---
# System prepended metadata

title: OSMbe restart
tags: [archive]

---

# OSMbe restart

###### tags: `archive`

See also https://hackmd.io/4Arl2Gc5TQaQNZf0GLjE6g
See also https://github.com/osmbe/working-group-bylaws/blob/master/minutes/2019-11-29%20-%20official%20meeting.md

## Invite message (ben's version)

Hi OSM belgium members,

We would like to invite you to our yearly general assembly (official meeting). It will take place in BeCentral on November 29th (Friday) 2019 at 18:30. The agenda of this meeting can be found here:

(link here with the following provisional agenda)

- Ratifying the reduction in membership

We would like you all to ratify the result of the email message we sent asking if members still wanted to be involved. This has reduced our membership to a less but more active responsive members. This solves the stalemate we had last year caused by the majority of members not being active.

We as a board believe, after the meeting last year, this was the best solution.

- Running for the board

We would absolutely *love* if someone from the current membership would stand for the elections. We explain what your main tasks are.

- What do you expect from OSM-BE?

We do a lot, it's not always clear what OSM belgium does so we will give a short overview of what happened in the past year. We also invite members to come up with ideas for the next year.

- New membership management

Our old way of managing membership, just an open form on the website, caused a lot for signups from members that never got really involved with OSM-be. We want to discuss new ways of handling this. According to our by-laws, "People can become members by open registration with a 'minimum engagement'." We defined this 'minimum engagement' as answering to a mail every so often.

Should we redefine this? Should we change the signup method?

The official meeting itself will have some sort of live streaming and take a place at BeCentral, our office in the Bruxelles-Central railway station.

Hope to hear more from you, 
Jonathan Beliën
Joost Schouppe
Ben Abelshausen

## Invite message



Hi,

At the end of the last year, we had an "official meeting". We wanted to decide on a reform of the by-laws and on a code of conduct. However, we did not reach quorum. As a "last resort", we set up a way to partipate in the vote digitally. Though it widened partipation a bit, we still did not reach quorum. Note that both at the official meeting and at the extended online voting, votes were unanimously in favor of the proposals.

Useful reading:
[Current By-laws](https://github.com/osmbe/working-group-bylaws/blob/master/CONSTITUTION.md)
[Report from the official meeting / Opavote invitation](https://github.com/osmbe/working-group-bylaws/blob/master/minutes/2018-11-13%20-%20official%20meeting.md)

This leaves us with a little problem: our extremely open membership does not combine well with the quorum necessity in our by-laws. There are simply too much people who are interested in OpenStreetMap Belgium and became a member, but do not really want to engage in the organisation itself.

According to our by-laws, "People can become members by open registration with a 'minimum engagement'." We defined this 'minimum engagement' as answering to a mail every so often. In August, ve've sent out such a mail, describing what we expect from members. You are receiving *this* message, because you are one of 20 people who said they want to be part of organizing OpenStreetMap Belgium. Thank you for that!

Now there are a few things on the agenda, and we'd like to discuss them with you.

* Should we change the by-laws or not?

While we certainly had an organisational crisis, we did find a way out. Since then, we've removed the simple registration form (which might be confusing) and asked to send us an e-mail instead. Since then, we've had no new membership applications.
While practical, it is not the most welcoming way of running things. As an alternative, we could open up more, BUT first drop the quorum requierements altogether. This would open the door to inviting the unsubscribed members back in.

* Should we reform membership or not?
We want people who aren't "core" to be involved too. Should we have different "membership classes" as suggested in the previous official meeting?
How do we deal with people we consider "core" but aren't interested in organisational stuff. Do we need some sort of  "adivsory board" or do we keep them in the loop informally?
Do we have a class of members who have a special status and can't be removed simply by not replying to a general mail asking this?


* Will you be a candidate for Board?
We will have one more topic to vote on: a new Board! The three current Board members will be candidates, but there is no set maximum of Board members. We could use a little more help on the Board. How about you?
Being on the Board is fun. Most of our meetings are in Brussels over a beer, though about half of them have been via video-chat. We do have some occasional work we don't really like, but most of the time you do feel like you're making an actual impact for OpenStreetMap in Belgium. And we can't count the number of job offers we've had since joining the board.

Just kidding.

But we promise you, you won't regret it.
 

* Will you discuss and join us at the next Official meeting?

We want to discuss all of this with you. Please share your ideas in this e-mail thread or on https://riot.im/app/#/room/#osmbe-meetings:matrix.org . We'll schedule an official meeting within a month or two. We would like to get some real input before that, so that we can have a short discussion and a vote at the meeting. For Board candidates, we ask that they also let this know to this group, so that the others can ask you some questions.

The official meeting itself will have some sort of live streaming and take a place at BeCentral, our office in the Bruxelles-Central railway station.

