Board of Directors Meeting 2019-06-21

The Document Foundation
Board of Directors Meeting 2019-06-21
Call Minutes

Location: Jitsi

Session chair: Marina Latini
Keeper of the minutes: Michael Meeks

In the call: Marina (chair), Cor (board), Eike (board), Florian (ED), Kendy (Deputy), Simon (Deputy), Thorsten (Board), Michael (Board), Björn (Deputy Chair)
Representation: Simon representing Franklin.

Chairwoman of the Board is in the call. One of the Chairwoman 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 call 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 14:06 Berlin time.

Public part:

1. Info: Board meetings and agenda (Marina, 5 minutes)
     + reminder - please add items to the agenda well in advance if possible.
         + deadline Sunday.

2. Discussion: Budget/guide lines for inviting members to conferences (Cor, 10 minutes)
     + proposal on the list
     + difficult subject - hard to find something better than what we have now
     + perhaps a bit less compensation to those we invite to the conference
     + so we can give some more to some others
     + need to cope with different travel costs / welfare / etc. / inactive communities
     + Cor willing to put some energy into managing this discussion
     + happy to invite people to give ideas.
     + meets the idea that we can give more people compensation
     + perhaps people pay 10% - min Eur 25 & max Eur 75 eg.
     + an E-mail reply from Franklin & someone else - wrt. tough corner cases
     + if there is a general idea to look at it, Cor happy to invest time.
     + thanks for handling the topic (Marina)
         + in general great to find a way to bring more contributors to the conf.
         + need to keep in-mind, that in theory not just money, but cultural difference
         + might be ok for partial re-imbursement for some
         + for others - might think contributions are not good enough
         + like to examine the topic, but need to look at all aspects.
     + how big is the problem anyway ? (Thorsten)
         + keep encouraging people, and being surprisd how few ask for travel
     + last year, others intended to be there from Holland (Cor)
         + a bit less active but - good to give them some compensation too
         + shared some of his compensation with them.
     + first did it - asked who wanted it ? (Michael)
         + no response, disorganized.
         + switched to this pro-active: we will pay ...
             + which works better, but not perfectly.
         + instead of complexity - why not just invite more ?
     + Sophie sent list with names (Cor)
         + asked is there budget for more people ?
             + could have added more names without being sure
     + dislike the idea - creates a barrier to attendance (Simon)
         + if concerned wrt. marginally able to come.
         + additionally creates a bursary fund - you can apply to.
             + love it (Michael)
     + having fractional compensation for all is unfortunate (Simon)
         + we want to ensure some people can attend.
     + a bursary fund: would need an approver a budget & a process (Simon)
         + Debian community has a committee
         + GNOME had something similar (Michael)
     + can we ask the MC to do this ? (Cor)
         + already in contact with them.
         + an idea to ask them if they are confirming / prolonging a membership (Bjoern)
             + can ask which conference they want to atteend.
             + someone confirms they're part of the community.
             + like the idea (Marina)
     => Cor to ask the MC if they can handle this:
         + Eur 5k budget for -partial- travel re-funds.
     => Proceeding with Sophie's list.

3. Discussion: new Certification Category discussion (Michael, 10 minutes)
     + punt it again, save time.

Public call ends 14:22 Berlin time.

Marina Latini (Session chair)
Michael Meeks (Keeper of the minutes)