[OSM-talk-ie] OSM Ireland chapter - reboot

[Dave Corley]

Hi all,

Rounding back on this again. Between the responses on the mail list,
Facebook and previous surveys, the general consensus is to go ahead with
this.

Martin, sorry for not replying to you earlier, but I wanted to stay quiet
and see what others thought first. To your point, yes, its possible to do
everything I stated outside of a formal body, but given we are an informal
grouping of similarly minded folks for over a decade and organisational
interest/involvement is decreasing rather than increasing, I think its
necessary to do this if we are to ever become "more". Your comment about
there being a functioning group is bang on the money too. Right now I feel
there is such a thing, and the infrastructure is more or less in place ( we
are starting in a much better position than our UK counterparts).

That being said, after the original survey questions a year ago, the mail
list and facebook responses and some private feedback, I think, as usual,
the distance factor is the biggest hurdle. With that in mind I think its
best to change from a series of meetings on the subject, to a single one,
where several of us come together and blitz the main items:

- Constitution
- Memorandum of association
- Articles of association
- Interim board
- etc etc

What I looking to achieve is to get to a point where we are 90% of the way
there. Afterwards, everything achieved would be put up online for feedback,
comment and to close out any remaining items.

I'm hoping a single session of 5-6 hours should be good enough for this,
say from 12-5/6 on a Saturday. I'm hoping that by limiting this to a single
day, to get a much larger group to participate.

In order to keep things moving through the day, I'm going to try organise
some sponsorship of refreshments.

Would the Tog folks on this list know if Tog is available on a Saturday in
Oct? Say the 14th or 21st. If not, I'll try sort something else.

Once a date and location is set, I'll set up an invite page, just to be
able to track numbers attending in the event I get sponsorship for
refreshments.

Dave

On Tue, Aug 15, 2017 at 8:57 AM, Rory McCann <rory at technomancy.org> wrote:

> I agree with Dave, it would be good to get a formal OSM body set up.
>
> Yes, for doing more mapping events, you don't need a formal body, but
> you do it you want to be an OSMF local chapter, and I suspect it would
> be easier to talk to government bodies (or big orgs) if you're from an
> official body.
>
> And who knows, setting it up might be kick up the arse for some of us!
>
> Since I'm in Germany, I can't come to any of the events. 😞😞😞 But I'll
> help how I can... I was involved with setting up TOG, which was
> originally an unincorporated association (don't do that!) and is now a
> DAC (designed activity company(?))
>
> On 14/08/17 03:52, Dave Corley wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> First, I want to apologise, this is a long email, but if you are at all
>> interested in moving OSM in Ireland to the next level, please read on and
>> give your feedback when you're done.
>>
>> Efforts to get the OSM Ireland group set up as a legal entity and
>> established as a recognised chapter have never really got out of the
>> starting blocks for us, mainly because it's an exceptionally long, boring
>> process to get it all done.
>>
>> Back when Rory gave the Townlands presentation at a Sotm or two ago, I
>> contacted everyone who took part and asked a number of questions to allow
>> for some stats to be included in the presentation. I asked a few questions
>> specifically around the topic of setting something up properly. If I
>> recall
>> correctly, all but one were interested in joining an official OSM Ireland,
>> but less than half wanted to be involved in setting it up. But that ratio
>> is to be expected. If I'm honest, it was a lot higher than I originally
>> expected.
>>
>> What I would love to see is a functioning OSM Ireland body which, at an
>> absolute minimum, could do the following
>>
>>     - Scheduling regular meet up's - These would have some organisation
>>     around them e.g. guest speakers, break out groups, objectives etc.
>> This
>>     could be monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly, doesn't matter, just even
>>     setting up a schedule and sticking to it would be a great achievement
>>     - Work on increasing the qty of daily contributors - Some simple
>> things
>>     like automating messages to first time mappers, or a tool to ensure
>> every
>>     new contributor's edits are reviewed for accuracy/vandalism etc.
>> Basically,
>>     just setting up some structure around it to ensure we engage with new
>> folks
>>     in the most efficient and effective ways possible. I see no reason
>> why a
>>     number of 50 a day shouldn't be achievable within an 18 month period
>> if
>>     this is done right.
>>     - Setting up an Import strategy - There is an ever growing pool of
>> open
>>     data being released. To make full use of it is going to require a
>>     signficant body of up-front work (selecting, categorising,
>> prioritising,
>>     tools and import process).
>>     - Lining up other, structured, mapping tasks - For example doing a 1
>>     month blitz on lane mapping, or a 3 month clean-up of errors using
>> Osmi or
>>     keepright etc etc etc. We did this with the enormous townland mapping
>>     project. Smaller scale versions, with a little work, could have a
>> real,
>>     lasting impact on the map
>>     - Commiting to organising a State of the Map yearly. This doesn't need
>>     to have a load of bells and whistles, hell, year one would likely be
>> one
>>     day, but it has to be possible to get a 2 day conference going within
>> 2
>>     years, whatever format it may take (barcamp, unconference etc).
>> There's
>>     enough going on now between mappers, govt, commercial and academic
>> folks
>>     that is easily within reach.
>>     - Lastly, getting out of Dublin. I know Dublin has the biggest
>>
>>     population of mappers, but what about having the meetup in a location
>>     outside of Dub once or twice a year. Or there could be a night away
>> where
>>     we do a load of ground work on the basemap first, then hit the ground
>> in a
>>     town and get every street name, address, business and attraction all
>> in one
>>     day, then meet back somewhere, have a bite to eat and a few drinks.
>>
>> In my head, I'm seeing each of those things needing 2-3 people to work on
>> them, i.e. working groups, to ensure nobody gets left holding the bag and
>> to avoid burnout.
>>
>> Now, I'd like to say, all of the above is purely what *I* think OSM
>> Ireland
>> should be about. Others may feel differently, and that's totally fine.
>> It's
>> kind of the point of this email :)
>>
>> With all of that in mind, to get us formally set up, what I am proposing
>> is
>> the following
>>
>> 1. A meeting in early Sept  (the 2nd or the 9th) where we will come
>> together to hammer out a lot of the basics of setting up OSM Ireland.
>> Note,
>> this will involve people coming together, agreeing on the structure and,
>> most importantly, some people agreeing to take some work e.g. research
>> whats involved in setting up a bank account, what are the legal
>> requirements, how will we manage membership, etc etc
>>
>> 2. A second meeting in early Oct where the majority of the structure is
>> locked down. Work to start on Articles of Association etc if required at
>> this point. Again, some people would need to agree to take on some tasks
>> to
>> keep the process moving.
>>
>> 3. A third meeting in Nov and a fourth in Dec, to lock down any last
>> elements. At this point we would need to agree a provisional board
>> probably, to allow for paperwork to proceed for banks, govt. etc. Note,
>> this board would step down at the first general meeting of OSM Ireland and
>> elections would be held at that first meeting.
>>
>> 4. Jan, get all the paperwork sent to whoever
>>
>> 5. TBD, once paperwork is approved by relevant bodies, agenda for first
>> general meeting to be determined and election process to begin
>>
>> There you go. With a bit of luck, before the next round of green
>> milkshakes
>> hits McDonalds, we would be a formal entity and we could start talking
>> about moving to the next stage, which would be completing the OSMF chapter
>> application, not to mention any other objectives we might have.
>>
>> So, who's in?
>>
>> Dave
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