The governing structure must not be a chain of command, but rather a framework for dialogue, deliberation, and coordination among equals. The GeoData Alliance belongs to its members. It is carefully designed to ensure that participants can organize themselves at any scale, up to the global scale, while keeping power, authority, and decision making at the smallest or most local level that includes all relevant and affected parties.
Members govern themselves and the parts of the network in which they participate.
A council of trustees, elected by members, is responsible only for those few deliberations and decisions that concern the whole of the GeoData Alliance. There is no self-perpetuating board that governs the organization or controls the activity of members. Eric Anderson is City Manager, Des Moines, Iowa, and a member of the Mapping Science Committee of the National Research Council. Building a Strategy for the Nation. She was Project Manager for the 1999 National GeoData Forum and in 1998 led the development of the FGDC-endorsed policy on open access and personal information privacy.