Board/Minutes/2021-02

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Participants

Board members

  • Allan Mustard (Chairing)
  • Eugene Alvin Villar
  • Guillaume Rischard
  • Jean-Marc Liotier
  • Mikel Maron
  • Tobias Knerr
  • Rory McCann

Officers and board
Biographies

Not Present

Guests

  • 11 guests

Open to all OSMF members (become a member).

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

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Administrative

Previous minutes

Circular Resolutions

About circular resolutions

2021/Res06 Addition to the OSMF privacy policy to cover surveys

To add language in the attached document to the OSMF Privacy Policy in order to cover privacy questions specific to surveys. The Licensing Working Group has reviewed and its comments have been incorporated. The text is compliant with GDPR.

Unanimously accepted on 2021-02-05 with 7 votes in favour: Tobias Knerr, Guillaume Rischard, Jean-Marc Liotier, Eugene Alvin Villar, Mikel Maron, Allan Mustard, Rory McCann (This looks fine, but I think the language only includes (regular) members, and some parts don't include associate members. e.g. “Email addresses of members of the OSMF may be used to invite Foundation members to participate in surveys.”. I have no problem as it is, but would also vote for an amendment to explicitly include associate members).

Circular by Allan Mustard.

2021/Res07 Approve £1800 for Lawdit for HOT trademark grant consultation

Lawdit request £1,500 (+ UK VAT (20%)) for consultation on the HOT trademark grant.

Accepted on 2021-02-24 with 4 votes in favour: Jean-Marc Liotier, Guillaume Rischard, Mikel Maron, Rory McCann
3 not voted: Eugene Alvin Villar, Allan Mustard, Tobias Knerr.

Circular by Rory McCann.

2021/Res08 Update Conflict of Interest policy

As discussed during the screen-to-screen [board meeting] on takeover protection, this updates the Conflict of Interest Policy to prevent board members with a conflict of interest on a topic from participating in the discussions about it.

Why we want to do this:

  • Prevent takeovers
  • Increase trust in the foundation
  • Reduce lobbying impact
  • Reduce surface of attack of the board

I have also clarified that "participate" means active participation, and that board members with a conflict can usually still listen in, but can exceptionally be excluded from attendance.

Finally, I have done minor edits to the text for clarification, made clear that members may always recuse themselves, and europeanised the spelling.

Proposed changes, with final version at the bottom.

Did not pass on 2021-02-25 with 3 votes against:
Allan Mustard (I don't see a compelling need to modify a well functioning policy we adopted just last year after intense discussion. If there is a compelling need, we need to discuss it fully among ourselves first. If the concern is about hostile takeover, we need to discuss takeover more broadly, not solely in this context)
Tobias Knerr (Voting no due to the manner in which this was put forward. This is an important conversation, but not urgent enough to justify dispensing with dialogue within the board and with the community, and it is likewise not urgent enough to decide via circular rather than at our public board meetings)
Mikel Maron (undiscussed changes lacking justification. Very bad precedent to force things through without consultation. There is no lobbying, no takeovers, no attacks. We have a CoI policy where members can recuse completely from discussion when needed. This is purposefully hobbling the osmf board with no benefit)
2 in favour: Rory McCann, Guillaume Rischard
1 abstained: Eugene Alvin Villar (I think the proposal is sensible and could be adopted. However, the original policy was first brought up in 2018, then developed in the meantime, then first formally moved to be adopted in the April 2020 Board meeting, but then postponed until unanimously approved via a circular resolution before the May 2020 Board meeting. Given that the policy has only been in force for less than a year, I think there needs to be a longer discussion why this needs to be urgently updated)
1 not voted: Jean-Marc Liotier

Circular by Guillaume Rischard.

Note: Rory McCann mentioned during the February board meeting that the absence of a comment from them on this circular was due to technical issues with Loomio.

Previous action items

See Board/Action_Items.

Microsoft live translator

Introduction by Allan about Microsoft live translator, which was used during the meeting, so that observers could read the dialogue in real time in another language.

Reportage

Updates not mentioned during action items.

Guillaume

  • Talked with John Barry of TimelessTime regarding UK contracts and will send an offer for working on the SSRE contract.
  • Interesting diary comment by Rob Nickerson regarding database rights.
  • Many new OSMF members from Norway, reached out by local active contributor. Local membership quadrupled.

