Foundation Board meeting minutes :: 6th Sept 2007

[Glynn Foster <Glynn Foster Sun COM>]

GNOME Foundation Meeting Minutes :: 6th September 2007

Present: Behdad, Lucas, Anne, Quim, Zana
Regrets: Jeff
Absent: Vincent

1) Zana's Report

   Things are going well. Zana has been working on sending out some
   Paypal fits. She sent some updated account figures to the list
   before the call. Quim commented that these were really useful
   and asked if Zana had been checking the figures against the budget
   to see where we stand. Zana replied that she hadn't, and really
   only getting to grips with GNUcash, and that it might not be the
   best tool for budgeting. Quim mentioned that we need to be careful
   about accumulating money, as it might show the wrong impression
   to our paying advisory board members. Zana commented that the
   fiscal year closes at the end of this month, and that she didn't
   know if the budget was for the fiscal or calendar year.

   Board agreed during a post-call discussion to provide Zana with
   12 weeks maternity leave, and to monitor her progress during
   this time. Zana offered to do some basic admin during that time
   as when necessary.

   ACTION: Quim to contact Zana about her maternity leave.


2) Sponsorship Requests (Brazil, Izabel)

   Izabel has asked for sponsorship for hosting 4o. Forum GNOME
   this year, as part of a wider conference http://www.ensl.org.br/.
   The request includes travel for a few people, accommodation and
   money to print t-shirts and/or badges. All agreed to sponsor
   $4000 USD for this.

   ACTION: Lucas to mail Izabel about GNOME Foundation sponsoring
           the event.

   ACTION: Zana to send Izabel the sponsorship money.

   FOSS.in is planning a project day for GNOME. There's an opportunity
   to sponsor this event, and the board will monitor the progress.

   There are a few sponsorships pending for the Boston GNOME Summit
   to organize an Accessibility summit, and Java-GNOME meeting. As
   yet there are no details about the breakdown of the sponsorship
   costs.

   ACTION: Vincent and Behdad to follow up with those people looking
           for sponsorship.


3) Boston GNOME Summit

   Still need confirmation about the venue before we can announce the
   summit. Jeff has proposed a few options that are still under
   investigation. We hope to be able to announce the dates soon.


4) GNOME Mobile Meeting in Madrid

   There has been no confirmation of the event in Madrid. Lucas thinks
   it may already be too late to organize something, and suggests that
   it needs to be discussed on the GNOME Mobile list.

   ACTION: Quim to ping the GNOME Mobile list about a meeting in Madrid.


5) Referendum for Changing the Bylaws

   Lucas received a reply from Behdad, Quim and Vincent to agree with
   his proposed schedule, but doesn't feel comfortable about announcing
   it. Quim will ping Jeff about where things are at with James Vasile
   and the wording of the changes.

   ACTION: Quim to ping Jeff about status of the bylaws change and
           corresponding announcement.


6) OpenXML vs ODF

   The announcement of the first ISO vote on OOXML has been published.
   A second very important vote will take place in February in Geneva and
   only technical comments will be considered by ISO at that time. Anne
   believes that GNOME should have a position on OOXML as an open standard.
   Even if GNOME can not influence the first vote, GNOME can still air a
   general view on the standardization at stake.

   Quim believes that we still owe an answer to Richard Stallman about
   the Foundation's position. Anne will work on this. Quim mentioned that
   he had concerns about how to approach this - should be very clear when
   we are speaking as a board rather than our personal opinions.

   ACTION: Anne to work on shorter statement draft and send to board-list.


7) Planet GNOME

   Quim thinks that we still need to provide a response to the ongoing Planet
   GNOME maintenance issues. While he doesn't think it's a board responsibility,
   it's an ongoing issue, and we should state our position. Anne commented that
   Vincent's proposed guidelines look reasonable, and we should continue to
   discuss them on the list. Glynn sympathized with the pressures of maintaining
   a Planet, and feels that it should be a privilege rather than a right to
   some extent and important to maintain the readability and relevance of the
   site. Quim agreed on the editorial line, but simple maintenance was still
   an issue. Planet GNOME is one of the most important and popular pages that
   we have, and not necessarily the task of a single person. Lucas commented
   that the issues are separate - one is the guidelines, the other being the
   maintenance. Anne commented that it would be good if every contributor
   to Planet GNOME was a Foundation member.

   ACTION: Quim to draft mail about Planet GNOME and send to board-list for
           comments before sending to foundation-list.