Board/Minutes/2021-10

Draft agenda and page for minutes. Topics will get locked one week before the meeting, on 22 October 2021.

Date and time: Friday 29 October at 14:00 UTC - Countdown

Location: Video room https://osmvideo.cloud68.co/user/ror-nt7-6tu
using BigBlueButton.

Acronyms

Participants

Board members

Officers and board
Biographies

Guests

Open to all OSMF members.

You are welcome to ask questions or to comment (via voice or on the chat) at the end of the meeting.

• Please mute your microphone when you join, and to preserve bandwidth, refrain from turning on your webcam.
• If you are in a low-bandwidth environment, you may benefit from using BigBlueButton's low-bandwidth settings. To assess them, click on the 3 dots on the top right of the black video-window.

Administrative

Previous minutes

• 2021-09

Circular Resolutions

• About circular resolutions
• Board conflict of interest policy

2021/Res36 Translation budget for LCCWG moderation subcommittee

The Local Chapters and Communities Working Group (LCCWG) moderation subcommittee is provided with a budget of up to €1000 for translation services.

Approved on 2021-10-06 with 3 votes in favour: Allan Mustard, Mikel Maron, Tobias Knerr. 1 against: Guillaume Rischard (Premature. We have no budget request yet, no quote, no figure, nothing that's been sent to the treasurer. Agree on principle otherwise.) 1 abstained: Amanda McCann (While I would like more details on what's involved, such as who will be paid, who will decide what gets paid, what services will be used, and what languages are to be used,etc etc. So I am unsure, and will defer to the rest of the board (ie abstain)) 2 not voted: Eugene Alvin Villar, Jean-Marc Liotier.

Circular by Tobias Knerr.

Related to the discussion following the LCCWG presentation during the September 2021 public board meeting.

2021/Res37 Sign non-disclosure agreement with Takeover Protection Special Committee

Sign the standard OSMF non-disclosure agreement with the current two members of the Takeover Protection Special Committee (2021/Res23) and share all current legal advice the Board has received on this topic with that Special Committee.

Approved on 2021-10-24 with 4 votes in favour: Mikel Maron, Tobias Knerr, Allan Mustard, Amanda McCann. 3 not voted: Guillaume Rischard, Jean-Marc Liotier, Eugene Alvin Villar.

Circular by Amanda McCann.

2021/Res38 Data Working Group to implement proposed updates to Ban Policy

By the board's request, the Data Working Group (DWG) has proposed changes to the Ban Policy, especially to reflect the practice of imposing blocks until a particular action has been taken. The board asks DWG to edit the policy document accordingly.

Approved on 2021-10-28 with 5 votes in favour: Tobias Knerr, Jean-Marc Liotier, Eugene Alvin Villar, Mikel Maron, Allan Mustard. 1 abstained: Amanda McCann (I have no strong opinions on this. The actual changes will be visible on the Ban Policy and have been discussed internally on the board/DWG.) 1 not voted: Guillaume Rischard.

Circular by Tobias Knerr.

Action item updates

See Board/Action_Items.

Treasurer's report

Previous reports during monthly board meetings

• 2021 Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jul, Aug, Sep
• 2019 Feb, Jun, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

Please note that additional financial-related topics have been discussed during previous board meetings.

Presented by Guillaume Rischard.

Scheduling a general meeting for Spring (northern hemisphere) / Autumn (southern hemisphere) 2022

Membership prerequisites background The OSMF membership voted in 2020-12 and decided the following:

"The board of directors shall, together with the OSMF Membership Working Group, work on a set of proposals to ensure that all successful applicants for membership or associate membership in the OpenStreetMap Foundation have made a reasonable amount of contributions to OpenStreetMap. The specific form of the contributions (e.g. mapping vs. non-mapping) does not make a difference for the fulfillment of these prerequisites. The board shall submit these proposals as possible resolutions at a general meeting in 2021."

The rationale is presented here.

The Membership Working Group (MWG) does not have the humanpower to complete the work in time for the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in December, so some board members had offered to help. During the October board chat it was decided that there is not enough time for the board to propose a resolution for the Annual General Meeting in December. One of the suggestions was for the (new) board (formed after 11 December) to propose changes to the membership prerequisites, to be voted by the OSMF members on a General Meeting, which will take place within the next 6 months.

Related board discussions:

• 2021-10 Membership prerequisites (mid-month board chat, not open to observers)
• 2021-08 Membership prerequisites (mid-month board chat, not open to observers)
• 2021-02 Discuss Membership prerequisites - steps towards Annual General Meeting resolution (board screen-to-screen meeting)
• 2020-10 Articles of Association (board screen-to-screen meeting)

Suggested by Tobias Knerr.

Related action item from the October mid-month board chat: Tobias to have a motion ready to be voted by the board during the October board meeting. The motion will mention that the next board must write the text for a special resolution¹ regarding membership requirements, to be voted by the membership at a General Meeting that will take place during next Spring (Northern hemisphere) / Autumn (Southern hemisphere).

