Board/Minutes/2024-12

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Date and time: Thursday 19 December at 13:30 UTC.
Time in your time-zone - Countdown.

Please note that the individual points mentioned below usually reflect the opinion of one or more board members and not necessarily of the whole board. Official board decisions are taken during the meetings or by voting using circulars, and votes are listed in the minutes.

Location: Video room https://osmvideo.cloud68.co/user/dor-2cd-qah-rim
using BigBlueButton.

The topics of the agenda, except the "any other business" topics, get locked one week before the meeting.

Acronyms

Participants

Officers and board
Biographies

Guests

Open to all OSM Foundation members. (Become a member of the Foundation, even for free if you are an active OSM contributor)

You are welcome to ask questions or to comment (via voice or on the chat) at the end of the meeting.

  • Please mute your microphone when you join, and to preserve bandwidth, refrain from turning on your webcam.
  • If you are in a low-bandwidth environment, you may benefit from using BigBlueButton's low-bandwidth settings. To assess them, click on the 3 dots on the top right of the black video-window.

Administrative

["talk" time*] Director's name

  • [22'] Craig Allan (Chairing)
  • [10'] Guillaume Rischard
  • [04'] Héctor Ochoa Ortiz
  • [00'] Laura Mugeha
  • [01'] Maurizio Napolitano
  • [19'] Roland Olbricht

*Includes time when the microphone was activated due to noise.

Officers and BoardHistoric
Board member biographiesHistoric
Minutes by Dorothea Kazazi.

Absent

  • Daniela Waltersdorfer (Apologies)

Guests

  • 9 guests

Open to all OSM Foundation members. (Become a member of the Foundation, even for free if you are an active OSM contributor)

You are welcome to ask questions or to comment (via voice or on the chat) at the end of the meeting.

  • Please mute your microphone when you join, and to preserve bandwidth, refrain from turning on your webcam.
  • If you are in a low-bandwidth environment, you may benefit from using BigBlueButton's low-bandwidth settings. To assess them, click on the 3 dots on the top right of the black video-window.

Approval of previous minutes

Circular Resolutions

2024/Res44 Approve active contributor membership application #2024052810000438

The Board currently decides on active contributor membership applications based on non-mapping contributions on a case-by-case basis.

Approved on 2024-11-24 with 5 votes in favour: Craig Allan, Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Daniela Waltersdorfer, Guillaume Rischard, Roland Olbricht.
2 did not vote : Laura Mugeha, Maurizio Napolitano.

Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2024/Res45 Approve active contributor membership application #2024111910000023

The Board currently decides on active contributor membership applications based on non-mapping contributions on a case-by-case basis.

Approved on 2024-11-27 with 4 votes in favour: Laura Mugeha (Supporting the proposal as she meets the threshold for contribution based on community organizing.), Maurizio Napolitano (I see no reason not to confirm), Craig Allan (The applicant provided sufficient evidence of work. Approved.), Héctor Ochoa Ortiz (In my opinion, the outreach and teaching events make up for the number of mapping days.).
3 did not vote: Guillaume Rischard, Roland Olbricht, Daniela Waltersdorfer.

Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2024/Res46 Approve active contributor membership application #2024111910000274

The Board currently decides on active contributor membership applications based on non-mapping contributions on a case-by-case basis.

Did not pass on 2024-11-27 with 4 abstentions:
- Laura Mugeha
- Héctor Ochoa Ortiz (There are too few map edits, and the description of the role in organized events is too vague. I suggest reapplying after explaining the role taken in organizing and conducting the events in more detail.)
- Maurizio Napolitano (The candidate seems valid, but the information on the real contribution to OSM is limited. I would ask for more information and a motivation letter in which he describes himself and identifies one or two actions that he wants to carry out in the short term.)
- Craig Allan (I know of the applicant and [their] work for OSM but my knowledge is not the documented proof of work required by the rules. If we were provided with links to demonstrate that history of working for OSM this would be a very easy approval. We are offered a website where we are expected to dig for evidence. I recommend that the applicant re-apply soon with some clear links to work.)
3 did not vote: Daniela Waltersdorfer, Roland Olbricht, Guillaume Rischard.

Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2024/Res47 Distribution of Meta Sponsorship to regional SotMs, via OSMF

As decided in the 21st Nov 2024 board chat, here is the circular to support the distribution of Meta Sponsorship to regional SotMs. Details about the four events we are voting on are explained below.

SotM Rwanda 2024 - 15-17 Nov 2024
https://gitlab.com/osmfoundation/board/-/issues/700
Quantity: USD 2499
Converted quantity: EUR 2314.12
5% Overhead fee: EUR 115.71

SotM Kerala 2024 - 16-17 Nov 2024
https://gitlab.com/osmfoundation/board/-/issues/701
Quantity: INR 70000
Converted quantity: EUR 770.81
5% Overhead fee: EUR 38.54

SotM Asia 2024 - 30 Nov-1 Dec 2024
https://gitlab.com/osmfoundation/board/-/issues/707
Quantity: USD 5000
Converted quantity: EUR 4630.10
5% Overhead fee: EUR 231.51

SotM LatAm 2024 - 6-8 Dec 2024
https://gitlab.com/osmfoundation/board/-/issues/711
Quantity: USD 4500
Converted quantity: EUR 4167.09
5% Overhead fee: EUR 208.35

More details for each application are included in each GitLab issue. Please read each issue and its attached documents carefully before voting.

Approved on 2024-11-28 with 6 votes in favour: Laura Mugeha, Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Daniela Waltersdorfer, Guillaume Rischard, Craig Allan (I am in favour of supporting the local communities that gather the local data that makes the OSM project possible. Supporting SotM conferences is an important part of building local capacity and spreading the OSM culture), Maurizio Napolitano (I think it's important that there are events that remind us of the importance of OpenStreetMap and bring together contributors. We could also think about an ambassador program in the future in order to define some principles to spread and a possible training moment. (I'll discuss it with the board as soon as I have a more structured project)).
1 did not vote: Roland Olbricht.

Circular created by Héctor Ochoa Ortiz.

2024/Res48 Distribution of Meta Sponsorship to regional SotMs, via OSMF - FOSS4GIT-OSMIT 2024 & FOSS4G/SotM Oceania 2024

Here is another circular to support the distribution of Meta Sponsorship to regional SotMs. Details about the two events we are voting on are explained below.

FOSS4GIT-OSMIT 2024 - 11-14 Dec 2024 https://gitlab.com/osmfoundation/board/-/issues/718
Quantity: EUR 1000
5% Overhead fee: EUR 50

FOSS4G/SotM Oceania 2024 - 5-8 Nov 2024 https://gitlab.com/osmfoundation/board/-/issues/719
Quantity: EUR 1547.54
5% Overhead fee: EUR 77.38

More details for each application are included in each GitLab issue. Please read each issue and its attached documents carefully before voting.

Approved on 2024-12-07 with 5 votes in favour: Laura Mugeha, Daniela Waltersdorfer, Maurizio Napolitano, Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Craig Allan (I support the proposal).
2 did not vote: Roland Olbricht, Guillaume Rischard.

Circular created by Héctor Ochoa Ortiz.

Action item updates

Public board action items - About
Filter by assignee Craig Dani Guillaume Héctor Laura Maurizio Roland Not assigned
Filter by label Example: any label # labels here (non-clickable)

Secretary's report

Report below by Dani Waltersdorfer (Secretary), read by Héctor Ochoa Ortiz (Deputy Secretary), as Dani could not attend the meeting.

Appointments of new officers

We are thrilled to announce that the appointments of new officers are official and live. We are honored to welcome Craig Allan as the new Chair of the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF). Craig’s leadership, charisma, and passion will undoubtedly guide us through an exciting chapter ahead. You can find out more about the Directors' roles here: https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/Officers_%26_Board

Onboarding new board members

Our newly elected members, Hector, Laura, and Maurizio, have been diligently going through their onboarding process. They now have their official OSMF email addresses and are ready to engage with the community. Feel free to reach out to them with your questions, ideas, or collaborations.

