[HOT] Message from the Chair of Voting Members

[Russell Deffner]

Brief: Congratulations to our new volunteer Board of Directors, thank you to
the Voting Members who have elected me their Chair (person); first acts -
call for reconvention of the First Annual Meeting and first Board Meeting.

 

Dear Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team Global Community,

 

To every single individual that has even the slightest of interest in the
endeavors of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) - including Voting
Members, Volunteers, Donors, Partners, Beneficiaries, and the Public at
large - I, Russell Deffner, have been entrusted a great responsibility by
the beautiful, courageous, and patient 63 Members of the Voting Community:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Humanitarian_OSM_Team/Members 

 

I have written many emails over the last week or so, my fingers and brain
are tired and therefore this message will probably be shorter than it should
be, but on behalf of your Voting Members, consider that we have all had to
read at least one encyclopedia volume (anyone remember those?) worth of
material since our election began.  To you, members, sorry; and it is ok if
you feel like this is just another (too) long email - one last super huge
thank you!

 

To be blunt, we collectively made an ignorant decision to learn the hard
way, in just about a week, how to 'get along'; collective silence on the
matter before hand, the root of cause in my opinion.  But I am happy to
report to you that we made an incredible amount of progress on this; we are
not there yet, no.  But to those of you who are now really interested in how
this organization (HOT mess) works 'behind-the-scenes' I am also happy to
present to you our first attempt in explaining things, our HOT Membership
Code:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:HOT_Membership_Code--proposal_for_an
nual_meeting_2014.pdf 

 

And our apologies up front, we have much work to do on our governance; the
Membership Code does not explain everything.  It is however, a start, and if
I can briefly talk directly to the public on behalf of the membership - the
key thing to take away from the Membership Code is that we now require those
who consider themselves part of our community to live by our Code of Conduct
as best you can; will we try to do the same.  And yes, there are currently
things under debate, or in temporary limbo (elections of our officers, see
below) regarding who has the authority to do what.  I ask that you be
patient with our organization and know that the collective membership has
selected from those among us that we trust will appropriately lead us, and
collaboratively distribute the traditional authorities of a corporate entity
among individual(s) and/or group(s); and that we currently support prior
Board majority to appoint Kate Chapman as our Executive Director.  However,
I think I rightfully speak for the majority of the membership community - we
do not want to be 'just' a traditional non-profit/corporate entity; we are a
global community first; and in order to fulfill our mission we must allow
for collective decision to potentially radically alter the norm.  I honestly
am not sure what all that means, yet; but I hope I can rely on your good
will as I ask that you trust in our Members; we are working hard to ensure
that we both figure that out, and that we will work within all legal
restriction, responsibility, and means to operate a valid and professional
'business'/'organization'/'whatever we end up calling it'; for now, simply -
Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team.

 

I now will make my first actions as Chair of the Voting Members:

1)      I call upon the new volunteer Board of Directors, speaking directly
to (in order of nomination): Mikel, Heather, Schuyler, Severin, Harry,
Claire, and Jaakko: Between the time period of no sooner than one week, and
no longer than three; the board shall announce the date and time of your
first meeting no further than one month from today; in which you will elect
Officers.  As we have learned, our Bylaws allow for some Officer positions
to be filled by non-Directors, therefore I make this additional requirement:
you must use Mumble, or propose an alternative solution, that allows both
for an "open door" session that the membership _and public_ can use to
"view" (minimally listen) to appropriate proceedings, and allows Voting
Members an opportunity to address the Board.

2)      I hereby set myself officially as crazy ;) I said that we would
reconvene the Annual Meeting next week, same place, same time; but I think I
owe it to our Voting Members to do better.  So I officially postpone the
reconvening of the Voting Members at the Annual Meeting until further
notice.  All - what that means is I'll be working 'behind-the-scenes' with
my fellow members to try and find the most appropriate day of the week and
time for us to actually reach a quorum of members - so we can actually do
stuff, not just talk - and I want to see what they think about letting the
public attend.  Members, I also think it prudent we reconvene after the
first board meeting, please send your thoughts to the membership mailing
list (this list is not public, so you don't have to hear us argue)?

 

One thing I have learned throughout this election is that I have not met,
and do not expect to meet, a Voting Member who is not unconditionally
willing to do whatever it takes to help.  I hope I speak for all of us, but
absolutely, 100% from the bottom of my heart - as long as the membership
('family') will have me, may my 'door' always be open to you.

 

May the global membership community always win!

=Russ

 

Russell Deffner

Chairperson of the Voting Membership

Russell.Deffner at hotosm.org

The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team

http://hot.openstreetmap.org/ 

 

 

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