Board Meeting Minutes 12/04/07

[Glynn Foster <Glynn Foster Sun COM>]

Hi there,

Apologies for the delay in these - due to the fact that I've taken on new
responsibilities in Sun, and didn't quite have the time to get these out.


Glynn

==

Board Meeting :: 12th April 2007

Present: Anne, Behdad, Dave, Glynn, Jeff, Quim
Regrets: Zana, Vincent

1) Previous Action Items

   Board members discussed status on list.


2) gnomejournal.org domain ownership

   All agreed we should try and transfer over the gnomejournal.org domain
   ownership to GNOME, if possible. Owen owns an alias with various people
   subscribed for the domain handling. Owen owens a few of them, and there's
   a bunch of other owners for local registrars.

   ACTION: Vincent to contact the sys admin team to get it figured out.

   Dave pointed out that we should try and keep domains around if possible, even
   if we point them to other things. The board would like to thank Jorge for
   his involvement previously on managing this domain.


3) AgoraSource contact

   The board has been contacted by AgoraSource who have created a novel method
   of funding the development of free/open source software who would like to
   trial-run with GNOME. The board agreed that we didn't have enough
   information to decide whether it was worthwhile.

   ACTION: Quim to follow-up with AgoraSource requesting more information.


4) Legal contacts with WSGR

   Luis has decided not to be the main contact with WSGR, though happily be
   involved depending on his other commitments. Anne will now take over
   managing the relationship.

   ACTION: Anne to come up with the list of questions we need legal input on
           and organize a meeting with WSGR to go through them.


5) Biz Dev hire

   Jeff sent a status update. Our current candidate is reluctant to accept
   the position due to concerns about the time commitments involved in
   the job. Jeff didn't get a chance to discuss salary/contract
   terms with them, and instead talked through these concerns. The
   candidate is going to have a think about it and get back to Jeff
   as soon as possible.

   ACTION: Jeff to forward status as soon as possible.

   Jeff suspects that the candiate will not take the job, with the possibility
   of needing a few more months of searching to find someone to fill the
   position. Jeff has more time to work on this given that his LCA
   committments are gone, and is stating to put together a mail asking
   for recommendations.

   Dave asked if there was a possibility of using a recruitment company. Jeff
   thinks that we're not in the position given our current budget range, as
   the costs involved are high. Jeff also believes we can get a better
   candidate through personal referral.

   Quim suggested LinkedIn as a way to advertise. Dave suggested that
   Board Cafe would also be a possibility. Jeff worried that we needed an
   industry specific rather than classic executive director role so that
   they would know how the industry works, and leverage it for GNOME.

   Quim asked if we were being too critical, and questioned whether such a
   person existed. Jeff commented that there were a lot of interesting profiles
   that fit - doing something good for the world, reaching retirement age
   and wanting to slow down, a mother getting back into the work force. Quim
   thinks we have too high expectations that might scare people off, and that
   it would be good to rewrite the job description to get more potential
   candidates. Jeff agreed, and said that GUADEC would be an ideal time to
   sit down and re-think if the 3 months up to the conference were dry on
   candidates. Jeff plans to start picking up a list of names, and that the
   upcoming set of conferences would provide a good opportunity.

   Anne asked if we had a page where the job description is, and if we had
   a link, we should sent it around. Dave said that the page was written very
   early on and would be good to update it. Dave suggested that it would be
   good to take the interview questions and retrofit those to the job
   description, and the questions that didn't get emphasized too much should
   be removed.

   ACTION: Jeff to update the job description on the wiki.

   Anne suggested that the current interview panel should be kept on if
   possible. Jeff indicated that Jonathan was happy to put in the time for
   the latest candidate, but doesn't think he has the time to continue. Jeff
   thinks that we should try and invite Jonathan back, but the rest of the
   responsibility should be left with the board. Jeff suggested that we have
   2 or 3 people interviewing, but the rest of the people listening in the
   background, and using the IRC backchannel to make sure certain questions
   are asked. We also have the possibility of recording the call.


6) Canonical press release

   Canonical pinged about their press release, with Dave making some small
   capitalization corrections.

   ACTION: Dave to send Canonical corrected press release draft for release.


7) DAM representatives

   Elijah has confirmed presence at the DAM meeting. Jeff will be there
   representing GNOME and embedded.

   ACTION: Jeff to ask whether any distribution folks will be attending.
   ACTION: Dave to ask Linux Foundation whether they will sponsor Elijah
           to attend.


8) Accessibility Grants

   Mozilla are keen to apply for accessibilty grants, but Dave has been too
   swamped to deal with this. All agreed that the accessibility summit was
   successful at Boston, and we should organize one for the future.

   ACTION: Glynn to discuss with Aaron, Willie and Pete about possible
           collaboration on an accessibility grant.


9) Board Objectives

   Quim thinks that we need to focus in on some objectives because we are
   currently only reacting to board business rather than being pro-active.
   Quim suggests having 3 or 4 objectives for each role and responsibility.

   Quim suggested that it might be good to have the input of our membership.
   Dave commented that the board needs to set direction, as part of our
   role, and we've been elected on the basis of the programs we wanted to
   implement. Jeff mentioned that we shouldn't ask open questions, and ask
   our membership what they think based on a list of objectives.

   ACTION: All to go through their platform statements in their board
           candidacy and see what they wanted to achieve, and sort by
           role and responsibility.


10) LWE contacts for GNOME

    Luis no longer wants to be the LWE contact. This will be discussed on list
    with a hope to getting someone from marketing-list involved.


11) AOB?

   Budget
   ======
   Dave wants to release the budget. Jeff suggests making sure people know it's
   an aspirational budget, and there are big holes in it that we need to fund
   for.

   ACTION: Dave to post budget to foundation-list.

   Advisory Board Meeting
   ======================
   The next Advisory Board meeting will be on the 10th May.

   ACTION: Quim to mail advisory-board about new date for meeting, confirm
           attendance, and suggest agenda items.