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Board/Minutes/2026-04-09

From OpenStreetMap Foundation

Board chat - not open to observers.

Draft minutes.

Thursday 9 April 2026 at 13:00 UTC.

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

Acronyms

Participants

  • Brazil Singh
  • Craig Allan
  • Dani Waltersdorfer
  • Héctor Ochoa Ortiz
  • Laura Mugeha
  • Roland Olbricht

Not Present

  • Maurizio Napolitano ("Napo")

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

Guests

Meeting not open to observers.

New action items from this meeting

  • Craig to talk to Napo (Advisory Board liaison) about having a meeting with Mikel Maron (Advisory Board coordinator) regarding the Advisory Board. [Topic: Advisory Board direction for 2026]
  • Craig, and Roland to set up a meeting with Brazil for payment of his flights for F2F and SotM. [Topic: 2026 board face-to-face (F2F) meeting logistics]
  • Board members (except Brazil), Gunner and Dorothea to book their flights. [Topic: 2026 board face-to-face (F2F) meeting logistics]
  • Brazil to look at preferable flights and relay them to Roland, who will handle the booking. Proposed meeting time 15:00 UTC. [Topic: 2026 board face-to-face (F2F) meeting logistics]
  • Dani to create a circular for covering Gunner's and Dorothea's expenses. [Topic: 2026 board face-to-face (F2F) meeting logistics]
  • Dani to notify Gunner about proceeding with the flight booking, and about the hotel reservation, once it takes place. [Topic: 2026 board face-to-face (F2F) meeting logistics]
  • Héctor to take the lead on getting the F2F materials. [Topic: 2026 board face-to-face (F2F) meeting logistics]
  • Brazil to ask the hotel for an invitation letter for his Visa application. [Topic: 2026 board face-to-face (F2F) meeting logistics]
  • Craig and the Secretary to answer the incoming government emails. [Topic: Incoming government communications]
  • Craig to draft a post regarding boundaries and get feedback from the board. [Topic: Incoming government communications]
  • Roland to create a circular to authorise Dorothea to add his and Craig's signatures to the OSMF letter to Fire EU. [Topic: Documents needed by Fire EU]
  • Dorothea to add to the text to Fire EU that Roland will be the next one who OSMF will add as an admin to the OSMF Fire EU bank account, and send the letter to Fire EU. [Topic: Documents needed by Fire EU]

Any other business: On board chat discussions

Topic raised by Craig, before the discussion on the agenda started.

Most board business should be discussed during the board meetings, in front of the OSMF members, not during the board chats. The board chats are to relax and chat, not to grind quickly through a large agenda.

Comments

  • We are a grown organisation and we have enough board business to fill two hours of discussions.
  • Unclear if it is a good idea to open the board chats to OSMF members.
  • 1 hour of public meeting per month is not enough.
  • A lot of topics raised for the board chats, as there hasn't been enough time during the board meetings.

Suggestion: Ask on the community forum that the board has observed that the board chat is full of ordinary business and whether they have suggestions.

Other points mentioned during discussion

  • Nothing confidential on this agenda, except one of the topics.

Advisory Board direction for 2026

Topic proposed by Héctor. Internal board GitLab ticket #961 (accessible to board members).

The Advisory Board (AB) has not met for a while.

There was an email to the board from Mikel Maron (Advisory Board coordinator) two months ago, mentioning

  • that there is no clear indication from the OSMF board on what to prioritise on the Advisory Board.
  • suggesting to pair with a board member who can help drive this.

Mikel seems to be asking someone from the board taking an active role for organising/leading the meetings and the conversations, which he was previously doing. Napo had volunteered for this AB liaison role and expressed interest in being involved. The liaison should be leading the direction.

The board answered Mikel's email, but left one of the points unanswered. Héctor had a private call with Mikel a couple of weeks ago.

Suggestions

  • Give directions to Mikel, in order to resume the Advisory Board meetings.
  • Get a couple of people involved to see what we should be doing.
  • Craig to create a draft (Advisory Board prospectus) and share with the board for asynchronous feedback.
  • Napo and Craig to have a meeting with Mikel regarding the Advisory Board.
  • The board should figure out what is needed to keep people motivated.

Other points mentioned during discussion

  • The Advisory Board is very important for providing advice and for fundraising. E.g. TomTom (Corporate Member) wants to talk to the board during the 2026 face-to-face board meeting,
  • Craig initially wanted to have one-to-one meetings with the companies on the Advisory Board.

