Only the final version of each motion is presented.

Location: Channel "OSMF Board of Directors (Public)" on Mumble.
Date and time: Thursday 30 January 2020, 17:00 UTC - Countdown

Participants

Board members

Allan Mustard (chairperson)
Paul Norman
Rory McCann
Guillaume Rischard
Joost Schouppe
Tobias Knerr
Mikel Maron

Biographies.

Guests

12 guests.

Open to all OSMF members.

Guests are welcome to speak at the end of the meeting on the topics that have been discussed. Please note that text messages sent on Mumble chat may not be seen by people who join using mobile apps.

Not Present

Administrative

Previous minutes

Board/Minutes/2019-12 Accepted

Circular Resolutions

Board_Rules_of_Order#7._Circular_Resolutions

2020/Res01 Approve financial hardship fee waiver 2019120910000087

The Board currently decides on membership applications for a fee waiver due to financial need on a case-by-case basis.
Accepted 2020-01-14 with 5 votes in favour: Mikel Maron, Rory McCann, Joost Schouppe, Tobias Knerr, Guillaume Rischard. 2 not voted: Allan Mustard, Paul Norman.

2020/Res02 Approve financial hardship fee waiver 2019120710000116

The Board currently decides on membership applications for a fee waiver due to financial need on a case-by-case basis.
Accepted 2020-01-14 with 5 votes in favour: Mikel Maron, Rory McCann, Joost Schouppe, Tobias Knerr, Guillaume Rischard. 1 against: Paul Norman. 1 not voted: Allan Mustard.

2020/Res03 Approve financial hardship fee waiver 2019120410000087

The Board currently decides on membership applications for a fee waiver due to financial need on a case-by-case basis.
Accepted 2020-01-14 with 5 votes in favour: Mikel Maron, Tobias Knerr, Rory McCann, Joost Schouppe, Guillaume Rischard. 2 not voted: Allan Mustard, Paul Norman.

2020/Res04 Approve financial hardship fee waiver 2019122510000083

The Board currently decides on membership applications for a fee waiver due to financial need on a case-by-case basis.
Accepted 2020-01-21 with 3 votes in favour: Mikel Maron, Guillaume Rischard ("Significant mapping contribution"), Rory McCann. 2 against: Paul Norman ("Does not list any financial hardship") , Joost Schouppe ("No info about hardship"). 1 abstained: Tobias Knerr ("Application is missing information about financial hardship, but with the extended fee waiver on the horizon, I'm reluctant to reject it on that basis."). 1 not voted: Allan Mustard.

2020/Res05 Approve financial hardship fee waiver 2020010110000074

The Board currently decides on membership applications for a fee waiver due to financial need on a case-by-case basis.
Accepted 2020-01-21 with 5 votes in favour: Mikel Maron, Joost Schouppe, Paul Norman, Rory McCann, Tobias Knerr. 2 not voted: Allan Mustard, Guillaume Rischard.

2020/Res06 Approve financial hardship fee waiver 2020011510000021

The Board currently decides on membership applications for a fee waiver due to financial need on a case-by-case basis.
Accepted 2020-01-23 with 3 votes in favour: Guillaume Rischard ("Significant mapping contribution"), Rory McCann, Tobias Knerr 2 against: Paul Norman ("Minimal information on financial hardship"), Joost Schouppe ("This is a bit low effort"). 1 abstained: Allan Mustard ("Good mapper but insufficient data on financial hardship"). 1 not voted: Mikel Maron.

Previous action items

The list is sortable, expandable and contains items that did not arise from board meetings. Incomplete.

