Board/Minutes/2023-07-13

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Draft minutes.

Location: Video room at https://osmvideo.cloud68.co
using BigBlueButton.

Date and time: Thursday 13 July 2023, 15:00 UTC - Countdown

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

Acronyms

Participants

Board members

  • Arnalie Vicario
  • Craig Allan
  • Guillaume Rischard
  • Mateusz Konieczny
  • Mikel Maron
  • Sarah Hoffmann

Not Present

  • Roland Olbricht

Officers and board
Biographies

Minutes by Dorothea Kazazi.

Guests

Not open to observers.

State of Local Chapters

Topic suggested by Arnalie Vicario.

Blogpost on Local Chapter reports (and what to with financial reports)

https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Local_Chapters/Reports_and_chapter_changes

Local Chapter application process and criteria improvements

  • Arnalie shared a draft in May.
  • Had discussion with Craig Allan (board) and the Local Chapters and Communities Working Group (LCCWG) regarding some of the comments on the draft.
  • The LCCWG recommended to update the FAQ page of Local Chapters applications and make the criteria clearer and more transparent.

OSM Belgium

  • OpenKnowledge folded and is in a state of turmoil.
  • Joost Schouppe and Ben Abelshausen are thinking of starting their own non-profit and it comes at the perfect time because they're just finalising the SotM EU 2023 conference.
  • OSM Belgium will be the new home for the organisation.
  • They were worried that they were not going to be able to easily access the €10,000 that they had in the bank account.

Fundraising - contracting graphic designer for donate website refresh and banner

Topic suggested by Arnalie Vicario.

  • Some of the board members had a discussion last Monday with the fundraising team in Matrix.
  • One of Arnalie's friend might be able to offer assistance.
  • It is yet to be decided if we need to engage a contractor.

Kate Varfolomeyeva (CWG):

  • Has already sketched a draft design for the donate website and putting a guidance document.
  • Very motivated, in YouthMappers.
  • Might do the work for free.

Other points mentioned

  • We will then assess if it's necessary to pay someone for specific tasks.
  • The banner will require assets, such as images.

Sovereign Tech Fund application status

Topic suggested by Sarah Hoffmann.

  • Sent around the plan 1-2 months ago.
  • Collaborated with Adam Hoyle on an application currently circulating within the EWG.
  • Engaged in discussions with a software developer for a while now.
    • Came to OSM after the Haiti earthquake mapping and understands how OSM works.
    • Managed projects for technical developers at an OSM-data utilizing company.
  • Position: hanged to "Project Facilitator" from "Project Management".
  • Will initiate the official hiring process - there's at least one candidate.
  • We will know our eligibility by the end of September.

Plan: Approve the application at the next board meeting.

Checkin on strategic plan process

Topic suggested by Mikel Maron.

Update by Craig

  • Recovering lost time, making progress.
  • Collating the feedback from the community consultation.
  • Relevant points of consultation were incorporated into the strategic plan.
  • Revised and clarified all four sections, which were sent to the board.
  • Mikel provided a draft outlining the document's desired appearance.
  • Organising the content on the wiki.

Next step: Begin by implementing the priorities recommended by the board.

Issue: Argumentation is missing, making it difficult to grasp the overall narrative and the cohesion between tasks.

General suggestions

  • Consider an alternative approach, focusing on conceptualising overall goals and specific details that require strategic attention. For example, identifying the most crucial next action (which may not be part of the strategic plan).
  • Present a high-level narrative that connects the preamble to the tasks, outlining OSMF's purpose, objectives, and the proposed approach to achieve them.
  • Define the value and purpose of the plan for both the board and donors.
  • Prioritise readability in the document to benefit the community.
  • Seek feedback from the community on specific aspects .

Proposed actions

  • Craig offered to work with Gunner's formulation, possibly with assistance from Courtney, to create a plan that is easily understood by the community by next week.
    • It doesn't make sense to involve her in this stage.
  • Craig with Courtney to write a blog post that highlights the community feedback and outlines the final outcome.
  • Mikel and Sarah prepare a document to present to the board and re-iterate.

Other points mentioned during discussion

  • Mikel and Gunner worked on a document ahead of the screen-to-screen board meeting, outlining the overarching goals and the specific details that require strategic attention.
  • We've spent a lot of time working on the plan that it also a bit frustrating.
  • In UK circles if many people do not express confidence in you, then you resign.
  • While prioritising current tasks is important, we may not need to include that level of detail in the strategic plan.
  • Some of the goals might be working group goals.
  • Courtney has offered to help with communicating the strategic plan.
  • We appear to be several steps away from finalising the actual plan.
  • If we haven't published something by December, we will have failed.

Action items

  • Craig to summarise community feedback and get a blog-post with a narrative.
  • Sarah and Mikel to draft what Sarah is thinking, bring it back to the board and re-iterate.

Discussion of corporate membership revision

Topic suggested by Mikel Maron.

On Platinum Corporate Members having the additional benefit of access to consultations with a board-designated facilitator on how to engage with OSM/OSMF on specific topics

  • Asking the working groups to talk to Corporate Members is out of their scope since they're volunteers.
  • Feedback from Local Chapter representatives that this would be a burden.
  • Providing some kind of "Sherpa", offering guidance or suggestions on effective interaction with working groups and the community.