Representation at State of the Map (SotM) events

I, Dani Waltersdorfer, had the privilege of representing the Foundation at SOTM LATAM. Shockingly, this marked the first time an OSMF Director officially attended SOTM LATAM, underscoring the importance of strengthening our connection with the LATAM community. We are committed to fostering this relationship further. Currently, we are collecting feedback from attendees and stakeholders in the region to better understand their needs and aspirations. Once finalized, these insights will inform our future efforts. In the meantime, check out our social media channels to see some amazing photos from the conference!

Similarly, our Communications Working Group member, Brazil Singh, attended SOTM Asia. His experiences and and engagements with members of the OSM Asia community have been shared across our social media platforms- check it out!

Social media and Proton raffle selection

Speaking of social media, we’re excited to share that the OSMF has been selected for the Proton annual raffle! This recognition places us among a select group of global organizations chosen to receive monetary and resource support from Proton. Please help amplify this fantastic news by sharing it on your own channels.

osm.org outage

Our servers were down for a couple of days starting this past weekend due to a serious hardware problem at our internet service provider. Thankfully, our operations working group was hard at work and we transferred to a new service provider. We were back online a day ago. We apologize to those hard-working mappers who were trying for a 365-day editing streak.

Suggestion to have the reports written instead of read

Question by Guillaume on whether we can get written Secretary reports, instead of reading them during the meetings, so that people can read them in in their own time and in the interest of the meeting.

Suggestions:

  • The Secretary to email the report to the board and copy it to Dorothea, who will add the report in the record of the meeting.

Other points mentioned during discussion

  • We should publish a weekly report.
  • The report should be published a week before the meeting but there's always the temptation to add recent events, like the outage and the tragic loss of people's 365 day mapping sprints.
    • Comments by board members that the loss of the streak is not taken lightly and the outage also caused dents to board members' mapping streaks.
  • The board to add bullet points in the GitLab issue, so we could review the reports of various months within a single location without sifting through mails.

Treasurer's report

The organisation is in a healthy financial state.

The Treasurer was ill for some days, so there is a backlog of Treasurer tickets, which includes the following items.

Distribution of sponsorships by Meta to various regional SotM conferences

  • Some of the conferences have taken place in high-risk countries. For these, it is expected that the transfer will not be straightforward, but additional paperwork might be required by the bank.
  • There's one case where the transfer is relatively easy, as the regional SotM organisers have provided a UK bank account.
  • Roland is working on the transfers, but didn't want to promise that they will get completed in the next few days, as we are unsure which transfers might be delayed by the banks.

Sorting payments providers

  • One of our payment providers has begun charging fees for a relatively minor service, and we would like to stop using their services.
  • We're checking whether removing them will break any of our existing workflows.

Corporate Members

  • Some Corporate Memberships are in arrears due to missing paperwork.

Fire account

Guillaume asked if we have anything other than Mollie landing on the Fire bank account.

Points mentioned during discussion

  • Roland hasn't found any Mollie entries on a first pass of the Fire bank account.
  • There is definitely money coming into the Fire account.

Suggestion: Roland to diligently check the Fire account and determine the steps needed to close the Mollie account.

Members' recurring payments

We have some recurring payments from ordinary members and that are not synchronized with the actual renewal of their memberships. As a result, some members have paid up multiple years in advance. Michael Spreng (Membership Working Group volunteer) has done a lot of work to resolve this issue.

It was mentioned that it has been decided to discontinue the option for automatic recurring annual membership payments, as this has led to considerable work and frustration for everyone involved when the recurring payments become out of sync with membership renewals.

Network outage for multiple days due to ISP issues

  • The outage occurred half-way through the transition to a new service provider.
  • Grant Slater (SSRE) was praised for his excellent work.

