22:30 < bdale> *GAVEL* 22:30 < bdale> [item 1, Opening] Welcome to today's Software in the Public Interest Board Meeting, which is now called to order. 22:30 < bdale> Today's agenda can be found on the web at: http://www.spi-inc.org/meetings/agendas/2016/2016-08-11/ 22:31 < bdale> [item 2, Roll Call] 22:31 < bdale> Board members, please state your name for the record. As we have eight board members, quorum for today's meeting is six. 22:31 < bdale> Guests (including board advisors), please /msg your names to tbm if you wish your attendance to be recorded in the minutes of this meeting. 22:31 < Ganneff> Joerg Jaspert 22:31 < schultmc> Michael Schultheiss 22:31 < zobel> Martin Zobel-Helas 22:31 < luca> Luca Filipozzi 22:31 < tbm> Martin Michlmayr 22:31 < Hydroxide> Jimmy Kaplowitz 22:31 < tridge> Andrew Tridgell 22:31 < xnox> Dimitri John Ledkov 22:31 < spectranaut> Valerie Young 22:31 < bdale> Bdale Garbee (outgoing President, not to be counted for quorum today) 22:31 < bdale> looks like that's everyone? 22:31 < tbm> yes 22:31 < zobel> all new board members present. 22:32 < bdale> awesome! 22:32 < bdale> [item 3, President's Report] 22:32 < bdale> Congratulations and welcome to the newly-elected and re-elected board members! 22:32 < bdale> It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the last 10 years as President, and several more as a member of or advisor to the SPI board. I am very 22:32 < bdale> pleased to leave the organization in such good hands, and in so much better shape than when I took over so long ago... 22:32 < bdale> [item 4, Treasurer's Report] 22:32 < bdale> Michael? 22:33 * bdale notes he's sitting in a store in southern Illinois in the middle of a family road-trip using his phone for Internet access, apologies for the lagginess... 22:33 < schultmc> zobel and I are working on getting our financial data in ledger-cli. February and March 2016 reports should be ready to send out. We're working on getting the remaining reports entered ASAP. 22:33 < schultmc> zobel has volunteered to serve as assistant treasurer. 22:34 < schultmc> I'm working on finalizing our IRS and NYS filings which are due on 2016-08-15 22:35 < bdale> anything else? 22:35 < schultmc> not at this time 22:35 < bdale> [item 5, Secretary's report] 22:35 < bdale> Martin? 22:36 < tbm> The new directors have been added to the board list. 22:36 < tbm> I'm hoping to create some onboarding information but haven't found time yet. 22:36 < tbm> . 22:36 < bdale> anything else? 22:36 < tbm> I cannot think of anything right now. 22:36 < tbm> Oh 22:37 < tbm> All new directors submitted their conflict of inerest declarations which is a requirement before they are appointment 22:37 < tbm> I also asked all other directors to submit new declarations so we can rewnew them at the same time for everyone 22:37 < tbm> I'm happy to report that everyone submitted their declarations. 22:37 < tbm> thank you! 22:38 < bdale> awesome! 22:38 < bdale> [item 6, Outstanding minutes] 22:38 < bdale> Do we have any? 22:38 < tbm> Yes 22:38 < zobel> according to the agenda: yes 22:38 < tbm> The 7 July meeting notes 22:39 < bdale> right, I see them 22:39 < Hydroxide> nice, I was watching over the shoulder of a registered guest and so can actually not abstain on these. 22:39 < tbm> Are we ready to vote on them or do people need a few minutes? 22:39 < bdale> I can vote 22:39 < tridge> i've read them 22:40 < tbm> Ok, let's vote. 22:40 < spectranaut> voting on the minutes merely means approving them? 22:40 < bdale> it has been our habit that those who attended the meeting vote yes or no, and those who did not attend abstain 22:40 < spectranaut> oh I see 22:40 < tbm> I wasn't going to include bdale though. Is that incorrect? 22:40 -!