Action item

Craig to talk to Napo (Advisory Board liaison) about having a meeting with Mikel Maron (Advisory Board coordinator) regarding the Advisory Board.

2026 board face-to-face (F2F) meeting logistics

Topic proposed by Dani. Internal board GitLab tickets #932 (2026 F2F) and #1011 (2026 F2F hotel research) (accessible to board members).

  • Time: First weekend of June.
  • Venue: Provided by TomTom at their offices in Madrid.
  • Hotels: Dani is working on it. Will look for reservations from Friday to Monday.
  • Brazil's Visa: Roland and Craig to help Brazil.
  • Facilitator: Allen Gunn /Gunner (Aspiration Tech)) confirmed.
  • Food: suggestion to order lunch the day before and invite any TomTom person present during the weekend there.

On Visa invitation letter

  • Héctor offered to write an invitation letter for Brazil's Visa application, in order to attend the F2F board meeting.
  • Craig advised against Héctor inviting Brazil as an individual, and suggested that Brazil can ask the hotel to provide it, as hotels routinely provide such letters.

On F2F materials

  • Héctor offered to take the lead on getting the F2F materials. He will go to Spain a few days earlier and can order them to be delivered there.

Suggestions

  • Sunday: proposed end-time at 16:00, so Roland can look for flights after 18:00.
  • Flights: everyone to proceed with booking (except Brazil).
  • If someone wants to leave on Sunday, we will work directly with the hotel.
  • Create a circular about covering the travel expenses. Dani to create it, unless Roland is faster.

Action items

  • Craig, and Roland to set up a meeting with Brazil for payment of his flights for F2F and SotM.
  • Board members (except Brazil), Gunner and Dorothea to book their flights.
  • Brazil to look at preferable flights and relay them to Roland, who will handle the booking. Proposed meeting time 15:00 UTC.
  • Dani to create a circular for covering Gunner's and Dorothea's expenses.
  • Dani to notify Gunner about proceeding with the flight booking, and about the hotel reservation, once it takes place.
  • Héctor to take the lead on getting the F2F materials.
  • Brazil to ask the hotel for an invitation letter for his Visa application.

Dani was thanked for her work.

Allocating an internal surplus to finance the trip of 3 contractors to SotM 2026

Topic proposed by Héctor. Internal board GitLab ticket #1015 (accessible to board members).

A section of the discussion was not minuted after the board's request.

Suggestions

Other points mentioned during discussion

  • A presentation would be a good opportunity for the community to learn more about our infrastructure.
  • Minh is thinking of proposing a SotM 2026 presentation.
  • Pablo has meetings with Minh, and Héctor joins them once per month.
  • Héctor can talk with Pablo.

Incoming government communications

Topic proposed by Héctor. Internal board GitLab tickets #884, #993, #999, #1001 (accessible to board members).

We are currently receiving several communications by different governments.

Suggestion: Publish an updated document regarding mapping in conflict on the OSMF website - revising the [osmfoundation.org/w/images/d/d8/DisputedTerritoriesInformation.pdf current one] - together with the [Data_Working_Group| Data Working Group]] (DWG). We could point to it when we receive such inquiries.

Action items

  • Craig and the Secretary to answer the government emails.
  • Craig to draft a post regarding boundaries and get feedback from the board.

SotM2026 - Organising OSMF's presence

Topic proposed by Laura. Internal board GitLab tickets #1022, #1023 (SotM booths), #1019 (SotM proposal by Dani: promotional material for fundraising) (accessible to board members).

SotM 2026 call deadline: end of April.

Suggested sessions

  • Have a board "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) session.
  • Have a session regarding fundraising. Plan to have a fundraising drive at end of the year.

Other suggestions

  • Have an OSMF booth, partially staffed by board members, like in Nairobi and Manila.
  • Have some promotional material to sell or give away.
  • Have a regular line in the budget for SotM promotional material to be available on the OSMF booth.
  • The board to present during the EuroSDR workshop after SotM, which will be organised by the national geographic institute of France.
    • EuroSDR: European research event.
    • The EuroSDR organisers noticed SotM2026, and intentionally scheduled EuroSDR after SotM.

On selling some promotional material during SotM for fundraising

In Manila, some board members were asked why we don't do fundraising activities such as other organisations, like OSM US does. OSM US sells very expensive promotional material. While that would not work for Manila, it might work for Europe.

Suggestion Sell e.g. OSM t-shirts/hats/socks - not SotM-themed and not stickers.