On old ISP

  • It is hard to believe that a company whose primary business is providing internet connectivity, and who is one of the best paid suppliers of OpenStreetMap, could fail to deliver its core service.
  • We still have the old ISP for some months, and we have to decide when to cancel it. The initial plan was to maintain both ISPs for six months to ensure a smooth transition.
  • The board will wait for the OWG's proposed timeframe.

Maurizio had to disconnect 31' after start.

2025 budget

Topic suggested by Craig Allan. The Treasurer's remarks follow. The proposed budget was shown by the Treasurer to meeting attendees via screen sharing.

  • We had asked the working groups to provide their planned expenditures for next year, and the budget reflects the figures submitted by those groups that replied.

Profit and donations

Profit

  • The small profit at the end of the year is expected to come from the SotM conference, which is currently in the early planning stages.
  • The Finance Committee will discuss with the SotM Working Group to determine if we can cover the expected expenses for the conference with the current sponsorship rates.
  • The budget may be updated if necessary (also see below).

Donations

  • The donations line provides an indication of where we might expect to be, if we do a donation drive.

Mutable budget

The budget is intended to be mutable. Working Groups are encouraged to communicate with the board through their liaisons regarding any major changes to their spending plans.

We have not heard back from the OWG yet, but that is not an issue as:

  • We trust the OWG's judgement, so if they request for funds, we will adjust the budget accordingly.
  • Purchasing servers will be recorded in the asset register, affecting our cash flow, but it will not directly affect our budget or our profit and loss statement. It may influence depreciation, but we will monitor this change throughout the year.
  • We have secured sponsorship from Equinix, which is expected to significantly reduce our hosting and internet charges.

On future project manager

We might be able to employ a project manager in 2025 and 2026, thanks to direct sponsorship from an organisation dedicated to promoting open source. This is not reflected in the budget, as it is still in the processing stage. It will be announced and included in the budget once we are closer to hiring the project manager, as there are still uncertainties to address, including salary negotiations and the specific number of work hours.

Other points mentioned

  • The Personnel Committee is working on this.
  • We will get reimbursed for what we spend.

Employee and contractors

Vector tiles

The feedback from the first round where we just have Vector Tiles online, has been incredibly positive. As a result, the 2025 budget includes a spending request from the Engineering Working Group (EWG), earmarked for the second phase of the vector tiles project. This funding will allow Paul Norman to develop a more optimised style sheet and address a few other related tasks.

On how the budget compares to actuals

Question from Guillaume on how the budget compares to actuals.

Direct comparison of the budget with the actuals is likely to be unhelpful.

The Foundation has recently revised the Corporate Membership rates, so the numbers would not reliably reflect the income side. Aside from expenses related to employees and administrative contracts, all other expenditures are project-related, making them not directly comparable to previous years. There are a few minor items that can be compared, such as legal fees for trademark renewals, but these renewals do not occur annually.

It should also be noted that the budget was based on a spreadsheet that included columns for the actual figures from 2022, 2023, and the available data for 2024 up to that point. The budget column, which includes notes about "conservative" estimates, is based on these comparisons. The annotated "fixed costs" are derived from the previous two years, with a slight increase to account for inflation and changes in salaries. Therefore, while actuals were considered in the decision-making process, this budget is a standalone document, designed to outline how we plan to spend the money we anticipate receiving.

On future adjustments

Every change to the budget is considered as an adjustment and it must be approved by a vote from the board, as well as made public to the members.

Other points

  • The budget includes a list of items that have been pending for years and that we would like to work on, such as the GDPR compliance work on the website.
  • Feedback from last year indicated that corporate donors are willing to increase their contributions when they see that we are spending money on useful projects.

Motion

Motion by Creaig Allan to vote on the budget.

Suggestion to approve the budget by a circular this evening.

Decision

The Treasurer to create a circular for voting on the 2025 budget and the board members to vote as soon as possible.

Thanks were expressed to Craig, Guillaume, the board and Working Group members who reviewed their group's spending and provided feedback.