Name	Date	Action item and status	Source	Related to
Board	2019-09	to decide about registration at the Benevity Causes Portal	email	Donation
Board	2019-07	to decide on next steps regarding an email service for OSMF.	email	FOSS policy
Board	2019-06	to decide on next steps regarding the request from a contributor to notify Facebook and remove their rights under ODbL if the violation is not fixed after 30 days of notice, as written on ODbL. # Related talk@ discussion The decision seems to be (2019-10) to work on a running document (questions/opportunities/decisions to be made) and contact Facebook afterwards with a list of questions.	email	LWG
~~Frederik/Heather~~	2019-05-18	to complete and share job description for someone to prepare a pull request for acceptance against the current “openstreetmap-website” code that will implement these changes (related blogpost). # Possibly completed.	F2F 2019	GDPR
Guillaume	2019-12-23	to pay Loomio when our free period runs out.	Meeting	Loomio
Joost~~/Heather~~	2019-10-16	to work on a running document regarding Facebook attribution.	Meeting	Facebook
Joost~~/Heather~~	2019-10-16	to work on a blogpost regarding Microgrants.	Meeting	Microgrants
Joost ~~Heather~~	2019-08-23	to process the OSGeo Oceania Local Chapter application and review the satisfaction of the minimum LC requirements.	email	Local Chapters
Joost ~~Heather~~	2019-07-23	to process the FreeMap Slovakia Local Chapter applicationand review the satisfaction of the minimum LC requirements.	email	Local Chapters
Joost ~~Heather~~	2019-06-27	to process the OpenStreetMap Česká Local Chapter application and review the satisfaction of the minimum LC requirements.	email	Local Chapters
~~Heather~~	2018-12-20	to draft email to start off discussion on the osmf-talk mailing list about developing guidance for our involvement in politics/activism. # Was Peter's. Assigned to Heather on 2018-12-20.	meeting	Activism
~~Heather~~	2018-09	to draft post on OSM validation practices.	email	Vandalism
~~Kate~~	2019-05-18	to write Administrative Assistant's job description. # Possibly completed.	F2F 2019	Admin. Assistant
~~Kate~~	2018-12-20	to write to the Data Working Group to see if there's anything further the board can do to support them.	meeting	DWG
~~Kate~~	2018-09	to draft rapid response plan for when bad things happen.	email	Vandalism
~~Kate~~	2018-02-15	to follow up with Grant about the technical workaround of having conference announcement banners on osm.org linked to landing pages on the website.	meeting	OWG
~~Kate~~	2018-01-18	to update the etiquette and add a reporting plan.	meeting	Communication
Mikel/Paul	2018-03-15	to look at the ten most active mailing lists and see if people listed as admins are active in the moderator role, what is in place, and how they manage the lists. # 2018-05-24 Mikel drafted email and both agreed on some modifications.	meeting	Communication
Mikel/Joost	2019-05-18	to document working group practices, draft WG “rules of order".	F2F 2019	WGs
Paul	2019-06-19	~~to switch limesurvey plan to annual & expert~~, transfer (limesurvey) ownership to OWG, billing to OSMF ~~and give access to Mikel, Joost and Dorothea~~. # The plan won't be changed for the time being.	meeting	Surveys
Paul	2018-05	to take feedback from the pre-F2F 2019 survey to developers that is about software. # Might have been completed.	F2F 2019	Survey
Paul	2018-04-19	to document the evaluation process of software and services used by the OSMF.	meeting	FOSS policy
Paul	2016-10-28	to create a page on the wiki, listing software products which are used by OSMF and are closed-source and/or are externally hosted. # Was Peter's	meeting	FOSS policy

Attribution and lack thereof

Links for background: https://twitter.com/allan_mustard/status/1214022912895787009 started it all https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Licence/Licence_and_Legal_FAQ#What_do_you_mean_by_.22Attribution.22.3F https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1.0/index.html section 4.3 says that even persons who don't interact should get the attribution. https://twitter.com/richardf/status/1214343700748414976 on why the attribution guidelines say 'should' https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Draft_Attribution_Guideline
Guillaume

Points mentioned

Discussion initiated on Twitter.
Attribution important for visibility and to get people to map with us.
Guillaume has created list of OSM usages with incomplete attribution.
More pressure will be good.
Not do overlapping work with Licensing Working Group (LWG).
LWG is working on updated attribution guidelines.
Email discussion of board with LWG on attribution mentioning legal possibilities of what OSMF can do in terms of enforcement.

Guillaume volunteered to liaison between board and LWG.

Conflict of interest self-declarations
Recused from any votings:

Mikel Maron - employed by Mapbox* - creates products using OSM and making attribution.
Paul Norman - employed by Amazon - some use of OSM in the public and need to attribute.
Rory McCann - employed by Geofabrik* - use of OSM.

* also current OSMF Corporate Member.

