I'm copying this email thread (started on OSGeo-Board) to OSGeo-Discuss
list, as people considering joining the OSGeo-Board will likely be
interested to read and potentially contribute to the discussion.
Jeff,
As per your suggestion, I've copied the proposed text to a wiki page here:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_of_Directors#Suggested_involvement_from_board_members
It is still in draft format.
Venka, Nick,
We discussed your suggestions (along with others) in the board meeting
today, and I've adjusted the text to emphasis that these board role
descriptions are suggestions are guidelines only, not rules, and can be
updated by future boards. Jeff noted that people have been asking him
for advise on what is involved in being a board member, and hopefully
this text should help answer this question. I agree that the next board
should consider these roles and adjust if needed.
Frank, I've adjusted text to take on some of your suggestions.
Further suggestions and comments are welcomed. Latest text here contains:
Suggested involvement from board members
(This section is still in draft format.)
What is expected of a board member? Legal details are listed in section
3 of ourbylaws
<http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/incorporation/bylaws.html>.
This section provides addition practical guidelines to help set
expectations between the community and board members about the level of
effort involved in the volunteer board member role. It aims to advise on
likely time commitments, as well as clarify the limits of what we should
expected. Note that these are suggestions rather than rules:
* The board's primary responsibility is to efficiently and effectively
make strategic decisions regarding related to the running of OSGeo.
In many (most?) cases, this will involve validating decisions
already made by OSGeo's subcommittees. (bylaws
<http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/incorporation/bylaws.html>section
3.1).
* Board members should expect to spend 2 to 8 hours per month on board
activities.
* Board members should sometimes contribute a little more, maybe
negotiating with the community or external organisation, collating
or developing ideas and writing them up, doing some extra research
to back a decision, or helping with administrative work like taking
minutes.
* Board members should attempt to attend all board meetings, which
happen at a frequency of ~ once per month, which take ~ one hour.
(Selection of meeting timeslots are to be negotiated to try and suit
all members.) If unable to attend, the board member should attempt
to provide opinions on issues before hand, and vote on motions
afterwards.
* Board members should monitor and contribute toward discussions on
the board email list, and aim to vote on motions within 2 working days.
* Board members are not paid for their service (bylaws
<http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/incorporation/bylaws.html>section
3.4), but should not be out of pocket if working for the board. For
instance, a board member should be refunded travel expenses if
requested to travel on behalf of the board.
* Ideally some board members should be prepared to speak on behalf of
OSGeo at events.
On 14/08/2014 2:05 am, Daniel Kastl wrote:
Hi Jeff,
Right, so if this is what the majority expects, let's write it down.
I fear that there are many people who probably expect much more (you
don't know any? ;-) ... maybe even candidates, who would like to
become a board member think it's a lot more work and therefore refuse
to become a candidate.
Better to have this clarified and visible somewhere, no?
If it's just these two lines, it's even not worth to discuss long
about it ;-)
Daniel
On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 5:55 PM, Jeff McKenna
<jmcke...@gatewaygeomatics.com <mailto:jmcke...@gatewaygeomatics.com>>
wrote:
For the record, I am involved in a lot of offline talks lately
inviting others to join the Board, and when I am asked about
commitment I simply answer with two things:
- attend the Board meeting on IRC, once a month, usually around
the second Thursday of the month, for one hour
- be open and share your thoughts on foundation discussions on the
[Board] mailing list
Beyond that, as we are all volunteers, I don't think we can ask
for more.
-jeff
On 2014-08-13 12:30 PM, Daniel Kastl wrote:
I agree with Michael, that it's a good idea to write down the
expectations, and I don't think the timing is a big issue.
Because it's not a bad but a good thing for board members to
know what
the community expects from them.
If OSGeo goes well, then it's very easy for the board to
justify that
they did a good job. But if troubles occur or there is a lot
of work but
not much visibility, then it's easy to blame the board. Having
some
expectations defined before is for each board members safety
and to have
some rough guideline.
Daniel
On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 5:14 PM, Jeff McKenna
<jmcke...@gatewaygeomatics.com
<mailto:jmcke...@gatewaygeomatics.com>
<mailto:jmcke...@gatewaygeomatics.com
<mailto:jmcke...@gatewaygeomatics.com>>>
wrote:
I must admit, when I first glanced at this initial message
early in
the morning my thoughts in my head were 'this is the wrong
time, in
the middle of the Board election, to start defining
roles'. The
time for this should have been before asking nominees.
Regarding clarifications about the expectations of being a
Board
member, could those vocal in this thread (Cameron, Frank,
Daniel,
mpg) mind drafting a new page on these expectations, and
the new
Board in September can review it and edit accordingly?
However my experience tells me that we must be very
careful with
expectations, within a volunteer organization.
-jeff
On 2014-08-13 11:48 AM, Michael P. Gerlek wrote:
+1 to Cameron here from me too. He's trying to clarify the
expectations of a board member, not setting any rules
- these
are good things to be thinking about as we all think
about the
next round of Board Members.
