= Foundation Board Minutes for Monday 30 September 2019, 15:30 UTC =
== Attending ==
* BrittYazel
* AllanDay
* FedericoMena
* PhilipChimento
* RosannaYuen
* NeilMcGovern
* RobertMcQueen
* CarlosSoriano
== Regrets ==
* TristanVanBerkom
== Agenda ==
* Decide location for GUADEC 2020
* Adjust spending authorization limits
* Announcements
== Minutes ==
* Decide location for GUADEC 2020
* We have two bids in progress for GUADEC 2020. See issue at
https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/Board/issues/121.
* Allan: There is one thing that complicates the decision making this time, which is that there is one bid outside of Europe.
* Neil: I intentionally went looking for bids outside of Europe, in order to reflect the fact that GNOME is a global project, not just based in Europe, US, and Canada. This has been done successfully with other conferences such as DebConf. I am also looking to expand the time that bid teams have to work on the conference. There has been some skepticism about whether bid teams would stay motivated for two years, but it's my sense that these bids would, and it's an opportunity for bidding teams to become involved in the previous year's conference.
* Allan: What effect would a GUADEC outside of Europe have on the attendance and travel budget?
* Neil: Typically if it is outside of Europe, it tends to be smaller; but not much smaller. For example, DebConf attracts 400 when in Europe and 275–300 when outside. It's not only dependent on Europe but also how easy the location is to get to. You do get an increase in the number of people within the area. You do get somewhat of an increase in travel budget, but that is offset by quite often lower costs of organizing the conference.
* Allan: What kind of conference would it be? A developer conference like GUADEC that we know, or more user and outreach-focused?
* Neil: It tends to be much the same. Even within Europe, you get some local flavour in the branding and style, but it remains much the same.
* Allan: Would there be a smaller event in Europe if we had GUADEC outside of Europe?
* Neil: That's up to whether people want to organize it.
* Allan: It might also discourage people from attending the actual GUADEC.
* Carlos: Is it not the case that if there was demand for a conference outside Europe, it would be organized?
* Neil: It goes both ways, we also force Federico to fly to Europe every year. Aside from that, despite what the acronym says, GUADEC is our main conference, not just our Europe conference. Therefore it's important to hold it in locations not just in Europe.
* Federico: We have held GUADEC in certain locations specifically in the past to increase local participation in that location.
* Neil: I think it's certainly possible to have the twin goals of maintaining the "GUADEC feeling" and increase outreach in a particular area.
* Carlos: I agree with the goal, but I think in practice some members of the community are concerned about not being able to attend. I got some feedback at GUADEC to that effect. Let's think about ways to mitigate that.
* Allan: I'm also in favour, but I think we need to consider whether changing the location will have an impact on how the community gets its work done.
* Rosanna: The diversity goal is not served by having GUADEC in Europe every year.
* Allan: We should also think about the environmental impact of flying a lot of people halfway across the world.
* Philip: We already fly a lot of people halfway across the world to Europe every year.
* Allan: We can get numbers on this.
* Neil will proceed with finalizing the bids, and therefore is happy to have heard any concerns. Board members should continue reviewing the bids and asking questions.
* Adjust spending authorization limits
*
https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/Board/issues/124 * Deferred.
* Announcements
* Next meeting is 7 October, and will be an ED report followed by board only discussion (Allan)
* Board hackfest update: We're pushing the hackfest back to around FOSDEM; please check issue
https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/Board/issues/117 (Allan)