♦Motion to the effect that Guillaume is empowered to represent the board in pressing for attribution in those cases in which no attribution has been made and upon adoption of the new licensing guidelines to press for attribution in conformance with the new licensing guidelines in cases where that compliance is lacking. No objections. Accepted.

Restricting new memberships to people with significant investment to OSM

Related to 2019-12 topic, discussed during the Any Other Business section of the meeting. Proposal by Guillaume (member of the Membership Working Group) (MWG) to instruct MWG to automatically accept all memberships from members who have more than 15 days of mapping within the last year and submit all others to board for consideration.
Guillaume

♦ Motion to instruct the Membership Working Group (MWG) to forward to the board anyone who (applies for OSMF membership and) doesn't have 30 mapping days in the last year. No objections. Accepted.

The topic will also be added to the agenda of the February board meeting.

Appointment of Board Committees

Background provided: Under most rules of order, chairpersons may appoint committees chaired by members of the board but including volunteer members of the organization (community) to study and recommend actions on issues brought before the board. This approach is needed to clear the backlog of "action items", which includes items dating as far back as 2016. I propose to appoint ad hoc committees of the Board to 1) clear the backlog and b) deal with each future "action item" (aka "new business") in a more expeditious manner. From the Articles of Association: 91. The Board may delegate any of their powers to committees consisting of such member or members of the Board as they think fit, and any committee so formed shall, in the exercise of the powers so delegated, conform to any regulations imposed on it by the Board. The meetings and proceedings of any such committee shall be governed by the provisions of the Articles for regulating the meetings and proceedings of the Board so far as applicable and so far as the same shall not be superseded by any regulations made by the Board.
Allan

Suggestions

Each committee will consist of board member(s) who will reach to community to get expertise, skillset and advice and clear backlog of previous board action items.
Amendment to board rules of order to cover how we're thinking about these committees.

♦ Motion that the board starts to appoint committees and that proposed changes to board rules of order go back to board. No objections. Accepted.

Action items

Mikel to draft proposed changes to board rules of order and go back to the board.
Allan to recirculate to the board the document with the previous action items and to appoint the board volunteers to committees.

Diversity

Links for background: https://twitter.com/allan_mustard/status/1212072904353107971 Adapt and adopt the excellent diversity statement from https://www.python.org/community/diversity/ ? Good ideas from https://adacamp.org/ in the SotM context Proposed diversity statement (added 2020-01-30) Short text on creating a Diversity and Inclusion Special Committee - (Drafted by Guillaume, Tobias, Rory and Mikel - added 2020-01-30)
Guillaume

This topic was first on the agenda but was reordered during the meeting.

Suggestions

Accept a modified version of the diversity statement from Python.
Create a diversity and inclusion special committee (DISC).

Tobias mentioned that he is willing to vote provided that "the board makes clear that we are listening for any feedback from the community and willing to update statement as short time after publication of current version" (# comment by Mikel that this is one of the bullet points in the tasks of the committee document).

Points mentioned during discussion

Diversity statement is declaring our values and importance to us. Everything else derives from that statement.
Diversity statement should be alive and can be adapted.
Mikel was tasked with looking at this at last board meeting.
Diary post by Mikel on Jan. 21st, soliciting feedback on many channels, mentioning the Python statement ("What open communities are successfully addressing diversity and how can we learn from them? For example, Guillaume suggested looking at the Python Diversity Statement as a good starting point.").

♦ Motion to adopt statement and form the diversity and inclusion special committee (DISC). No objections. Accepted.

Microgrants policy - proposal to vote

Feedback from the membership was provided (osmf-talk thread) on the second published draft of the Microgrants policy (diff with first version). Proposal to vote to accept this document as the official policy. If accepted, the board might decide to launch a call for people to join the Microgrants Committee. -- Providing microgrants was a topic discussed extensively during the 2018 Face-to-Face board meeting, where a plan was developed. You might know similar programs from e.g. OSM-US, HOT or FOSSGIS. As a start and as a first trial we want to make a time-bound program where you can apply for microgrants until a specific date. A consultation document was shared in 2018 with the membership and the Advisory Board members, which contained an outline and top questions. There were also two microgrant-related sessions at the State of the Map 2018 conference (read some discussion points and questions). Work on Microgrants was paused in 2018 and restarted after the 2019 F2F meeting. Feedback from the membership was asked on: 2019-10 on this document (the document had initially been put to vote but voting was subsequently cancelled to consult the membership - see the related osmf-talk thread). 2020-01 on this second published draft of the document. Related board discussions: 2019 Aug, Oct 2018 Apr, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep 2017 May, Jul, Aug Related osmf-talk discussions: 2020 Jan (board asking for feedback) 2019 Aug, Oct membership asking about consultation, board asking for feedback 2018 Oct (asking for input) Related board working sessions: 2019 Aug & Oct, 2018 Jul & Sep. Related SotM 2018 session: there was a lightning talk, for community feedback
Joost

