Annual General Meetings/08 Report

From OpenStreetMap Foundation

Meeting Report

Here are my informal notes on this year’s AGM in London. Any inaccuracies are mine.

Michael Collinson OSMF membership secretary

Chairman’s Address (Steve Coast)

Chairman Steve Coast remarked that he was delighted with the continuing growth of OpenStreetMap, up from 12,000 confirmed OSM website registrations one year ago to 59,000 – with probably the biggest spike just yesterday [Friday September 28th] of 1,000. The movement as a whole has significantly matured with volunteers taking up specific separate roles in coding, server administration, the OSMF board and other areas. As well as a significant force for social good, the ethos and activities of OSM are legitimizing in the commercial world too, as ITO, Cloudmade and Geofabrik testify.

Treasurer’s Report

Treasurer Etienne Cherdlu presented draft Income and Balance Sheet statements for the last 11 months. He highlighted the following areas:

  • Income 17,000 UK pounds, Expenses 14,000 pounds, retained earnings 2,500 pounds.
  • The main income activity came from commercial sponsorship and registration fees for the State of The Map 2008 Conference held in Limerick in July. Donations and membership fees also played an important role.
  • On the expense side, State of The Map was also the major activity (hire of the conference facility etc). 3,500 pounds was spent on hardware to support the OSM system – this was low and there is a surplus in the budget to increase this over the coming few months. 600 pounds was spent on ongoing legal advice on transferring to a new license, currently know as the Open DataBase License. The other item of significant expenditure was for travel to promote OSM at key conferences and meetings.
  • The general trend of the Foundation’s finances is gently upwards. Setting aside one generous large anonymous donation of 6,000 pounds in the previous year, the rate of donations is particularly encouragingly up and much appreciated. There was a significant number of amounts in the 15 to 100 pound range.

Election Of Officers

Here are the results:

  • Nick Black 25 Newly elected
  • Etienne Cherdlu 30 Re-elected
  • Michael Collinson 25 Re-elected
  • Henk Hoff 19 Newly elected
  • Mikel Maron 25 Re-elected
  • Andy Robinson 29 Re-elected
  • Simone Cortesi 11
  • Grant Slater 18
  • Richard Weait 10

(The Chairman’s position is not up for re-election this year)

The Chairman welcomed new board members Nick Black and Henk Hoff and thanked retiring members Richard Fairhurst and Corey Burger as well as all who had put themselves forward in the election.

Attendance

A total of 12 persons attended the meeting.