Board/Minutes/2021-06-11

Draft minutes.

Location: Video room https://osmvideo.cloud68.co/user/ror-nt7-6tu
using BigBlueButton.

Please note that this video chat is not open to observers.

Date and time: Friday 11 June 2021, 14:00 UTC - Countdown
Acronyms

Participants

Board members

• Allan Mustard (Chairing)
• Eugene Alvin Villar
• Guillaume Rischard
• Jean-Marc Liotier
• Mikel Maron
• Rory McCann
• Tobias Knerr

Officers and board
Biographies

Guests

Not open to observers.

Investigate moving OSMF out of the UK, and into the EU

Suggested by Allan Mustard.

Ireland - information by Rory

• In order to have an Irish charity, you have to have the majority of Directors present in Ireland.
• We might have to pay tax if we were to transfer assets from OSMF to new entity.

US - information by Allan and Mikel

• With non-profit status (equivalent to 501c3), any donations are deductible from the taxes of the donors.
• Charities in the US can give money to other charities (there are restrictions).

France - information by Jean-Marc

• The Articles of Association and everything else have to be in French.

On becoming a charity

• It might be easier for Corporate Members to provide donations.
  • donations are tax deductible.
  • potentially different/easier internal administrative process.

On language

• We might run into problems with community and membership outside of Europe, if we shift from English to a European language that is not as widely spoken, e.g. see people in non-anglophone countries who took survey in English.
• Would meetings have to be conducted in French?

Suggestions on the wording of the board draft "Requirements for an OSMF outside of the UK"

• Move "Communication in English is possible (with bank and local authorities)" from "Absolute requirements (Must)" to "Highly desirable".
• Share the content with the community/membership and Advisory Board members to get advice from corporate lawyers in relation to corporate donations.
• See how NGOs like Red Cross operate, with regards to language.

Changes to board document "Requirements for an OSMF outside of the UK" during the meeting

• Removed "subsidiary" from the title of the document.
• "Low incorporation cost" moved from "Highly desirable" to "Desirable".
• Added ability to take donations from US 501c3 as "Highly desirable".
• "Low incorporation cost" moved from "Highly desirable" to "Desirable".
• Rewording of sentence to "Communication in English is possible (with bank and local authorities)".

Action items:

• Guillaume to circulate the draft "Requirements for an OSMF outside of the UK" to osmf-talk together with the reasoning. (osmf-talk is the mailing list for OpenStreetMap Foundation members (Join the Foundation). All past messages are available here).
• Rory to circulate the draft "Requirements for an OSMF outside of the UK" to the Advisory Board.

Preparations for vote on Attribution Guidelines

Background

• 2018-11 The Licensing Working Group (LWG) starts working on a draft attribution guideline.
• 2019 LWG members solicited feedback from attendants of the State of the Map US conference and at the international State of the Map conference in Heidelberg.
• 2019-08 and 09. The August 2019 version became available to the community (osmf-talk message) and is added to the OSM wiki.
• 2020-02 The February 2020 LWG version became available to the community on the OSM wiki.
• 2020-06 The OSMF board
  • modified the draft and presented the updated version during the 2020-06 board meeting.
  • had a meeting with Corporate Member representatives on the Advisory Board on attribution.
• 2020-10 The board had meetings with Corporate Member representatives on the Advisory Board and with the LWG. The board version was subsequently modified.
• 2020-12 Board meeting decisions to:
  • Publish the current board draft after giving the Licensing Working Group (LWG) a heads up.
  • Ask LWG to summarise the points they still consider open from the comments on the board document and ask Dermot McNally (LWG member), who has no conflict of interest, to present that report at the next LWG meeting.
  • Rory McCann (Board) to work with external counsel to try to find the solutions to these issues that are most favourable to us.
• 2021-01 The LWG was working on the requested document ("gap list") summarising the points they still considered open on the board version of the attribution guidelines.
• 2021-02 The LWG sent the "gap list" document to the board.
• 2021-03 The board contacted Kyle Mitchell (Intellectual Property lawyer suggested by Allen Gunn, who has been the external facilitator of some of the past board face-to-face meetings) for external legal advice on the draft attribution guidelines. The initial email was approved by Dermot McNally (Licensing Working Group) and included the board draft of the attribution guidelines and a list of questions by the board and the LWG.
• 2021-04 Kyle Mitchell responded.
• 2021-05 The board forwards Kyle Mitchell's response to the LWG and answers regarding the "gap list" points.
• 2021-06-01 LWG and Board online discussion. Decisions and next steps here.

LWG: Attribution guidance related minutes

• 2021: Jan Attribution guidelines, Feb Attribution guidelines gap list and board status update on outside counsel
• 2020: Jan (“Twitter attribution thread”), Feb, Mar, Apr, Jul, Aug, Oct, Nov
• 2019: Jan, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
• 2018: Dec

Board attribution guideline related minutes

• 2021: Jan Attribution guidelines update, Feb 12 (mid month board chat), Apr 09 Kyle Mitchell's response regarding attribution guidelines and ODbL, Apr 16 Attribution guidelines (dedicated chat), [[Board/Minutes/2021-05#Draft_attribution_guidelines|May]
• 2020: Jan Attribution and lack thereof, Apr Update on LWG's rewrite of attribution policy, May Status of Attribution policy, Status of Facebook attribution issue on mobile, Jun Status, Meeting with Corporate Members of the Advisory Board on attribution, Oct screen-to-screen discussion, update, Nov update 1, update 2, Dec update (informal board chat), update (public board meeting).
• 2019 Oct Attribution by Facebook.

