Hey Ed Thanks for initiating this discussion. My story is long and boring and yes, the fundamental reason for resigning is that I literally could not interact with the board anymore - because of ethical concerns, because it just felt like a drain on my time and energy, because I really felt like I had wasted so much time being forced into circular discussions and projects (eg communications, which is still a giant and growing tangle) - so I leave this discussion and the incoming board with some suggestions:
- always remember the community does not need OSGeo Oceania, but OSGeo Oceania needs the community. - always give people space to speak for themselves, especially in board meetings. - always respect peoples' efforts and experience and input, and do it consistently for everyone - as John indicated, operating transparently is easy and fruitful. The tools are there use them - as you indicated, always propose a solution when a problem is raised - remember we have a broad, caring, thoughtful, enthusiastic and deeply experienced community to draw on - remember we have existing patterns for open and transparent operation to draw on (OSGeo in particular, the book Bruce mentioned, other long established chapters of OSGeo and OSM, orgs like Linux Australia), and ready collaborators for taking on projects like building open conference systems - remember to care about ethics, particularly around how we handle personal data we are trusted with and who we hand it to. Take the time to learn about how companies we use (eg Mailchimp) operate instead of just glossing over data issues for convenience. - value transparency over bells and whistles in communication. Remember http has also been around a while but we don't call it the cockroach of the internet - and even fancy mailers use ancient mail transfer protocols ;). Mailing lists persist because they are incredibly functional and useful. - avoid becoming another SSSI. Congratulations on being elected to the board, I hope the organisation remembers its roots in this coming year. I am unlikely to spend much OSGeo Oceania time for a while - however feel free to reach out about any wrinkles you find that have my name attached. I've made as much mess as anyone, and haven't been particularly great at handing over things Best, Adam _______________________________________________ Oceania mailing list Oceania@lists.osgeo.org https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/oceania