First volunteer Board of Directors of the Open Telecom Foundation

After a busy holiday season and some time for our new Open Telecom Foundation name to sink-in to our collective conscious, our founding members continued discussions on how best to organize and collaborate.

Once our members established that there would be some basic operating fees and budget to maintain, we agreed that it was time so consider incorporating as a not-for-profit corporation. Creating a separate legal entity would help ensure neutrality and allow for thoughtful and considered governance of our group activities.

The founding members then decided to nominate a group of 7 volunteers to create the first Board of Directors of the new Open Telecom Foundation. An uneven number of directors is considered ideal so that there is less likelihood of tie votes on key decisions.

Our founding directors were given the task to begin negotiating a set of By-Laws matching our shared values, that are also compliant with Canadian federal law. The founding board was also tasked with determining the core objectives (objects in Canada) of the new Open Telecom Foundation.

Volunteer director Graham Nelson-Zutter began to research the requirements to incorporate in his home jurisdiction in Canada. Founding member, CloudPBX Inc. offered to cover the costs of incorporating in Canada. This offer of a member to cover costs is how the Open Telecom Foundation chose Canada as its initial jurisdiction of incorporation.