Board Meeting Minutes :: 1st February 2007

[Glynn Foster <Glynn Foster Sun COM>]

Hey,

Sincere apologies for the delay in posting these. I've had a busy travel
schedule recently. Let me know if there are any questions to these minutes, and
I'd be happy to follow up with more detailed information about the item.

Next board meeting is scheduled for 15th February. If you would like an agenda
item discussed, please mail board-list.


thanks!

Glynn

==

Board Meeting :: 1st February 2007

Present: Behdad, Dave, Anne, Zana, Vincent, Glynn, Quim
Regrets: Jeff

1) Discussion about the board responsibilities.

   We have the following positions filled

     * Chairman - Quim
     * Vice-Chair - Anne
     * Secretary - Glynn
     * Treasurer - Dave

   Thanks to the outgoing board for all their hard work during the
   last year - Federico, Jonathan, and Luis.

2) Press Interaction

   Briefly discussed press interaction for this years board, and the
   pitfalls from last year. Decided to discuss item at next meeting
   because Jeff wasn't present.

   ACTION: Glynn to add press stuff as an agenda item for next meeting.

3) Roles of the Board

   Anne wants to take care of the legal issues this year on the board
   Quim suggested that press could be moved into marketing-private list.

   Discussion on list about board roles and responsibilities outside
   the more formal positions.

   [Areas - 01/05/2007, Quim Gil]
        - Development
        - Events
        - Infrastructure
        - Legal
        - Marketing
        - Media
        - Relations

   ACTION: Quim to make a proposal on board-list.

4) Software Freedom Law Center

   Everyone seems to be in agreement with the current situation and wording
   of the document. Anne and Luis are signing on behalf of the GNOME
   Foundation

   - Anne has called SFLC and they are prepared to advise on any issue
     related to promoting free software.

    - Anne wants SFLC to look over the by-laws.

     - Anne also brought up the role of foundation president and current
       US banking concerns with SFLC.

   ACTION: Anne to sign SFLC retainer, and forward to Luis for signing.

5) Staff situation (Business Development Officer)

   There was more discussion about the BDO role for the foundation. There
   are a number of options available.

    - Go and advertise the position again.
    - Consider the existing candidate for the part time position. This
      is a disadvantage in that the role would be half time rather than
      the full time position as originally intended.

   ACTION: Dave to contact applicant to see if they are still interested.
   ACTION: Dave to form hiring sub-committee with the people involved in
           the interviews last year, for continuity.

6) Current Financials/Budget

   - Zana doesn't have exact figures, as a number of wires were sent
     during the week, and unsure of exact costs involved. However, there
     is a little under $100,000 in the bank account.

   - Dave received little feedback from the user groups about their
     budget for the year, so it looks like we will have continual
     piecemeal requests over the course of the year.

   - All decided it would be a good idea to set a budget for the event
     box.

   - Discussion about where our donations are coming from. Zana mentioned
     that most were PayPal based, and suspects a half-half distribution
     between Europe and the US.

   ACTION: Zana to find out where our donations are coming from.

   - Current budget for the role of BDO is $80,000. This was under the
     assumption it would be a full time position. This was based on a
     calculation for living in Boston, working in a non-profit organization.

   ACTION: Anne to ask lawyers if there are any problems with hiring an
           employee outside the US.

   - Have yet to pay for printing costs for the GNOME newsletter. Zana is
     due to receive a proof copy, with an ETA of sending them out being
     14th February if all goes well.

   ACTION: All board members to send Zana their addresses for delivery
           of a copy.

   ACTION: Dave to send Advisory Board contacts to Zana.

   - These are preliminary budget line items, which will need to be
     budgeted and balanced based on available funds throughout the year.

        - Wages: $90K (est)
        - GUADEC: $120K (est)
        - Event box (EU): $2000
        - Event box (US): $2000
        - Travel: Double last year (at least 6 trips paid for last year)
        - Summit: $5000
        - User groups
          - Need to summarize requests so far and attach dollar values
            to them
        - Marketing: $7000
          - Printing, T-shirts, Annual report, Banners & other
            marketing material
        - Legal fees
          - Needs estimate, $8000 needed for trademark applications
        - Developer documentation
        - GNOME miniconferences (art, collaboration, multimedia, ...)

   ACTION: Dave to prepare preliminary budget for February 10th.

7) GUADEC

   - Overall things are moving in the right direction - the team is
     doing a good job. We're a little worried that no sponsorship
     requests have gone out yet.

   ACTION: Dave to poke the GUADEC team about the sponsorship timeline.

8) Advisory board

   - Anne proposes March 15th as possible date for advisory board meeting.

   ACTION: Quim to prepare a preliminary draft agenda for discussion on
           the list.
   ACTION: Quim to contact the advisory board list and say hello.

10) Membership

   - Discussion on list about the membership on the foundation-list. No
     real concerns at the moment.

   ACTION: Vincent to contact the membership committee to make sure
           mails are sent when renewal is needed.