Report to OSMF Board
26 January 2023

OSMF Strategic Plan Outline - 2023 Cycle
Proposal:

It is proposed that the OSMF Strategic Plan Outline, as approved by the Board on July
2021, should be enhanced in a new planning cycle that will be a community driven planning
process to be undertaken in the first half of 2023.
Motivation

A Strategic Plan is an important tool for co-ordinating the work of the OSM Foundation, forprioritisation and resource allocation and for ensuring that implementation of development
projects is consciously brought to the forefront of the Board's work. A plan with well-definedtasks supports delegation of work and contracting out of work, which makes for a morestrategic, less operational Board, which has been a goal for some time. A Strategic Plan is
also an asset when negotiating with Corporate and individual donors. It builds aninstitutional reputation of being business-like, focused and efficient and can help donors
have more confidence that their contributions will be directed to important projects. The
current Strategic Plan Outline may be seen athttps://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Strategic_Plan_Outline

The OSMF Strategic Plan Outline was developed in a highly participative process,managed by the then Board Chair Allan Mustard. The development of the Outline was anotable achievement, but in the time available in that cycle the full strategic process could
not be followed to its conclusion. The Outline does not yet fully develop the strategies
collected during the last participative process into an implementable Task level. Without thatlevel the Plan cannot easily lead to projects addressing the work implied by the strategies.
Programme

In this 2023 Cycle, it is proposed that the implementation layer will be enhanced, again
through a highly participative process. It is planned that the participation should reach as
much of the global OSM community as possible. This is designed to ensure that manyproblems and successes of OSM will be surfaced from community contributions and will be
used to improve the plan and our activities.

The community outreach will be supported by several Wiki pages in multiple languages
introducing the work of the OSMF, describing the Strategic Plan Outline 2023 Cycle, linking
to the current plan in a revised format and describing the many ways the community can torespond to the Board with suggestions for the plan. Communities will be contacted by using
the variety of social media and other channels used used globally for discussions on OSM.
More specialised communities, like Donors, Developers, Board and WG members andBoard and WG alumni will be directly consulted, particularly on the more technical and task
development aspects. The consultation list will be available to the Board.
Contributions received will be acknowledged and contributors will be identified (subject totheir approval as some contributors may wish to remain anonymous to the larger
Report to OSMF Board - OSMF Strategic Plan Outline - 2023 Cycle

Page 1 of 2community). The new information will be added to the Strategic Outline Plan in theappropriate places, and will be developed into Tasks by the addition of implementation
details. The advice of the Consultative panel will be valuable for prioritisation of tasks, theestimation of resources required, the assignment of work and all the details of tasking.

The end result, or deliverable, will be an updated Strategic Plan Outline, that can be closely
linked to a realistic, implementable work programme stretching over the next five years.
Resource constraints, both financial and human, will prevent all tasks starting
simultaneously. Implementation has to be a process of rolling out development projects at apace consistent with staying within the resources available. The plan includes strategies toincrease resources, so if resources are successfully boosted the roll-out plan will beaccelerated.
Timeline

There is some urgency in preparing the Strategic Plan Outline 2023 Cycle. The Treasurer inparticular needs the Plan to support fundraising efforts. There are also many urgent OSMF
tasks which have been stalled for a while. It is hoped that the completion of the plan in ashort time will give impetus to starting many of the neglected projects before the second
half of this year.
The team will make every effort to have at a draft version of the 2023 Cycle ready by midyear. Early versions will be published in an unfinished state for the information of the Boardand for community comment. The Board and Community will be kept informed of progress
on a monthly basis.
The final version will be submitted to the Board for formal approval in the third quarter of2023.
The Team

There are three members on the Strategic Planning team. They will be supplemented byspecialists and supporters as necessary.

The members are Allan Mustard (Board alumnus), Sarah Hoffmann (Board) and Craig Allan(Board).
Resolution

The Board is asked to approve the following resolution:"This Board supports the preparation of the Strategic Plan Outline Cycle 2023, as describedin the report."

Report to OSMF Board - OSMF Strategic Plan Outline - 2023 Cycle

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