Sponsorship
  • Expected income from upcoming FOSS4G events, consequences for the budget?
  • add your items here
  • Select next meeting timeslot

Minutes

  • Attending: Jeff, Jorge, Gérald from Bremen - Daniel, Bart, Anne, Frank and Cameron (partly) online
  • Presiding: Jeff
  • Scribing: Anne

Assigned Tasks

  • Gérald champions OSGeo-Europe creation process
  • Jeff and Jorge work on elections

Motions (confirmed by email)

See email.

Motion +1 0 -1 Abstain Passed? Notes
Adopt minutes of 2014-06-12 meeting: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2014-06-12 7 2 Yes
Launch charter member election followed by board election ASAP, with the goal of completing both before FOSS4G, with Jorge Sanz as CRO 7 1 1 Yes, with comments Gérald would prefer Board election first, and points out that it is unuseful to vote after the motion's action has been already done
Authorize Jeff to use money out of the strategic travel budget for representing OSGeo as president in FOSS4G Portland (estimated to 3250$USD approx, to be reimbursed after upon presenting receipts) 7 1 1 Yes
Make it formal policy of OSGeo to allow president to use 'strategic travel' budget to represent OSGeo at FOSS4G, within the limits of strategic travel budget for current year and in light of other expected travel requirements 3 5 1 No Consider which documents to change (Bylaws and/or budget...)

Full, raw minutes notes

IRC Log at http://irclogs.geoapt.com/osgeo/%23osgeo.2014-07-17.log
  • 20:00 Meeting starts
  • 20:05 Previous meeting minutes approved
  • 20:07 Elections 2014
    • concern is expressed about tight schedule, but there is agreement on having charter member election, then board election as usual
  • 20:10 Proposal: grant early bird price to FOSS4G for Charter members
    • proposed by Gérald. An extended version of the proposal is being drafted at http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4GDiscount, and can be integrated in RfP for next FOSS4G (2016)
    • most Board members agree with the idea, and don't require a motion to start working on this proposal. A more formal procedure will take place once the proposal is finalised.
  • 20:20 Back to Elections 2014
    • which Board members restand? Daniel, Jeff and Cameron replied by mail, Anne is concerned about overlap with her other OSGeo duties, Frank does not intend to restand. Daniel confirms he stands again to continue/finish treasurer tasks, unless someone else, preferably from US, steps in.
    • most Board members agree that it is important to set the date for elections ASAP, more important than discussing who stands for re-election (that is still important, of course)
    • Jorge and Jeff will work on the schedule and send out announcement for elections, with Charter member election first, then Board, all before FOSS4G
  • 20:30 Sponsorship
    • Daniel informs that he has not invoiced sponsors for 2013 and 2014, because of IRS saga, that is now ended, with OSGeo confirmed as 501(c)(4)
  • 20:40 OSGeo-Europe
    • Gérald sees U.S. taxation status of OSGeo as an obstacle to obtain European fundings, and supports the idea of creating a legal/formal entity in Europe.
    • Several (citation needed - see logs) OSGeo members support this idea as well, and forecast it will require significant planning and work to make it functional.
    • Gérald refers Dirk Frigne's idea, to make OSGeo-Europe as a branch of OSGeo under supervision of the main OSGeo Board - and mentions that the idea is so needed that it will be realised soon, with or without main OSGeo (i.e. Board) approval.
    • Even Rouault joins the discussion on how to start the process of OSGeo-Eu creation: on which communication channel, publicly or not - clearly there is already much in-person discussions and there is need to get such people and thoughts together. The discussion continues sparsely in following minutes, about where to create the entity, what relation is expected to have with main OSGeo,
  • 21:00 Start overtime
  • 21:12 Jeff/President attendance in Portland / request for 'strategic travel' funding
    • Gérald is appalled that the President has no implicit allowance to go to FOSS4G, the main OSGeo conference, and drafts a motion to make President financial support to FOSS4G part of Bylaws
    • The discussion broadens, including budget allocation for Advocates (judged largely insufficient), refunded expenses (pass only? travel? accommodation? everything?), the procedure to get funds (simple approval by treasurer? board vote?)
    • Jeff mentions that he got criticised by professional conference organisers for the choice of accommodation, and finds the currently allocated budget inadequate to cover President's expenses at a "professional" level. This is beyond the current motion about FOSS4G 2014 funding and clearly requires a longer discussion.
    • Frank is willing to vote on an amended version of Gérald's motion, that includes an upper limit of funds
  • 22:01 Bart leaves
  • 22:04 Cameron joins the meeting
  • 22:04 Frank leaves
  • 22:05 Next meeting date
    • 14th of August seems fine for most of the members, but the discussion comes quickly back to budget for President
  • 22:08 Back to Strategic travel funding
    • Daniel proposes an amendment of Gérald's motion.
    • Cameron and Frank would first re-think of OSGeo expectations for the president (somewhere on the spectrum of full professional - full volunteer), and Jeff reminds Arnulf's emails about minimum duties as president, that are not compatible with full volunteer scheme.
    • Jeff also notes that some tasks like on-call for server issues are delegated to the President, so that President role is very demanding, given that OSGeo has no employees at all.
    • Cameron states again that the lack of money available for support is bound by the little attention given to sponsors, and OSGeo has to choose one of the two main options: 1) have a significant interaction with sponsors and/or go for paid membership - have funded position(s) 2) don't look actively for money - rely on volunteer activities.
    • Jorge agrees with the analysis, and adds that there is an unalignment with presidency requirements on paper and actual ones.
    • Gérald's motion ends up unvoted
  • 22:30 Daniel leaves
  • 22:30 Cameron leaves
  • 22:35 Jeff closes the meeting
  • Next meeting: proposed date 14 August 2014
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