Board Meeting Minutes :: 29th March 2007

[Glynn Foster <Glynn Foster Sun COM>]

Hey,

Apologies for the delay in posting these - I've recently moved apartments, so
forgot to post them at the time. In between this and the previous set of minutes
was a call with the advisory board - these minutes aren't public at this time.

With the attached minutes, there are a number of discussion points that have
been removed for the public minutes, which may account for some being sparse in
certain agenda items.


Glynn

==

Board Meeting :: 29th March 2007

Present: Dave, Glynn, Anne, Vincent, Behdad, Zana, Vincent, Quim (:30)
         Thomas, Paul, Bastien (GUADEC)
Regrets: Jeff (1:10)

1) GUADEC

   Sponsorship
   ===========

   As of today there are 3 confirmed sponsors, Imendio, Google and Igalia.
   Various companies have already said they would sponsor the event, but
   still waiting on negotiation of sponsorship level and final confirmation.

   GUADEC team have confirmed 'Linux Magazine' as a press sponsor, and need
   to chase up with the likes of O'Reilly and 'Linux User and Developer' who
   might also be interested.

   Thomas has sent off a number of mails to UK based institutions, but got
   little response. Adobe's open source unit have politely declined.

   Anne suggested that we might do another call for sponsors, targetting
   particular events like drinks session, dinner, afternoon tea. Thomas
   thinks that there are a number of sponsors in the pipeline and hasn't yet
   thought about doing a wider call, though the current list have been asking
   how they might improve their presence at the event.

   The venue is all booked and paid for. There are some final tweaks need before
   the audio/visual equipment quote is signed off. This will all be covered by
   Open Advantage.

   The budget is still a little unclear until all the banking details have been
   setup properly.

   Papers and Keynotes
   ===================

   The team have been really struggling for getting keynotes. Paul has sent a
   bunch of mails, and got nothing back. Various contacts need to be pinged
   again.

   The call for papers has been successful, with a lot of high quality talks.
   Ross and the team are getting on with selecting the papers, and coming up
   with a schedule. If there is space, we can ask for people to do workshops
   and tutorials in some of the non-core days.

   Volunteers
   ==========

   The team needs to figure out how to get people more involved (printing out
   posters, ...) and come up with a list of tasks for volunteers. Paul thinks
   that only 30 people may be required, since the venue is reasonable compact.
   Dave suggested that a few people are needed to direct the volunteers.

   Registration
   ============

   Registration is the next big thing to tackle. Bastien and Paul have created
   a company, limited by guarantee, and Paul hopes that the final paperwork
   will have arrived tomorrow so that he can open a business account, and
   organize a merchant ID for payments over the web. Having talked to existing
   businesses, this may not be a quick process, and depends on the bank
   involved. Linux Emporium may be able to take payments as a fall back.

   Given a couple of contraints (paying as little tax as possible, organizers
   having limited liability), the advice was to create a company. 62,000 GBP
   is the threshold for VAT payments. An exemption can be applied for, but only
   with a company structure. The advice is to invoice sponsors, and building
   towards 62,000 - when it hits about 55,000, then apply for the exemption.

   There has only been one request for travel assistance but the team expect
   more to come when the registration opens.

   ACTION: GUADEC team to investigate whether an amount of money is required
           from the GNOME Foundation to bootstrap the initial costs of the
           conference.

   The Board would like to thank the representatives from the GUADEC team for
   joining the call.


3) Business Development Officer

   The board did not have another interview with the current candidate. Dave
   talked about salary issues, and they were ok with lowering their base
   salary and having some performance based incentives. There is a concern from
   the candidate that a part time position may not do it justice, and all
   suggested that we should try and work through that concern together.

   All agreed that the final decision would be based on a board vote.

   ACTION: Dave to set up an interview with the candidate on 2nd April 2000 UTC.


4) Legal

   Anne is confused about which law firm (Wilson-Sonsini or SFLC) will take
   on each task, and hopes to have a conference call with Luis to discuss
   this. Quim asked if Anne could respond to Luis' various mails on the
   list, initially until the meeting is set up.

   ACTION: Dave to send Anne Luis' contact details.


5) Desktop Architects Meeting

   Dave has budgeted 2,000 USD for all travel related to interoperability
   and standards (including LSB, Desktop Architects), but suggested that
   we might look to the Linux Foundation to cover the costs of an
   additional developer to attend. All agreed that the release team
   should make a decision about who is appropriate to attend, with some
   emphasis on continuity.

   ACTION: Vincent to mail the release team about who would be
           suitable to attend DAM.


5) Research projects at Uni

   Quim mailed the list about a plan of how we may approach this. Vincent is
   happy to take this on, and start some discussion on foundation-list about
   it. Dave has recently talked to the Dasher guys, and they indicated they
   were running out of funding, and were looking for new projects for
   integrating into the desktop that may get additional funding. Anne suggested
   that the feedback from the research track at FOSDEM would be useful to hear.

   ACTION: Vincent to mail foundation-list and get some discussion going around
           an academic programme for GNOME.


6) Postal details for GNOME Foundation

   There are obvious repercussions of changing the address to a PO Box number,
   especially in terms of a legal entity. Rosanna thinks it may be prudent to
   wait until we hire someone, and see how that effects things. Currently
   mail is being split - official documents, donations and stationary orders
   are being sent through Novell, then to Red Hat, and then home with Jonathan.
   UPS shipping invoices, and the like, are being sent to the PO Box.

   ACTION: Rosanna to figure out what the appropriate course of action might
           be, and start some discussion on board list.


7) Advisory Board

   All felt that we had a successful meeting with the Advisory Board, though
   noted a number of places where we fell short. We hope to have another
   meeting in a months time. All think it would be better to focus in on a
   single topic in the future, and encourage the conference calls for
   gathering opinions from the Advisory Board.

   Jeff thinks that 'GUADEC' might be a good topic, though indicated that it
   might be too close to the actual event. Anne suggested 'Standardization'.
   Jeff thought that although this was an important topic, there are better
   forums to discussion this elsewhere. Jeff mentioned that we should focus
   on where to make our investment across the board.

   Anne wondered what programmes there are within the Advisory Board companies
   to keep people informed about FLOSS internally.

   Quim suggested that the board needs to brainstorm some ideas, and encourage
   the Advisory Board to brainstorm themselves.

   ACTION: Quim to write draft mail indicating new proposed meeting date, along
           with discussion of brainstorming among the Advisory Board members.

   ACTION: Jeff to start discussion of GUADEC on Advisory Board list, and what
           they want to get out of the event.


8) AOB

   GTK+
   ====

   Quim worried that we need to have an answer to the latest mail from the GTK+
   maintainers. Vincent will take this on.

   ACTION: Vincent to continue discussion with the GTK+ guys.