Related to fundraising

  • While selling promotional material is not the best way to fundraise, it is a way to raise funds.
  • Showing to members that buying a t-shirt would supporting the Foundation could be interesting.
  • Positive on trying to sell some promotional material.

On ordering t-shirts

  • US order: Dani would need to add a bag to her flight booking, if she takes the t-shirts with her.
    • Bringing t-shirts from the US might have duty fees and end up more expensive than ordering from Europe.
  • Héctor did research for cost on ordering t-shirts:
    • Most cost around EUR 10, if we order enough.
    • There were some cheap at EUR 7.

On whether a circular is needed for the cost

  • Under EUR 500, would be ok.
  • Treasurer: circular not necessary, but we could create one.

Other points mentioned during discussion

  • Craig could help with the design.
  • Roland could bring promotional material from Germany, but doesn't have enough time to be more involved, as there will be some SotM financial tasks that will need his attention.

Héctor was thanked for his research.

Documents needed by Fire EU

Topic suggested by Dorothea. Internal board GitLab ticket #888 (accessible to board members).

Fire EU came back to us and they want an OSMF document signed by two directors, authorising Michelle Heydon (OSMF bookkeeper) to become an admin of our Fire EU business bank account. Dorothea has created the document.

On wet or digital signature

  • The email seems to imply that providing an electronic document with the signatures would be sufficient.
  • Fire EU can notify us if they want a wet signature.

Craig offered to have his signature added.
Héctor offered to sign, if a digital signature is sufficient.

Suggestion: Add to the letter that Roland will be the next one we will add as an admin to the Fire EU account.

Action items

  • Roland to create a circular to authorise Dorothea to add his and Craig's signatures to the OSMF letter to Fire EU.
  • Dorothea to add to the text to Fire EU that Roland will be the next one who OSMF will add as an admin to the OSMF Fire EU bank account, and send the letter to Fire EU.

Any other business

via Dani: Can Grant publish his summary for the OWG work in 2025?

Topic suggested by Dorothea on GitLab, raised by Craig. Internal board GitLab ticket #994 (accessible to board members).

Grant Slater (Senior Site Reliability Engineer) created a summary of Operations Working Group's (OWG) work in 2025, and the board members were asked by Dani if the OWG can publish it. Dani is meeting Grant tomorrow.

Suggestion: Not publish information on security measures.

Other points mentioned during discussion

  • Summary seems ok.
  • We don't have the draft post yet.

Decision seemed to be: OWG can publish the post, after the board has looked at the draft.

QGIS server load and dedicating QGIS Corporate membership fees to server infrastructure

Topic suggested by Dorothea on GitLab, raised by Craig. Internal board GitLab tickets #1004, #1014 (accessible to board members).

Most of the OSMF tile traffic is by QGIS users.

OPS suggestion: have a dedicated server which will deal with all QGIS queries. If the server gets too busy, it will only affect QGIS users.

Some people from OSMF are in contact with QGIS board and some of the suggestions were:

  • Upgrading their Corporate Membership to Platinum.
  • Buying us a server to dedicate it to their traffic.

Suggestion: The OSMF board to have a meeting with the QGIS board.

Other points mentioned during discussion

  • We should have talked to the QGIS board long ago.
  • It is good that QGIS is aware of the situation.

Decision seemed to be: We will negotiate with QGIS about this.

via Napo: Foursquare's proposed collaboration with OSM, regarding an alternative approach to GERS

Topic raised by Maggie Cawley during an Local Chapters and Communities Working Group (LCCWG) meeting. Laura mentioned to her that Foursquare had already reached out to Napo (OSMF board). Topic suggested by Dorothea on the board GitLab, raised by Craig. Internal board GitLab ticket #1005 (accessible to board members).

Suggestion: The board should discuss this only when Napo is present.

OSM US meeting - proposed topics

Topic suggested by Dorothea on GitLab, raised by Héctor. Internal board GitLab tickets #986.

OSM US Inc. is the Local Chapter for USA.

Potential topics

  • Overture. Ask them about Overture and the relationship with them (Global Entity Reference System (GERS) topic - see here), about how Overture could help OSMF in some way and how OSMF could have a relationship with Overture.
  • Executive Director role: the steps they took to arrive there - process for the call/etc.

Suggestion: Make it a "meet and greet" meeting, not an Overture-related meeting.

The board chat was followed by a video-call with the OSM US board.

The board chat ended 56 minutes after start.

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