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Re: Minutes of the Board meeting of September, 26th, 2017

Hi board,

we have not seen any meeting minutes in over two months now.

As a foundation member, I do not feel that I can weigh in on any
matters if I am not aware that they are being discussed. I would have
thought that with hiring an ED, some of the workload should be lifted
off the board which should have given the board more time to ensure
that minutes are sent out promptly.

I would like to propose to the board that if the board is not able to
publish the minutes within a reasonable period of time, you should
consider calling for a secretary outside of the board who has the time
to do it or making it part of an employee's job description.

Additionally, one of the requirement for the ED which was being
discussed when I was on the board was that the ED should blog about
their work on a weekly or fortnightly basis to make it more visible.
Is this still something that the board could consider? I follow most
GNOME channels, and I have not seen what the ED has done since GUADEC.

This is a comment on the lack of communication from the board rather
than on the work being done. I realise that this is only the second
time that I've raised the issue this year, but I feel that this is
something so trivial that it should not be a problem. When I was
helping the Secretary send out minutes some years ago, it was a 15
minute job at most for me. I'd be happy to share my workflow from back
then if that would help :)


Thanks!
Kat


On 7 October 2017 at 16:24, Cosimo Cecchi <cosimoc gnome org> wrote:

= Foundation Board Minutes for Tue, September 26th 2017, 17:00 UTC =

Next meeting date Tue, October 3rd 2017, 17:00 UTC

Wiki: https://wiki.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/Minutes/20170926

== Attending ==

 * Allan Day
 * Alexandre Franke
 * Carlos Soriano
 * Cosimo Cecchi
 * Neil McGovern
 * Rosanna Yuen
 * Zeeshan Ali
 * Nuritzi Sanchez
 * Meg Ford

== Regrets ==


== Missing ==


== Agenda for 2017-09-26 ==

 * Foundation hackfest processing
 * CoC workshop sponsorship decision
 * Zazzle store
 * Feedback request: spending Foundation money

== Minutes ==

 * Foundation hackfest processing
  * Misunderstanding has been confirmed
   * TC thought we had allocated a special budget, outside of TC fund
   * Alexandre hasn’t booked yet, still waiting for confirmation since there
were questions about his initial request
   * TC is also busy with GNOME.Asia
   * Situation is complicated, deadlines are close. We should do better with
processes in the future.
   * VOTE: handle that budget ourselves, and allocate up to $8000 for the
total
    * +1 Unanimous, PASSED.
    * Directors and officers will follow the Foundation Staff Travel Policy.
   * ACTION: Cosimo to help Rosanna processing receipts after the event.
   * ACTION: Cosimo to get back to the TC and let them know how we’re
dealing with this
   * ACTION: Cosimo to tell Shaun he’s welcome to join

 * CoC workshop sponsorship decision
  * Timing not ideal
  * Would help establishing a relationship with a local community
  * Cost is high
  * We’d prefer more planning
  * ACTION: Nuritzi to work on planning something in the same vein

 * Zazzle store
  * We have a link on the page where we list vendors
  * Andreas confirmed that Stormy is the one with access
  * ACTION: Allan to try to reach out to Stormy
  * ACTION: Nuritzi to assess the quality of the products and check whether
we want to continue using them

 * Feedback request: spending Foundation money
  * Question in the thread: does/will the board help organizer raise
sponsorship?
   * This should be part of our discussion at the Berlin hackfest next week.
   * Could be part of the responsibilities of a new committee
   * ACTION: Nuritzi to get back to the list

