Minutes of the Board meeting, 2006/Mar/15

[Federico Mena Quintero <federico ximian com>]

More late minutes.

GNOME Foundation Board Meeting, 2006/03/15
==========================================

Attendance:

Anne
Dave
Federico
Jonathan
Quim (guest starring)
Vincent

No attendance:

Jeff
Luis (regrets)


PREVIOUS ACTIONS
================

* Jeff to organize and contact people in various countries and regions
  to act as local press contacts. (ongoing; he contacted various
  people and is following up)

* JRB to finish job description for administrative needs. (ongoing,
  sort of done)

* Federico to organize next call at Novell (NOT DONE; to be done for
  the next call)

* Luis to mail boston-social gnome org to look for volunteers to
  represent us at Boston Usenix and Boston LWE (ongoing)

* Anne to send her draft program to foundation-list and put it up in
  the web page (need to try again because of moderation issues)

* Dave to be our liaison with marketing-list to set up the basic
  structure of the new www.gnome.org (ongoing as Dave was not in the
  call)

* Luis to help marketing-list prepare a press release for the
  GNOME/W3C SVG anouncement (NOT DONE)

* JRB to send out mugs and mouse pads to outstanding donors, and
  thank-you notes as well (ongoing, as JRB was not in the call)

* Dave to request Quim for a copy of a contract with the Generalidat
  describing what they are paying for this GUADEC.

* Quim to write a formal letter of invitation for the people who need
  to get visas.  Quim to find someone in Spain to contact the ministry
  of foreign affairs.

* Jeff to start writing an agenda for the Advisory Board meeting
  (DEADLINE: March 08).  DONE

* Federico to write his paper for the Advisory Board (DEADLINE: March
08)

* Federico to mail advisory-board-list about what members would like
  to get out of the Foundation. (DEADLINE: March 08)

* Jeff to ask the Advisory Board about funding GNOME through OSDL, or
  funding it directly.

* Jeff to write a proposal for the technical project meeting.

* Dave to resurrect German contract from last year so that we can use
  it for Axis Inform�ca. DONE


NEW ACTIONS
===========

* Federico to remind people to submit abstracts, and announce the
  confirmation date.

* Vincent to update www.gnome.org to mention the call for papers
  deadline.

* Jonathan to ask Quim about invoicing, and to finish the budget ASAP.

* Federico to mail Dave today (Mar. 15) with the agenda for the
  Advisory Board meeting.

* Anne to take care of GNOME joining ODF-Alliance:
  http://www.odfalliance.org/about.html
  All present board members in agreement.


AGENDA
======

* We have hired Rosanna Yuen for a period of one month.

* We are still looking for an administrator!  Zana is working for us
  as a stopgap measure.   Tentative date for hiring a full-time
  administrator:  end of April.  Needs to be USA-based for
  administrative and legal reasons.

* GUADEC report by Quim:

	Budget:

		No figures yet, but Quim feels safe given that we are
		not paying for the venue, and we already have good
		sponsortship.

	Infrastructure:

		Bungalow-based camping in Villanova; there is public
		transportation between camp site and conference site.

		The bungalows are actually nicer than the youth
		hostel; the price is about the same.  At 5 people per
		bungalow (with air conditioning and microwave oven for
		kittens), it's around EUR 17 per night.

		Quim is putting all his effort right now into the web
		site.

		Suggested fees: student - EUR 30, normal - EUR 50,
		professional - EUR 150.  Suggested that we have
		discounts for Advisory Board members, Foundation
		members, and Sponsors.

	Sponsorship:

		Reimburse people or pay for their tickets?  By default
		people pay for their own travel, and then we give them
		cash or a check when they are in Villanova.

	Call for papers:

		Only about 10 submissions so far.

		Need to announce call-for-papers in the main
		www.gnome.org page.

		Need to make it clear that we don't require full
		papers right now; just abstracts are fine.

		Suggest Apr. 20 as the date in which we tell people
		whether we accept their submissions.

		ACTION: Federico to remind people to submit abstracts,
		and announce the confirmation date.

		ACTION: Vincent to update www.gnome.org to mention the
		call for papers deadline.

	Organization:

		Suggest that we have a speed-talks session at the end
		of GUADEC, so that people can show what they did
		during the conference.

	Keynotes:

		We'll pay for the expenses of keynote speakers.

	ACTION: Jonathan to ask Quim about invoicing, and to finish
	the budget ASAP.

	Misc.: Suggest that we hold the Foundation Board meeting one
	day before GUADEC, and the Advisory Board meeting one day
	after GUADEC.

* Deadline to comment on Federico's paper about the Advisory Board:
  Sunday March 19.

* Advisory Board meeting:  Wednesday March 29.

* ACTION: Federico to mail Dave today (Mar. 15) with the agenda for
  the Advisory Board meeting.