Hope to hear more from you, 
Ben Abelshausen
Jonathan Beliën
Joost Schouppe




---- letter ends -



## Purge message
Hi,

You're a member of OpenStreetMap Belgium. In order for us to make decisions, we need members who are interested in "the boring stuff of running an organisation". We can't really decide on anything if we don't have enough people involved in the discussions.

OpenStreetMap Belgium is about our relationship with the outside world. We try to represent OSM to other organizations, make sure we're in a position to get funding and fund projects, and make sure Belgian voices are heard in the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

We do not indeed want to "be the community", we are merely supporting and filling in the gaps.

Are you interested in running the organization? Do you want a voice in these decisions? Do you want to decide who represents you in the Belgian OSM board? or do you want to run to be a candidate? Then reply to this mail to confirm that is what you want. In two weeks, we will send a mail to the people who replied. That mail will contain an agenda for the next official meeting.

### NEDERLANDS

Hoi,

Je bent lid van OpenStreetMap Belgium. Om beslissingen te kunnen nemen, hebben we leden nodig die geïnteresseerd zijn in het "saaie dagelijkse reilen en zeilen van een organisatie". We kunnen niet echt beslissen, als er niet genoeg mensen zijn die deelnemen aan de discussie.

OpenStreetMap Belgium is er voor onze relatie met de buitenwereld. We proberen OSM te vertegenwoordigen bij andere organisaties, zorgen dat we aan fondsen geraken, en er mee voor zorgen dat België gehoord wordt in de OpenStreetMap Foundation.

We proberen niet "de community te zijn", we zijn er enkel ter ondersteuningen en om in de gaten in te vullen.

Wil je mee de organisatie draaiende houden? Wil je mee kunnen beslissen? Wil je mee kunnen beslissen over wie je vertegenwoordigt in de Belgisch Board? Of wil je zelf kandideren? Antwoord dan op deze mail! Over twee weken nemen we contact op met alle mensen die antwoorden met een agenda voor de volgende officiële meeting.

### FRANCAIS

Bonjour,

Vous êtes membre d'OpenStreetMap Belgique. Pour que nous puissions prendre des décisions, nous avons besoin de membres prêts à nous aider pour la gestion de notre organisation. C'est la partie la moins marrante mais elle est essentielle. Nous ne pouvons pas vraiment prendre de décision si nous n'avons pas assez de personnes impliquées dans ces discussions.

Le but premier d'OpenStreetMap Belgique est notre relation avec le monde extérieur. Nous essayons de représenter OSM auprès d'autres organisations, nous essayons d'être en position d'obtenir des financements et financer nos projets, mais aussi d'être sûr que les membres belges sont entendus au sein de l'OpenStreetMap Foundation.

En effet, nous ne voulons pas "être la communauté", nous sommes là pour aider celle-ci.

Êtes-vous intéressé par gérer l'organisation ? Voulez-vous avoir votre mot à dire dans ces décisions ? Voulez-vous décider qui vous représentera au sein du Conseil d'Administration belge ? Ou voulez-vous être candidat pour les élections de ce Conseil d'Administration ? Si oui, veuillez répondre à cet e-mail. Dans 2 semaines, nous enverrons un e-mail aux membres ayant répondu avec le programme de la prochaine réunion officielle.





## A way out?

People can become members by open registration with a 'minimum engagement'. What kind of engagement must be decided at the first 'meeting' of the organization. A member is no longer considered a member if the 'minimum engagement' requirement is not met. 

An election will be conducted every 2 years

a meeting is official if at least 1/4 members are present

These bylaws can be changed and amended at an official meeting with at minimum a 2/3 approval.

## Purge and refresh

* Start with cleanup and ask for engagement; ask to actually reply to the mail before TWO WEEKS if you want to be involved in management of osmbe. Also all of them can run and vote for Board. WITHOUT THE WHOLE HISTORY
* whoever replies is invited to a next meeting where we discuss bylaw changes. Submit ideas before
* "meetings are about boring stuff like this"
* unless a better idea shows up: we just delete quorum from the bylaws


## old stuff

* discuss how to keep membership focused to people who join meetings, so we can actually vote on things
* this leads up to an official meeting
* where there will also be a board election


* We have failed at decision making, because of low engagement. It's OK if you just want to support us at a distance, but we need a core of people we can count on. If you want to be in that core, we will expect you to be reachable by a platform like the one sending this mail and to participate in votes. > ask to actually reply to the mail (management of osmbe) seperate from "being on the membership list"
* We have one more topic to vote on: a new board! But first we need candidates. How about you?
* We want people who aren't "core" to be involved too. So we still want to have a low participation level membership too
* And we want people who are "core" but not interested in too much formalities have a place. For this, we will create an adivsory board.

## Future bylaw change

* supporting members can vote BUT they DON'T HAVE TO and they are NOT counted for quorum!
* change 