Board/Minutes/2022-07
Date and time: Thursday 28 July 2022, 13:00 UTC - Countdown
The topics of the agenda will get locked one week before the meeting, on 2022-07-21.
Location: Video room https://osmvideo.cloud68.co/user/ror-nt7-6tu
using BigBlueButton.
Participants
Board members
- Jean-Marc Liotier (chairing initially)
- Guillaume Rischard (joined 2 mins after start, chairing after)
- Mikel Maron
- Amanda McCann
- Roland Olbricht
- Tobias Knerr
Officers and board
Biographies
Minutes by Dorothea Kazazi.
Not Present
- Eugene Alvin Villar
Guests
- 9 guests
Open to all OpenStreetMap Foundation members (become a member, even for free if you are an active contributor).
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
- 2022-06-30 To be approved on the August meeting, in order to check a vote.
Circular Resolutions
2022/Res15 Authorize an additional 200 hours for Dorothea on State of the Map working group tasks
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Unanimously approved on 2022-07-21 with 7 votes in favour: Jean-Marc Liotier, Roland Olbricht, Amanda McCann, Guillaume Rischard, Tobias Knerr, Eugene Alvin Villar, Mikel Maron. |
| Circular by Mikel Maron. |
Note on "additional":
The State of the Map working group had requested 200 hours of Dorothea's time in May 2022 for help with State of the Map tasks, such as those related to sponsors and travel grants. The request was approved.
2022/Res16 Operations Working Group's budget for 2022Q3 and 2022Q4
| The board instructs the treasurer to accept and pay invoices up to the total sum of 154,829 EUR, the so-called "high option" from the OWG's budget plan. |
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Approved on 2022-07-25 with 6 votes in favour: Mikel Maron, Jean-Marc Liotier, Tobias Knerr, Amanda McCann, Eugene Alvin Villar, Roland Olbricht. |
| Circular by Roland Olbricht (Treasurer). |
Action item updates
See osm:Foundation/Board_action_items.
OSM Foundation (OSMF) membership: Checking with lawyer about restrictions for minors becoming OSMF members
| Background |
|---|
| Eugene Alvin Villar (OSMF board) was invited by YouthMappers network to give a talk at some YouthMappers organisations, inviting them to become members of the OSM Foundation. Many of them would fulfil the criteria for active contributor membership but some are minors.
Companies Act: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/46/contents Previous board discussion: |
Related to the 2021-10-15 action item: Amanda to check to ask our pro-bono lawyer about any restrictions for minors becoming OSMF members.
Amanda McCann checked with the OSMF pro-bono lawyer - minors probably cannot become (Normal) OSMF members but might be able to become Associate members.
United Nations: Suggested OSM meeting/hackathon in the UN general assembly room (New York)
| Background |
|---|
| Guillaume Rischard (OSMF board) was present during the first "innovation event" meeting (2022-06-08) of the United Nations initiative about Open Source Software for Sustainable Development Goals (OSS4SDG). One of the suggestions during the meeting was to have an OSM meeting/hackathon in the UN general assembly room (New York)
About the initiative about Open Source Software for Sustainable Development Goals (OSS4SDG) by the United Nations Launched by the Directorate-General for Informatics of the European Commission (DG DIGIT) and the United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology (UNOICT). The first innovation event on 2022-06-08 was related to Sustainable Development Goal 4 “Quality Education” in cooperation with Moodle LMS. For their second innovation event, they are searching for new partners and "would like to explore possibilities of joint initiatives with the OpenStreetMap Foundation". Previous board discussion: |
Related to the 2022-06-09 action item: Guillaume to post on community.osm.org about the suggestion to have an OSM meeting/hackathon in the UN general assembly room. Topic: OSMF participation in United Nations meeting on initiative regarding Open Source Software for sustainable development goals
- The people at the United Nations meeting who suggested the hackathon to Guillaume Rischard (OSMF board) want to provide prizes around EUR 5000.
- On the possibility of OSMF also providing prizes during the hackathon: Microgrants are better than hackathons, as they ensure that people hand a project and they know they will get something.
HOT trademark agreement
| Background |
|---|
| OSMF is currently talking with (Humanitarian OSM Team (HOT) and is working on a draft agreement regarding granting rights for the use of OSMF marks.
Related (not exhaustive list)
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- Tyler Radford (Humanitarian OSM Team) sent to Guillaume Rischard (OSMF board) another draft of the HOT trademark agreement which appears to not include what they have discussed.
Suggestion: Guillaume and Tyler to meet during the State of the Map 2022 conference to discuss.
Commmunity.osm.org
| Background |
|---|
| community.osm.org (running Discourse) is currently live. It has been created to replace the OSM forum, help.openstreetmap.org - both being powered by software which are no longer supported - and potentially OSM mailing lists. |
On migration of content, initially from the OSM forum
- Migration of the content from the old platform is a blocker on the progression on community.osm.org
- Grant Slater (OSMF Senior Site Reliability Engineer) has been waiting for input by Christian Quest, who has scripts that could migrate 90% of the content, and who is busy.
- It might make sense to not wait.
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.
