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Board/Minutes/2026-04

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Participants

["talk" time*] Director's name

  • [12'] Craig Allan (OSMF Chair)
  • [43'] Héctor Ochoa Ortiz (Chairing this meeting)
  • [00'] Maurizio Napolitano
  • [03'] Laura Mugeha
  • [06'] Roland Olbricht (joined 13' after start)

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

Absent

  • Dani Waltersdorfer (apologies)
  • Brazil Singh (apologies)

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

Guests

  • 5 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.

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Administrative

Approval of previous minutes

Circular Resolutions

2026/Res03 The Board to extend Martin Raifer's (iD maintainer) contract for three months, under the current payment and contracting conditions

The Board to extend Martin Raifer's1 (iD maintainer) contract for three months, under the current payment and contracting conditions.

Approved on 2026-04-01 with 4 votes in favour: Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Laura Mugeha, Craig Allan, Roland Olbricht.
3 did not vote: Brazil Singh, Daniela Waltersdorfer, Maurizio Napolitano.

Circular by Héctor Ochoa Ortiz.

Note: 1 See OSMF long-term contractors.

2026/Res04 The board to approve Dorothea's contract extension

The board to approve Dorothea's2 contract extension for 12 months, updating the rate to reflect the current Greek inflation rate.

Approved on 2026-04-01 with 5 votes in favour: Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Craig Allan, Roland Olbricht, Daniela Waltersdorfer, Laura Mugeha.
2 did not vote: Brazil Singh, Maurizio Napolitano.

Circular by Héctor Ochoa Ortiz.

Note: 2 See OSMF long-term contractors.

2026/Res05 Board 2026 face-to-face meeting travel

The board resolves to book and pay the hotel, the flights, and the usual cost per travel policy for the seven board members as well as Dorothea Kazazi and the facilitator3.

Approved on 2026-04-17 with 5 votes in favour: Roland Olbricht, Daniela Waltersdorfer, Laura Mugeha, Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Craig Allan.
2 did not vote: Brazil Singh, Maurizio Napolitano.

Circular by Roland Olbricht.

Note: 3 Allen Gunn (Gunner)/Aspiration Tech. See recurring individual contractors.

Comment during May meeting: Brazil and Dorothea cannot join the meeting.

2026/Res06 Access to Fire-EU OSMF bank account

The board authorizes Dorothea Kazazi to sign4 the letter to set Michelle Heydon (current accountant for the Foundation) as the administrative contact for the Foundation's bank account at Fire.

Approved on 2026-04-17 with 5 votes in favour: Roland Olbricht, Daniela Waltersdorfer, Laura Mugeha, Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Craig Allan.
2 did not vote: Brazil Singh, Maurizio Napolitano.

Circular by Roland Olbricht.

Note: 4 by "sign" the board means they authorise Dorothea to add the Treasurer's signature to the letter.

2026/Res07 SotM2026 swag for OSMF booth

The board approves to spend up to 500 EUR to prepare swag5 for the SotM in Paris. Reasonable proposals shall be approved by simple feedback on Matrix. The board will add a line item in the budget for that..

Approved on 2026-04-17 with 5 votes in favour: Roland Olbricht, Daniela Waltersdorfer, Laura Mugeha, Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Craig Allan.
2 did not vote: Brazil Singh, Maurizio Napolitano.

Circular by Roland Olbricht.

Note: 5 the swag will be for OSMF's booth during the State of the Map 2026 conference.

Suggestion during May meeting: add a line item in the OSMF budget for the swag, so that the line keeps repeating every year and the board does not have to vote for it every year.

2026/Res08 Active contributor membership application #2026011310000086

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

Did not pass on 2026-04-21 with 2 absentions:
- Craig Allan (I cannot find enough third party information to approve or deny this request. It appears from the personal application that the applicant is very much active in the community and would be eligible for contributor membership but we need to see independent information written since April 2025 to make that decision. Older activities from 2024 and before are not eligible. Please re-submit with that information)
- Roland Olbricht (Indeed. 18 mapping days in the last year, a quick Google search did not turn up any other activity, and no visible activity is linked here. I have not been able to watch the YouTube videos for time and bandwidth constraints)
1 in favour: Laura Mugeha (In support, because I know [the applicant - name redacted] from OSM [region redacted]; they contribute mainly through community organizing and leadership as they lead the OSM [country redacted] community. [Phrase redacted as even with the name redaction, it identifies the applicant].
4 did not vote: Brazil Singh, Maurizio Napolitano, Daniela Waltersdorfer, Héctor Ochoa Ortiz.

Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

Chairperson's report

Skipped.

Secretary's report

The report below was provided via email and read by Héctor, as Dani could not attend.

Hello to all joining us. We are excited to provide you with updates on our work completed this past month. As always, please feel free to reach out should you have any comments or questions. We’re here for you!

Board Collaboration and Closed Meeting

The OSM US and OSMF Boards convened for a closed meeting. The main topics included exploring ways to strengthen collaboration, brainstorming fundraising ideas, and holding an official board introductions. It is important to note that all board members serve as volunteers on both sides, dedicating their time and expertise.

Upcoming Events and Submissions

The board has submitted proposals for an AMA (Ask Me Anything) and a fundraising discussion at the State of the Map (SotM) 2026 conference. These submissions are currently pending approval by the SotM program committee.

Expert Representation

Our director and secretary, Dani Waltersdorfer Jimenez, participated in a presentation at the US National Academies expert meeting, providing valuable insights and representing OSMF at a national level.

Community Engagement with TomTom

Héctor Ochoa Ortiz held a closed meeting with TomTom to discuss their intention to share information with the OSM community regarding the detection of potential vandalism and problematic edits. This collaboration aims to enhance the integrity and quality of mapping data.

International Leadership and Panels

Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, in his capacity as OSMF Director, attended the GKI Summit during the Geospatial World Forum and will participate in an upcoming panel discussion on May 1st. The session, titled "Scaling GKI: Public–Private Partnerships and Cross-Agency Delivery Models," will focus on collaborative approaches in geospatial innovation.

F2F Logistics and Participation

We have updates regarding face-to-face meeting logistics. Unfortunately, Brazil Singh will not be able to attend this round of meetings. The Board and a facilitator will be gathering in Madrid for an all-weekend meeting on June 6-7.

Corporate Social Impact Partnership

Héctor Ochoa Ortiz met with Gore Mutual (Canada) to discuss facilitating an OSM online mapping session for their employees. Gore Mutual has offered a €1,450 honorarium to OSMF, and the session will be part of the company's Community Day, which is a Social Impact initiative.

We remain committed to advancing our mission by engaging in meaningful collaborations, representing our community at expert forums, and facilitating impactful events and sessions. Please stay tuned for more updates and feel free to reach out with any feedback or questions.

Thank you for your continued support and engagement!

Roland joined 13' after start.

Comments by board members

Meeting of OSMF board with the OSM US board

It was a first, exploratory meeting, as the OSMF board felt that it didn't have enough collaboration with different Local Chapter (LCs). The board wanted to talk with OSM US first, as:

  • there are some shared shared resources that we need to tackle.
  • Executive director: OSMF is looking into getting an executive director - a process that OSM US has already gone through.
  • discussion on challenges, for example how to have more talks with businesses that use OSM data.

We will see if it makes sense to have meetings with other Local Chapters, as it is important and we are not doing enough.

TomTom's sharing vandalism detection information with the OSM community

TomTom is developing a new tool to analyse vandalism on OSM and they proposed sharing it with the OSM community. Héctor pointed them towards the Data Working Group (DWG). It would be nice if TomTom wants to open the tool.

Héctor's participation at the Geospatial World Forum (GWF) 2026 at RAI Amsterdam
GWF is a professional conference which a lot of industry people are attending. OSM is integral for some of the companies, but has not been represented in business conferences. It is important to be present and to communicate that funding is needed for the project's sustainability - something that people seemed to understand.

  • During GWF Héctor had discussions about tackling bots scraping osm.org. We already provide all the OSM data for free via planet files.
  • Héctor might publish a diary post about his GWF attendance.

