Board/Minutes/2017-10-26

Location: Mumble, Thursday 2017-10-26, 19:00 London time

Participants

Board members

• Kate Chapman (Chair)
• Frederik Ramm
• Ilya Zverev
• Martijn van Exel
• Mikel Maron
• Paul Norman

Guests

Open to all OSMF members.

Guests are welcome to speak at the end of the meeting on the topics that have been discussed. Please note that text messages sent on Mumble chat may not be seen by people who join using mobile apps.

Not Present

• Peter Barth

Administrative

Previous minutes

• Board/Minutes/2017-09-21 Accepted

Circular Resolutions

None

Topics: SotM policy |AB on-boarding | 2017 AGM | LC applications | SotM-WG request | AOB: SotM 2018 lead | Closed: Accountant

Previous action items

The list is sortable and items that were assigned to two persons appear twice.

Name	Date	Action item and status
Frederik/Paul	2016-05-28	to prepare transparency document from transparency session
Ilya	2016-08-19	to look at implementing means for members to view the membership register # Got key from Tom for accessing the server. Administrative work done, programming not yet.
Kate/Paul	2017-09-21	to write to F. Davies and see if he's still available to offer legal advice regarding conflicts of interest
Kate	2017-09-21	to announce the Membership Drive during her remote keynote at SotM-Asia 2017 # Done
Kate	2017-08-24	to write to the Advisory Board list about microgrants
Kate	2017-08-24	to contact Michael about closing inactive mailing lists that she is an admin of
Kate/Martijn	2016-05-28	to draft diversity policy # No progress to report. Low priority.
Martijn	2017-07-18	to look at the process of regular reporting by the Local Chapters to the board and vice versa.
Martijn/Kate	2016-05-28	to draft diversity policy # No progress to report. Low priority.
Mikel	2017-08-24	to send email on the list to find businesses who would like to offer input on the Welcome Mat
Mikel	2016-08-19	to send round bullet points on diversity policy proposal
Paul/Kate	2017-09-21	to write to F. Davies and see if he's still available to offer legal advice regarding conflicts of interest
Paul	2017-09-21	to identify closed-source software products and/or externally hosted services that the board uses and then send email to the Working Groups to identify what they are using # Done
Paul	2017-02-21	to separate the State of the Map (SotM) net profit discussion items and start the follow-up discussions
Paul	2016-10-28	to create a page on the wiki, listing software products which are used by OSMF and are closed-source and/or are externally hosted # Was Peter's
Paul/Frederik	2016-05-28	to prepare transparency document from transparency session
Peter	2017-04-18	to make a list of requirements for email self-hosting and discuss them with the OWG

Topics: SotM policy |AB on-boarding | 2017 AGM | LC applications | SotM-WG request | AOB: SotM 2018 lead | Closed: Accountant

State of the Map policy

The State of the Map (SotM) conference is the annual, international conference of OpenStreetMap and it is organised by the SotM Working Group of the OpenStreetMap Foundation. Regional SotM conferences (such as SotM-Asia, SotM-Africa, SotM-LatAm) are organised exclusively by local teams, which run their own sponsorship programs and have separate budgets from the OSM Foundation. This distinction is not always clear, sometimes creating confusion (for example, sponsors of regional SotM events mistakenly sending emails to the OSMF SotM Working Group). Additionally, there could be occasions where the regional SotM event dates might clash with the dates of the international SotM and there is the danger that the name "State of the Map" might be used by a corporate player for an unrelated event. A list of ideas related to a potential policy has been submitted to the board via email by Rob Nickerson (SotM-WG leader for SotM2017 and SotM2016).

Lead: Mikel

This discussion was about the introduction of a policy or a lean set of rules related to the organisation of events that want to be named "State of the Map". The policy/rules could cover areas such as trademark use, best practices and others. Anyone who is interested to organise an event past 2018 and wants to call it "State of the Map" will be kindly asked to contact the Foundation first to get the agreement in the use of the name.

