Humanitarian OSM Team/Board/Board Meeting Minutes/26 October 2021
HOT Board Meeting 26 October 2021, 13:30 UTC
Attending
Felix Delattre, Kuo-Yu “slayer” Chuang, Nate Smith, Tyler Radford, Courtney Clark, Kate Chapman, Shoaib Burq, Gertrude (Trudy Hope) Namitala
Excused
N/A
Absent
N/A
Observing
Arnalie Vicario, Pete Masters, Miriam Gonzalez
Chair
Felix Delattre
Minutes
Inna Nogeste
Call to order
Meeting called to order at 13:32 UTC by Chair Felix Delattre
Quorum
Yes
Approval of Previous Minutes
Approval of the September minutes.
Motion by Kate: Approve the September HOT Board Meeting minutes. Motion approved.
Previous Action Items
- Board to review the draft of the whistleblower process (Felix,Tyler) - WIP
- Review Bylaws amendments with the Board, Voting Membership Chairperson, Governance Working Group, lawyer and then bring back them to the Board (Felix) - Done
- Executive Director’s Performance Review - share requested information about the salary adjustments and propose a motion to be handled via Loomio (Rob) - Done.
- Executive Committee - Finalise answer to OSMF and send email to Amanda (Miriam) - Done
- Finance Committee update - Use Loomio to approve the budget before the election (Rob) - Done
- Finance Committee update - Use Loomio to approve ED’s performance review (Rob) - Done
- Bylaws changes - Felix and Miriam to draft a short message to send it to membership today because the Ballot goes out tonight (Miriam) - Done.
Circular resolutions approved since previous meeting
- 2 October 2021; Motion by Rob on Loomio to approve the 2021 Fiscal Year Budget. Motion approved.
- 4 October 2021; Motion by Rob on Loomio to approve raising the Executive Director's salary. Motion approved.
- 7 October 2021; Motion by Rob on Loomio to approve the HOT Finance Committee Terms of Reference. Motion approved.
Contracts approved since previous meeting
- 12 October 2021; Letter of intent for a Framework Agreement Between the Asia-Pacific Region of the World Organization of the Scout Movement and the Open Mapping Hub - Asia Pacific.
Agenda
Operations update
Presenting: Tyler
Highlights of the HOT Monthly Roundup - October 2021
- Grant funding has been launched. The term microgrants is no longer being used because the grants are now longer in period and larger in the funding realm. Grants are now supporting partners and organisations over a longer period of time
- A women in leadership program, She leads & She inspires, has been launched in the Asia-Pacific region to support women interested in open mapping. The aim of the program is to work with 100 young women in the region and it is looking for mentors. Call for applicants is open and on the website
- Language localisation is a pilot project in Vietnam, Madagascar and Mozambique. The aim is to make resources around OpenStreetMap available in local languages, determining what is most useful to translate, review the results and use it to scale up to more countries
- New partnerships are in place with OSGeo and the World organisation of the Scout movement across the Asia Pacific region
- Field Programs and Disasters Services has won an award in supporting response to the Haiti earthquake in August 2021. Most of the funding is going to a local funding partner group in Haiti to lead a response effort with HOT’s support.
Board roles
Presenting: Felix
The following four roles needed to be decided and which also make up the Executive Committee:
- President
- Vice-President (not defined in the Bylaws but in the Board Procedures)
- Treasurer
- Secretary
The Board has been using a matrix to express interest in the roles. The new Board members indicated their preference for the four roles in the matrix.
Notes/Discussion:
Previous and current Board members explained the roles and time expectations. Some of the Board’s activities and time commitments have changed slightly since they were documented. For example, the annual report is prepared by HOT’s Communications Team and not the Secretary, who could instead review, provide input and present it officially to the Board.
A question was raised about the Board moving towards a strategic Board. It was decided this needs to be discussed at another meeting and added to the agenda.
Motion by Felix: Approve the following roles. Motion approved.
