Hi Everyone
The openEHR interim Management Board met on Tuesday last week to consider how we finalise the move to a new organisational structure. We have had a lot of feedback from the wonderful meeting in Oslo and understand that there are now a range of issues that people and industry want to address collectively. Thank you to DIPS in Norway for hosting this meeting.
The final governance arrangements are clearly of concern to some parties. The Board has decided to have a teleconference with the initial Industry Partners to finalise a plan for governance development; this is to agree the process and how to involve the Members not the final solution. We are proposing to hold a constitutional meeting in London early in 2015 where we will finalise the constitution. Clearly this will require some resources to do it properly so it has to take place after we have some commitment of funding from Industry Partners and Individual Members. We would like to have the elected Management Board in place by the time of this meeting if at all possible.
Licensing is, as ever, of concern. The Foundation is committed to broadening the licensing to maximise the freedom of use of all assets while firming up the trade marks.
The bundling of Individual Memberships with Industry Partnerships has caused various people some confusion and consternation so we have decided to undo this arrangement for the time being. This will mean that everyone who wants to nominate or vote for individual members on the Management Board will have to join the Foundation. You can do this at http://members.openehr.org - we will open the nomination period (8 weeks) following the meeting with the Industry Partners if everyone is ready to move.
We are interested in an Academic Membership and possibly a board position for an academic party as well should there be sufficient interest in this. I would like to hear from any organisations that would seek such a role.
There is a lot to do and many aspects of our work that require quality input and review. We look forward to working with all of you.
For the moment, the strongest actions individuals can take that will move the openEHR Foundation forward are to participate in the various collective activities and to join up - it is a Euro 15.00 annual fee and we hope you will see this as a good investment. You can also donate on the site if you feel you want to add to our resources (we have had two donations so far).
I will update you after the meeting with Industry Partners.
Thank you for your support.
Regards, Sam Heard