[Strategic] getting started

[Frederik Ramm]

Kate,

Kate Chapman wrote:
> Another possibility with the relationship between the local chapters
> and the OSMF could be assistance in setting up the local chapters.  We
> went the "cheap" route in creating an entity in the United States.
> The overall cost was under $200 and we didn't utilize a lawyer because
> a couple of us had incorporated before.  Perhaps there are other
> countries that would need assistance in forming as an entity and that
> would be something the OSMF could help.

Agreed that OSMF should help if a local community asks for it. But I 
don't think that local chapters are very important, especially in 
smaller countries. You already gave some examples where a local chapter 
might come in handy (people giving money only to US based entities etc) 
but we have to be careful not to think that having a local chapter is an 
achievement per se. A local chapter is not a precondition, nor a logical 
consequence, of OSM success in that country; it is purely an 
administrative side effect.

The German community have built almost everything they have without the 
involvement of a local chapter; we have affiliated ourselves with an 
existing organisation (FOSSGIS e.V. which is also the local OSGeo 
chapter, a pattern repeated in some other European countries by the 
way), and that organisation has been used by us a few times to sign a 
contract or receive sponsorship but it never was instrumental (in a sort 
of you-won't-get-it-without-a-chapter).

FOSSGIS is not (yet) an official OSMF local chapter but intending to 
become one once the details have been worked out; the initial plans for 
local chapters were geared more towards organisations which are 
exclusively an OSMF chapter and not "among other things an OSMF chapter".

Bye
Frederik