Second round of membership consultation.
Joost and Tobias made some minor changes based on feedback.

♦ Motion to adopt the microgrants proposal. No objections. Accepted.

Evaluating financial need of fee waivers

Under the fee waiver program, we can only give someone a fee waiver if paying the fee would constitute an unreasonable burden to the member. Some applicants give little to no information on their financial situation. If they do not give enough information that the board members are satisfied they have a financial hardship, their fee waiver applications need to be rejected. Applications are forwarded by the MWG to the board members, who decide on a case-by-case basis.
Paul

Membership fee waiver applications due to financial hardship should demonstrate unreasonable burden.
Some applications so far consisted of just a few words about financial hardship.
MWG is working on proposal to implement fee waiver to anyone who demonstrates substantial contributions and may supersede this. Till that is done, need to deal with applications.

Action item: Guillaume to ask the MWG to not forward to the board any membership fee waiver applications that just provide a few words about financial hardship.

Advisory Board - monthly update

The Advisory Board members are separate from the OSMF board of directors - individuals are either nominated by Corporate Members of the OSMF or invited directly by the OSMF board of directors. The OSMF Board of Directors will publicly minute, in the board meeting minutes, any communication sent to, or received from, the AB members. This monthly section is reserved for this purpose. Overview. AB related updates and board discussions: 2019 Jan, Mar, Jun, Jul, Aug, Oct 2018 Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Dec 2017 Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May (F2F), Oct
Joost

Chairperson has been holding consultations with several members of community, during the last 3.5 weeks - including talks with AB members - and will come back to the board with a digest. More information will be shared at the face-to-face board meeting.
New Mapbox representative: Tom Lee.

Any other business

Treasurer's report

Mentioned at the start of the meeting.

Guillaume Rischard will meet the previous treasurer, Frederik Ramm, and the OSMF accountant, Michelle Heydon, in a few days in Cambridge, UK.

Suggestion to vary membership fee based on geographic location

Suggestion by Rory McCann.

Points mentioned during discussion

Change of fee schedule will have to pass with general resolution.
No need to go that route, as MWG is currently working on fee waiver based on significant contribution and most fee waivers would qualify for the criteria that the MWG is considering setting.

Guest comments or questions

Comment on suggestion to vary membership fee based on geographic location

Comment by Eugene Alvin Villar (Seav) that the fee waivers grant only associate OSMF membership, so reducing the membership fee* has merits if one wants normal membership.

* currently GBP 15 per year.

Expression of interest on diversity next steps

Comment by Miriam Gonzalez (Mapanauta) that Geochicas are interested to participate in diversity-related next steps.

Closed portion of meeting

Working with Dorothea

Reason provided for closed portion: Details of how we structure and implement our engagement with Dorothea in the future are not finalized, and are sensitive in nature. Once the mechanism is finalized, there will be no issue to share the key points in public. Related osmf-talk discussion: 2019 Nov (Working with Dorothea full-time). Past (closed) discussions/circular resolutions: 2019 Jan, Feb (Circular Resolution), Jun 2018 Jan, Feb 2017 Mar , Apr

"We discussed our ongoing investigation to examine possible future modifications to Dorothea's contract; with an eye to retaining her valuable services, while minimizing overhead costs. We decided to continue that work, but recognized it would take more than a few weeks. Meanwhile the current contract was due to expire, so we decided to extend that for the time being."

Next meeting

Board meetings take place online once a month.
The next monthly board meeting will be on Thursday, 27th of February 2020 at 17:00 UTC, unless rescheduled.

Acronyms

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