Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-10-02 Thread Peter Batty
Thanks to Bill for his previous post. I was going to also point out what he mentions here and was in the other article he linked to - lawyers I have talked to (albeit a small sample) seem to recommend Delaware for incorporating (non-profit or otherwise - my startup Spatial Networking is incorporate

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-10-01 Thread Bill Ricker
On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 2:19 PM, Anthony wrote: > I'd recommend setting up the draft bylaws prior to making the decision of > where to incorporate.  How we want to run the organization will help > determine where (and whether) to incorporate. Right, as otherwise the locality dictates what sort of

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-10-01 Thread SteveC
yeah I can set up a call, just gimme the word On 1 Oct 2009, at 12:06, Serge Wroclawski wrote: > On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 2:19 PM, Anthony wrote: > >> Is too much to ask for to have everyone interested in the >> conference call >> set up Skype? > > I would much, much prefer a standard conferenc

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-10-01 Thread Anthony
It was pointed out to me that there are draft bylaws at http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/United_States/Draft_Rules I responded to them at http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Foundation/Local_Chapters/United_States/Draft_Rules On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 2:19 PM, Anthony

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-10-01 Thread Serge Wroclawski
On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 2:19 PM, Anthony wrote: > Is too much to ask for to have everyone interested in the conference call > set up Skype? I would much, much prefer a standard conference call service. Those services are generally more reliable, easier to get working, have consistency in terms o

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-10-01 Thread Anthony
I'd recommend setting up the draft bylaws prior to making the decision of where to incorporate. How we want to run the organization will help determine where (and whether) to incorporate. And I'd recommend deciding upon membership types/fees prior to writing the draft bylaws, since that will be a

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-10-01 Thread Sarah Manley
Yes, that was helpful, thanks Bill. So, as mentioned before, we should probably set a time to plan a conference call so we can start to make some decisions. Does anyone have access to a conference call service? I do not. I would say a tentative agenda is: 1. decide where we plan to incorporate (

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-09-30 Thread SteveC
Really interesting post, thanks On 29 Sep 2009, at 20:10, Bill Ricker wrote: > If your are going to incorporate at a national level, please look at > examples of good and bad examples in the FOSS community. > > GrokLaw linked to this discussion, which has relevance outside its > own niche. > htt

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-09-29 Thread Bill Ricker
If your are going to incorporate at a national level, please look at examples of good and bad examples in the FOSS community. GrokLaw linked to this discussion, which has relevance outside its own niche. http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20090914102959510 Bill n1...@a

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-09-24 Thread Sarah Manley
Agreed. Steve-- can you set up a conference call? Also, would be good if more folks sign up on committees. I think going forward calls may work best on a committee level, with notes sent out here. I am now volunteering at the wikimedia foundation, so I can probably ask for a help from one of the

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-09-23 Thread SteveC
On 16 Sep 2009, at 13:56, Sarah Manley wrote: > As listed by Kate in her second email (and being built out on the > wiki: > http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/United_States > ) A local chapter will do more advocacy within their own nation. OK That's a lot more filled

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-09-19 Thread Kate
On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 9:14 AM, Kate Chapman wrote: >> I took a first stab at the draft rules. > > http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/United_States/Draft_Rules > It is essentially taken from the New York Wikimedia bylaws: > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_New_Yo

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-09-19 Thread Kate Chapman
> > I took a first stab at the draft rules. > http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/United_States/Draft_Rules It is essentially taken from the New York Wikimedia bylaws: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_New_York_City/Bylaws There are specific legal text we need in t

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-09-18 Thread Kate
One of the first steps is to draft bylaws or what OSM appears to call "Draft Rules" http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/United_States/Draft_Rules http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Step-by-step_chapter_creation_guide The next step would be to get agreement for the rules, wit

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-09-18 Thread Kate Chapman
Sounds good, I think that we have to have a board in order to incorporate. That will need to be done when we file we register the non-profit corporation. Also we should probably look into where we want to register. Kate Chapman (via GPS...I mean iPhone) On Sep 18, 2009, at 6:56 PM, Sarah

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-09-18 Thread Sarah Manley
Hello All, Looks like we are getting off to a good start. We have 15 folks on the wiki, and need 20 to start our the chapter. So please spread the word. I think it might be helpful for us to break into committees, so to handle different aspects of forming, managing and advocating for the chapter

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-09-16 Thread Sarah Manley
As listed by Kate in her second email (and being built out on the wiki: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/United_States) A local chapter will do more advocacy within their own nation. In the US, if incorporated as a non-profit, the chapter would be able to accept donatio

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-09-16 Thread SteveC
Playing devils advocate a bit - what will the chapter do that we can't or aren't already? Does the aura of having an incorporated body somehow change everything? It certainly didn't with the OSMF, it was more that we needed a body to hold independent control of things like the domain names

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters (Christian O. Petersen)

2009-09-16 Thread Christian Petersen
Hi All I think there are quite a few advantages to a local chapter for the US - the ones I think are the most important are the ones that help us all map the US. - As a local chapter we can do a drive focused on getting the US OSM community and map to catch up with Europe - we could use both PR

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-09-16 Thread Sarah Manley
All, I was planning to send a similar email this week, so Kate, thanks for beating me to it. I agree that it is important to get the US chapter up and running, and that local groups can then use the national non-profit status for their efforts. One place we may want to look to as an example is the

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-09-15 Thread Peter Batty
Based on some of the other discussion I've seen about local chapters, it seems as though it may well be useful for us to have an OSM legal entity in the US for various reasons. So if it's not too much hassle to set up I think it's probably worth doing. I would vote for doing just one at the US leve

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-09-15 Thread Kate Chapman
I currently do work with my local group that organizes around a wiki page: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/MappingDC I think there potentially can be some cash flow. We have been approaching local governments to get permissions to import their data. In the case of the District of Columbia we

Re: [Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-09-15 Thread Bill Ricker
On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 10:32 PM, Kate Chapman wrote: > I've heard various talk going on about local chapters in various places. I > did a quick archive search but didn't find that much information regarding > U.S. chapters.  There seems to be people interested, but perhaps working > separately.

[Talk-us] U.S. Local Chapters

2009-09-15 Thread Kate Chapman
Hi all, I've heard various talk going on about local chapters in various places. I did a quick archive search but didn't find that much information regarding U.S. chapters. There seems to be people interested, but perhaps working separately. Let me preface the rest of my email with the statement