The Document Foundation
Board of Directors Meeting 2020-10-14
Meeting Minutes
Location: Jitsi
Session chair: Lothar Becker
Keeper of the minutes: Stephan Ficht
In the meeting: Thorsten Behrens (BoD), Lothar Becker (BoD), Emiliano Vavassori (BoD), Cor Nouws (BoD), Michael Meeks (BoD), Franklin Weng (BoD), Daniel Rodriguez (BoD)
Nicolas Christener (BoD Deputy), Paolo Vecchi (BoD Deputy)
Stephan Ficht (Team), Ilmari Lauhakangas (Team), Christian Lohmaier (Team)), Olivier Hallot (Team), Heiko Tietze (Team), Florian Effenberger (Team), Sophie Gautier (Team), Guilhem Moulin (Team), Xisco Tarazona (Team)
Jan Holesovsky
Representation: None
(See https://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/ subject "Representation statements")
Chairman of the Board is in the meeting. One of the Chairman or Deputy Chairman is required to be present or represented for having a quorate call.
The Board of Directors at time of the call consists of 7 seat holders without deputies. In order to be quorate, the call needs to have 1/2 of the Board of Directors members, which gives 4. A total of 7 Board of Directors members are attending the call.
The board waives all formal statutory requirements, or requirements in the foundations articles, or other requirements regarding form and invitation, time limits, and for the topics discussed in this meeting.
The meeting is quorate and invitation happened in time. From now on, motions can be passed with the agreement of a simple majority of those remaining present. The majority threshold is currently 4.
The meeting commences at 13:03 Berlin time.
Agenda
1. Welcome, introduction, invitation, representation and quorum (Lothar/Franklin, 5 minutes)
Presentation of the agenda, confirmation of proper invitation, handle representation statements and determine quorum.
Includes a welcome to the members of the new Membership Committee.
+ welcome to all (new) MC members (Lothar)
+ explains today's procedure
+ expresses a good mutual understanding
2. Update on key goals and focal points (Florian, 15 minutes)
An update on various key goals and focal points, where we stand and what the next steps are.
1. Key goals
1. Streamline tendering process, sign two tenders and get them delivered (Nicolas, Lothar, Florian)
2. Hire development mentor, grow pool of code committers (board excl. Michael)
3. Grow non-coding community (Ilmari, Mike)
4. (Virtual) Hackfests where coders and non-coders meet (Mike, Ilmari)
5. Marketing plan, younger contributors, OpenOffice users (Italo, Mike)
6. Evaluating tooling, e.g. Discourse for AskBot, incl. tools for participation improvement (Sophie, Ilmari)
7. Campus program for student ambassadors (Italo)
8. Business entity (Paolo, Thorsten, Michael)
+ brief update (Florian)
+ presenting/explaining slides of 'keygoals.pdf'
+ see https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/wNEJSpDWEC9A6km
2. Focal points and budget items
1. Scholarship (Lothar, Florian, Stephan)
2. Donor management, CiviCRM, fundraising and campaigns (Italo, Mike, Florian)
3. New website (Heiko, Ilmari)
4. Weblate (Sophie, Christian)
5. Extensions and templates page (Christian)
6. Update on tenders - WebDAV, Xray-built-in debugger, Text layout, Automated ODF filter regression testing, Cleanup & further improve ODF conformance
7. Weblate Dashboard integration for Membership Committee
8. ODF 1.3 conformance and ODF 1.3 delta tender
9. FOSDEM 2021 and virtual meetings
10. Google Season of Docs (Olivier)
11. Google Summer of Code (Ilmari, Heiko)
+ brief update (Florian)
+ presenting/explaining slides of 'projects.pdf'
+ see https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/wNEJSpDWEC9A6km
+ #3 support from KDE (Ilmari)
+ #4 Sophie and Christian giving some further details
+ #5 Christian giving some further details
+ #10 Olivier giving some further details
+ #11 Heiko giving some further details
+ much appreciated (Cor)
3. Overview on downloads, budget and donations (Florian, Mike, Italo, 5 minutes)
Update on our budget, download numbers and the status of donations.
Incl. status of recurring donations and diversifying income stream.
+ more income compared to the past (Florian)
+ expenses a bit higher
+ spend more on tenders
+ to be published as usual
+ stop here, more discussion at next Board meeting (public part)
+ any further questions? (Lothar)
4. Various, quick questions and answers, closing of the public part, and invitation to next public board meeting (5 minutes)
A few minutes for questions and answers. Everyone is invited to continue the discussion in the next public board meeting on October 23.
Public meeting ends at 13:40 Berlin time.
Agenda items of Private part
5. Self-reflection: Eight months after FOSDEM - motivation, feelings and goals (30 minutes)
We did a motivation and goals round at FOSDEM. What has changed since then, what does everyone feel right now? Three minute statement each.
6. Strategy and vision for 2021 and beyond (90 minutes)
Where do we want to be at the end of this board's term? What is our vision for the months and years to come?
We need to recreate trust and mutual understanding.
Let's collect all the important or controversial items, vote on the most important 5, and prepare working together in subgroups of 2-4 people, so everyone is member of at least one subgroup.
7. Closing round: Feelings, expectations, goals by FOSDEM (30 minutes)
How do you feel now? What are your goals and expectations to achieve by next February, during the virtual FOSDEM meeting? Three minute statement each.
Private meeting ends at 16:00 Berlin time.
Lothar Becker (Session chair)
Stephan Ficht (Keeper of the minutes)