Board Meeting 2024-12-01

This board meeting is scheduled Sunday 01 December 2024 at 12:00 UTC through Jitsi, a record of motions is preserved on Loomio and actions on the OSGeo todo issue tracker.
This is a F2F meeting during the FOSS4G 2024 event.
== Agenda ==
=== Current items ===
# roll call 
# appoint meeting chair, meeting scribe/secretary
# Review and approve past minutes
#* Board_Meeting_2024-10-29
# OSGeo finances
# FOSS4G Global and Regional events in the future
# Status of OSGeo as a 501(c)(3) organization
# OGC-ASF-OSGeo Joint Code Sprint 2025
# SAC Budget increase request
# OSGeo Budget 2025
# OSGeo and UN/WMO collaboration
# Status of UN Committee (UNGGIM - proposal: SDG Open Source Alliance ) 
# [OSGeo Website Workplan]
# Board nomination procedure
# Add your topic here
== Minutes ==
* Presiding: Marco
* Scribing: Codrina, Angelos
* Attending: Michael, Vicky, Jeroen, Codrina, Ariel, Marco, Tom, Angelos (online), Rajat (online) 
* Guests: Tatiana, Brian Hamlin (online)
=== Review and approve past minutes ===
* Board_Meeting_2024-10-29
* Motion passed on Loomio: https://www.loomio.com/p/BYMA2kHn/motion-to-approve-meeting-minutes-from-board-meeting-2024-10-29 
=== OSGeo finances ===
* No Information about FOSS4G 2022 (Firenze). We expect 60k Euro to be transferred to OSGeo
* FOSS4G 2023 (Prizren) is closed
* Estimates from Belem: 17k USD
* FOSS4G 2019 (Bucharest): by end of 2024, the LOC to transfer to OSGeo account 30k Euro; until the end of July approx. 45k Euro.
* FOSS4G Europe might contribute back some budget approx. 20k
* Current balance:
Wise (EU) €2,753.72
Wise (USD) $7,705.71
Wise (GBP) £391.00
PayPal (EU) €10,918.36
PayPal (USD) $13,090.84
TD Bank $102,854.88
Totals
USD $123,651.43
EU €13,672.08
GBP £391.00
Total (estimate)
USD $138,640.40
* OSGeo sponsor plan
** Proposal to have sponsorship at OSGeo directly, then OSGeo offer the sponsorship position to global conferences and some local conferences.
** Maybe a part time funded role to handle sponsors?
** Proposal to be discussed: having a part time paid person to support with the organisation of sponsorship ;
** ACTION: (Jeroen to start, and then all) to start a collaborative document to define a sponsorship model where the sponsors pay OSGeo and OSGeo then supports financially the global as well as the regional FOSS4Gs which also comes with a set of FOSS4G sponsors (gold, diamond etc. ). 
* Rename the Sponsorship at OSGeo level into Sustaining Memberships.
** Redefine sponsor levels, perhaps add a highest level targeting very large enterprises.
* CRA will impact developers and companies of our community
=== FOSS4G Global and Regional events in the future ===
* Discussing on the document prepared by Jeroen: 
* Agreements in the form of a MoU, with regions (ex. Europe, North America, Oceania, Asia) for the regional events
* Time of year should be consistent (e.g. September-October) - Regional conferences suggested to happen in the April-May timeframe.
* Discussion about planning 2 years ahead, that would give time to react if something does not go as planned.
* Try to reach an agreement with regional events to be 3 months away from the global one
* Maybe we need to make a transition of the name FOSS4G for the OSGeo conferences, a name that OSGeo would have trademark and thus have a bit of control of the regional conferences that use the name;
* We should decide on a few clear steps related to the organization of the global FOSS4G:
** Minimum 2 years time for call for proposal for the global FOSS4G, aiming to extending it to 3 years in advance;
** The final decision on the FOSS4G global event should be taken by the end of March;
** ACTION: (Codrina) Talk to CC to put out 2 calls for proposal: 2026 and 2027 
** Consistency on planning time for the FOSS4G global (for example, always in September - October) - timeframe for events draft : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J_mS8K8OFmZkB7r3_M-2QJd5lW59urx7t-ZP7ORB7_o/edit?gid=0#gid=0 
* For regional FOSS4Gs we could propose April-May, so conference won’t overlap
* At this point, OSGeo has 2 code sprints: Joint Code Sprint (with OGC and Apache), OSGeo code sprint;
* ACTION: (Codrina to start and then all to collaborate) to make a list, a summary of what OSGeo offers in support of the regional conferences, such as: support from the conference resources working group, access to infrastructure: website, pretalax, access to mailchimp, share financial risk, support through sponsorship/ seed money - in return, we need to draft on the requirements that we have, for example to organize the conference in April - May; 
* Discussing region rotation vs preference.
