Note to interested Foundation members: In coming weeks I'll be trying out some different styles of note-taking. So far the minutes have been quite detailed. The level of detail that comes naturally to me, although I've received some positive comments on it, does often prevent me from engaging fully in discussions, so I'll be trying to find a better balance.
= Foundation Board Minutes for Tuesday, August 21st 2018, 15:30 UTC =
Next meeting date Tuesday, August 28 2018, 14:30 UTC
== Attending ==
* PhilipChimento
* AllanDay
* NuritziSanchez
* CarlosSoriano
* NeilMcGovern
* RosannaYuen
* FedericoMenaQuintero
* RobMcQueen
== Regrets ==
* KatGerasimova
== Missing ==
== Agenda ==
* Executive Director report (Neil)
* ED remunerations and appraisals (a guest advisor with nonprofit experience dials in from 15:45 UTC - 16:15 UTC)
* Foundation hackfest (Allan)
* Formal thanks to Max Huang for his work on GNOME.Asia (Neil)
== Minutes ==
* Executive Director report
* Neil sent a draft of a report, everyone please review it. It's quite verbose and took a long time to put together, so if we want to maintain that level of detail it should be monthly. If we are okay with less detail, it could be biweekly.
* Carlos: This draft is great. Can we have this and also a shorter weekly update?
* Neil: Weekly could be too short to properly give context for some things.
* Nuritzi/Neil: This will also tie into our discussion with the nonprofit advisor later in the meeting.
* '''ACTION''' - Everyone please review the report if you haven't already.
[ Neil and Rosanna leave ]
* ED remunerations and appraisals (a guest advisor with nonprofit experience dials in from 15:45 UTC - 16:15 UTC)
* The goal of the session is to review our current practices against the advisor's best practices, as well as California law which the Foundation is subject to.
* The most important job of the board is evaluating the executive director's performance and setting their compensation. This is standard practice across many nonprofits but has not happened in a consistent way over the last few years.
* We need to figure out if this is something we want to do, and if so, how.
* Anything relating to the rest of the Foundation's staff, is the responsibility of the ED, not the board.
* What's the best reporting frequency for the ED and what form should these reports take?
* It's important to ensure accountability to the board, but on the other hand it should not be overly burdensome.
* We decide that, going forward, the ED should aim to present a report in the first board meeting of every month.
* Many nonprofit boards create a compensation committee to set the ED's compensation.
* We think this is a good idea.
* Points raised around the importance of continuity in the board as relates to accountability and accomplishing goals.
* We discussed the pros and cons of having staggered board terms of 2 or 3 years with half or a third of the board turning over every year.
* '''ACTION''' - Rob: Propose a charter for the compensation committee.
[ Neil and Rosanna return ]
* Foundation hackfest (Allan)
*
https://gitlab.gnome.org/Community/Board/issues/75 * Allan: 17-19 October (not including travel). Very likely going to be Cambridge, office space is booked, we just need to figure out who needs accommodation and when
* (Info from Kat:) Cambridge accommodation options (e.g.):
* £62 per room 1-2 people for Travelodge
* £25 per person for 3 people per room in Travelodge
* We'll look for an Airbnb or equivalent local large place as well
* Nuritzi: Staying in the same place increases informal camaraderie
* '''ACTION''' - Update the GitLab ticket with who needs and who doesn't need accommodation (provisionally assigned to Allan, Kat)
* '''VOTE''' - Approve travel for the Foundation board and Foundation employees to attend the Foundation hackfest 17-19 October
* +1 Nuritzi, Rob, Federico, Allan, Carlos, Philip
[ Carlos leaves ]
* Formal thanks to Max Huang for his work on GNOME.Asia (Neil)
* '''VOTE''' - The board expresses its thanks to Max for all the hard work he has put into GNOME.Asia and requests that Neil sends a formal thank you
* +1 Rob, Philip, Allan, Nuritzi, Federico
== Actions ==
* Everyone - review the Executive Director report
* Allan, Kat - Update the GitLab ticket (
https://gitlab.gnome.org/Community/Board/issues/75) with who needs and who doesn't need accommodation during the hackfest
* Rob - Propose a charter for the compensation committee