Post meeting note: The proposed budget (ver8) was unanimously approved on 2024-12-26.

Update from SotM Latam 2024

Deferred to the next meeting, as Dani was not present.

External formal appeal for OSMF Board intervention on moderation inaction - update from the committee

Decision during this meeting to move the topic to the closed session (see the bottom of this page).

Any other business

Board holiday

Decision seemed to be: The board to take a break from reading emails between the 24th of December 2024 to the 2nd of January 2025.

2024-12 osm.org outage

Suggested by Guillaume Rischard.

We recently had significant downtime (15-17 December 2024) and we should prevent this from happening again.

  • We currently have only one ISP, and the potential for that ISP to fail was a predicted risk when we made the switch.
  • We have a tested procedure for failing over databases and the inability to switch to another data center was also identified as a possible risk.
  • Guillaume last May tried to ask the board for assistance to get work on this issue, but no progress has been made.

Suggestions

  • Document the services and outline the failover procedure for each service in the event of a failure. Currently, there is an open ticket that has been unresolved for months, with only one service documented.
  • Test our backups.
  • Test the failover procedure, which is currently a manual and undocumented process, a couple of times each year. We did not use it during the recent 3-day outage, as it was too daunting.
  • Switch to a system that allows for high availability - some preliminary work has already been done on this. Currently, we have one database master for writing and several read slaves.
  • Have 2 ISPs, as failures can happen.
  • Establish a plan for Grant Slater (Senior Site Reliability Engineer) to follow in 2025.
  • Ask for the opinions of the Operations Working Group (OWG) on the priorities.
  • Instruct Grant to find a way of making it work with someone else - this may require some financial support from OSMF.
  • Guillaume to propose a motion regarding the priorities during the January board meeting.
  • The motion should empower Grant, rather than instruct him.

Concerns

  • Whether we are running into micromanaging and imposing on the OWG.
  • Whether delegating this matter to the Personnel Committee would be considered as an escalation.

Decisions seemed to be

  • The board to create an internal collaborative document with the suggestions made by Guillaume and others during this discussion,with the goal of preventing a recurrence of the outage caused by the ISP issue in December 2024. The board to provide feedback, reach an agreement on the document, and ensure it is aligned with the issue tracker. If there is a mismatch, it will be necessary to reconcile the two. The aim is to resolve these issues before December 2025.
  • The board to inform OWG about this discussion, including the prioritisation of certain open issues and that resources will be allocated if needed.
  • The board plans to prioritise following up on these items throughout the year.

Guillaume plans to informally check with Grant about ask Grant's feedback on the proposed January motion.

Other points mentioned

  • We have tickets for most of these issues.
  • The board is unaware that if the wiki database fails, it could days to restore it to a working state. This process is not documented, and we have never tested recovering the wiki from backup.
  • Craig had informally asked Grant to write a post-mortem about the December 2024 osm.org outage.
  • While the board cannot give instructions to volunteers, it can instruct an employee.

Guest comments or questions

No comments or questions.

Next meetings

Open board meeting: 30 January 2025 at 13:30 UTC

Open board meetings take place online monthly.

2025 dates:

30 January 2025 at 13:30 UTC
27 February 2025 at 13:30 UTC
27 March 2025 at 13:30 UTC
24 April 2025 at 13:30 UTC
29 May 2025 at 13:30 UTC
26 June 2025 at 13:30 UTC
31 July 2025 at 13:30 UTC
28 August 2025 at 13:30 UTC
25 September 2025 at 13:30 UTC
23 October 2025 at 13:30 UTC

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Mid-month board chat: 16 January 2025 at 13:30 UTC

Not open to observers. About mid-month board chats.

Dates: See this Framagenda calendar (yellow dots), and the monthly board meetings page.

Closed session

This part of the meeting was closed to observers.

Legal affairs

Suggested by Guillaume Rischard.

External formal appeal for OSMF Board intervention on moderation inaction - update from the committee

Meeting adjourned 62 minutes after start.

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