.mpg
On Aug 13, 2014, at 7:07 AM, Daniel Morissette
<dmorisse...@mapgears.com
<mailto:dmorisse...@mapgears.com>
<mailto:dmorisse...@mapgears.com
<mailto:dmorisse...@mapgears.com>>>
wrote:
I don't think Cameron is inventing or changing any
rules, he
is just proposing to collectively document what is
and has
always been expected from a board member for the
posterity.
FWIW I am also in favor of documenting our
processes and
expectations (in general) as much as possible to
help future
boards in their work, and I find that Cameron has
exceptional patience to help with that
documentation process
(he managed to walk the membership to a consensus
on the new
charter member election process, something nobody
managed to
achieve before), so instead of shooting down his
initiatives, I think that more charter members
should help
by contributing to them.
All that being said, I do not have the time and
energy to
argue this point any more, so this will be my one
and only
email on this topic.
Daniel
On 14-08-13 8:54 AM, nicolas bozon wrote:
Cameron,
I agree that rules and documents must/should
not change
during
elections, because this is confusing.
I also think that all past, present and future
board
members must/should
already know what they should do, and what is
working or
what is not.
Let us the Board change the many needed rules
after
elections, so it can
also benefit from upcoming new director's
visions, and
hopefully from
Charter Member's and Committee's input too.
Best,
Nick
2014-08-13 14:29 GMT+02:00 Venkatesh Raghavan
<ragha...@media.osaka-cu.ac.jp
<mailto:ragha...@media.osaka-cu.ac.jp>
<mailto:ragha...@media.osaka-cu.ac.jp
<mailto:ragha...@media.osaka-cu.ac.jp>>
<mailto:raghavan@media.osaka-__cu.ac.jp
<mailto:raghavan@media.osaka-__cu.ac.jp>
<mailto:ragha...@media.osaka-cu.ac.jp
<mailto:ragha...@media.osaka-cu.ac.jp>>>>:
Board elections have already started and
I have
made my first
nomination.
Please don't try to invent new rules
after the
process has begun.
Whatever
changes needs to be made can be discussed
and made
by the upcoming
new board.
Venka
On 2014/08/13 20:36, Cameron Shorter
wrote:
As we move into a board election, I
think it
would be beneficial
to document what we consider should
be expected
of board members.
I think that it would be helpful for
potential
board members when
considering joining the board, and also
something that board
members can point toward if community
members
complain about lack
of action from the board.
Maybe think of it as a moral contract.
If others think it is a good idea, I
suggest we
add to this page:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/__Board_of_Directors
<http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_of_Directors>
Are there other points which should
go on this
list?
What is expected of a board member?
Boring
legal details are
listed in section 3 of ourbylaws
<http://www.osgeo.org/content/__foundation/incorporation/__bylaws.html
<http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/incorporation/bylaws.html>>
<http://www.osgeo.org/content/__foundation/incorporation/__bylaws.html
<http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/incorporation/bylaws.html>>,
but I think it would be helpful for us to
extend this to practical
guidelines. Something like:
* The board's primary responsibility
is to
efficiently and
effectively make decisions regarding
the day to
day running of
OSGeo (bylaws
<http://www.osgeo.org/content/__foundation/incorporation/__bylaws.html
<http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/incorporation/bylaws.html>>
<http://www.osgeo.org/content/__foundation/incorporation/__bylaws.html
<http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/incorporation/bylaws.html>>
section 3.1).
* Board members should expect to
spend 1 to 3
hours per week on
board activities.
* Board members should sometimes
contribute a
little more, maybe
negotiating with the community or
external
organisation, collating
or developing ideas and writing them
up, doing
some extra research
to back a decision, or helping with
administrative work like
taking minutes.
* Board members should attempt to
attend all
board meetings, which
happen at a frequency of ~ once per
month,
which take ~ one hour.
(Selection of meeting timeslots are to be
negotiated to try and
suit all members.) If unable to
attend, the
board member should
attempt to provide opinions on issues
before
hand, and vote on
motions afterwards.
* Board members should monitor and
contribute
toward discussions
on the board email list, and aim to
vote on
motions within 2
working days.
* Board members are not paid for
their service
(bylaws
<http://www.osgeo.org/content/__foundation/incorporation/__bylaws.html
<http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/incorporation/bylaws.html>>
<http://www.osgeo.org/content/__foundation/incorporation/__bylaws.html
<http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/incorporation/bylaws.html>>
section 3.4), but should not be out
of pocket
if working for the
board. For instance, a board member
should be
refunded travel
expenses if requested to travel on
behalf of
the board.
* Ideally some board members should
be prepared
to speak on behalf
of OSGeo at events.
_______________________________________________
Board mailing list
bo...@lists.osgeo.org <mailto:bo...@lists.osgeo.org>
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
--
Georepublic UG & Georepublic Japan
eMail: daniel.ka...@georepublic.de <mailto:daniel.ka...@georepublic.de>
Web: http://georepublic.info
_______________________________________________
Board mailing list
bo...@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
--
Cameron Shorter,
Software and Data Solutions Manager
LISAsoft
Suite 112, Jones Bay Wharf,
26 - 32 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont NSW 2009
P +61 2 9009 5000, W www.lisasoft.com, F +61 2 9009 5099
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