Hello,
sorry for being slightly late with this - find attached meeting minutes from the board meeting on February 29.
Florian
The Document Foundation
Board of Directors Meeting 2016-02-29
Call Minutes
Location: Phone Conference Room
Session chair: Marina Latini
Keeper of the minutes: Michael Meeks
In the call: Marina Latini (Chairwoman), Michael Meeks (Deputy Chairman), Osvaldo Gervasi (Board),
Simon Phipps (Board), Jan Holesovsky (Board), Thorsten Behrens (Board), Eike Rathke (Board),
Norbert Thiebaud (Deputy), Björn Michaelsen (Deputy), Florian Effenberger
Representation: None.
Chairwoman of the Board is in the call. One of the Chairman or Deputy is required to be present or
represented for having a quorate call.
The Board of Directors at the 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 or their representatives 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 call is quorate.
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 1718 Berlin time.
Public part:
1. Knowing about the community (Osvaldo Gervasi)
Proposed website to improve visibility of non-technical volunteers' contribution.
Suggest add budget estimate and incorporate into the next round of budgeting (Michael)
+ need help wrt. what the issues are (Osvaldo)
+ wrt. role of the dashboard (Osvaldo)
+ thought it was an internal tool
+ two things: (Kendy)
+ a general dashboard - for general state of things
+ other - for needs of membership committee:
+ this may be better to be private for MC.
+ good to do it incrementally;
+ expand it to non-technical volunteers
+ things from pootle eg. - translations definitely.
+ statistics on Mailing Lists etc. also a benefit.
+ like to advertise members per country & effort they made (Osvaldo)
+ perfectly fits the dashboard; but unsure if specified yet (Kendy)
+ think some Bitergia / Osvaldo overlap (Thorsten)
+ ideally one of several front-ends to it.
+ ideally, a couple of days of extra on top of what we contract.
+ original "All about LibreOffice" tender was very close in scope (Bjoern)
+ we didnt get a bid covering exactly the scope on budget
+ so we scaled back in scope, yet the current negotiations are the best way forward
+ provide a form to fill out for the bugeting, cf.
+ http://www.mail-archive.com/board-discuss@documentfoundation.org/msg03421.html and
+ http://www.documentfoundation.org/community/grant-request/
+ these should normally go into the budget (Norbert)
AI: => come up with a clear cut proposal (Osvaldo)
1.1 would welcome an update on Bitergia (Simon)
Got something back; not been widely read yet, Norbert liked it.
+ doing the work on our infra, basic setup etc. (Norbert)
AI: + final review this week and say 'go' (Floeff)
AI: + fwd. to Simon for review with his 'Contracts' hat on (Bjoern)
2. Helping new developers (Osvaldo Gervasi)
+ potential frustration from new people
+ recommendation - for JanI creating a page for newbies
+ has a more precise step-by-step compile instructions
+ and/or have VM available for them for easy-hacks / bugs
+ any examples of this ? (Kendy)
+ what was missing ?
+ sometimes - young people, have an interest, but eg. (Osvaldo)
+ two pupils, intersted in a thesis, but they got lost.
+ if they got lost on the install (Norbert)
+ it's down to 3-4 lines to setup an environment.
+ no way they can write a thesis on it.
+ spent lots of effort to make this easy.
+ agree (Osvaldo)
+ VM - is not leaked from easy-hacks page.
+ a guy starts to do an easy-hack.
+ a solution without a problem; if incapable of
setting things up, can't produce a useful patch.
+ VM's awesome for hackfest (Bjoern)
+ proven to be very useful.
+ not a technical issue, we could do that immediately
+ newbies - more interested in problem, than infrastructure (Osvaldo)
+ unclear that it is useful (Norbert)
+ admin challenges (Bjoern)
+ throw around passwords for machines in the cloud without
supervising is a challenge (not an issue at Hackfests).
+ tiny budget for the weekends, for months more (Norbert)
+ if can't learn basics of open-source dev, won't produce a patch.
+ like to help people get started (Simon)
+ would like a fully formed proposal as a document.
+ if require commit money & time; need a budget estimate.
+ optimising without profiling feel (Kendy)
+ find out exactly what was the hard part;
where did they try & fail.
+ challenge is who is going to watch & hand-out keys (Bjoern)
+ mostly not a board decision.
+ like a virtual hack-fest (Simon)
+ biggest cost is time for people to run them.
AI: => come up with a clear cut proposal (Osvaldo)
+ have a go at building & report issues ? (Norbert)
3. Involving universities (Osvaldo Gervasi)
+ like JanIV's encouragements for people who solve easy-hacks.
+ if we can establish a visible logo, to attract people from universities
+ can tender - for a graphic design; to advertise on our pages.
+ so Universities that trust us, and want to be involved in the
community can establish.
+ the visible piece of a semi-formal agreement to support the project
+ a director has to sign it; and commit to
+ in collaboration with the foundation.
+ some enthusiasts support the project; spend time etc.
+ not visible enough inside the organization.
=> re-inforce
+ have done ~this before in Brazil (Michael)
=> come up with a draft proposal etc.
+ traditional problem - TDF has not much to put on the other side (Michael)
+ can spotlight people and encourage them (Bjoern)
+ paid time can be put into projects eg. good C++ courses (Michael)
+ rather limited resource here, 50% of one JanI
+ concern to make it self-sustaining (Bjoern, Norbert)
+ a sponsored mentoring arrangement ? (Marina)
+ can offer money (eg. AB guys)
+ problem not money but mentoring cost (Bjoern)
+ had a Winter of Code line-item (Bjoern)
+ mentoring un-answered.
+ profound concerns wrt. mentoring (Michael)
+ v. expensive.
+ virtual hack-fest (Simon)
+ having someone able to stare over your shoulder is vital.
+ Proposals:
+ what work we want done, who is going to do it,
and how are we going to pay for it ?
AI: => come up with some virtual internships (Marina)
** Thorsten leaves the call - we hit the hour. (18:03)
Representation: Norbert Thiebaud now representing Thorsten Behrens
4. TDF official roadshow (Marina Latini)
+ format for an official marketing promotional event
+ like LibreOffice road-show in Germany
+ the redmine ticket:
+ https://redmine.documentfoundation.org/issues/1589
+ target - public administration ?
+ topics: compliance / legal aspects, ODF, a11y, TDF & contributing,
software & new features of releases, also migration protocol,
and training protocol, certification with demos, a modular
event with 1hr/2hr - can plug in specific topics.
with more time can structure it as a 2hr / 4hr / full-day
+ an official format that the local community can use & re-adapt.
+ is there a budget line-item form Marketing ? (Norbert)
+ what does it need ? (Bjoern)
+ what timeframe, which locations ?
+ have organized several events in Italy already (Marina)
+ can provide slides -> material is done already.
+ cost: usually have a sponsor, from TDF side - it is free.
+ would love to fund requests for the community (Norbert)
+ don't want to be doing day-to-day marketing in the board (Michael)
+ sounds awesome - but can marketing not do this themselves ?
+ no need for board approval for a website here (Norbert, Simon)
AI: => come up with a clear cut proposal (Marina)
The public call ends at 1818 Berlin time.
Next meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 14, 1700 Berlin time
Tentative agenda items: budget & reserve building; updates on open AIs
(NB: some people might be at CeBIT)
Marina Latini (Session chair)
Michael Meeks (Keeper of the minutes)