Board attribution guideline related circular

• 2020-03-26 Circular 2021/Res11: Authorise Allan to send attribution guideline letter to Intellectual Property lawyer.

Other attribution guideline related minutes

• 2020-12-04 Board and LWG meeting (Dermot McNally) on draft attribution guidelines - The meeting was set-up in short time. The LWG was invited but only Dermot McNally could participate in such short notice.
• 2020-10-15 Board and LWG meeting on draft attribution guidelines
• 2020-10-09 Board and AB Corporate Members representatives meeting
• 2020-10-02 Session Make progress on attribution guidelines and enforcement, during board screen-to-screen October meeting
• 2020-06-22 Board and Advisory Board Corporate Member representatives meeting

OSMF members' related discussions on the osmf-talk* mailing list:

• Attribution guideline status update: 2019 Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
• Attribution: board letter to Facebook: 2019 Oct, Nov

* osmf-talk is the mailing list for OpenStreetMap Foundation members. Join the Foundation here. All past messages are available here.

Suggested by Tobias Knerr.

The board to review version 0.9 of the draft attribution guidelines (together with any comments by LWG and board members on that version), created by Dermot McNally (LWG) after making the changes agreed during the 2021-06-01 board and LWG discussion.

Action item: Rory to circulate version 0.9 of the draft attribution guidelines to osmf-talk (osmf-talk is the mailing list for OpenStreetMap Foundation members (Join the Foundation). All past messages are available here).

Bank account - status update

Background

Wise (formerly Transferwise) is a financial technology company (not a bank) that the OSMF uses to receive/send some payments^*. In April 2021, Wise blocked the OSMF account and credit card and sent an email saying that they consider OSMF to be in violation of their acceptable use policy, but not specified which part. The board has appealed that decision and the Treasurer is working on resolving this (related circular: 2021/Res19).

^*The OSMF bank is Triodos, which we don't use for all transactions, as it has high fees.

Related Treasurer's reports:
2021 Apr 16 (board chat), Apr 30, May 14 (board chat), May 28

Suggested by Rory McCann.

Updates

• Bank of Ireland form posted.
• Triodos asked for justifications for transfers.
• Account at Fire.com created for Michelle Heydon (accountant)
• EUR amount transferred from Wise to Fire.
• Bank of Ireland USD account to be ready soon.

Other points mentioned

• Fire does not do USD accounts
• Deadline to move the money from Wise is at the beginning or end of July.
• In worst case scenario we convert USD Wise amount to another currency. Also could pay Quincy with USD.
• Cloud68 invoice to be paid soon.

Currencies per account

• Bank of Ireland account: EUR, USD, GBP
• Fire.com (not a bank) account: EUR, GBP
• Triodos bank account: GBP

Suggestion: File a formal appeal to Wise.

MapUganda local chapter application - current status

Background

OpenStreetMap Uganda (operational title: MapUganda) has applied to be the Local Chapter for Uganda.

• Local consultation
• Membership consultation: thread, message

Related:

• 2021
  • Jun 01: Report by Jean-Marc Liotier (board) on his meeting with members of MapUganda. The MapUganda members were cc'ed.
  • Mar 26: Members: Status of the MapUganda Local Chapter application?
  • Feb 12: OSM Uganda Local Chapter application (mid-month board chat)
• 2020 Nov 19: Uganda Local Chapter application: status report

Suggested by Rory McCann.

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Action item: Jean-Marc to email MapUganda.

State of the Map 2021 panel: "Ask the OSMF board almost anything about our agenda, actions and activities"

Background

The State of the Map 2021 conference will take place online (July 9 - 11, 2021). The panel submitted by Rory has been accepted.

Suggested by Rory McCann.

Suggestion: shorten the title.

Last year there were online collaborative documents used live.

Session details

• Session page on the State of the Map website
• Date and time: Saturday 12th of July, 12:15 UTC - Countdown
• Ask questions ahead of time on the OSM wiki

Hiring - iD and Senior Site Reliability Engineer status updates

Background

iD
After two and a half years developing iD, Quincy Morgan wishes to pass the torch on iD development, for personal reasons. The joint statement of the board with Quincy regarding iD development is here (en). (es, fr, gl, nl, pl, ru, zh-hant).

iD related board discussions/posts during the past year:

• 2021
  • May 14 iD next steps (board chat)
  • Apr 26 Joint statement from Quincy Morgan and the OpenStreetMap Foundation’s Board, regarding iD development (blogpost)
  • Apr 09 iD updates (board chat)
• 2020
  • Jun 08 Toward resolution of controversies related to iD (blogpost)
  • Jun 11 Responses to request for comments on iD governance (board chat)
  • Jun 26 Responses to request for comments on iD governance
  • Nov 12 Funding for senior site reliability engineer (SSRE) & iD - update (board chat)

Senior Site Reliability Engineer
The OSMF board plans to hire a senior site reliability engineer (SSRE). The person has already been selected.

Related:

• 2021
  • May 28 Where we are with hiring a Senior Site Reliability Engineer
  • May 14 Hiring a senior site reliability engineer - status update (board chat)
• 2020
  • Nov 12 Funding for senior site reliability engineer (SSRE) & iD - update (board chat)
  • Jul 30 Proposal to hire a senior site reliability engineer

Suggested by Rory McCann.

iD

• Invitation for applications not published yet.
• Application will be open until filled.

Suggestions

• add procedure on how to apply.
• encourage people to include OSM account/Github account.

Action item: Jean-Marc to publish the call for applications, including the job description.

Senior Site Reliability Engineer

Working on the job description, together with the selected person.

Next meeting

Public board meeting on Friday 25 June 2021, 14:00 UTC -- Countdown

Acronyms