Dear all,
I am happy to annouce that the transfer of the domain name oshca.org
from Brian had been completed. Brian is in the process of creating and
signing a document disclaiming rights to the OSHCA trademark. Thank you
Brian for these initiatives.
I understand that Brian will also make a decision with regards to the
fate of the openhealth lists on Minoru and Yahoo by this weekend. I'll
leave that to Brian to make that annoucement.
As for the status of OSHCA, the protem committee members (volunteers
expressed on the list as well as those agreed to serve when requested)
are as follows:
Joseph dal Molin (Canada/US)
Adrian Midgley (UK/Europe)
Thomas Beale (Australia/Pacific islands)
Nandalal Gunaratne (Sri Lanka/Asia)
Molly Cheah (Malaysia/Asia)
I hope to keep the protem committee small for quick decision making but
hope to add 2 more names, preferably from South America and
Africa/Middle East by the time we submit the incorporation documents for
registration. Please volunteer. These numbers and representation
structure can change after incorporation if members wish so. I don't
know how much discussion should go into the incorporation process or how
much time should be alotted. My proposed timeline for completion of
incorporation is 3 months from 15th April 2006 - tentative date for
submission of papers. We should have OSHCA ressurrected by 15th July
2006, barring unforseen circumstances. Here are my assumptions in order
to realise this initiative:
1. Provisions in the constitution/M&A of OSHCA is a living document and
can be changed by members' majority wishes. For purpose of
incorporation, we will take into consideration past discussions
(2002-2004) and make the provisions as general and flexible as possible
to meet incorporation requirements.
2. There is no objection to incorporate ina developing country like
Malaysia. There will be provisions for setting up geographical
sections/branches etc with as much de-centralization as possible.
3.The Vision, Mission Statements, Principles and Activities as discussed
earlier this year will be included in the incorporation papers. Any
suggestion of changes posted on the Yahoo list by 15th April will be
taken into consideration by the protem committee for incorporation.
Procedures will be provided for amendments to be made after incorporation.
4. Elections for new committee members can take place immediately after
incorporation. Provision will be made for the protem committee to stay
on for a defined number of months to attend to "teething" issues that
may arise.
5. The yahoo list will continue to discuss organising the 1st
post-incorporation OSHCA meeting scheduled for later part of 2006 to
kick-start/launch OSHCA. This may not be in the form of a full
conference. I would like to see presentations of current status of open
source healthcare solutions/applicaions. It should also provide the
opportunity to include indepth discussions on planning for the future of
OSHCA so that its resurrection becomes meaningful - reflecting more than
just a community of open source enthusiasts in health care. If there are
no other bidders, I plan to get funding to do this in Malaysia.
Naturally it may be on a modest scale.
Please feel free to propose ideas.The protem committee will work on an
action plan and invite volunteers to help.
Molly