Board/Minutes/2025-11

Date and time: Thursday 27 November at 13:00 UTC - Countdown.

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

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)

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Administrative

Approval of previous minutes

2025-10-30

Circular Resolutions

2025/Res31 The board to approve signing the Open Letter to Google Regarding Mandatory Developer Registration for Third-Party App Distribution ("Keep Android Open")

The board to approve signing the Open Letter to Google Regarding Mandatory Developer Registration for Third-Party App Distribution ("Keep Android Open"). The letter and additional background information can be found at https://keepandroidopen.org/.
Approved on 2025-11-06 with 6 votes in favour: - Héctor Ochoa Ortiz - Laura Mugeha - Maurizio Napolitano - Brazil Singh - Craig Allan (OSMF supports free and open software. The Google security measures to control developers for the Android platform (as Apple does) will erect a barrier to distribution of free, open software on Android. We can't judge the full impact of their measures yet, but we can say that it appears to be a step backwards.) - Roland Olbricht (After reading both sides (Google and F-Droid as the main stakeholders), the authors of the letter have a point. There is no reason why developers that publish through F-Droid should sign off Google's terms and conditions. The basic reason against this would be that the Foundation has not a general political mandate. Given how difficult it is to have an OpenStreetMap based app on Android Auto, Google's terms and conditions well might impede OpenStreetMap based apps). 1 did not vote: Daniela Waltersdorfer.
Circular by Héctor Ochoa Ortiz.

2025/Res32 Approve active contributor membership application #2025072910000038

The Board currently decides on active contributor membership applications based on non-mapping contributions on a case-by-case basis.
Unanimously approved on 2025-11-06 with 7 votes in favour: - Roland Olbricht - Héctor Ochoa Ortiz - Daniela Waltersdorfer - Maurizio Napolitano - Brazil Singh - Craig Allan ("[username redacted]" is well known by the Board to be a significant and valued contributor to OSM, most recently in organising the [event redacted] in [country redacted]. I note however that the application itself is not fully suitable in that it references only self-written contributions. I'd much prefer to see some third party evidence) - Laura Mugeha (Voting in support based on mapping and non-mapping contributions; [name redacted] is an active mapper in [country redacted], supporting [organisation redacted] and the local OSM community and was also one of the lead organizers for [event redacted]).
Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2025/Res33 Approve active contributor membership application #2025071610000302

The Board currently decides on active contributor membership applications based on non-mapping contributions on a case-by-case basis.
Approved on 2025-11-06 with 6 votes in favour: Roland Olbricht, Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Daniela Waltersdorfer, Maurizio Napolitano, Craig Allan, Laura Mugeha. 1 abstained: Brazil Singh.
Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2025/Res34 Approve active contributor membership application #2025102310000097

The Board currently decides on active contributor membership applications based on non-mapping contributions on a case-by-case basis.
Did not pass on 2025-11-09 with 3 abstentions: - Héctor Ochoa Ortiz - Roland Olbricht (I'm totally inconclusive here. I've not found any activity beyond the isolated event for this year. For sure good faith with the past records, but strictly speaking too little) - Craig Allan (I would like to see links to reporting of activities that "[username redacted]" organised, or a personal recommendation from someone well known to the community. For me it is not enough for the applicant to describe their own activities - the activity must be verifiable by others. "[username redacted]" probably has plenty of suitable activity, but lacks the documentation. I'd encourage "[username redacted]" to improve the data provided and then re-submit the application). - 4 did not vote: Brazil Singh, Daniela Waltersdorfer, Maurizio Napolitano, Laura Mugeha.
Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2025/Res35 The board to approve signing the EU Sovereign Tech Fund Public Support Letter

The board to approve signing the EU Sovereign Tech Fund Public Support Letter by Open Forum Europe, directed at the European Commission. The letter and additional background information can be found at https://eu-stf.openforumeurope.org/.
Approved on 2025-11-10 with 5 votes in favour: - Héctor Ochoa Ortiz - Laura Mugeha - Craig Allan - Maurizio Napolitano - Roland Olbricht (It is all in all good. Note that just asking for money is often humiliating. In this case, the initiative includes parties from the industry (who are usually considered to pay the taxes) and Gaia-X who know how to secure huge swathes of money ("cloud" buzzword with the right timing), and some parties with reputation. All in all good company for a fairly unspecific ask for money). 2 did not vote: - Daniela Waltersdorfer - Brazil Singh
Circular by Héctor Ochoa Ortiz.

