Regular meeting of the GNOME Foundation Board of Directors, 12 May 2021, 15:00 UTC

Attending

Directors:

• AllanDay

• FelipeBorges

• FedericoQuintero

• KatGerasimova

• RobMcQueen

Non-directors:

• NeilMcGovern

• RosannaYuen

• ShaunMcCance

Regrets

• PhilipChimento (for the first hour)

Missing

• ReginaNkemchorAdejo

Consent Agenda

• Approve minutes of 14 April
• The board acknowledges receipt of:
  • Executive Committee minutes, dated 23 April 2021 [1]
  • Finance Committee minutes, dated 22 April 2021 [2]
  • Governance Committee minutes, dated 21 April 2021 [3]
  • Felipe has left the Code of Conduct Committee and the Committee is looking for a new member
• Announcements:
  • Board elections have been announced, and will likely conclude on 24 June. 3 seats are up for election.
  • Next meeting will be 9 June 2021 at 1500 UTC, and will be the final meeting of the current board.

Discussion Agenda

• Executive Director's report
• Financial report and 2020-21 operating budget
• Board-only discussion

Minutes

• Consent agenda:
  • Minutes of 14th April approved
  • Receipt of Executive Committee, Finance Committee and Governance Committee minutes acknowledged
  • Board has noted that Felipe has left the CoC Committee and the Committee is looking for a new member
• Executive Director's report
  • Moving into conference season. LAS coming up next: opens tomorrow. Raised a good amount in sponsorship this year.
  • Education Challenge wrap up - reports to Endless, certificates and questionnaires being sent out

  • GUADEC - main schedule announced and call for BoFs, etc., have gone out

• Financial report and 2020-21 operating budget
  • Variance and balance sheet received by the board
  • NET assets are $1.3 mil, including restricted funds. Gone down since last time. This means we have ~20 months of running at current staff and spending levels (so ~14 months at end of year).
  • Difficulties in finding sponsors for conferences, but levels have picked up as sponsors are becoming more used to virtual conferences.
  • Interest income has gone down due to lower interest rates.
  • Added to internship expenses because of previously approved increase for Outreachy. GSoC "mentor stipend" is under internships as well.
  • We're anticipating an income of $60k via conferences, planning to spend $20k
  • VOTE: the board approves the presented operating budget for 2020-21
    • +1: Rob, Kat, Felipe, Federico, Allan (unanimous)

Philip joined for board-only discussion.

• Board only discussion

Reports

[1] GNOME Foundation Executive Committee minutes, 23 April 2021

Present: Neil McGovern, Rob McQueen, Allan Day

• General update on operations from Neil
• Communicated feedback from April's board-only discussion

[2] GNOME Foundation Finance Committee minutes, 22 April 2021

Present: Neil McGovern, Rob McQueen, Shaun McCance, Rosanna Yuen

• Discussed the budget for the remainder of the financial year. New proposed budget is essentially the interim budget with some event expenses added in.
• Rob approved Neil to spend up to $10k on GUADEC (out of budget for the current interim operating budget, but will be included in the new operating budget for the current financial year).

[3] GNOME Foundation Governance Committee minutes, 21 April 2021

Present: Kat Gerasimova, Felipe Borges, Philip Chimento, Neil McGovern, Allan Day

• Reviewed ongoing tasks
  • ACTION: Neil and Kat to review elections documentation prior to the next board election
• Discussed a query we received regarding a potential conflict of interest with the Coding Education Challenge
  • Concluded that there wasn't a conflict of interest in this specific case, but that additional transparency would have been beneficial
  • ACTION: Neil to review the conflict of interest, with a view to enhancing transparency
• ACTION: directors to be asked to complete the board self-assessment questionnaire before next board meeting