Héctor thanked the GWF conference organisers for providing a free ticket to OSMF.

The OSM community can contact the board at board@osmfoundation.org if they have any questions.

Question on whether the board is going to have one-on-one meetings with the other Local Chapters as well

Question by imagico (guest) on the chat about whether the OSMF board will have meetings with other Local Chapters as well.

  • It would be good to have more communications and alignment with OSM Local Chapters.
  • The board would organise a meeting in short time, if it was requested by a Local Chapter.
  • Some Local Chapters might not see a necessity to talk with the OSMF board.
  • The board is happy to also talk with local groups, if a country does not have a Local Chapter yet.

Roland apologised again to OSM France, for not informing them about the board discussions with the French Cadastre, when OSMF was approached regarding the naming of a French Cadastre project. Roland would also like to apologise in person - potentially at State of the Map 2026, in Paris.

Other points mentioned during discussion

  • The first meeting with OSM US has gone well.
  • The Advisory Board meetings, which include Local Chapter representatives, take place twice a year, and could be used if one-to-one meetings do not make sense.
  • The board is talking too little to people, and it is good to talk more.
  • The board is thinking of reviving the community presentations during OSMF board meetings.

Treasurer's report

Provided by the Treasurer, Roland Olbricht, via text before the meeting.

Bank of Ireland account

OSMF's Bank of Ireland (BoI) account is in a healthy state. And I have used the last hours to ensure that all payments to contractors for which we have the invoices are done. Rubén López Mendoza's (GPS trace revamp) payment has not worked out so far: BoI cannot transfer to Peru, and Fire EU is not yet available again.

Fire EU bank account

Fire EU received again a copy of my passport today, and I hope again that it will be the last document they need.

2026 Board face-to-face meeting: hotel payment

The payment to the hotel for the face-to-face board meeting in June should go out this evening.

Creation of OSMF account on BTC exchange service

Options for BTC exchange services (also see the table above)

  • SwapinCollect: had rates on their website.
  • Monetum: Héctor had a call with their team. On fees:
    • They can waive the bank-account opening fee for OSMF, as we already have a bank-account and are non-profit.
    • 1% conversion fee on BTC to EUR conversion.
    • flat rate of 2,50 EUR/transaction on SEPA out.

Héctor was thanked for his work.

Other points mentioned during discussion

  • BTC donations to OSM should not be channeled through Grant.
  • The recent donation is about USD 72,000, so the board should not spend a lot on time in choosing a BTC exchange service.
  • If the selected BTC exchange service is bad, we can change in the future.

Vote to use Monetum for exchanges of BTC donations to fiat

Motion: The board resolves to use Monetum for Bitcoin transfers.

Approved on 2026-04-30 with,

  • 4 votes in favour: Craig Allan, Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Laura Mugeha, Roland Olbricht.
  • 3 did not vote: Brazil Singh (absent), Daniela Waltersdorfer (absent), Maurizio Napolitano (absent during the vote).
Motion proposed by Craig Allan, seconded by Héctor Ochoa Ortiz.

Financing the trip to State of the Map 2026 for the Sovereign Tech Fund contractors

The Sovereign Tech Agency funding has allowed OSMF to save money on other parts of the OSMF budget, so the internal surplus will be spent - no Sovereign Tech funds will be spent.

Suggestion by Minh

Other points mentioned during discussion

  • Héctor is managing Minh Nguyễn, who manages the other two Sovereign Tech Fund contractors: Pablo Brasero Moreno and Rubén López Mendoza.
  • The board has discussed the topic during March closed chat and suggested a State of the Map (SotM) 2026 workshop. Minh submitted a SotM2026 talk proposal.
  • The three contractors have not met in person and would benefit from meeting other developers at the conference.

Vote to finance the trip to State of the Map 2026 for the 3 Sovereign Tech Fund contractors

Motion: The board resolves to finance the trip to SotM2026 for the 3 Sovereign Tech Fund contractors

Approved on 2026-04-30 with,

  • 4 votes in favour: Craig Allan, Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Laura Mugeha, Roland Olbricht.
  • 3 did not vote: Brazil Singh (absent), Daniela Waltersdorfer (absent), Maurizio Napolitano (absent during the vote).
Motion proposed by Craig Allan, seconded by Héctor Ochoa Ortiz.

