The Document Foundation
Board of Directors Meeting 2022-04-04
Meeting Minutes
Location: Jitsi
Session chair: Thorsten Behrens
Keeper of the minutes: Stephan Ficht
In the meeting:
Board Members - Cor Nouws, Thorsten Behrens, Caolán McNamara, Paolo Vecchi, Jan Holesovsky, Emiliano Vavassori
Board Deputy Members - Gabriel Masei
Membership Committee Members -
Membership Committee Substitute Members - Uwe Altmann (joined 16:13 UTC)
Team - Stephan, Heiko, Sophie, Florian, Guilhem
Community -
Representation: None
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 6 Board of Directors members are attending or represented in 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.
Any updates regarding director affiliations & statements of conflicts of interest for agenda items:
* no changes, current affiliations see election page:
https://elections.documentfoundation.org/2021-board/candidates.html
The public meeting commences at 16:03 UTC / 18:03 Berlin time.
Public part
1. Q&A: Answering questions from the community (all, 10 mins)
Rationale: Provide an opportunity for the community to ask questions to the board and about TDF
+ any questions? (Thorsten)
+ mentioned during 1:1 meetings in the past, concerned wrt inflation,
expenses (Heiko)
+ budget for salary adjustments has an item in the budget (public listing only has combined buckets), so that is
on screen, we were waiting for budget to be finalized (Florian)
2. Discuss: Board process proposal feedback (Thorsten, all 10 mins)
+ haven't heard much details of proposal yet (Thorsten)
+ happy about any feedback!
+ like the idea to have more shared in Nextcloud (Florian)
+ e.g. minutes, avoid mailing and editing left and right, saves time and overhead
+ may be try out Etherpad integration, NC editor is so and so
+ NC Deck is given a try with Thorsten, Stephan, Florian - could be a good idea, let's try it out
+ calendar maybe a bit more difficult to use - let's skip for the moment
+ going back to Etherpad would be nicer (Paolo)
+ advantage of markdown features on NC (Thorsten)
+ workflow is email based traditionally
+ aim to make board life easier
+ from my POV easier using calendar
+ calendar URL sharing (Florian)
AI Florian: share calendar URL, see if we can create a group calendar
+ use synergies (Thorsten)
+ not against, let's give a try (Emiliano)
+ not familiar with NC pad, prefer Etherpad based one
AI + Guilhem to be asked to set it up on short notice (Thorsten)
+ NC editor seems slow to me (Emiliano)
+ is a plus to have it integrated
+ NC Deck gives a lot of advantages/integration (Thorsten)
+ hard to do word protocol
+ really matters is decision making
+ doesn't mean to have no comments, but focus on _results_
+ quiet relevant to have more information then just decisions (Cor)
+ minutes to give a good summary/overview about things discussed
+ time consuming, but much more accessible
+ worth for longer topics to summarize (Thorsten)
+ Prefer more verbose minuting (Kendy)
+ problem with conflicts though
+ causing conflicts different people minuting at the same time (Kendy)
+ OK if default is non-verbose, but with the possibility to do verbose from time to time (Kendy)
+ minutes allows me to understand what has been discussed (Paolo)
+ different POVs available (Thorsten)
+ only relevant information (Paolo)
+ honestly, I rarely spend time to read draft minutes (Cor)
+ so may miss stuff that is not accurate for what I said/tried to convey
+ very hard to do word by word minutes (Thorsten)
+ minute taker have to be focused only on minuting
Decision: run with the proposal, swap in Etherpad-with-NC-integration if/when available. Some challenges with shared calendars, run with what's easily possible today (centrally-maintained public calendar with TDF-wide plus board appointments - AI Florian to sync with Mike on the calendar currently in the wiki)
3. Discuss: Plan for an in-person board meeting sometime in May (Kendy, all 10 mins)
+ good idea with covid improving in much countries (Kendy)
+ proposing May, including Florian and Stephan
+ broadly seconded (most)
+ happy to see behaviour change from some BoD members (Paolo)
+ certain time behaviour carry on
+ feel we need more trust building before meeting
+ helpful to pass by a third person to solve issue (Cor)
+ some efforts in the past unfortunately did not work out (Paolo)
+ happy to meet in persona, unless in Italy not very positive yet (Emiliano)
+ love to meet, especially after two years; but for personal reasons still very careful wrt. Corona and meeting many people - I try to join, thanks for the invite (Florian)
+ likely will see several events where individuals might not be able to join for restrictions or personal reasons in the near future, but should still plan, even if only some can attend, situation hard to predict (Florian)
+ good idea to meet (Gabriel)
+ helps to build the trust
+ fine with May/June
+ conclusion: lets work to realize an in person meeting (Thorsten)
+ support meeting in later May, BoD+Florian+Stephan (Kendy)
+ of course if Covid becomes worse, not doing it
+ should definitely plan it, upcoming months are likely the best, happy to organize it (Florian)
+ provide NC poll to get an idea of timeframe
Decision:
+ AI Stephan and Florian: plan meeting, start with a poll for
May and June
The public meeting ends at 16:37 UTC / 18:37 Berlin time.
Private part
4. Discuss: Last minute item(s) (owner of the item, all 10 mins)
Rationale: if there is time left, and anything is popping up after
sending the agenda
* budget decision revisit
5. Discuss & vote: HR topic (Thorsten, all 20 mins)
- discussion & agreement on process
- Thorsten to call for a private email vote
The private meeting ends at 17:20 UTC / 19:20 Berlin time.
Thorsten Behrens (Session chair)
Stephan Ficht (Keeper of the minutes)