 * New committee
  * The two names that were being discussed were “Sponsorship” and
“Partnership”.
   * People don’t seem to have a strong preference for either one of them
    * Alexandre feels strongly against “Sponsorship”
  * VOTE: approve the creation of the Sponsorship Committee with the
following terms and members:
   * Committee description: The GNOME Sponsorship Committee is responsible
for ensuring corporate sponsorship for GNOME events and conferences. A
representative from each of the main conferences (GNOME.Asia, GUADEC, LAS)
will be appointed in order to provide a bridge of support to the local
teams.
   * Committee responsibilities:
    * Maintain a list of contacts and entities whom the GNOME project has a
relationship with
    * Work with event organizers to coordinate sponsorship levels and perks
    * Provide quarterly reports to the GNOME Foundation board
    * Maintain confidentiality of sensitive information
   * Powers that the board is devolving to the committee:
    * Issue sponsorship agreement forms
    * Make statements on behalf of the GNOME Foundation, relating to events
sponsorship
    * Issue invoices for events sponsorship
   * Committee members:
    * Executive director (ex-officio)
    * Alberto Ruiz
    * Emily Chen
    * Sri Ramkrishna
    * Wen Qixiang
   * +1 Unanimous, PASSED.
  * ACTION: Nuritzi to announce it to the committee
  * ACTION: Nuritzi to announce it on foundation-{list,announce}
  * ACTION: Allan to move the pages to a public space
  * ACTION: Carlos to get a sponsorship-committee email alias created

== Ongoing ==

'''This section includes items which have seen an update in the last 30
days. Format is "YYYY-MM-DD, action|discussion|abstract" for this and
subsequent minutes sections'''

 * Using TransferWise or some other payment system
  * This has been recommended to us as a good alternative to Paypal that is
cheaper and works in certain countries where Paypal does not work
  * 2017-09-19
   * Since Rosanna and Neil would be the main users of this, a good next
step would be for them to review options and report to the Board
   * ACTION: Neil will look into this and coordinate with Rosanna when she's
back

 * Looking for sponsorship for GitLab runners
  * To increase our Continuous Integration capacity on the GNOME GitLab
server, we'll need to provision some more servers, as we migrate more
projects there
  * We could ask for help to our Advisory Board, or use our network to ask
for support from other companies
   * It would make more sense to ask for hardware/cycles directly, rather
than fundraising, since server bandwidth is a recurring cost
  * 2017-09-19
   * ACTION: Meg and Neil to look into connecting to hosting companies using
Meg's connections
    * 2017-09-26
     * Meg sent an email about applications to Neil
   * ACTION: Meg to get back to Javier
    * 2017-09-26
     * DONE

 * CoC Workshop sponsorship
  * A group of people (Sarah Sharp, others) in SF are putting together a
workshop about enforcement of CoC in communities or events
  * The CoC working group would like to attend to e.g. help them with the
enforcing guidelines
  * The organizers of the workshop asked us to consider donating resources
to this event, including sponsoring Sarah's travel for the event
  * Total request: up to $3600 for training materials, flight and
accommodation for Sarah, but whatever we can afford
   * The request comes from Rosanna and Nuritzi; Rosanna has been contacted
privately by the organizers
  * 2017-09-19
   * Would like to see a cost breakdown
   * General feeling we should not cover all the cost ourselves, and we
should make sure it's geared towards our needs too
   * ACTION: Nuritzi to get on a call with Josh and report back to the Board

 * Mexico workshop
  * 2017-08-29
    * Was supposed to start yesterday, has been delayed.

 * Engagement team committee for funds
  * The committee would allocate small budgets for events like release
parties
  * Board to vote on this once we have a list of volunteers and a
description of the committee's role

 * GNOME.Asia logo / "A simple explanation of GNOME.Asia 2017's logo to
FoundationBoard" email
  * The design is not optimal, could use some tweaking but it’s alright.
  * ACTION: Allan to write recommendations for next year
   * 2017-07-11 - Allan still not done this. Sad face.

 * GUADEC 2017 finance request
   * The board wishes to make this a more straightforward process in the
future
    * ACTION: Neil to make sure that expenses allocation for future
conferences is discussed by the board in person at GUADEC

 * Foundation support for Flathub
  * 2017-05-09
   * The Board voted to try and use some of our pro-bono counsel time
towards the Flathub legal framework, provided our lawyers agree
   * ACTION: Neil to connect to Luis
  * 2017-05-16 - Exact questions to ask Luis are being worked up
  * 2017-06-06 - Questions sent to Luis, being looked at.
  * 2017-09-05 - Being passed to Karen now, discussions have stalled a
little, Neil chasing up

 * Hackfest process documentation
  * 2017-02-14
   * ACTION: Nuritzi to take a stab at updating the documentation for the
process to request a hackfest and responsibilities between Board and TC
  * 2017-05-02
   * Nuritzi will work on this by end of May, check in then
  * 2017-09-05: Nuritzi updated the wiki about a week ago but we should go
over this in Berlin.

