Board/Minutes/2025-10

From OpenStreetMap Foundation
< Board‎ | Minutes

Date and time: Thursday 30 October at 13:00 UTC - Countdown.

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

Important:

1. The new recurring meeting time is at 13:00 UTC.
2. DST change in Europe but not in the US: Please note that at the time of the meeting, Daylight Saving Time will have ended in Europe (on 26 October), but not yet in the US (where it ends on 2 November).


Acronyms

Participants

Officers and Board Historic
Board member biographies Historic
Minutes by Dorothea Kazazi.

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

Approval of previous minutes

Circular Resolutions

2025/Res24 Approval to purchase items for OSMF Booth at SotM 2025

Hi everyone,

As part of our participation at the State of the Map, the foundation has a booth at the conference; for the community to pass by, ask questions, share feedback etc. We are requesting approval to spend upto €300 on some items - most likely stickers. The longer discussion is on Gitlab here: https://gitlab.com/osmfoundation/board/-/issues/885

Approved on 2025-09-27 with 5 votes in favour: Brazil Singh, Laura Mugeha, Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Daniela Waltersdorfer, Maurizio Napolitano.
2 did not vote: Craig Allan, Roland Olbricht.

Circular by Laura Mugeha.

Note: The board GitLab repository is not accessible by members.

2025/Res25 Approve active contributor membership application #2025091510000042

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

Did not pass on 2025-10-03 with:
3 votes against: Craig Allan (Many mapping contributions over a short period are valued but short of 42 days activity. There are no links to active contributor activities. We need more data on non mapping activities to grant active contributor membership.), Laura Mugeha (They only have 15 days of mapping over the last 365 Days, therefore not meeting the requirements for the Active Contributor program. Maybe they can reapply and share additional non-mapping contributions, in case this was their intention.), Roland Olbricht (Encourage them to list and explain non-mapping activities that might justify an Active Contributor status. Mapping activities alone are too little.)
2 votes in favour: Brazil Singh, Héctor Ochoa Ortiz (A small number of changesets, and very concentrated in time, but a large amount of map changes. In 2024, they fulfilled the number of mapping days per year, even though they didn't in 2025.).
2 did not vote: Daniela Waltersdorfer, Maurizio Napolitano.

Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2025/Res26 Approve active contributor membership application #2025092510000103

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

Approved on 2025-10-09 with 6 votes in favour: Brazil Singh, Daniela Waltersdorfer, Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Laura Mugeha, Maurizio Napolitano, Roland Olbricht.
1 did not vote: Craig Allan.

Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2025/Res27 Move OSMF of out UK: Initial lawyer consultation

The board approves GBP 2000 fees for Bird & Bird lawyers for the call how to move out of the UK, in particular without prohibitive taxes.

Did not pass on 2025-10-10 with,
3 votes against:
- Craig Allan (B&B is an excellent firm, but we cannot afford multiple consultations with a world class firm. Our legal problems are simple not complex, we already have a tax mimimisation strategy and I believe we could get comparable legal service from a less high profile service provider.)
 - Daniela Waltersdorfer (I wanted to move forward ASAP as we all did when we had our group chat. However, I was a bit caught off guard when after my e-mail I learned the fee. I know I said we should move forward, but after more cautious thinking and some research it seems that 2k lbs is too high of a cost for an organization like ours.)
- Brazil Singh (While Bird & Bird has strong expertise, their fee of £2,000 + VAT for just the first call is high for OSMF. Since there will likely be further calls and additional fees beyond this initial stage, the total costs could escalate quickly. I believe we should seek quotes from other UK firms that may provide the same guidance at a more sustainable cost.)
2 abstained: Laura Mugeha, Héctor Ochoa Ortiz
1 vote in favour: Roland Olbricht
1 did not vote: Maurizio Napolitano

Circular by Roland Olbricht.

2025/Res28 Board approves funds up to 350 Euros for SotM Africa 2025 for Laura Mugeha

Hello Board,

Laura will attend SOTM Africa in Tanzania. She will cover the majority of the costs but the vote agrees on covering funds for her travel costs (lodging, food) up to 350Euros.

