Annual General Meeting of the GNOME Foundation, 2023-07-28, 11:20 AM

Attendees

• Present:

  • Rob McQueen

  • Regina Nkenchor
  • Sonny Piers
  • Michael Downey (virtual)
  • Foundation members (in-person and virtual)
  • Non-member observers (in-person and virtual)
• Regrets:
  • Erik Albers
  • Jeremy Allison
  • Sammy Fung

Minutes

• The meeting was called to order at 11:20 local time.

• Rob introduced the new term board members & officers.

• Thanks were offered with applause to the three outgoing board members.
• Rob discussed the roles of the executive, finance, and governance committees and the members of each.

• The current community committees and their members (Circle, Release Team, Travel, Membership & Elections, and Code of Conduct) were discussed, and thanks were offered (with applause) for all volunteers serving on them.

• Thanks and applause were offered to the staff team: Caroline, Rosanna, Bart, Kristi, and Melissa.
• Rob discussed staff changes including recruitment for the executive director and a reduction of one staff member for infrastructure, and offered his gratitude to the staff members for their work.
• Rob offered a gift to Rosanna after she had earlier offered gifts to the other staff members in gratitude for their efforts.
• Rob discussed board updates:
  • There are now 3 members from outside the Foundation to add new perspectives.
  • Slower progress has been made on some of the initiatives discussed in last year's AGM.
• GNOME hosted 4 events in the past year: GNOME.Asia, LAS, GNOME Latam, and GUADEC.
• Past year's 7 hackfests were reviewed: Berlin (2), online (2), Barcelona, Brussels, and Brno.
• The Foundation represented GNOME at 5 events in the past year with booths, keynotes, outreach, and speakers, in Brussels, London, Pasadena, Lagos, and Portland.
• Four upcoming events were reviewed in Tapei, Tirana, and Kathmandu.
• Infrastructure review:
  • New CI runners donated by Canonical
  • Fastly upgraded CDN
  • New email workflows
  • Keeping things running

  • Thanks (and applause) were offered to Andrea & Bart. Andrea remains involved as a volunteer.

• GSoC projects (7) and one Outreachy project (funded by the Foundation) were reviewed. Thanks were offered to Felipe for his role in organizing them.
• A financial review was provided. The need and role of defecit spending was discussed, and plans for the executive director's fundraising role were explained.
• Goals for the coming year
  • Unblock fundraising: recruting of ED, creating a new legal entity under the Foundation for Flathub (in collaboration with KDE), Global Inclusive Events program, and development funds from grants, donations, etc.
  • Executive Director recruitment
    • Rob provided a description of the search committee, the revised job description and advertising process, shortlisting and interviewing of candidates.
    • Interviewing is underway.
    • Endless Foundation has provided a grant to cover the first year's salary of the Executive Director.
  • Flathub
    • A new website launched at LAS this year.
    • Direct uploads to be enabled soon.
    • Establishing an LLC to handle donations and payments, will be governed jointly with KDE.
    • Development and operations are supported by a grant from Endless.

    • Thanks and applause were offered to James Westman & Kolja Lampe.

  • Global Inclusive Events
    • The Foundation has seen success at international satellite and regional events (Nigeria, Berlin, Mexico).
    • Board is exploring how best to support easier access to events worldwide without the need for travel, and an easier process for consistent access to funding those events.
    • Goal is to support growth of local communities year-round.
    • More information will be coming in the coming year regarding the program and its potential funding.
    • Caroline has been working on streamlining event bidding process.
  • Sovereign Tech Fund
    • Discussion of this program from the German government to fund infrastructure projects.

    • Sonny & Tobias worked on a grant application and have received a provisional acceptance for a substantial amount of money to work on accessibility, QA, and other key areas.

    • The purpose of the grant is to make up for reduced corporate involvement in the past few years.
    • Final answer is expected on 4 August and announcements would be made at that time.

    • Thanks and applause were offered to Sonny & Tobias.