Jean Marc (provided ~28' after start)

  • In process of finalising negotiation on contract with administrative assistant. Current contract ends soon.
  • Started drafting a reserve policy document.

Treasurer's report

By Guillaume Rischard.

  • Facebook funds for infrastructure support have come in.
  • Operations Working Group (OWG) submitted a proposed budget, starting on the second quarter of 2021. High level is similar to last year.
  • OWG will give outlook of expected expenditures for next 2 years - coordination with fundraising efforts.

Suggestions

  • Participation of OWG member at the next board meeting.
  • "Catalogue" of things that can be supported with fundraising.
    • Comment: have one "package" - funds needed to keep platform running- and potentially fundraise for specific roles or initiatives. Have also enough funds to cover the requested OWG "high level".

Action item: Rory to do a circular on the OWG budget after discussion about the selected tier.

Attribution guidelines update

Next steps:

  • Look at draft document to be sent to external counsel.
  • Hire external counsel.

Deadline for sending document: March mid-month chat.
Decision: Guillaume Rischard to be the coordinator.

Community survey - progress report on data release

Results released so far of the 2021 OSMF community survey, which run from January 16th to February 14th. The survey was available in 18 languages.

Allan Mustard

Strategic plan outline - update

An action item of the 2020-10 screen-to-screen board meeting was for Allan Mustard to circulate a strategic plan outline to the rest of the board members and drive forward the topic (which would then serve fundraising asks in 2021) (Topics: OSMF fundraising and Wrap-up session). The outline was created in October 2020 and board members have provided feedback on it. The draft will be published for community consultation once most board members agree that it doesn't need any further refinement.

Previous related board discussions

Allan Mustard
  • According to some board members, the outline is not ready for presentation and collecting comments from the community.
  • Board members to take look at the outline.
  • Draft indicates direction the board wants to go and solicitate community feedback. The plan outline should not be seen as policy.

Deadline: Mid-month chat.

Collecting growth projections from Operations Working Group - update

An action item of the 2021-02 screen-to-screen board meeting was for Allan Mustard to collect growth projections from the Operations Working Group (Topic: Strategic plan - Agree on plan for the plan).

Allan Mustard
  • Will be incorporated in budget submission of 2nd and 3rd year.
  • Growth in demand of the data: Operations Working Group (OWG) is not worried about it - not a constraint that puts pressure on the platform.
  • Main focus: Growth on the database - projection of storage capacity needs.

Report on status of HOT trademark grant

OSMF is currently talking with Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and is working on a draft agreement regarding granting rights for the use of OSMF marks.

Related:
Circular 2021/Res07: "Approve £1800 for Lawdit for HOT trademark grant consultation".

Rory McCann

Advisory Board - monthly update

The Advisory Board members are separate from the OSMF board of directors - individuals are either nominated by Local Chapters and Gold or Platinum 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
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

Rory McCann
  • Reminders to assign Advisory Board (AB) representatives sent to new Local Chapters.

Report on OSMF Board and Advisory Board meeting

The OSMF Board of Directors had a meeting with members of the Advisory Board on Thursday 24 February, 14:00 UTC.

  • Meeting attended mostly by Local Chapter (LC) representatives.
  • Each representative gave a one-minute summary on what their Local Chapter or company is doing.
  • The Board presented the results of the community survey.
  • Discussion and suggestion by OSM-UK: Involving the Advisory Board in the evaluation of Microgrant applications. The board is waiting for a specific proposal.

Any other business

Loomio

Loomio is the online platform used by the board for voting on circulars.

Absence of comment on circular

Rory explained that the absence of a comment from them on the Conflict of Interest circular, was due to technical issues with Loomio.

Reminders about circular resolutions

Tobias mentioned that he no longer receives the automatic email reminders sent by Loomio, when a voting is going to close the next day.

Suggestion: contact Loomio's support.

Action items

  • Action items arising from board meetings are tracked on the OSMF website.
  • The board also uses Gitlab for issue and task tracking, but there are issues with transparency and openness as the Gitlab repository is not viewable by the membership.

OpenHistoricalMap

The Licensing Working Group emailed the board about the co-existence agreement with OHM.

Related LWG minutes

Guest comments or questions

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.
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No questions or comments.

Next meeting

Friday, 26 of March 2021, at 14:00 UTC - Countdown.

Open board meetings take place online once a month.
New recurring date and time: 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