Restarting community presentations during board meetings

During previous public board meetings, the board had invited communities, users, and projects to present their work to the OSMF board and to the members who attend the board meetings.

The board invites expression of interest from OSM Local Chapters, projects and communities to give presentations during board meetings and suggestions about who to invite. Please email board@osmfoundation.org.

  • The presentations showing on-the-ground use of OSM, for example the OSM for the blind project, have been very moving to Craig.
  • It is very important to make the public meetings more interactive.
  • The board can become aware of things happening in the OSM ecosystem.

OSMF's move to the EU

The board has identified a Belgian legal firm and an accounting firm for the Belgium entity. The legal firm has sent us onboarding paperwork. Craig is waiting for the Treasurer's approval to start spending the funds which we have set aside for the OSMF move to the EU (up to EUR 8,000).

The legal firm will help us to set up a new company in Belgium. It will likely take months.

On Directors

We will probably draw EU members from the existing OSMF board to be Directors of the Belgian entity.

On operations

  • Most of our operations are already taking place in Dublin and Amsterdam.
  • Do we move the database to Europe, and how?
  • The legal firm has an intellectual property expert and Maurizio Napolitano knows someone as well.

On accounting

We have a candidate accounting company that specialises in dealing with NGOs and which has applied to be the accounting firm for the Belgian entity - Craig has talked to them and they have sent us on-boarding paperwork. In order to provide us a quote for their work, they have asked us how many transactions we do. Craig has forwarded that to the Treasurer, Roland Olbricht, and to the OSMF bookkeeper, Michelle Heydon.

Next step

Agree to start paying the companies.

On OSMF members' actions

  • The OSMF members will have to obtain a new membership with the Belgian entity.
  • The OSMF members can keep the membership with the UK entity, if they wish.
  • Can't transfer the membership between the Belgian and UK companies.
  • We will put out appeals for people to obtain a membership with the Belgian entity.
  • Unclear yet whether the membership will be free the first time.

Other points mentioned during discussion

Fundraising drive 2026

The focus of the 2026 fundraising campaign will be on the need to raise funds for the second paid system administrator. The board plans to ask some of the major Corporate Members to make a special contribution, as a second systems operator will improve the risk factor for all those people who use OSM for commercial purposes. Need to make the core infrastructure reliable for the future.

The OSM system is fragile and osm.org is suffering from scraping attacks by AI bots. Héctor has been talking with companies' representatives during Geospatial World Forum (GWF) 2026, where there was a talk focusing on scraping issues and how to move forward. Héctor has been describing how we do a lot with little money and work by many volunteers. Some of the companies he has talked to are considering joining as corporate members, to keep OSM sustainable and running.

Suggestions

  • Have a one pager for the fundraising drive and plan.
  • Focus on communication.
  • Ask corporate donors to help to get the new systems operator in place.
  • Have a planning meeting to focus on communications.

Other points mentioned during discussion

  • The expectation is that we will get the larger part of funding from larger corporations.
  • Community donations are important to ensure that the community retains the control and to spread the message about the financial situation of the Foundation.
  • There is a lot of useful work and relative little administration.
  • In some cases, OSM is the only data source, and OSM is used not only by commercial companies, but also by research organisations.

Action item

Craig to arrange a board planning meeting to focus on communications.

Decision

The board to have an online chat on 2026-05-07 at 13:00 UTC, focusing on 2026 fundraising drive communications.

Any other business

Guest comments or questions

Comments on Héctor’s meeting with TomTom regarding vandalism detection

Question by rphyrin (guest) on if there any follow-up on Hector’s meeting with TomTom regarding vandalism. rphyrin added that "I’m thinking that the OSMF (and TomTom) could facilitate a discussion forum with the wider OpenStreetMap community to address this problem together. Alternatively, we could start a new working group focused on (1) combating vandalism, (2) facilitating dispute resolution around local tagging, and (3) promoting a healthier local mapping ecosystem that is free from unproductive conflict and vandalism. This working group wouldn’t have the authority to issue bans like the Data Working Group (DWG), but would instead focus on preventive efforts before the DWG ultimately steps in."