* Semantics: Use the name Continental conference instead of Regional conference.
* Goal calendar: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J_mS8K8OFmZkB7r3_M-2QJd5lW59urx7t-ZP7ORB7_o/edit?usp=sharing 
=== Status of OSGeo as a 501(c)(3) organization ===
* We can get donations, but they are not tax deductible; Companies that donate to OSGeo pay taxes on the money they give us; 
* To open the discussions with the IRS for OSGeo to become a 501(c)(3) organisation, we need a lawyer to help us;
* A 501(c)(3) organisation would allow tax free donations; 
* ACTION: Mike will review the EZ application and see if we qualify and do a bit more investigation on what might be involved in reapplying to the IRS.
* We could also consider changing from sponsorship to sustaining members, such as in the QGIS. 
=== OGC-ASF-OSGeo Joint Code Sprint 2025 ===
* OGC is handling the organization
* A difference between OSGeo and joint OGC-ASF-OSGeo, is that the latter is much more organised, with a clear agenda and goals to achieve during the working time. If the joint code sprint (OGC, OSGeo, Apache), the result is also written in an engineering report.
* OSGeo alone: preferable make it near March. Opportunistic.
 
=== SAC Budget increase request ===
* 100% up for working hours needed, this year; 300h requested for 2024 vs 150h requested for 2023
* https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/SAC:Budget#2023 vs https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/SAC:Budget#2024 
* For next year, we should redefine what we need vs the costs required, for example jitsi, mail server, discourse, gitea, trac, etc.
* For future reference, we need to align the SAC budget to the goals of OSGeo;
* ACTION (Vicky): Vicky to ask Regina to send an official request from SAC with the exact amount and then the board will decide; 
* Based on the amount requested, the sum might be included in the 2024 or the 2025 budget.
* Tom to be part of the SAC on behalf of the board.
=== OSGeo Budget 2025 ===
* The elections of the board and the budget discussions and decision are connected; 
* For 2025, the wiki page is prepared, the email to projects have been sent by Angelos, the projects now have to send out their budget requests by the end of the year.
* https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2024-October/013569.html 
* https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2024-October/040197.html 
=== OSGeo and UN/WMO collaboration ===
* WMO has been using FOSS for a long time, now there is interest in having an open source software office - “to get a WMO approved FOSS” - this could be of support for the OSGeo members
* We are considering in extending the involvement of OSGeo involved people working the Met Offices in the collaboration with WMO - maybe even within the form of an MoU;
=== Status of UN Committee ===
* Updates from Ariel about UN meetings
* https://ggim.un.org/UN-IGIF/ 
* Participate in OSPO NY in July
* Donation of IDE Americas UNGGIM Node by one of OSGeo's service partners
* Participation in the Geospatial Societies network
* Participation in the 14th session international UNGGIM
* Participation in the High Level forum and UNGGIM America Session
=== OSGeo Website Workplan ===
* https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZLW7x22kwku1_FwotJ3VsF1cnCXYmXT1U_5tSqWAST8/edit?usp=sharing 
* This is linked with the following budget request from Marketing Committee: https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Marketing_Committee_Budget_2025 
=== Board nomination procedure ===
* Discussion about self nomination for any board member.
* Charter members (including board members that are finishing their term) should be able to nominate themselves to run in the board elections;
* ACTION: Marco (Next board votes) to make a motion on the decision that “Charter members should be able to nominate themselves to run in the board elections” 
=== Board roles ===
* ACTION: (Marco, All) start a list to define specific activities/roles for board members: liaison with Conference Committee, liaison with Sponsorship, liaison with SAC, liaison with Continental Local Chapters, such as OSGeo European Local Chapter (a regional vice president) etc. 
=== Actions ===
* See https://git.osgeo.org/gitea/osgeo/todo/issues
== IRC Log ==
* no log, Jitsi meeting
== Next meeting ==
*Board Meeting 2024-12-30
Category:Board
Category:Board Meetings 2024