Minutes of the Board meeting, 2007/jan/04

[Federico Mena Quintero <federico ximian com>]

	      Minutes of the Board meeting, 2007/Jan/04
	      -----------------------------------------

		       Board transition meeting
		       ------------------------

Attendance:

Anne �tergaard
Behdad Esfahbod
Dave Neary
Federico Mena
Jeff Waugh
Quim Gil
Rosanna Yuen
Vincent Untz

No attendance:

Glynn Foster (regrets)


MINUTES
=======

* Overview:

	- We are still in the process of hiring a director of business
          development for the Foundation ("executive director"):

		- Someone who will make a revenue model for the
                  Foundation.

		- Work with companies around GNOME to figure out GNOME
                  and the Foudation can grow in terms of revenue and
                  partnerships.  In general, things that are not
                  fulfilled by the community.

		- We interviewed people, including Quim himself;
                  didn't hire anyone.  Lots of discussion on the
                  board-only mailing list.

	- Board's wiki:
		http://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoard
		http://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoardPublic
		http://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoardPrivate

	- Mailing lists:

		board-list gnome org - General list for the Board, not
		visible to the public.
		http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/private/board-list/

		board-only gnome org - Really only the Board, not
		employees of the Fundation (i.e. Zana as our
		administrator).  We used this list to discuss the
		hiring process for the bizdev director, since Quim was
		interested in the position - Quim was removed from the
		board-only list for that time.
		http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/private/board-only/

	- Dave sent a draft of a GNOME Annual Report for 2006 to
          board-list.  It will be printed in glossy paper (~300
          copies), and will be sent to Advisory Board members and
          donors who have given over USD 50 to the Foundation.

* Financial situation:

	- http://www.gnome.org/~zana/GNOMETransactionReport.pdf
          (September to September)

	- Last year we got USD 109,773 in corporate sponsorship
	  (Advisory Board fees, etc.).

	- We got USD 13,973 from paypal + cheques.

	- How much money are we guaranteed to have this year?
		We invoiced people for USD 110,000 this year.
		Doesn't include PayPal, and what else?
		Total money in this year: USD 241,223 - includes SIGGRAPH, GIMP
		About USD 200,000 solely for GNOME.
		This didn't include about $60,000 which came into GUADEC but went
		straight to GNOME Hispano.

	- How much is GUADEC going to cost?
		European sponsorship for GUADEC: 50-60,000 euros for GUADEC.
		GUADEC cost around EUR 120,000, but that's closely
		related to the amount of sponsorship we get.

	- How much outgoing money can we expect?

	- We are paying USD 50 for each wire transfer (!).

	- We pay Zana USD 22,500 a year (part-time job).

	- There's a one-time cost for having employees, about USD 500
          per month.

	- WSOP cost USD 20,000.

	- GNOME Event Box cost ???

	- We used about USD 6,000 to sponsor travel.

	- We have a bit more than USD 80,000 in the bank (we are also
          holding the GIMP's funds).

	- We'll have about USD 100,000 guaranteed income from the
          Advisory Board this year.

	- We can probably raise about USD 200,000 up-front for GUADEC.

	- We need to change banks soon, but need to ask the lawyers
          first.  We need to know if we need a US citizen/resident on
          the board who signs cheques and authorises transfers.

	- Miguel resigned from being president of the Foundation.
          this was never written down by the lawyers --- the by-laws
          say that the Foundation needs a president.

	- Summary of the financial situation: 
		The budget discussion was mostly brainstorming.
		Zana gave an overview of our financial situation:  we
		have about $80,000 in the bank, and we're aiming for a
		budget of $300,000 this year, including GUADEC.

* Boston Summit:

	- People said that it was not as well organized as in the
          previous years.

	- Jeff says it was very productive anyway.

	- Jeff says we shouldn't do a talk-fest, but rather a
          hack-fest.

	- Need better facilities; the Media center was a bit too
          spread out, in contrast with the Stata center previously.

	- Dave: This year, do what we do for GUADEC.  Find 2-3
          volunteers in Boston who are willing to do the leg-work for
          the Summit.

* Other:

	- More small events.  Jeff's suggestion:
		* Artists summit at Libre Graphics Meeting
		* Communication & collaboration summit (and GMAE meeting?) at FOSTEL

	- Dave is organizing FOSTEL (conference on free software and
          telephony).  It's a good opportunity for a GNOME miniconf.

	- Need suggestions on speakers to send to conferences.

	- We can put money on developer documentation.

	- If we get the bizdev director soon, we'll have more money
          for things.

	- Budget for marketing.

* Next meeting, Thursday January 25.

* Need a suggestion for the next meeting with the Advisory Board.

* We'll be forever grateful to Jonathan for setting up the conference
  calls, and to Federico for taking minutes this year.

* Thanks to Sun Microsystems for setting up the conference calls for
  this year!  Having toll-free numbers for everyone is just fantastic.