[Osmf-talk] SOTM Africa

[Simon Poole]

The elephant in the room that Steve was referring to is that there have
been and are members of the board whose position is supported by their
employer. For a great range of "supported" from actively encouraging
standing, to it essentially being part of their employment. Somewhere in
that continuum "volunteer" loses its meaning a bit.

Simon

Am 24.11.2019 um 13:09 schrieb Allan Mustard:
> If OSM does not pay its board members, they are by definition
> volunteers.  
>
> Speaking for myself, I cannot guarantee that in retirement I can
> afford on a government pension to pay out of pocket to attend SOTM
> conferences.  The one thing I can offer is my time, on a voluntary basis.
>
> cheers,
> apm
>
> On Sat, Nov 23, 2019, 7:07 PM Steve Coast <steve at stevecoast.com
> <mailto:steve at stevecoast.com>> wrote:
>
>     I’m confused why you think all board members are volunteers? That
>     feels like a convenient fiction.
>
>     Best
>
>     Steve
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     *From:* Jorden Verwer <jorden at verwer.express>
>     *Sent:* Saturday, November 23, 2019 11:52:00 PM
>     *To:* Steve Coast <steve at stevecoast.com <mailto:steve at stevecoast.com>>
>     *Cc:* talk at openstreetmap org Talk <talk at openstreetmap.org
>     <mailto:talk at openstreetmap.org>>; osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org
>     <mailto:osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org> <osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org
>     <mailto:osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org>>
>     *Subject:* Re: [Osmf-talk] SOTM Africa
>      
>     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
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>
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