Foundation Board Minutes for Tue, October 17th 2017, 17:00 UTC

Next meeting date Tue, October 24th 2017, 17:00 UTC

Wiki: https://wiki.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/Minutes/20171017

Attending

  • Alexandre Franke
  • Allan Day
  • Rosanna Yuen
  • Meg Ford
  • Carlos Soriano

Regrets

  • Cosimo Cecchi
  • Zeeshan Ali
  • Neil McGovern

Missing

  • Nuritzi Sanchez

Agenda for 2017-10-17

  • Conference spending policy updates
  • Travel support for UX hackfest
  • Name for internships for privacy funds
  • Review ongoing actions

Minutes

  • Conference spending policy updates
    • The current policy would allow organizers to spend money they haven’t raised yet, which could lead to a loss
    • Carlos suggested to approve two complementary budgets
      • a part that can only be spent if raised
      • a part that can be spent even if not raised, to make sure the conference happens
    • Organizers are expected to make a profit, but a small loss would not be a problem
    • The main goal should be to make a good conference
    • How does the organizers forecast the amount they’ll raise?
    • How does the newly appointed sponsorship committee tie in with that?
      • Coordination between the two is expected
    • VOTE: approve new policy with 2 budgets for conferences (minimal + extras depending on money raised)
      • +1 Carlos, -1 Allan, Meg. Abstained: Alexandre. VOTE DOESN’T PASS
    • VOTE: conference organizers should be required to have a new budget approved by the board if they raised less than 70% of their budgeted income
      • +1 Allan, Meg, Abstained: Carlos, Alexandre. VOTE PASSED
    • 70% by what time? The problem is that conferences often don't know what their income is going to be until very late - sponsors are often confirmed at the last minute.
    • VOTE: invalidate the previously passed vote (let's give this more time to see if we can find a good solution)
      • +1 Alexandre, Allan, Carlos, Abstained: Meg. VOTE PASSED
  • Travel support for UX hackfest
    • Allan has emailed the board asking for help - didn’t get a response to his last email and timing is becoming an issue
    • All of the Travel Committee is at GNOME.Asia
    • Main requirement at the moment is to book accommodation
    • ACTION: Carlos to send an email to board list to have the full board make a decision; will ask the board to approve budget for the cost of the accommodation; hackfest attendees to apply to the travel committee for travel costs in the usual manner
  • Name for internships for privacy funds
    • If there is no contract it is not technically an internship
    • Discussion needs to continue on list

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

  • Payment authorization policy
    • https://wiki.gnome.org/FoundationBoardPrivate/Budget#Payment_authorization

    • VOTE: approve the new Payment authorization policy as specified on the private budget wiki page
      • +1 Allan, Nuritzi, Carlos, Cosimo, Meg, Alexandre, Zeeshan - VOTE PASSES
    • ACTION: Allan to make the page public (with ACL to prevent modifications from anyone else than the board)
      • 2017-10-08 - page has been made public but Allan isn't certain what to do about the ACL
    • ACTION: Nuritzi to ensure that this is announced to the Foundation
  • Employee travel policy updates
  • Conference spending policy
  • Budget for FY2018
    • VOTE: approve the budget as presented by Neil
      • +1 Unanimous. VOTE PASSES
    • ACTION: Neil to communicate with Shaun
    • ACTION: Neil to put the budget spreadsheet into cloud.gnome.org and link to it from appropriate places, including a written version of the reserves policy
  • Intention to create marketing committee
    • To dispense money for small events and marketing line items
    • In the meantime, we would have an individual budget holder
    • VOTE: appoint Nuritzi as the temporary budget holder
      • +1 Nem con. VOTE PASSES
    • There are concerns about the correct course of action.
    • ACTION: Nuritzi to come up with a charter for the proposed committee
  • 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
      • 2017-10-08 - Allan got in touch with Stormy and got some login information, but he still can't access the account. More followup is required.
    • ACTION: Nuritzi to assess the quality and check whether we want to continue using them
  • 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
    • 2017-10-08
      • This is now set up
      • Need to put this into travel sponsorship form
      • ACTION: Alexandre to talk to the travel committee to add this to the options
      • ACTION: Nuritzi to add this option to the small events reimbursement page
      • ACTION: Rosanna to test if it works well
      • ACTION: Nuritzi to announce it to foundation-list
  • 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
    • 2017-10-08
      • Neil is waiting for verification before this can proceed further
  • Calls with committees
    • Twice a year with each committee, once after the board elections (end June/early July and then late November-early January).
    • The call is a touch point - a way of checking in. Needs to stimulate ongoing conversations and ad hoc problem solving. Committees will be invited to calls with the whole Board to problem solve around specific things.
    • One board member and the ED meet with each committee (or a board member and the director of operations if there's no ED).
    • Where possible the same board member should be consistent.
    • Board representatives then feed back to the rest of the board.
    • 2017-10-08
      • First meetings in the sequence to happen in November. Should focus on collaboratively setting goals and identifying issues.
      • Once the
      • ACTION: Carlos to meet with membership committee, see if we should update committee charter https://wiki.gnome.org/MembershipCommittee

      • ACTION: Alexandre to meet with the travel committee, see if we should update committee charter https://wiki.gnome.org/Travel/Committee

      • ACTION: Cosimo to meet with the sponsorship committee
  • 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
    • 2017-10-08
      • Neil and Rob are going to meet Karen at Freenode Live and try to talk about this
  • 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.
    • 2017-10-08
      • Part of this was done at the hackfest, we'll need to update the wiki page
      • Another part is pending reply from Pam about how an event can use the GNOME wordmark
      • ACTION: Nuritzi to update the wiki page, including Alexandre's proposed statement about openness of hackfests
  • 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

  • Freenode Live trip
    • Neil is set to keynote the event
    • VOTE: approve travel for Neil
      • +1 Unanimous. VOTE PASSES
  • 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
    • 2017-09-26
      • 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
    • 2017-10-03
      • far from ideal situation
      • everyone rather hesitant
      • still an opportunity
      • also a nudge towards a local community
      • VOTE: offer to fund up to $1800
        • +1 Nuritzi, Cosimo, Zeeshan, -1 Alexandre, Abstained Allan. PASSED
      • ACTION: Nuritzi to get back to them
        • DONE (via text to Josh so he can talk to Sarah)
      • ACTION: Nuritzi to send an email to foundation-list to gauge interest
        • DONE
  • Mexico workshop
    • 2017-08-29
      • Was supposed to start yesterday, has been delayed.
    • 2017-10-08
      • We will stop tracking this, and put it back here if it comes back
  • 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
    • 2017-10-08
      • This was discussed at our hackfest and has been replaced by other action items
  • 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.
    • 2017-10-08
      • This should be covered by the brand guidelines; we're going to track this together with the conference policy page
  • 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
    • 2017-10-08
      • This was discussed at our hackefst. DONE

FoundationBoard/Minutes/20171017 (last edited 2018-01-24 02:22:32 by CosimoCecchi)