2025/Res36 Approve active contributor membership application #2025100810000526

The Board currently decides on active contributor membership applications based on non-mapping contributions on a case-by-case basis.
Voting closes on 2025-11-15.
Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2025/Res37 Approve active contributor membership application #2025110910000041

The Board currently decides on active contributor membership applications based on non-mapping contributions on a case-by-case basis.
Voting closes on 2025-11-16.
Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2025/Res38 Approve active contributor membership application #2025110710000277

The Board currently decides on active contributor membership applications based on non-mapping contributions on a case-by-case basis.
Voting closes on 2025-11-16.
Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2025/Res39 Approve active contributor membership application #2025110810000113

The Board currently decides on active contributor membership applications based on non-mapping contributions on a case-by-case basis.
Voting closes on 2025-11-16.
Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2025/Res40 Approve active contributor membership application #2025111110000036

The Board currently decides on active contributor membership applications based on non-mapping contributions on a case-by-case basis.
Voting closes on 2025-11-20.
Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2025/Res41 The board to approve signing of a Letter of Intent with CloudFerro S.A., regarding cooperation to improve the quality of open data

The board to approve signing a Letter of Intent with CloudFerro S.A., regarding cooperation to improve the quality of open data. The background and letter can be found on the internal issue #823.
Voting closes on 2025-11-20. Approved with 4 votes in favour so far: - Laura Mugeha - Héctor Ochoa Ortiz - Brazil Singh (I support signing the LOI as it is a non-binding agreement that allows us to explore cooperation with CloudFerro while ensuring no financial or legal obligations for OSMF). - Maurizio Napolitano (From my side I am in favour of signing the Letter of Intent. I don’t see anything negative in it - it is a non-binding document, it creates no legal or financial obligations for OSMF, and it represents an important first step in building a formal relationship with CloudFerro and, indirectly, with the ESA ecosystem. That said, I think it’s important to underline that the real challenges do not lie in this Lol 1 - Financial and operational management 2 - Continuity of the ESA orthoimagery service) 1 abstained: - Roland Olbricht (The letter requires confidentiality, most likely as boilerplate phrase. But we want to share with our members at least a broad overview of what is going on. I.e. must find a common statement that we seek to make more imagery at least in Europe accessible or so). 2 did not vote yet: - Craig Allan - Daniela Waltersdorfer
Circular by Héctor Ochoa Ortiz.

2025/Res42 The OSMF Board to authorise Amanda McCann to sign the documents from Michelle Heydon handed over by the treasurer on 2025-11-15

The OSMF Board authorises Amanda McCann to sign the documents from Michelle Heydon handed over by the treasurer on 2025-11-15.
Voting closes on 2025-11-26.
Circular by Roland Olbricht (Treasurer).

Note: Amanda McCann is a former OSMF Director and Michelle Heydon is OSMF's bookkeeper.

Chairperson's report

Topic presented by Craig Allan.

Secretary's report

Topic presented by Dani Waltersdorfer.

Treasurer's report

Previous reports during monthly board meetings and general meetings

See the Treasurer's reports on the finances page.

Topic presented by Roland Olbricht.

2025 fundraising campaign

Topic proposed by Héctor.

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

Topic proposed by Héctor and Roland.

UseOSM - proposal to grant trademark licence

Topic proposed by Héctor.

Any other business

Guest comments or questions

Open to all OSM Foundation members (Become a member of the Foundation).

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.
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