Minutes of the Board meeting of August 20, 2013

[Emmanuele Bassi <ebassi gmail com>]

[note: sorry for the delay]

wiki: https://wiki.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/Minutes/20130820

= Minutes for August 20th, 2013, 16:00 UTC =

== Next Meeting ==

 * Tuesday, September 3nd, 2013, 16:00 UTC

== Attending ==

 * Rosanna Yuen
 * Andreas Nilsson
 * Joanmarie Diggs
 * Karen Sandler
 * Ekaterina Gerasimova

=== Regrets ===

 * Emmanuele Bassi
 * Sriram Ramkrishna
 * Tobias Mueller

=== Missing ===

 * Marina Zhurakhinskaya

No quorum was achieved due to summer holidays.

== Board Meeting Agenda ==
 * GUADEC 2015 bids
  * Italy announced a couple of hours too late.
  * Is the board ok with still allowing the Italian bid? (Note: board
members involved in other bids must recuse themselves)
  * '''VOTE''': The board votes to allow the Italian bid, despite
missing the deadline (but by less than 24 hours): +1 Joanie, Emmanuele
(list), Sri (list), Tobi (list); abstain due to conflict of interest:
Andreas and Ekaterina.
  * '''ACTION''': Karen will tell Andrea of the Board's decision.
 * Github mirror
  * use of the trademark
  * concerns that there is no Free/Libre alternative
  * one of the biggest problems seems to be the use of the word "official"
  * related topic: previous complaint about mirroring of bugzilla bugs in Google
  * proposal: "GNOME mirror"
  * should the Board ask Alberto to not use the word "official"?
  * A vote on this matter seems to be called for
  * '''ACTION''': Kat will email the board-list to call for a vote
  * '''ACTION''': Karen will ask Andrea how much work it would be to
maintain a mirror on Gitorious (or a similar service)
 * Implement a Foundation employee policy for COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment)
  * At the face to face board meeting we discussed having employee
salaries increase when inflation increases, as other comparable
nonprofits do.
  * http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CWUR0000SA0?output_view=pct_12mths
  * This topic should be discussed on the board-only list
  * '''ACTION''': Andreas will raise this topic on board-only
 * Quick GUADEC post-mortem
  * What went well?
    * Really positive feeling and good press especially given the
press prior to the event.
    * Videos came out fast.
  * What went wrong?
    * Professional networking event - is it appropriate to continue
having it, and if so, can we improve it?
    * Minor issues: Could have communicated better with local team,
but this was not serious.
    * Really scratched up the floors, damaging some of the floor
waxing. We may need to pay for this (up to $2000).
    * AdBoard meeting date less than ideal: People were quite tired at
the end of the event.
  * What do we need to stay on top of for next year?
    * Finalizing sponsorship brochure in a timely fashion.
    * Get the call for papers, and confirmation/rejection
notifications out sooner.
    * Give more thought to the format and content of the AdBoard meeting.
 * .NET hackfest
  * Sponsorship request for $4000, after other sponsorships that they
have arranged.
  * They have done two previous hackfests, porting apps to Gtk#
  * https://wiki.gnome.org/Hackfests/dotNET2013
  * Miscommunication about the status and our decision to the event organizers
  * Current hackfest budget suggests we can afford this comfortably
  * Requested funds for non-Foundation members: $811
  * '''VOTE''': +1 Andreas, Kat, Emmanuele (by proxy, assigned to
Karen); Abstain: Joanie.
  * '''ACTION''': Joanie will call for an URGENT vote on the
board-list for the members who were not present at today's meeting
 * Adopting a photography policy for GNOME events.
  * It was suggested on board-list that we adopt a photography policy
for bigger GNOME events.
  * This topic will be discussed at the next meeting.
 * Scheduling an IRC Foundation meeting
  * At the Board Q&A the board promised to do a Foundation IRC meeting.
  * Needs an agenda and a date.
  * '''ACTION''': Joanie will follow up with the Release Team about
the Board Q&A discussion about their role.
 * Collecting funds in Europe update
  * Tobias and Karen responded to WHS
 * Sysadmin update
  * We should ask Andrea to blog about his work and/or send his email
updates to the Foundation list
  * '''ACTION''': Karen will get in touch with Andrea to communicate
more broadly to the Foundation about his work
 * possible trademark violation to assess.
   * Another software project is using the name GNOME
   * http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10889727.htm
   * Justin replied that Rope & Grey can't help us this time but Karen
has contacted SFLC.
 * Montreal Summit
  * Travel sponsorship
  * '''ACTION''': Kat to get back to Ryan
 * Travel Committee, Delegation, Budgets, etc.
  * Reimbursements: can we take on the fees from Paypal payments?
  * Doing it via PayPal adds some overhead with respect to the workflow.
  * Our new bank has told Rosanna that transfers with them will be
cheaper, but how much remains to be seen.

== Discussed on the mailing list ==

 * Legal implications of having LastFm authentication on GOA
 * [gnome.org #13849] URGENT gnome Brand Registration Confirmation
 * The new travel sponsorship process for "small" events

== Completed Actions ==
 * Karen will send an email to foundation-list for questions for the
board Q&A at GUADEC - will be carried to a Foundation IRC meeting

== Pending action items ==
 * Andreas to put together a GNOME supporter card for our donors
 * Andreas will raise the topic of implementing a Foundation employee
policy for COLA on board-only
 * Emmanuele to send Zana and Tobi an update on FoG donors gifts
 * Emmanuele to send hackers up for "adoption" the list of donors that
want a postcard
 * Joanie to draft a new travel assistance form to replace the current
one (Kat, Joanie and Zana to discuss and come up with a solution)
 * Joanie, Kat, Tobi, Rosanna, Karen will hold a work group at GUADEC
about the travel committee process
 * Joanie will call for an URGENT vote on the board-list regarding the
.NET hackfest sponsorship for the members who were not present at
today's meeting
 * Joanie will follow up with the Release Team about the Board Q&A
discussion about their role
 * Karen to write the Privacy policy for GNOME services
 * Karen to carry on the discussion to explore the offer from
Wau-Holland-Stiftun for collecting funds in Europe for us
 * Karen to contact Tor, EFF, OTI for feedback and eventual funding
for privacy work
 * Karen to "call for ideas" for privacy work related bids at GUADEC
and by blog/email to foundation-announce
 * Karen will get in touch with Andrea to communicate more broadly to
the Foundation about his work
 * Karen will tell Andrea of the Board's decision regarding allowing
the Italian bid
 * Karen will ask Andrea how much work it would be to maintain a
mirror on Gitorious (or a similar service)
 * Kat will email the board-list to call for a vote regarding the GitHub mirror
 * Kat will get back to Ryan regarding the Montreal Summit travel
sponsorship procedures
 * Kat to create a private wiki page on the web services accounts
holders and passwords
 * Kat to check with Andrea how to improve the spam filters of the
board-related list archives
 * Sri to investigate better uses of adwords on the GNOME websites
 * Tobi to talk to Andrea to move the PayPal data extraction scripts
over to the GNOME infrastructure


-- 
W: http://www.emmanuelebassi.name
B: http://blogs.gnome.org/ebassi/