State of the Map trademark use

• The State of the Map (SotM) name is protected by a trademark and the OpenStreetMap Foundation, as well as everyone who currently runs a SotM conference, should be interested in some basic protection of the mark.
• While the trademark law requires the OSMF to exert some control over its use - with the basic idea that someone has to talk to the OSMF before using the SotM marks- this did not occur until now.
• If there is no such communication, there is the danger that a commercial player could organise a conference called "State of the Map" for something unrelated and then cash the profits.
• Absence of communication might also lead to occasions where the regional SotM event might clash with the dates of the international SotM.

Decision

• To avoid these problems, a document or policy with a very lean set of rules for anyone interested to organise an event and call it "State of the Map" will be created.
• As the board does not want this to come as a surprise to people that are already organising conferences and want to use the SotM name, a year's notice will be given. So, anyone who is interested to organise an event past 2018 and wants to call it SotM will be kindly asked to contact the Foundation first to get the agreement in the use of the name.

Advantages to organisers

Approval of the event ahead of time will allow for maximum exposure of the event through the website and though the other communication channels (blog/social media accounts).

Other points during discussion

FOSS4G: co-ordination of regional and international events
Interest was expressed on how FOSS4G and other non-GEO conferences co-ordinate their international and regional events.

Suggestion of a conference Working Group
The formation of a conference Working Group for the co-ordination of regional and of the international SotM was suggested. However it was noted that this is probably hard to do.

Input from the Advisory Board in the discussion prior to SotM policy creation

• The Advisory Board (AB) has members that are/could be involved in organising the international or regional SotMs, as well as members that are sponsors of such events. Therefore the involvement of the Advisory Board in the discussion prior to the policy creation was suggested.
• While input from the AB is welcome, the discussion cannot take place solely in the AB, as other members of the community who might be interested cannot join.
• Due to time constraints no consensus was reached about whether most of the AB members would have to recurse themselves from such a discussion due to conflicts of interest or whether there would be no conflicts of interest at all as the AB would not make any decisions.

Action item: The board will go back to the SotM-WG about what a statement might look like. If a reply takes longer than anticipated the announcement might have to be made anyway, as timing is crucial.

Topics: SotM policy |AB on-boarding | 2017 AGM | LC applications | SotM-WG request | AOB: SotM 2018 lead | Closed: Accountant

Advisory Board on-boarding

The Advisory Board (AB) is an entity separate from the OSMF board of directors, composed of individuals - either nominated by corporate members of the OSMF or invited directly by the OSMF board of directors. Discussion about on-boarding.

Lead: Mikel

• A lot of new people joining the Advisory Board.
• The members of the AB mailing list can only read the introductory emails of the persons that joined after them.
• No mailing list archive/documentation is available to AB members, only the OSMF wikipage with the list of AB members.
• The OSMF board of directors needs to provide a little support to AB members, so that they get context more quickly.

Suggestions:

• Expansion of the AB members' public profiles.
• Ask the AB if they would like to have an archive of the AB mailing list.

Action item: Martijn to raise the question to the Advisory Board about whether they would like to have an archive of the AB mailing list.

Topics: SotM policy |AB on-boarding | 2017 AGM | LC applications | SotM-WG request | AOB: SotM 2018 lead | Closed: Accountant

Planning the 2017 Annual General Meeting

Annual General Meetings are held once per year with the main order of business being to present the financial accounts for the last year, and election of new board members.

Lead: Paul

At least 2 board members have to step down: Paul and at least 1 of (Mikel, Martijn, Ilya, Peter).
Confirmed to step down: Paul and Ilya
AGM will be run by: Martijn, with the help of Dermot and of the MWG

Important points:

• Set the date.
• Formal announcement - at least 28 days in advance.
• Decide on any other resolutions which are being voted on besides the board members.

Special resolutions
No resolutions from the board (Board members' terms: Not worth doing anything about it at this point as too complicated and doesn't have much support from the board).

Reference documents
Relevant section of the Companies Act and the Articles of Association.

Voting

• Last year Dermot run it through a 3rd party election service - not perfect but it worked.
• Alternative: company that runs elections for organisations as its business (cost ~500GBP).
• US runs it through limesurvey.
• Martijn is already in touch with Dermot.