  • Fiscal Hosting
    • Discussion of how the Foundation hosts GNOME projects and offer its legal and financial infrastructure.
    • Foundation already supports GNOME, Flathub, and GIMP, but research is underway on how to extend this offering.
    • Working on plans to hold funds on behalf of Core and Circle apps.
    • Fiscal hosting allows reimbursement of expenses projects may have.
• Annual Report
  • This is coming soon, Caroline has been actively involved in finalizing the design and layout.
  • Printed copies are made available at the event information desk.
  • Will be posted online shortly.

• Q&A

  • Q: Do we have an idea when we might have an ED? Is there a timeline?
    • A: Interviewing starts next week, hopefully no later than 2 or 3 months.
  • Q: Considering best practices for open source community health, who in the project should be thinking about this?
    • A: Sonny mentioned that one thing discussed in the recent board meeting was limited funding for implementing good ideas for improving community needs, so the board will be working to get those resources.
    • Regina discussed how the Global Inclusive Events initiative will also be recruiting new volunteers to re-invigorate community work, and help to alleviate people who may be experiencing burnout.
    • Rob discussed the challenges of funding people to work on key activities and how funds might be raised for those needs.
    • Melissa had a talk the day prior to help raise awareness of non-coding volunteer needs, and how community members can use their employers and networks to help support the Foundation.

  • Q: Does the Foundation have plans to include carbon emissions & environmental impact considerations as part of its programs?

    • A: Rob explained how the board discussed this in its recent meeting. It is high on its priorities, but the Foundation has to also balance fulfilling its mission for legal and tax reasons.
    • The Board is looking for ways to adjust the travel policy for climate-related optimization. It is very open to weaving these concerns into all its programs to the extent possible.

    • The increased focus on hybrid & virtual events is one way that the Foundation will start helping reduce its carbon footprint.

  • Q: What are the board's thoughts on how last year's Mexico GUADEC went?
    • A: Rob explained the board was concerned about how things would go in Mexico in light of COVID and the geographic change. The intention was to diversify the locations of GUADEC.
    • The Berlin event was a good way for people who weren't able to travel to GUADEC to still have in-person opportunities.
    • By moving the event around, more contributors are able to connect. The board is working to balance both considerations.
  • Q: How does the Foundation determine payment levels for the wide range of typical salary and costs of living across the world?
    • A: The priority is first and foremost who are the best people to do the work, and then understanding the available budget.
    • This is related to the Global initiative, and the Foundation would like to see these opportunities offered in the global south.
    • The board is open to any input or ideas about policy to help ensure diversity and inclusion in people who are doing paid work.
    • It is challenging to balance skills and experience with supporting new contributors.
  • Q: How should everyday community members volunteer to help the Foundation in its needs, such as recruiting advisory board members, etc.?
    • A: Talk to the board or foundation if you need to do something official, but having conversations, recruiting, or raising awareness is something anybody can do.
    • If possible, reach out to the staff to let them know what you have in mind and they can help coordinate efforts and provide support.
  • Comment: We should look toward how we can improve the online experience for events.
    • Response: There will always be demand for regional events because not everyone can participate in global events.
  • Comment: Concern that with Flathub etc., that we may be figuring out how to get funding toward external app developers before we do more to fund the core GNOME development work.
    • Response: Sonny described how the new potential grant earlier discussed will be working to partially address this concern, although not for core apps at this time.
    • Regina described how this concern is key to sustainability discussions across the free software movement, ensuring that there are always people available who are able to contribute to the project.
    • Rob stated we always want to be rewarding and encouraging people already engaged, as well as attract newcomers.
• Pants Of Thanks
  • This year's Community Appreciation Award was presented to Tobias Bernard.
  • Red and blue plaid pyjama pants were given, along with hearty applause from all in attendance.
  • Tobias offered a word of appreciation.
• The meeting adjourned at 12:31 to be followed by a group photograph of in-person attendees.