Suggestions

  • The liaison between Platinum Corporate Members and OSM/F can be either a volunteer or a paid individual.
  • We should help all organisations communicate with the working groups and not have it as a premium benefit.
  • Present this as an opportunity, for e.g. networking.

General suggestions

  • Consult additional groups, e.g. State of the Map working group, as the text mentions "first access to SotM sponsorship".
  • Emphasise 1) the different ways that companies can contribute (donations, corporate membership, pro-bono support) and 2) how the funds are utilised.
  • Benefit suggested by Corporate Members: add link to Corporate Members' page on the banner on www.osm.org (maximum of 2 clicks away).
    • Traditionally the banner listed companies that supported Operations - this should be updated.
  • Link the corporate membership tiers to the size of the operations of the Corporate Members.
  • Attract people to the working groups who have fun talking to Corporate Members.

On increasing the pricing

  • Doubling the corporate membership prices:
    • is acceptable.
    • may result in some organizations opting out - this is anticipated.
  • Suggestion to increase the tiers and offer a grace period, like one renewal at the current rate.

Other point mentioned: Some individuals in working groups are working for companies that use OSM and their companies haven't ever been Corporate Members.

Review board rules of order for circulars

Topic suggested by Sarah Hoffmann.
https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Board_Rules_of_Order#7._Circular_Resolutions

The board rules of order clearly say that if a topic needs discussion, it shouldn't be circular.

How to block circulars that do not meet the formal criteria and needs discussion

  • Raise a point of order during the meeting/in the chat or in the circular.
    • Done in a previous circular but the circular was approved. (Conflict of interest for moderators)
  • Include an option to block the circular.

Other points mentioned during discussion

  • Blocking a circular was discussed years ago and there was an understanding but was not articulated in rules of order.

How to handle a board meeting decision with a circular on the same topic still running

If the circular closes after the meeting where a decision was taken on the same topic, implicitly it becomes obsolete.

Suggestions

  • Include an additional rule in the board's rules of order.
  • Add a note under the specific circular.

SotM EU 2023

Topic suggested by Mikel Maron.

A company has been very helpful with the organising SotM EU 2023 and offered to the SotM EU organising team to provide the deposit on the venue. They weren't going to be a sponsor - they would recoup the deposit later when all the sponsors came in. The offer was withdrawn.

Venue offer

  • €40,000 plus VAT (€50,000 for simplicity) for a two day conference with a third day reserved if more funding comes in.
  • 50% down payment (€25,000) needed by the end of July in order to secure the offer.
  • If you need to cancel, you can get your money back with a penalty. The closer it is to the event, the higher the penalty: by mid-August = 5% penalty. September = 25% penalty. October = > 25% penalty.

The venue us run by Bluepoint, which has been helpful in negotiating and understands the situation.

SotM EU 2023 organising team

  • Have €10,000, need ~ €15,000.
  • Confirmed some big sponsorships.
  • Chasing invoices.
  • One of the team members has emailed a board member asking whether the OSMF can help.
  • A board member has tried to help them have more cohesive fundraising strategy and support local chapters.

Concern

  • How this will be received by the community / regional SotM organisations.
  • Precedence for other SotMs.
    • We have security against the loan, which is the promised sponsorships.

Suggestions

  • Ensure we have written contracts stating our right to claim sponsorship funds in case of default or non-payment.
    • Seizing the sponsorship money if they default doesn't help, as we would need to repay the sponsorships.
      • As the venue offers the option to cancel with a penalty, the penalty risk would be carried by the local chapter.
  • Specify that we are prioritised for reimbursement in the unlikely event of the conference falling through.
  • Clear communications, there is need for transparency and fairness.
  • We should have the right independently cancel the venue contract, with the venue directly reimbursing our share. This eliminates risk as we're still within the cancellation period unless the venue faces bankruptcy.

On who OSMF would be loaning money to: OSGeo or paying the venue directly.

Other points mentioned during discussion

  • We have a duty to help OSM Belgium and we could do so in a legally safe way.
  • We are intervening due to an emergency situation.
  • If there are situations where it seems that not all sponsor funds will be received, we would consider cancellation.

Next step: Mikel to work out the mechanism with Ben and then come back to the board.

Arnalie disconnected.

Discuss vector tile proposal

Topic suggested by Mikel Maron.

Paul Norman sent a vector tile proposal and Sarah has added some comments.

Proposal

  • Technically detailed and missing the overall.
  • No time allocated for communication.
  • It's still not a project proposal.

Concern: on whether the community will maintain the style afterwards.

On style options

  • Make our own schema and style.
  • Go with the open map tile schema and existing styles.
    • A lot of good cartographic work that has gone into style sheets that run on the Open map tile schema, and they have proposed opening the schema.
  • Both.
  • Fork.
  • The new style should be a bit visually similar to the old style.

Points mentioned during discussion

  • We want to have a style we control.
  • We should give the community a chance to build upon.
  • Guillaume included overarching points in the draft, and these were probably removed.

Next meeting

Public board meeting on Thursday 27 July 2023, 15:00 UTC

Open to OSMF members.

See the Monthly Board meetings page to find out where board meetings are announced and for a subscription link to have future board meetings automatically added to your calendar. The dates of public board meetings are also added to https://osmcal.org/

Acronyms

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