 * Owncloud shared calendar for the board
  * 2016-08-10
   * Cosimo tested creating an event, but with mixed results
   * ACTION: Cosimo to take it on from here
  * 2016-09-06 - Allan has started a list of reoccuring events on the wiki -
https://wiki.gnome.org/FoundationBoardPrivate/Minutes/UpcomingAgenda
  * 2017-03-07
   * Neil is looking into a similar calendar so will take over
  * 2017-07-26
   * (Neil) can someone else have this? Alexandre volunteers.
#challengeaccepted
  * 2017-08-19
   * Alexandre tested the shared calendar that Allan set up a while back on
nextcloud, seems to work well
   * We are entering beta phase with some directors opting in

=== Ongoing but stalled ===

'''This section includes items which haven't seen an update in the last 30
days.'''

 * Dropping dates in copyright claims on our websites
  * 2016-12-06
   * ACTION: Alexandre to send an email to foundation-list with a proposal
for discussion
  * 2016-12-20
   * Next step seems to be to reach out to Creative Commons to get advice on
what exactly can and should be done
  * 2017-01-24
   * Alexandre reached out to Creative commons
  * 2017-02-28
   * Alexandre will try alternative channels
  * 2017-05-02
   * We got a reply, Alexandre to follow up
  * 2017-05-30
   * Two options
    * Have terms of use on the website that state that linking to a page is
sufficient attribution
    * Require contributors to assign their attribution to the GNOME
Foundation

 * Privacy campaign funds
  * 2016-09-27
   * Draft is out for the Board to review and give feedback
   * ACTION: Cosimo to try and form a committee to review internship
proposals
  * 2016-10-26
   * We are aiming for an internship round in spring 2017
  * 2017-07-26
   * Carlos and Zeeshan are taking this over -- the plan is still to do
internships

 * Friends of GNOME
  * 2016-08-10
   * ACTION: Allan to get in touch with Tobi and the sysadmin team to
migrate the FoG infrastructure over to GNOME
  * 2017-03-07
   * Allan will pass this on to Neil, and connect him to Tobi
  * 2017-04-18 - Neil has CRM working (ish) on the gnome website, we're
looking at how to move the PayPal IPN to CiviCRM
   * At sysadmin meeting at GUADEC

 * Paypal Giving Fund
  * Alexandre suggested in december 2015 to get us enrolled in the program
   * That would give us exposure. For example Humble bundle allows to direct
the charity part of purchases towards any of their participants
  * Zana tried to get us in sometime before may 2016, we never heard back.
  * 2016-09-06
   * ACTION: Zana to look into it

=== Ongoing but no director assigned ===

'''This section includes items which haven't seen an update in the last 30
days and have no Director assigned'''


== Nice to have ==

'''This section includes items which we would love to see happen at some
point but lack the time to effectively become reality'''

 * Contract template for future use organizations for which we handle money
  * Kat to draft this
  * Alexandre took over
  * 2017-07-26
   * This is close to being done

 * Privacy policy for GNOME services
  * Current draft is at https://wiki.gnome.org/Foundation/Privacy
  * Sysadmin Team's NDA should also be covered when dealing with this item
  * Kat or Allan to write up the policy
  * Kat or Allan to write up recommended wording for distribution privacy
policies, regarding the behaviour of GNOME software
  * 2017-07-26
   * Allan is still working on this, but with low priority

== Discussed on the mailing list ==


== Completed actions ==

 * SSL certificates renewal
  * 2017-09-19
   * The Board voted to approved $537 to renew the SSL certificates
   * ACTION: Alexandre to communicate to Andrea
    * DONE

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