[Osmf-talk] Hiring help for OSMF administrative tasks

[Kathleen Danielson]

>
> I sense a misconception there, nobody is doing hours a week on paperwork in
> the OSMF.


This is inaccurate. I'm not going to get into details because I think this
has been an issue in the past (talking about who is doing what work and how
long it takes and leaving that open to context-less criticism).

As I said, I think it's reasonable to trust that the board hasn't decided
that we want to pursue paid support just for fun. We see a real benefit in
having this kind of help.

I won't speak for the rest of the board, but I don't believe a project of
this size or importance can or should operate without paid support. It
speaks to the value in which we hold our non-technical infrastructure
whether or not we are willing to pay for the support we need.

On Wed, Mar 11, 2015 at 3:41 PM, Joseph Reeves <iknowjoseph at gmail.com>
wrote:

> >I sense a misconception there, nobody is doing hours a week on paperwork
> >in the OSMF.
>
> Ok, thanks for clarifying. My point about *x* hours of admin was that, of
> course, I didn't know how much x actually was. My main argument being that
> the OSMF should make decisions about paid staff based on workload and need
> rather than the ideology of "the community".
>
> Cheers, Joseph
>
>
>
> On 11 March 2015 at 14:32, Simon Poole <simon at poole.ch> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Am 11.03.2015 um 15:03 schrieb Joseph Reeves:
>> >>I have been and I am still a big oponent to paying staff. We're a
>> >>community project, so either put your time in for free or step
>> >>down and let others do the work. Let us try to not make the same
>> >>mistakes as WMF did.
>> >
>> > And if the community decide that none of them wanting to be doing x
>> > hours a week on paperwork and would rather pay someone to do it?
>> >
>>
>> I sense a misconception there, nobody is doing hours a week on paperwork
>> in the OSMF. Paperwork in the sense of filing, accounting (outsourced)
>> and so one, in other words shifting paper from one side of the desk to
>> another.
>>
>> Yes there is a lot of work that is not directly mapping, contributing to
>> the data and helping other mappers.
>>
>> Foremost and, with an order of magnitude more hours than anybody else,
>> the good people that keep the technical operations running.
>>
>> Then there is a significant amount of work answering legal questions and
>> discussing policy wrt licensing and similar things and so on. And then
>> there's the CWG and the more fundamental board activities like budgeting
>> and so on.
>>
>> Now one thing that has been suggested in the past, is that "the job"
>> would be to actually chase board members and WGs down and get them to
>> deliver. While this could actually work to a certain point (any manager
>> who has had their life essentially organised by their PA can vouch for
>> that), it implies more, not less work for the volunteers.
>>
>>
>> > A community project can still hire staff, especially if the community
>> > fails to provide the people interested in doing it. That's
>> > understandable - who gets involved for the joy of mapping and then moves
>> > to the joy of administrata?
>> >
>> > "Community projects shouldn't employ staff" is guff, sorry.
>> >
>> >
>>
>> Simon
>>
>>
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>
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