Board/Minutes/2022-02-S2S/Board communication

From OpenStreetMap Foundation

Discuss how to increase regular two-way communication of individual board members with the community (not necessarily speaking on behalf of the board) about OSMF related matters

Notes by participants. Might be enriched.

This session took place in parallel with "Parallel session: Board member candidates mentoring". A summary was provided to the other group.

Attendees

  • Eugene Villar
  • Jean-Marc Liotier
  • Roland Olbricht

Not Present

  • Mikel Maron

Officers and board
Biographies

Post-meeting addition of links and formatting by Dorothea Kazazi.

Collaborative notes

Expectation:

  • R.Olbricht: Amanda's monthly report is good, maybe need an informal policy
  • JM.Liotier: Board Policy is an expression of the Board, not from individual members. But expression from Board members can be part of making the Board more visible to the community and defuse conspiracy theories. I like formats such as Reddit Ask Me Anything.
  • Corridor conversations during State of the Map is a good example of interaction
  • maybe explicit venue to motivate members
  • younger people do not use mailing list
  • use languages other than English
  • problems is proprietary channels like Telegram, Slack but you need to go where the community talks.
  • Suggestion: Office hours
  • Be more better in addressing people who say they don't know what the Board is doing or that they were uninformed

Decisions

  • Reach out to assess demand for office hours
  • Reach out to communities to ask if they would be interested in inviting the Board to whatever place they normally use for communication. Getting them to invite offloads the selection of place and the promotion to that community
  • Make more use of OSM diaries to share more about Board work, can be a report like Amanda's or a sharing ?
  • Start small, with a Local Chapter or a special interest group
  • Open a HackPad to track candidates and their places of conversation

Action item

  • Board to make up a table with (date, board member, local chapter/other interest group/communication channel) where we keep track whether all of them have heard of us or not.