Next steps

• Announcement of AGM date on the osmf-talk mailing list.
• Formal announcement through CiviCRM.

Voting on date and time

Schedule the Annual General Meeting for December 9th 2017 at 16:00 UTC
Schedule this year's AGM for December 9th 2017 at 16:00 UTC. The meeting will be held online in the IRC chat room #osmf-gm on the IRC network irc.oftc.net.
Accepted 2017-10-26 with ultimately 6 votes in favour: Frederik Ramm, Ilya Zverev, Kate Chapman, Martijn van Exel, Mikel Maron, Paul Norman

Action item: Martijn to follow up with Dermot.

Topics: SotM policy |AB on-boarding | 2017 AGM | LC applications | SotM-WG request | AOB: SotM 2018 lead | Closed: Accountant

Local Chapter applications - Update

The two current Local Chapter applications are from Germany and Belgium. Previous updates or discussions: September 2017 (Germany and Belgium), August 2017 (Germany), July 2017 (Germany).

Lead: Martijn

Germany

• All supporting documents have been provided. Some files have to be split. (post-meeting addition: done).
• Next step: Get in touch with local community (2-3 week consultation period).

Belgium

• Translations of a few documents still need to be provided.
• Next step: Get in touch with local community (2-3 week consultation period).

Topics: SotM policy |AB on-boarding | 2017 AGM | LC applications | SotM-WG request | AOB: SotM 2018 lead | Closed: Accountant

SotM-WG request for some of Dorothea's time

The State of the Map Working Group (SotM-WG) sent an email to the board, asking whether administrative support can be provided for SotM 2018, as it was for SotM 2017. This will be mainly for scholarship support (if scholarships will be provided - something yet to be confirmed) and for sponsorship administrative work. The ratio is expected to be roughly 60%:40%. A maximum number of 100 hours was suggested (down from 124 last year). - Dorothea is the Administrative Assistant.

Lead: Kate

The hours will be mostly additional to the hours helping the board.

What if the 100 hours are not enough?
- The SotM-WG would have to get back to the board.
- Dorothea to notify the board when 50 hours have been reached.

Suggestion of a policy regarding support to SotM scholars

In 2017 a large amount of Dorothea's time was dedicated to a few SotM scholars that had various visa problems (i.e. scholars with no embassy of Japan in their country, delays in granting the visas). While the end result was that they all got their visas, the SotM-WG might consider some policies over the level of support given to the scholars, so that they have the right expectations and if things go beyond what we reasonably do, we have a document to refer to.

Voting

Accept SotM-WG's request for 100 hours of Dorothea's time for SotM 2018 administrative support
Accepted 2017-10-26 with ultimately 6 votes in favour: Frederik Ramm, Ilya Zverev, Kate Chapman, Martijn van Exel, Mikel Maron, Paul Norman

Action item: Kate will notify the SotM-WG about the decision.

Topics: SotM policy |AB on-boarding | 2017 AGM | LC applications | SotM-WG request | AOB: SotM 2018 lead | Closed: Accountant

Any other business

State of the Map 2018 lead

• Puzzlement was expressed about Rob Nickerson's (lead of the State of the Map Working Group in 2016 and 2017) high activity in helping the organisation of SotM 2018, while he has previously mentioned that he would step down.
• This might be due to him wanting to give a good hand to the Milan team.
• There is currently no person in the SotM Working Group to fill his role.

Action item: Mikel to check with Rob and figure out from there.

Topics: SotM policy |AB on-boarding | 2017 AGM | LC applications | SotM-WG request | AOB: SotM 2018 lead | Closed: Accountant

Closed portion of meeting

The OSMF board had a closed session portion of the meeting.

Accountant

The discussion was about a potential new accountant, as our current accountant, Vivien, will retire at the end of the year. Related update: September 2017.

Lead: Frederik

Next meeting

Meetings now take place on the 3rd Thursday of the month, at 21:00 London time, unless rescheduled.

The next monthly board meeting will be on the 16th of November, at 21:00 London time.