As one of its tasks, the current board is looking into decisions and meeting minutes taken in the past that were not yet published according to our statutes. What follows are previously private minutes from the 2023-07-24 meeting of the previous board, which are now made public. Some elements in the minutes might be redacted as there is a need for confidentiality, or as individuals are mentioned in specific contexts.
Disclaimer: The following private minutes from the previous board are published as is. They have not necessarily been confirmed by the respective session’s chairperson or keeper of the minutes, nor approved by the respective board.
2. Vote, Discuss: Finalize TDF 2023 Budget (tdf-board, 5 mins)
Update on budget, new items, continue planning from FOSDEM in-person meeting
Current budget spreadsheet: [REDACTED: board-only link with confidential numbers]
Folder with all documents: [REDACTED: board-only link with confidential numbers]
Draft vote: [DRAFT VOTE] 2022 activity report, reserve building, 2023 budget, 2022 closing ledger
“authorize Florian Effenberger to do any necessary, smaller corrections together with tax advise and/or legal counsel, if needed”
- sharing screen with budget (Florian)
- put in the combined vote first part: activity report 2022
- second part: closing ledgers 2022 and planning/budget 2023
- all parts have been shared with board
- explaining again, small adjustments
- ~2.9 million on bank account, minimum to spend ~2 million
- especially on tenders and few other projects
- take new tenders (only two) in, but need to be approved
- checked and fine by accountant
- now need to discuss about budget proposal
- accountant was pretty much disolving everything? (Thorsten)
- he did revealed by ESC ranking (Florian)
- board can decide otherwise
- for last year, dissolved but still on the budget (Thorsten)
- a few lines merged (Florian)
- split line items of budget in smaller chunks to tender smaller bits of the same items? (Paolo)
- guess is feasable, but not explicitely confirmed (Florian)
- general contract missing (Thorsten)
- comes in line when starting with tendering (Florian)
- explaining what the vote is about
- propose formalities to be signed by board
- beside procedure as every year
- question about ongoing discusssion with ESC ranking and affiliation statements there (Thorsten)
- what would be technically required before wie can vote?
- get vote asap (Florian)
- not follow completely ESC ranking because sum to high
- following Carlo potential bidders to be out
- following Carlo vote only by non conflicted members
- auditor will have a look first before docs going to Berlin
- given being late since months doing a straw poll (Thorsten)
-
#1 start with annual activity report 2022 (Florian)
- unanimously approved
-
#3 approving 2022 closing ledgers (Florian)
- Thorsten, Cor, Gabor, Gabriel approved
- concerns wrt issues 2022 not resolved and ongoing discussion on some figures (Paolo)
-
#4 authorization (Florian)
- technically Thorsten/Emiliano + another director to sign
- perhaps nuances wrt conflicted board members? (Thorsten)
- from my POV just a report to be signed (Florian)
- including last minutes changes of pragmatically adjusting very small amounts to avoid another round
- unanimously approved
-
#2 reserve building and budget 2023(Florian)
- Thorsten, Gabriel, Gabor, Cor
- too many issues, so no approval (Paolo)
- lot of stuff skipped, left out (Emiliano)
- contesting the way we got there
- ESC voting did not went properly (Paolo)
- staff-board policy
- no proper staff protection
- part of board ignore these issues among others
- touching the policy again means back to zero (Thorsten)
- let’s assume to do the policy
- redo ESC ranking
- potential biddersto abstain
- or: go back further
- let the budget pass and make progress then
- Carlos statement is the only approved one (Emiliano)
- means previous decision on ESC to be revoked
- then approve ESC ranking with correct affiliation and CoIs
- result in short time reachable)
- ESC surely not happy about redoing it again (Thorsten)
- need first proper staff protection (Paolo)
- fixing sutiatuation which have been damaged
- draft from Carlo to be adopted as quick as possible (Emiliano)
- that was the initial idea
- you Thorsten ignore legal advice (Paolo)
- let’s try to go quickly (Emiliano)
- then interate for next time
- quick solution do vote as is (Cor)
- some ESC will be on vacation (Thorsten)
- another way: would Emiliano abstain?
- to let budget pass
- not available to abstain (Emiliano)
- so no budget within the next two weeks (Thorsten)
- must be clean, should have been clean for months (Emiliano)
- you, Emiliano fine, w Carlo approving voted in policy?
- Carlos text was approved (Thorsten)
- do things cleanly
- Carlo does not say text is not okay (Cor)
- can do voting w/o conflicted members
- not ok to act out of unhappiness
- something is wrong with the proposal (Paolo)
- Carlo proposed again the text
- Carlo sent this version, Carlo not happy with the changes (Florian)
- makes no sense have CoI on one text and then approve the rest on another one (Florian)
- only a few days left, deadline even today/tomorrow for me
- have to send stuff on thursday
- have do redo process if veto from Paolo and Emiliano stands (Thorsten)
- technically feasable to do it quickly when all board agree (Paolo)
- then all fine by thursday
- then need email vote for ESC ranking, etc. (Thorsten)
- fine with the actual ranking (Emiliano)
- voted with the procedure Carlo shared
- Mike to write a staff protection
- procedure started from Cor lasts for 90 days
- need to move in legal way (Paolo)
- conflicted people should abstain, explaing by itself (Emiliano)
- especially for the board but means also ESC
- are you, Thorsten, considering all options
- considering all options to give us a budget (Thorsten)
- reasonable to look in that (Cor)
- conflicted one should not influence the process (Paolo)
- now going around in circles
- worth Thorsten figuring out wath works (Cor)
- saying members affiliated w ecosystem have to stay away?
- every legal question routed through Florian to Mike (Emiliano)
- looks like needing a ESC vote on thursday (Thorsten)
- acting on this (Florian)
- need no quorum because no rules of procedure for ESC (Thorsten)
- if ranking stays same will be a problem (Emiliano)
- eligible for ESC ranking (Thorsten)
- Thorsten to send email to Carlo, cc Florian to gain time (Florian)
- blocker is ESC to ratify (Thorsten)
- give Carlo some options and then see tomorrow
- Paolo: stop story making
- maybe we did not always followed legal advice
- extra board call next monday
3. Status Report: Central Consultancy ‘Governance review’ section of report (Cor Nouws, Thorsten Behrens, 5 mins)
- Budapest AI Cor: done
- draft rough action plan from the minutes
- review in board
- decide in ~one week
- skipped
4. Status Report: Act on 2021 survey by MC in the wider community (Cor Nouws, 5 mins)
- Budapest AI Cor: initial review = done
- AI all: go over the feedback items to comment [REDACTED: board-only link]
- review in board in one of the following meetings
- skipped
5. Status Report: Follow up on CoC policy and committee (Cor Nouws, 5 mins)
- Budapest AI
- draft based on meeting shared by Cor
- review in board
- decide in ~one week
- skipped
6. Discuss: Last minute item(s) (tdf-board, 5 mins)
Rationale: if there is time left, and anything is popping up after sending the agenda
- none
The private meeting ends at 17:32 UTC / 19:32 Berlin time.