[Osmf-talk] SOTM Africa

[Jorden Verwer]

Hello Steve,

It's good to hear that you had a nice time in Ivory Coast and that SOTM 
Africa appears to have been a success. For me, as a passive OSMF member 
who only attended SOTM once and rarely participates in discussions 
outside of the AGM, I can only respect people who spend way more time on 
OSM than I do - and that obviously includes you. I also think it's 
generally a good idea for as many board members as possible to attend 
SOTM conferences.

What I'm not so sure I agree with you on is your proposal to make 
attendance of at least one OSMF board member mandatory. The board 
consists of volunteers, and for any board member there can be very valid 
reasons why they can't or won't attend. As a consequence, this may apply 
to all board members simultaneously in some situations. What would the 
effect of your proposal be in such a situation? Can the planned SOTM 
conference not take place then and there? Will the board be penalized? 
Neither option seems to be all that desirable, so instead I'd propose 
that OSMF board member attendance be highly recommended, but not 
required.

Oh, and I should probably not get involved in this, so against my better 
judgment I'll quote the page Christoph linked to:
"We expect this to be the official election campaign process. We won't 
restrict members to continue to talk on our members' mailing list nor 
will we restrict candidates to continue discussions, but we don't 
encourage them to do so. The official answers and questions thereof 
should be what voters use to judge."

Regards,

Jorden