TomTom has an automated process which adds a flag to OSM changesets related to whether the changeset is suspected of vandalism or not - in a similar way to OSMCha. Laura shared that this is part of their data quality initiative. and that for OSM Africa communities, they create Map Roulette challenges to resolve quality issues and reach out to mappers who may may be responsible for the vandalism.

Héctor noted that TomTom is happy to share their vandalism detection with the OSM community, but were unsure who would be interested. He has pointed them to the DWG and he believes that it makes sense to open it to the community as well.

Unclear whether a dedicated Working Group would make sense - the initiative should come from the community.

Other points mentioned during discussion

  • Héctor to suggest to TomTom to present their processing to the OSM community.
  • rphyrin mentioned that weeklyOSM contributors sometimes have to mediate conflicts regarding ‘vandalism’ and 'accusations of vandalism'.

Suggestion about a "birds of a feather" self-organised session by the Sovereign Tech Fund contractors at State of the Map 2026 conference

Comment by SeverinGeo (guest) that, regarding the Sovereign Tech Fund (STF) contractors, it may be too late for them to submit a SotM talk, but they could propose to present what they are doing in a Bird of feathers session.

  • They have probably submitted a SotM 2026 talk.
  • Héctor needs to catch up with Minh Nguyễn (OSM core software development facilitator), who has meetings with Rubén López Mendoza (OSM core software engineer) and Pablo Brasero Moreno (GPS trace revamp).

Comment about the board budgeting for SotM 2026 swag (OSMF's booth), while being a CWG task

SimonPoole ( guest, former OSMF Director and former LWG Chair) prefaced his first point by saying that it has its roots in a two decade old problem which is definitely not the fault of this board. Simon commented that the OSMF board should not be budgeting swag for SotM, as this is clearly in the remit of the Communication Working Group (CWG), they should budget for it, and it is not a board job. If the CWG can't do it, then it should be disbanded.

  • It would be nice if CWG would do this.
  • The swag is just for the OSMF table, where board members usually are found - not for the whole conference.
  • The CWG has been inactive recently.
    • Comment by Simon that this has been the case for the last two decades.
  • Ideas on how to make the CWG active are welcome.

Suggestion: The board to set up a meeting with the CWG, during one of the CWG regular meetings.

Caution to the board on not taking the OSMF members' along, regarding the OSMF's move to the EU

SimonPoole ( guest, former OSMF Director and former LWG Chair) mentioned that his main problem is that we didn't move OSMF to the EU six year ago and that he sees a certain danger that the board is not taking the members along. Simon added that there has never been any discussion in the membership itself whether we really want to move to the EU, because a plan has never been presented to the membership. While one ,could argue whether a formal approval is needed for OSMF's move to the EU, Simon thinks it is very important and it would be good form to take the membership along on this journey, particularly because the plans have changed over the years and he doesn't think there is any wider knowledge about what is actually going to happen or what the board's plan is regarding the OSMF's move to the EU.

  • We are a good deal away from having a plan. The legal environment in Belgium will impose some restrictions, so it would be dishonest to present a plan, without having it checked against the legal framework.
  • The board's intent is to transfer the Foundation and our articles of association as much one-by-one as possible.

On working with legal firms

  • The first law firm which OSMF had contacted, had badly misunderstood how OSMF works.
  • The board has now contacted a second law firm. The Treasurer is optimistic that they have a better understanding of OSMF and that they can come up with an actionable plan.

On draft Articles of Association for the Belgian entity

  • The board does not have yet formulated draft Belgian Articles of Association which are a proper representation of the Foundation and are compliant with the Belgian law.

On communicating with the membership

  • Agreement that Simon's point is valid.
  • Suggestion: publish a blog post, explaining the status, current work on the OSMF move to the EU and asking for feedback.

Decision

Craig to lead a board team and publish a post regarding the OSMF's move to the EU, in the next week.

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