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 (not exhaustive list)
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Related to the 2020-08-27 action item: Guillaume Rischard (with Jean-Marc Liotier, added on 2021-11-12) to have a call with a relocation lawyer and come back to the board with a proposal / circular resolution. Will also ask if it is possible to transfer the Contributor terms. Work restated on 2021-11-12
Jean-Marc Liotier mentioned need to schedule meeting and that he is available.
Local Chapter agreement and commercial activities
| Background: Local Chapter agreement and commercial activities |
|---|
| Jean-Marc Liotier is writing up a proposal for the minimum local chapter criteria and is currently drafting a clause about commercial activities, which - if approved - will be added to the Local Chapter agreement.
Previous board discussions |
Related to the 2022-02-26 and 27 action item: Jean-Marc Liotier to write up a proposal for the minimum local chapter criteria before the March 24 board meeting. Will be supported by Eugene. [Session: Local Chapter minimum criteria (including formalisation/clarification on commercial activities)]
Jean-Marc Liotier to restart work on redrafting the Local Chapter agreement to include a section on Local Chapter (LC) commercial activities.
Fundraising: attend workshop
Related to the 2022-02-26 and 27 action item: Guillaume Rischard, Mikel Maron and Roland Olbricht to attend an AspirationTech seminar on fundraising. 2022-02 screen-to-screen meeting
The fundraising workshop, which is offered by Aspiration to OSMF board members for free, will be a multi-week workshop.
Major donors: talk to them about their preferred cycles to request donations
Related to the 2021-10-29 action item: Mikel Maron to reach out to major donors and find out their preferred cycles to request donations and communicate with Guillaume.
Complete.
VAT registration in Italy for State of the Map 2022: Talk to OSM Italia
Related to the 2022-05-23 action item: Roland Olbricht to contact OSM Italia (the OSM Local Chapter in Italy) about registering for VAT there.
Done.
- Timing issues, so OSMF paid a third party for registering an Italian VAT number.
- Have to work out how to do the reports, until after State of the Map (SotM) 2022, when we will cancel the Italian VAT number.
Budget committee
Related to the 2022-02-26 and 27 action item: Roland Olbricht to get the budget committee up and running. [Session: Budget] 2022-02 screen-to-screen meeting
Suggestion by Treasurer: not have a budget committee. Rationale:
- Long term planning: fits with the mission of the fundraising committee.
- Short term planning: Covered by regular meeting of treasurer, ex-Treasurer and accountant.
- Big budget items are/will be covered by board circulars, such as the budget suggested by the
and in the future the Engineering Working Group (EWG) budget.
Points mentioned during discussion
- Budget needed for fundraising - good to have planning of expenditures.
- Budget creation is a lot of tedious work.
- Biggest expenses: senior site reliability engineer, iD developer, administrative assistant, Operations Working Group (OWG), Engineering Working Group (EWG).
Additional suggestions
- Schedule workshops for the budget committee, as board members are productive while doing things synchronously.
- Rename the fundraising committee and expand its remit, to include work on the budget, as an overlapping set of people is involved.
- Split discussions on mid-month board chat (not open to observers), for information which is not to be shared, and the rest to be on the fundraising committee.
Action item: Mikel Maron to rename the fundraising committee to "finance committee" and expand its scope to include budgeting.
Treasurer's report
| Previous reports during monthly board meetings |
|---|
Please note that additional financial-related topics have been discussed during previous board meetings. |
| Presented by Roland Olbricht (Treasurer). |
VAT registration
- UK: OSMF has passed the income threshold and has now registered for VAT. Michelle Heydon (OSMF accountant) has asked for input from a tax expert, who confirmed that is was necessary to registered.
- Italy: We have registered for VAT in Italy and it will be canceled after State of the Map 2022 (in Florence and online).
When we registered for VAT for the State of the Map conference in Milan, in 2018, we ended getting money back, as we spent a lot on the venue and catering.
Action item: Roland Olbricht to register for VAT for the State of the Map 2023 earlier, as it needs a lot of work and there are delays.
- 40 emails exchanged with Google, due to 1) change of OSMF bank account, 2) change of OSMF treasurer and 3) Google's change in processes.
- Google paid outstanding bill from last year.
- Google probably also paid their State of the Map 2022 sponsorship in July.
Budgeting
Suggestion: To be split in fundraising for long term, and updates during mid-month board chat (not open to observers).
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. 2022 Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun |
| Presented by Amanda McCann (Secretary). |
Action item: Amanda McCann to organise a meeting of the directors with the Advisory Board members.
Presentation by Mapbox Workers Union
| 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.
2022 presentations
2021 presentations |
Question by Amanda McCann (board): There is an overlap of union busting and taking over the OSMF. Can any tips be provided?
> Be wary of repurposing language, that is liberal-oriented towards words such as freedom and choice, leading people to vote against their interests.
Guest comments or questions
| Open to all OSMF members (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.
|
No comments or questions.
Next meetings
- 2022-08-11 Mid month board chat, not open to observers.
- 2022-08-25 Public board meeting Thursday 25 August 2022 at 13:00 UTC.
Open board meetings take place online once a month, usually on the 3rd or 4th Thursday of the month, at 13:00 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.
Meeting adjourned 50' after start.