[Osmf-talk] Articles of Association Update 2.0

[Christoph (TheFive@OSM)]

Hi Simon,

thanks for explanation.

Yes of course, there are assets that are born implicit, and becoming of higher value
with the time. And there may be sane scenarios, in which a transfer of assets make
sense, so the Members should vote about it.

For me - i am a „unregular Member“ - i became member with the idea, there is no real
difference between regular and associated Members, so if it has to be stated, that associated
members have to decide, we should do this.

May be i have to become a regular Member too (so my alter ego and me are members), do 
i have „two votes“ than ? (if this is a real topic, we should start a new thread about this,
this could be a topic, because creating unregular membership 10 or more times by one person (or company)
can't be controlled by the OMSF Board. 
With this in mind, the decision, wether regular or associated Members should decide, became more
relevant.

Coming back to the second point: Initiation of a license change.

As burned childs dreads the fire we should only initiate this process if we need and want to do.

And of course, at the end the license change is decided by the active members. So a simple majority
of associated OSMF Members is a good alternative to my suggestion of 10%. 
And as everyone has the chance, to be part of this vote (by becoming a member).


You have asked for any ideas / suggestions. Do we need a „non vote“ period for members ?
with 363 associated Members (http://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Membership/Statistics) in total 520 
Members, it is very easy to „buy“ a vote by generating (see above) associated members.
(no problem for CompanY X to tell 100 People to become a member and reimburse the cost by travel expenses).

This does not prevent a „planned“ attack, of course.

Another topic: Is it regulated, that - if the Members wants the board to do something - that they have the power
to do so ? Can the members enforce a AGM (or GM) to give the board any advices (like initiating a license change),
or deselect the board, if it does not handle in the interest of the OSMF ? 

And - i had the experience in a german „Verein“ - is it regulated, what happens, if there is a selection of the
board, and there are no candidates ? In result, the old board is still in charge. This is hopefully a theoretical
question, but of interest for those who are personal responsible.


Christoph 








Am 28.07.2014 um 21:57 schrieb Simon Poole <simon at poole.ch>:

> 
> 
> Am 27.07.2014 17:33, schrieb Christoph (TheFive at OSM):
>> Hi Simon,
>> 
>> 
>> I do not get your *asset lock* down question. 
>> 
>> What kind of intellectual property can be disposed or transferred by the
>> OSMF Board ?
>> Is that not all regulated by the license ?  I think I need a more
>> concrete sample for that, to create
>> an own opinion.
> 
> Well for example the trademarks. And while the CTs limit what the OSMF
> can do wrt distribution licence, I suspect that would be no hurdle to
> say selling everything (naturally with all the obligations attached) to
> your favourite big bad corporation (somebody more versed than my self
> with UK contract law would have to step in here). Naturally there are a
> number of non-threatening, completely sane, scenarios in which you might
> want to move things around.
> 
>> 
>> If there is something possible beside the license, we should have a
>> regulation for that.
>> 
>> The initiation of a*license change process *should be defined, may be we
>> can do something like
>> the board need 10 % of active mapper to support the initiation of a
>> license change process.
>> I do not know exactly what percentage is useful to have a small but not
>> a insurmountable barrier
>> in starting such a process.
> 
> Requiring 10% of active mappers up front would seem to be a -very- high
> hurdle. I was thinking more like a simple majority of the complete OSMF
> membership (we do have to define this, because resolutions otherwise are
> limited to regular members).
> 
> Simon
> 

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