¹"Special resolution" has the meaning given in section 283 of the Companies Act 2006. A special resolution, when approved, changes the Articles of Association (AoA) of the Foundation.

Questions related to Operations Working Group 2022 plan

Background The Operations Working Group (OWG) in July created a plan for next year, starting in 2022Q2, which was shared with the board. It will form the basis for a budget when a budget request is received from the OSMF Board.

The OWG has also asked the board:

• When will the board be asking Working Groups for budget requests this year?
• Should we get the OWG budgeting cycle synchronized with the rest of the OSMF?

Suggested by Tobias Knerr and during the October mid-month board chat.

Microgrants - next round

Background The trial round of Microgrants (financial help provided by the OSM Foundation to applicants for OSM-related projects) ended in October 2021 (1 year period since dispersing funds).

Second round
The board is drafting a proposal for a second microgrants round, including parameters (amount of money, source of funds, and selected recommendations from the final report (.odt, 29 KB) by the microgrants committee to be voted during the October board meeting.

Related documents and suggestions:

• Policy framework for the first microgrants round
• Suggestions in final report for the first round.
• Suggestions by OSMF members during discussion on osmf-talk. (osmf-talk is the mailing list for OpenStreetMap Foundation members (Join the Foundation). All past messages are available here.)

First, trial round

Final report by the Microgrants committee

• Final report (file type: .odt, file size: 29 KB) and
• Presentation (.pdf, 53 KB, 8 pages) by Hanna Krüger (microgrants committee) during the September board meeting.

'Projects' reports by grantees Almost all projects have sent their final reports and you can read them on the OSM wiki. The respective project proposal is linked towards the top of each page.

• A Free Video Tutorial for Beginners about Mapping Pacific Islands using OSM and QGIS (proposal)
• Report: HIV facilities mapping in the Philippines on OpenStreetMap
• Leaflets to promote OSM (proposal) - see https://osmuk.org/leaflets/
• Report: Map Maintenance with StreetComplete
• Report: Mapping Uganda's New Cities
• Report: Mapping Villages and Settlements in Kosovo
• Report: Road Completion project
• Report: OSM Ireland Buildings
• Report: OpenStreetMap Calendar
• Report: Tactile maps for blind or visually impaired children
• Teaching and learning OSM in Albania through LibreTech School (proposal)
• Report: Water and Sanitation mapping in Nairobi's informal settlements

An apology was issued by board members Mikel Maron and Joost Schouppe regarding conflicts of interest in the awarding of microgrants in 2020, as both were closely associated with successful grantees.

Background
The trial run of the OSMF microgrants program was overseen by the Microgrants committee, whose composition was decided by the board. Initially, the program was set to fund 10 projects with a budget of up to 5000 Euros per project and for a maximum of 50.000 Euros. The policy framework can be read here. All the project proposals (funded or not) are visible on the OSM wiki and some of the 12 selected proposals were presented on the OSM blog. You can read the initial call here. Presentation of some of the proposals on the OSM blog).

Timeline
2021

• Oct 15 October mid-month board chat (mid-month board chat, not open to observers)
• Sep 10 AOB - Microgrants report (mid-month board chat), 24 Presentation by the Microgrants committee
• Jul Microgrants - what's next?

2020

• Feb Call for microgrants committee members.
• Mar 5 selected committee members from 13 applications
• Apr Call for microgrant applications, Board update
• Jun Selection of 2 observers out of 4 applicants, report, Board update
• Jul Announcements of 12 selected microgrant proposals.
• Aug Microgrants tracking and reporting status
• Sep Conflicts of Interest disclosure

Timeline with more details here.

Suggested by Amanda McCann and during the October mid-month board chat.

Analysis of options for OSMF relocation

Background: Investigation into moving OSMF out of the UK, and into the EU The OSMF board is considering relocating the OSMF to the EU and is consulting the members for feedback, advice and whether they’ve missed anything.

Comments by members on the osmf-talk^* mailing list: thread 1, thread 2.

* osmf-talk is the mailing list for OpenStreetMap Foundation members (Join the Foundation). All past messages are available here.

• Collaborative spreadsheet by the community.
• Spreadsheet with answers to the board's questions - answers sent directly to the board.

Please note that there were extensive discussions about Brexit and its effects by the Licensing Working Group (LWG) (search the LWG minutes for "Brexit") and the issue was also previously discussed by OSMF members and the board.

Recent board discussions about relocation

• 2021-10 Any other business: Analysis of options for OSMF relocation (mid-month board chat, not open to observers)
• 2021-07 Spreadsheet for collating information on a possible move out of the UK
• 2021-06 Investigate moving OSMF out of the UK, and into the EU (mid-month board chat, not open to observers)

Suggested by Allan Mustard and during October mid-month board chat.