Did not pass on 2025-10-23 with,
3 votes in favour: Daniela Waltersdorfer, Maurizio Napolitano, Brazil Singh.
1 abstained: Craig Allan.
3 did not vote: Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Laura Mugeha, Roland Olbricht.

Circular by Dani Waltersdorfer.

Note: The circular had the title "example title" and was under a vote proposal with the title "Board approves funds up to 350 Euros for SOTM Europe for Roland", while the content was for Laura. Craig abstained with the following message "Roland indicated that he would be happy to cover his own costs."

Related to
- circular 2025/Res22 "Board approves funds up to 350 Euros for SotM Africa 2025 for Laura Mugeha" (did not pass),
- and subsequent vote during the August 2025 meeting Vote to cover funds for Laura's travel costs for SotM Africa 2025 (approved).

2025/Res29 Approve active contributor membership application #2025072310000361

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

Approved on 2025-10-29 with 4 votes in favour: Roland Olbricht Laura Mugeha, Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Maurizio Napolitano (Every person who works hard to create a community and achieves results should be rewarded).
1 abstained: Brazil Singh
2 did not vote: Daniela Waltersdorfer, Craig Allan.

Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2025/Res30 Approve active contributor membership application #2025082110000265

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

Approved on 2025-10-29 with 5 votes in favour: Roland Olbricht, Laura Mugeha, Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Daniela Waltersdorfer (The applicant]'s contributions are unique and essential for OSM. [Their] passion for the project is admirable and important), Maurizio Napolitano ([The applicant] has been a longtime contributor to the OpenStreetMap ecosystem. Even though [they are] not mapping, [their] contribution is still to the OSM infrastructure, which therefore enables mapping. I'm in favor of renewal. If we don't agree, I'll still propose renewal, but I'll ask that [they] also contribute to mapping for renewal the following year).
1 against: Brazil Singh (Reason of disagree: Last map edit: [Month redacted] [Date redacted], 2022).
 1 did not vote: Craig Allan.

Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

Chairperson's report

Secretary's report

Good Morning, Afternoon, or Evening (depending on your timezone!) Thank you for joining us today. I want to start by mentioning that some of us had the pleasure of attending this year’s SOTM in Manila. Craig, Hector, Laura, Brazil, and I were able to meet there in person, and take advantage of the opportunity to get to know and interact with the OSM community and our sponsors. We took turns doing our volunteer Board member duties and attendings sessions. Thank you to all the volunteers, and a special shout-out to Arnalie and Faye for hosting a tremendous event!

We have received some feedback from community members and I want you to know we are not ignoring you or them. We are taking action internally and will notify you when appropriate.

The Board has a big task this year to focus on fundraising. Something, that unfortunately, has lacked a bit in the recent years. One of the main action items to is to have more open and direct communications and partnerships between the Foundation and our Corporate Members. As the Secretary, I have been sending emails to our Corporate Members so that we can have 1:1 meetings between their key representatives and us so that we can both have an understanding of our priorities and what it means to be a Corporate Member of the Foundation. Another exciting update is that we have received 30k from the FLOSS Fund—Thank you! If you’d like to learn more about our communications with our Corporate Members, please reach out and let us know. If you have ideas for further fundraising opportunities, I’d like to kindly ask you to share it with us.

Treasurer's report

Fundraising

Topic proposed by Héctor.

Subtopics:

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

Topic proposed by Héctor.

GoFundMe was using the OpenStreetMap trademark to fundraise without permission

Topic proposed by Héctor.

Related to this article.

Any other business

Guest comments or questions

Next meetings

Mid-month board chat: 13 November 2025 at 13:00 UTC

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

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

Open board meeting: 27 November 2025 at 13:00 UTC

2025 dates of open board meetings: on this Framagenda calendar (green dots).

Add future board meetings to your calendar

If you want future board meetings to be automatically added to your calendar, you can subscribe to (do not download) the following iCalendar link. Instructions on how to do that depend on which calendar software/service you use. The link is provided for your convenience. Please note that:

  • It might not work when Framasoft servers experience problems.
  • You might get delayed updates, depending on how often the calendar service from your side syncs/checks for updates.
  • Both public and non-public meetings are added to this calendar. The later ones have a note in their description about being non-public.
Retrieved from "https://osmfoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Board/Minutes/2025-10&oldid=14056"