OSGeo:UK

12th September 2018

Thanks to everyone involved in organising FOSS4GUK 2018, it was a big success.
FOSS4GUK 2019 will be happening but isn’t formally announced yet.
QGIS UK events- FOSS4GUK are happy to act as banker as long as they are revenue-neutral.
UK Mapping Festival- no “official” presence, but Steven Feldman was there for one day- it could have been better, but perhaps if there’s a chance to organise an open source day next year we should try to be involved if it doesn’t conflict with FOSS4GUK.
FOSS4G ECO didn’t happen due to funding and time constraints.
General feeling is that themed streams possibly work better than themed events- cross-pollination
For FOSS4GUK events venue is key- Geovation Hub was too small really. We’re looking for venues with a capacity of 200-300.
For future events we need to consider diversity, and actively seeking participants from minority groups. We need to monitor diversity too.

Draft accounts prepared by Matt Travis and reviewed by Steven Feldman.
Total income ~£18K
Total expenditure ~£14K
Figures include FOSS4G and QGIS UG
We made ~£7K from FOSS4GUK
Net profit £3.5K
Balance £13K
Corporation Tax £703 to be paid by end December
Accounts approved
Typically we make donations in March and FOSS4GUK 2019 will happen after 2019 tax submission so we will show a loss in 2018-2019.
Aim to get more personal donations.
Supported Geoserver Code Sprint, QGIS, FOSS4G Travel Grant in 2017-2018
Are supporting Regina Obe (via Patreon) and PostGIS in 2018-2019
Is sponsorship of software the best use of our funds or should we be focusing on individual travel grants (we had one request last year)- how to promote this- make it more obvious on the home page?

Steven retiring as treasurer- Jo nominates Matt Travis to take over, seconded by Tom Chadwin. Happy to remain as a trustee/committee member
Registered office to stay at Steven’s address for as long as it’s necessary
Antony Scott is happy to stand as secretary again
Jo happy to stand as chair again

Application to become a charity was rejected, but re-submitting would be hard, and would probably not get accepted. Given that the main reason was for tax purposes, the trustees/committee feel it’s not worth re-submitting. The reporting burden for charities is quite severe as well.
Steven Feldman proposes an amendment to the constitution to increase the number of committee members to 4. Seconded by Matt Travis and approved.
- This needs to be posted to the list, and sent to the secretary 28 days beforehand as per constitution. We then need an SGM to agree it.
Jo happy to coordinate OSGeo:UK response to Geospatial World Leadership call for evidence. Steven is concerned about a conflict of interest and will not be participating in the OSGeo:UK response.