Board meeting minutes, 2007/12/13

["Luis Villa" <luis tieguy org>]

Minutes for GNOME Foundation Board Meeting of Dec. 13th, 2007

== Next Meeting ==
2008, Jan. 3rd, with both old and new board. Last transition meeting.

== Attendance ==

Members of current board and board-elect attending.

 * Behdad Esfahbod
 * Anne Oestergard
 * Luis Villa (secretary)
 * John Palmieri
 * Vincent Untz
 * Jeff Waugh
 * Glynn Foster (late)
 * Brian Cameron (late

=== Missing ===

 * Quim Gil
 * Lucas Rocha

== Minutes ==

=== Old items ===

 * Financial update from Zana (normally a point on the agenda when
Zana is not on maternity leave.)

 * Welcome to new board members

 * Update on Employing a Sys Admin, from Vincent: Anne notes that
FSF-E is looking for a sysadmin as well, and that perhaps talking with
them about sharing an admin would be a good idea. Vincent notes that
current discussion (on the board list) centers around hiring someone
full-time or part-time. Seems to be some lean towards part-time
(though not full consensus of yet). Glynn asks whether this would be
task-based or time-based? Some discussion about what tasks the focus
would be on. We do not believe that (legally) there are restrictions
on where we can hire, and since the machines are hosted in colos we do
not have access to anyway, physical location is probably mostly
irrelevant.

 * Next Statement on ODF >< OOXML: board continued discussion of
further statements on ODF/OOXML, carrying out/extending principles
discussed in last public statement.

 * GNOME Report 2007 (Update by Vincent, on Lucas's behalf): current
plan is to have rough draft ready on Dec. 20; lots of
coordination/volunteer coordination necessary. Physical printing and
design work is an open question; last year that was handled by Dave
Neary with a local designer. Some discussion about whether or not to
require Free Software; given the time constraints, this seems
impractical as a constraint, though all agree that this is a concern
for the future. Glynn suggests printing more than the 200 from last
year, particularly for the event box and other events. Cost of
printing and mailing is an open question, though typically fairly
cheap.

 * GNOME at FOSDEM: GNOME-FR organized a GNOME room last year; is
doing the same again (hopefully with help from GNOME-DE and GNOME-NL).
Vincent is monitoring this. Details at
http://live.gnome.org/Brussels2008

 * Board summary report from AB Meetings for GNOME Report 2007: Lucas
is coordinating this; has asked Vincent to coordinate.

 * Dates for Advisory Board Meetings: delegated to the new board.

 * GUADEC Istanbul update: Baris still negotiating for university
venue. Some discussion taking place on guadec-list. Behdad has pinged
Baris.


=== New items ===

 * W3C: Ongoing discussion. Jeff to write draft statement for board
discussion/approval, to focus on supporting Mozilla and W3C positions.
 * accessibility (a11y) outreach program: question: give it 10k? Some
money in budget from last year for this. a11y team is hoping to
announce a program in the next two weeks; goals would be to get some
more visibility for a11y. Discussion to go the list so that new
members can catch up on financial statements first. Jeff suggests an
a11y committee, with a fixed budget; Brian volunteers to be the liason
to that committee and get the right people involved.
 * tax/financial: ongoing; Jonathan Blandford and WSGR are continuing
to work on it and contacting IRS. Matter is best described as 'under
control.'

== Action Items ==

 * Jeff to draft new OOXML statement for ad-board and board lists Friday 14th.
 * Vincent to draft job description for part-time System
Administration position.
 * Vincent to find out from Dave Neary who did the visual layout for
the annual report last year and if they can do it again next year
(ideally by tomorrow); Jeff to find someone local to him if last
year's person can't do it. [DONE]
 * Behdad to follow up with Baris re: GUADEC. [DONE]
 * Board: follow up on a11y discussion on list. [DONE]