- President - Kate Chapman
- Vice President - Felix Delattre
- Treasurer - Gertrude (Trudy Hope) Namitala
- Secretary - Courtney Clark
Board Committee memberships
Presenting: Felix
This was tabled until the next meeting when Kate can be present.
Those who have expressed interest by signing up for the committees were asked to familiarise themselves with their respective committees and responsibilities.
Board members need to be members of the following committees:
- Executive Committee - has been completed by the roles in the previous agenda item
- Strategy Committee
- Risk Management Committee
- Finance Committee
- Code of Conduct Committee
Notes/Discussion:
The Governance Working Group (GWG) was mentioned, which is not a committee. The Chair of the GWG is independent of the Board and the GWG does not require a Board member to be the Chair. It would be good to have a Board member liaise with the GWG.
Motion by Felix: Table this agenda topic until the next Board meeting. Motion approved.
Committee meetings will still be held in November. Board members interested in their respective committees are to liaise with the EA to organise invitations to the meetings.
Possible Face-to-Face meeting
Presenting: Tyler
Tyler asked if the Board should get together face-to-face.
HOT’s Senior Management Team met face-to-face for the first time in 18 months and found it really beneficial.
The Board might be in a similar situation and there is a need to make sure that everyone is aligned to the goals.
There are limitations on locations.Tyler suggested that this meeting take place earlier in the term, perhaps at the same time as the next SMT meeting in December, or earlier next year.
Notes/Discussion:
It was discussed, and agreed, that this type of meeting would be very useful and the importance of all Board Members being able to attend. Locations and quarantine were also mentioned. The length of the meeting would be anywhere between 1 day to 1 week, depending on the agenda and topics to be discussed.
A Member Observer mentioned that in previous years, the face-to-face meeting was combined with another event (HOT Summit etc) which meant there was a lot of opportunity for the board to get to know each other outside the actual meeting and that this felt very important at the time.
Other topics?
Presenting: Felix
Future Board Meetings
On which day should Board Meetings be held, Tuesdays don’t suit Kate.
A Loomio motion in May this year changed the start time from 14:30 UTC to 13:30 UTC, from May until the Board election. Is the start time to be 13:30 UTC, 14:00 UTC, 14:30 UTC or another time? (click on the links to see the local time, November - March/April = winter/summer time for some countries).
Notes/Discussion:
Kate to do a concrete proposal, perhaps via Loomio. Slack discussion indicated Mondays could be an option
Board Meeting platform
Has BigBlueButton (BBB) worked for all Board members today? Have Board members connected via ethernet or mobile phones? If BBB hasn’t worked for everyone, is there an alternative?
Notes/Discussion:
BBB has been accepted by the membership but it doesn’t work for Trudy. The previous Board did tests with Google Meet which had similar results. The Board will discuss this more deeply when they have more time.
Tabled topics
The following are not reflected in the notes because there has been no action since the last Board meeting or there was insufficient time to discuss the topic at a Board meeting.
- Role of local boards (waiting for feedback from Governance WG)
- Strategic plan 2022-2025
- Whistleblower process (needs input; it is in the action items)
- Board Committee memberships.
New Action Items
- Board Committee memberships - Board members interested in their respective committees are to liaise with the EA to organise invitations to the meetings (Kate) - Pending
- Possible Face-to-Face meeting - Board to provide feedback if December is possible to meet or not (Kate) - Pending
- Possible Face-to-Face meeting - Each Board member to research on their personal ability to travel during December and to be reviewed by the Executive Committee asynchronously via email (Kate) - Pending
- Future Board Meetings - Kate to do a concrete proposal, perhaps via Loomio (Kate) - Pending.
Next board meeting
23 November 2021 @ 13:30 UTC
Adjournment
Chair Felix Delattre declared the meeting adjourned at 14:41 UTC.
Minutes approved
These board meeting minutes were approved on 23 November 2021.