Talk:Foundation/Local Chapters

• What was the result of the discussion held at Saturday evening at the SOTM09 in Amsterdam? Are there any other meeting minutes? --MichaelK 11:10, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

The £10 is too steep for developing countries

If the agreement between the local chapter and OSMF insist on this fee (per member!) then I think many chapters from developing countries would forgo a formal association with OSMF and conduct OSM activities in their localities independently. --seav 14:06, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

• I agree on developing countries. But also on other countries the suggestion in the draft agreement doesn't fit: for Germany the OSM local chapter would only be one division within the FOSSGIS association. Why should all FOSSGIS members (which maybe are not related to OSM at all) pay an anual fee of £10? --MichaelK 14:32, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

If the FOSSGIS was not connected to OSM, why would they want to become local chapter? I wonder if they are not worried to be overtaken by OSM contributers, as they don't seem to be very active at least here in Hannover. --Lulu-Ann 14:56, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

We could make the fee depending on the local purchasing power. Purchasing power is often measured in iPod or BigMac price, so let's say a yearly membership shall cost as much as 3 BigMacs in the country where the member lives (in reference to the annual statistics). --Lulu-Ann 14:59, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

Seems this was removed on August 6th from the page: page history; it should be mentioned again once people start working again on the draft agreement. Alv 07:50, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

The current best suggestion is to use Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) (like a Big Mac index) to work out the membership fee that would be payable by each member.

Membership

There is some current controversy around the relationship between local chapter members and the OSM-Foundation. There are broadly two opinions here:

1. All local chapter members are by default members of the OSM-Foundation. The Local Chapter is affiliated to the Foundation
2. The Local Chapter members do not have to be members of the OSM-Foundation. The Local Chapter is affiliated to the Foundation

FOSS & OSGeo Connection

The article does not talk about the connection with FOSS/ OSGeo existing groups. Perhaps there should be more mention of it? --acrosscanadatrails 22:58, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

In Canada we have OSGeo BC (based in Vancouver) and OSGeo - Ottawa Chapter. OSGeo Ottawa has expressed interest in Hosting an OSGeo Conference with the theme of "OpenStreetMap" (considering that OpenStreetMap Canada doesn't exist as a 'non-profit'.) The conference is still in the planning stages, so i will edit this part as i get more details :) There is not much activity on the talk-ca list, as it's mostly about the Canada Import. However, the weight on my shoulders is BIG (if i make a mistake in tagging, then it is ALOT of work for me to revert). One reason for being a foundation is that we could work closer with (possibly) Natural Resources Canada, and other non-profit groups, (to help them with their maps?). --acrosscanadatrails 16:22, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Local Chapter Mailing list

There is now a mailing list for this discussion.

http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/local-chapters

Independant Financial stuff

Ok, lets take the GSoC program where the OSMF gets money from Google because of a mentor is provided. If this mentor is part of a localchapter it would be for more realistic if the localchapter would get the money from Google than the OSMF. I think the independence goals cannot be achieved if the global income cannot be split if the localchapters should get independent sponsor agreements. --Skinkie 15:03, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

is this page superceded?

As has been so ably pointed out, the community's documentation on Local Chapters is out-of-date. Part of it may be page naming, as we refer to any national-level local group as a 'local chapter' regardless of OSMF affiliation. I would prefer for this page to be updated and slimmed down rather than superceded by an OSMF managed page. Jnicho02 (talk) 16:21, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

"as we refer to any national-level local group as a 'local chapter' regardless of OSMF affiliation" no we don't SimonPoole (talk) 16:25, 20 November 2019 (UTC)

I have updated the page to represent the current situation. Jnicho02 (talk) 15:37, 20 November 2019 (UTC)

Overlapping territories

A point of discussion about Local Chapters (emerged at OSMit2009) was if they have the exclusive right to exercise the benefits at the local level. Wikimedia activists advised against troubles caused by having overlapping Local Chapters. If there is not a clear "by country" policy, the issue can be solved by the discretionality of the OSMF board applying for Local Chapters. But a clear policy - I think - is better than discretionality. --Niccolo 08:39, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Does membership of an affiliated local chapter force/encourage individual membership of OSMF?

Local chapters are separate legal entities. They have their members and the OSMF has its members.

Note that this is not what the current draft agreement says. The current draft specifies that a local chapter member becomes a OSM-Foundation member by default --Nick 14:34, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

Separate memberships makes things easier and cleaner:

• Legally, a member of OSMF or a local chapter does not only have rights, but also liabilities. Automatically making somebody a member of the other organisation might discourage people from becoming members at all.

I'm not doubting this, but I'd like to better understand the liabilities that potential members are worried about--Nick 14:35, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

In Germany and other countries it is already common that you join a local sports club and become member of the regional and national sports association automatically. This is appreciated as you often get a accident insurance with it! I don't see a problem either. --Lulu-Ann 14:54, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

What would be the benefit of this to people that just want to join the local chapter, this may discourage people from joining either OSM-F or the local chapter. --Delta foxtrot2 15:42, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

In Finland a person can't become a member of anything where they haven't applied for a membership - but I guess it can be just a tickbox "I want to join OSMF, too" and the local association can choose who they approve as a member. (Here sports clubs themselves join the regional or national unions for the licenses and insurances). Alv 15:45, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

• Different countries and organisational forms have different requirements on how to become a member, how to stay a member, and how to terminate your membership. Membership might also be terminated for non-payment of dues or other reasons.

Local chapters should encourage their members to also apply for OSMF membership. On the membership forms of local chapters they can have a tick box saying "I also want to join OSMF, please send my information to OSMF". If an applicant ticks this box, the local chapter will forward the personal information to OSMF.