OSGeo-BE-general-assembly-minutes-20230516

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting
Date: May 16th Start time: 7:30 PM
The Annual General Meeting commences promptly at the scheduled time. In-person, we are gathered in the upper room of Dolle Mol, with Marc, Celine, Olmo, Simon, Jordan, Gael, and Johan, who joined us towards the end of the meeting. Unfortunately, there is a lot of noise, and the conditions for remote members are not optimal.
Connected via Jitsi, we have Tommy, Maelle, Mathieu, and Roel.
1. Report about the activities organised in 2022 by President Gael Gael reports that in 2022, after the COVID period, contact was reestablished with some former members as well as new members and supporters. Here is an overview of the meetings:
- Spring session on Monday, March 28th at BrewDog Brussels
- After-work event on July 26th, 2022 (BrewDog)
- Foss4G in Firenze in August
- After-work event on September 13th, 2022 (BrewDog)
- FoSS4G & SotM on November 17th, 2022
Additionally, in 2022, the treasurer's official appointment was confirmed with Triodos Bank. Access to the account is now granted to:
- Gael as President
- Roel as Treasurer
- Marc as the person responsible for opening the accounts and the only one with access before the transfer.
For proper management, it was agreed that Roel would handle the account activities. Marc gathered the access information for the different accounts and made it available to everyone in an encrypted file on Google Drive. Furthermore, at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, Gael cleaned up the mailing lists and merged the addresses on both distribution lists: <belgium@lists.osgeo.org> and <belgium-announce@lists.osgeo.org>. Currently, the amount of emails is not considered excessive and of collective interest. Gael proposes prioritizing messages on the most active list, which is <belgium@lists.osgeo.org>.
2. Financial report 2022 Here is the financial statement for 2022.
Regarding the FoSS4G & SotM specifically, it seems that a transfer of funds from a sponsor (Mapbox) is missing. They contributed to the OSM account, as they were co-organizers of the FoSS4G & SotM. Additionally, there is a pending payment from the Walloon region that requires a specific document. Once paid, we would have a positive balance of approximately €300 (to be confirmed with the correct figure). As agreed, the profit and loss of the event will be shared. Upon receipt of the balance, we will distribute the profits.
Below is a zoom on the budget for Foss4G & SotM 2022
Maelle asks if the figures for the 2022 event are comparable to the previous one. The figures from the last event are available in the minutes here. Indeed, the total budget is comparable, although this year's expenses were higher, especially due to translation equipment and financing the after-session. However, the intention was to provide a quality event to our members while assuming the risk of a deficit after the COVID period and the potential risks for participants and sponsors. We deliberately took this risk considering the financial resources at our disposal.
3. Discharge of the members of the Board of Directors for the 2022 financial year. Due to the lack of voting members present at the AGM, Maelle, being the only one, grants discharge to the board.
4. Provisional Budget 2023 Above is the provisional budget.
Note: Gael proposed to support the Phacocher project. Matthieu asks why this was considered. Gael justifies this proposal as follows: It is a non-commercial project published on GitHub, based on the development of open-source software using open data resources, which have the specificity of being of national scale (Bestadress data). The developers requested assistance in covering hosting costs to promote its usage. Gael reminds everyone that OSGEO Belgium aims to bring our members together through the promotion of open-source "geo" software. Geocoding gathers many demands from our community and certainly fulfills this objective. This version is not contradicted and is accepted by the present members.
5.      Election & Resignation
/!\ We are at the end of the mandate, so everything needs to be renewed.
A. Resignations from the Board
- Marc Ducobu
- Dirk Frigne
- Gael Kruwialis (President)
- Oliver May (Secretary as of 2021)
- Tommy Oozeer
- Johan Van de Wauw
- Roel Huybrechts (Treasurer)
- Mathieu Carette
B. Proposal for new Voting Members i. Jordan (proposed by Gael) ii. Celine (proposed by Gael) iii. Charlotte (proposed by Maelle) iv. Simon (proposed by Maelle)
The four new members are unanimously accepted. Welcome to each of them!
D. Proposal for a new board
- President: Gael
- Secretary: None
- Treasurer: Roel None
- Simon
- Marc
- Jordan
E. Voting The new board is accepted and validated for a term of 3 years. Communication will be prioritized through the mailing list.
6. Preview of the events in 2023
-          Events a.
o   Annual General Meeting | (May 16, 2023) | Dolle Mol
o   May 30, 2023, 6-9 PM | Geodev evening: General PostgreSQL & PostGIS Gael will give an introductory presentation on PostgreSQL & PostGIS based on OSGEO's training.
o   June 13, 2023, 6-9 PM | Geodev evening: PostGIS topology | Geopostcodes
o   Foss4G / Qgis-day / SotM | What and how? | to be discussed at the general assembly or on the mailing list...
The discussion excludes the possibility of organizing a joint event with OSM this year, despite the interest shown by participants in the last Foss4G.\
OSM Belgium will organize an SOTM Europe in 2024. The current team can contact them to propose a contribution.
The current board is considering organizing a Belgian Foss4G in 2023.\
Maelle suggests either scheduling our event before or after the SOTM Europe to benefit from the audience.\
Since OSM-be won't be available to assist or collaborate with us, we could schedule it before or after FOSDEM, which will be held on February 3rd-4th, 2024 (e.g., on February 1st, 2024). This way, we can benefit from the international audience and reduce travel costs.\
It is also discussed the possibility of either scaling down the event or complementing it with more technical components such as tutorials and training sessions.
-          Support for the incubation of the Phacochr project (<https://phacochr.github.io/phacochr/>) Refer to the previous discussion.
-          Activity with OSGEO-NL (contact Raymond) The activity is already scheduled with them. However, they have expressed their intention to potentially organize a Foss4G Benelux in 2024. The current board will get in touch to start discussions.
-          Collaboration... openstreetmap.be (Joost - Jonathan?) Regarding closer integration between the two entities, the door remains open on both sides. However, for now, OSM primarily focuses on OKF to clarify their organization and mode of operation.
7.      Agreement to mandate the Board of Directors to take the necessary measures regarding events, strategy, and administrative tasks. Nothing specific.
8. Varia :
. As a reminder, Maelle also proposed during the general meeting that we can organize a BBQ (open to all our community belgium@lists.osgeo.org). For example, we could have it at our President Gaël's place if he's okay with it, or if someone else is willing to host. Alternatively, we could have a simpler get-together in a park (although it might not be as suitable for combining with a work session ;-)).
This gathering would serve as a celebration for the new board and new members, as well as an opportunity to discuss our involvement in State of the Map Europe 2023 (taking place in Antwerp from November 10th to 12th, 2023: https://stateofthemap.eu/).