Related action item: Jean-Marc to provide during the October board meeting a list of which countries have responded to us with information which is worth examining and what are our realistic options and to start looking at whether the new board will want to move in 2022 out of the UK.

State of the Map safety policy wording

Background

• State of the Map (SotM) is the annual, international conference of OpenStreetMap, organised by the OpenStreetMap Foundation. “State of the Map” belongs to the OpenStreeMap marks (Trademark policy of the OpenStreetMap Foundation). In order to use the OSMF marks for a conference, specifically the "State of the Map" and "SOTM" marks (e.g. call the conference State of the Map Asia, SotM-Africa, SotM-US and others), the organisers have to apply for a State of the Map quick licence (to be sent to trademarks@osmfoundation.org).
• LGBTQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning.

Question by Amanda McCann (board member): "Should the OpenStreetMap Foundation change its trademark policy so that State of the Map events can't be held in places where it's illegal to be gay if that event covers a place where that's legal?"

Previous board discussions:

• Oct State of the Map safety policy wording (mid-month board chat, not open to observers)
• Sep OSMF policy for “State of the Map” trademark grants for places which are LGBTQ-unsafe (mid-month board chat, not open to observers)
• Aug 27 public board meeting,13 mid-month board chat (not open to observers)

Community discussion: Should OSMF adopt a policy about State of the Map conference in places that are LGBTQ*/etc unsafe?

• Discussion by OSMF members on osmf-talk, the mailing list for OSM Foundation members. (All previous osmf-talk emails here, readable by all. Join the OSM Foundation).
• Discussion by community members on the talk mailing list. (All previous "talk" emails here, readable by all).

Suggested by Mikel Maron.

Future of the FOSS Policy Special Committee

Background The creation of the FOSS Policy Committee was approved in September 2020. The committee was tasked with implementing the Foundation's FOSS Policy, specifically:

• Conduct an inventory of free and non-free tools.
• Propose concrete alternative solutions for non-free software.
• Raise awareness around the topic of Software Freedom and Open Culture.

The committee reported back to the Board of Directors after the completion of the inventory, and produced a report (raw data) in January 2021, after concluding its tasks.

Related board topics:

• 2021-08 FOSS Policy Special Committee (mid-month board chat, not open to observers)
• 2021-01 Inventory of free and non-free tools by the FOSS policy special committee]
• 2020-11 FOSS policy committee presentation
• 2020-09 Approve the creation of the FOSS Policy Committee

Suggested by Tobias Knerr.

Advisory Board - monthly update

Background The Advisory Board members are separate from the OSMF board of directors - individuals are either nominated by Local Chapters and Gold or higher 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 of board communications with representatives on the Advisory Board.
(single page displaying all the monthly updates that are linked below)

2021 Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep
2020 Jan, Feb, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
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

Topic presented by Amanda McCann (Secretary).

Monthly presentation - Uganda community

About this monthly section In 2020 the board started hourly discussions with Corporate Member representatives on the Advisory Board and inviting Local Chapter representatives on the Advisory Board to give 10' presentations during public board meetings (this slot). A year later, during the 2021-04 board meeting, delegation of the Local Chapter presentation scheduling was suggested by the Secretary (Amanda McCann), who was previously solely responsible for that. Mikel Maron and Eugene Alvin Villar offered to help with organisation.

Presenter: Geoffrey Kateregga.

Any other business

Engineering Working Group's request for budget

Background The restarted Engineering Working Group (EWG) has asked the board to approve the following proposed budget (currently also mentioned on the main EWG page):

Our first budget will outline further detail, and is subject to change after the Working Group forms and we have initial meetings.

• Estimated 50k initial budget, same scale as the trial run of microgrants in 2020.
• 50% of funding to core OSM software used to edit OSM or OSM-specific software run on the OpenStreetMap website.
• 30% of funding to OSM quality assurance and analysis tools and OSM-specific software in common use (category name to be determined).
• 20% of funding to consumer-facing OSM software and new software

All code written must be open-source and available without charge.

We would like to budget for administrative assistance for meeting minutes, document management, and other administrative tasks and believe this is best handled through existing contracts the board has in place.

The proposed budget was submitted to the board after the agenda for this meeting got locked. It was suggested by board members that the topic could be raised for discussion during the "any other business" section of the board meeting.

Guest comments or questions

The meeting (except any closed sessions) is open to the members of the OpenStreetMap Foundation (Join the OpenStreetMap Foundation).

You are welcome to ask questions or to comment (via voice or on the chat) at the end of the meeting.

• Please mute your microphone when you join, and to preserve bandwidth, refrain from turning on your webcam.
• If you are in a low-bandwidth environment, you may benefit from using BigBlueButton's low-bandwidth settings. To access them, click on the 3 dots on the top right of the black video-window.

Next meeting

Open board meetings take place online once a month, usually on the last Friday of the month at 14:00 UTC.

See the Monthly Board meetings page to find out where board meetings are announced and for a subscription link to have future board meetings automatically added to your calendar.

Acronyms