- taral [sid19346@id-19346.tooting.irccloud.com] has joined #spi 22:40 < Hydroxide> spectranaut: but yes, the point of that vote is to confirm the accuracy of what happened, not to say whether you liked the results or not. 22:40 < bdale> I'm no longer a board member, but I did attend the meeting and can attest to the minutes being fien 22:40 < bdale> fine, even 22:41 < tbm> Voting started, 9 people (hydroxide,luca,ganneff,tbm,schultmc,spectranaut,tridge,zobel,xnox) allowed to vote on Meeting minutes for Thursday 7 July 2016. - You may vote yes/no/abstain only, type !vote $yourchoice now. 22:41 < schultmc> !vote yes 22:41 < zobel> !vote yes 22:41 < luca> !vote yes 22:41 < tridge> !vote yes 22:41 < Hydroxide> !vote yes 22:41 < xnox> !vote yes 22:41 < tbm> !vote yes 22:41 < Ganneff> !vote yes 22:42 < spectranaut> !vote abstain 22:42 < zobel> oh, we will need to teach spectranaut the vote script... :) that will be fun.... 22:42 < tbm> Current voting results for "Meeting minutes for Thursday 7 July 2016": Yes: 8, No: 0, Abstain: 1, Missing: 0 () 22:42 < tbm> Voting for "Meeting minutes for Thursday 7 July 2016" closed. 22:42 < bdale> thanks 22:42 < bdale> [item 7, Outstanding actions] 22:42 < bdale> What's this for? 22:42 < tbm> This is a new entry we added last time to track outstanding action items 22:43 < bdale> anything to track today? 22:43 < tbm> It was for the D&O insurance which is under the agenda under new business as well. 22:43 < bdale> ok 22:43 < bdale> move on? 22:43 < tbm> Ok 22:43 < Hydroxide> wait 22:43 < Hydroxide> it was also for something related to employees, if I remember right, yes? 22:43 < bdale> fwiw, I'd be tempted to put any outstanding actions under items up for discussion so there's an explicitly visible list 22:44 < Hydroxide> checking the last meeting minutes 22:44 < Hydroxide> not reflected in those minutes, i may have misremembered. 22:44 < bdale> Neil asked about hiring an employee, I don't see a correlation to this item on the agenda 22:44 < Hydroxide> proceed, never mind 22:44 < bdale> [item 8, Items up for discussion] 22:44 < bdale> [item 8.1, Directors and officers liability insurance] 22:45 < bdale> JD made progress on this, it now needs an officer to engage 22:45 < tbm> The current thinking is to sign up for NPCC and get a discounted quote through them. 22:45 < bdale> yes 22:45 < tbm> I spoke to Conservancy and they also use NPCC 22:45 < bdale> a good action item for the next president? 22:45 < Hydroxide> fwiw when i saw people mention NPCC my gut reaction was "oh yeah I had seen their web page before and they seemed sane" 22:45 < tbm> Unfortunately, I haven't had time to put together a proposal but I'm happy to do it for the next meeting. 22:46 < bdale> ok, sounds good 22:46 < Hydroxide> it would be lovely to have established contact with them and maybe even sign up before the next meeting 22:46 < Hydroxide> yay tbm 22:46 < schultmc> are we eligible for NPCC? iirc they require a greater NYC presence 22:46 < bdale> [item 8.2, SPI business contacts (PO box vs real address; virtual PBX)] 22:46 < bdale> schultmc: investigation to date says yes 22:46 < schultmc> cool 22:46 < tbm> schultmc: what do you mean by greater NYC presence? 22:46 < bdale> we'll find out when we apply, I guess 22:46 < Hydroxide> schultmc: they can tell us :) I'll also conveniently be living in NYC again from early September until some time in the first half of 2017 22:46 < Hydroxide> schultmc: so it's possible that will help when tbm talks to them, though it's not permanent/multi-year 22:47 < bdale> who wants to talk about the contacts item? 22:47 < schultmc> The Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York gives your nonprofit a voice. With a membership of over 1,400 organizations throughout New York City, Long Island and Westchester 22:47 < luca> i'm happy to speak to the contacts item 22:47 < bdale> go 22:47 < luca> we had an email thread between Debian and SPI regarding the need for physical presense 22:47 < luca> at leastto the extent that it isn't a PO BOX 22:48 < bdale> oh, right 22:48 < luca> and that perhaps we don't want an individual's phone number for our contact address 22:48 < luca> we needed this to get an EV cert for SecureBoot stuff 22:48 < xnox> like a virtual office mail-drop address? (something that sounds like a street & house, rather than a PO BOX?) 22:48 < luca> but there were a number of ideas expressed 22:48 < schultmc> FWIW we do have a street address version of our PO Box although I'm not opposed to a virtual office 22:48 < luca> xnox: correct 22:48 < luca> but we can also get mail opening/scanning if we want 22:48 < bdale> who wants to take an action item to turn this into a concrete proposal? 22:48 < luca> and we can get cheque deposit if we want 22:49 < bdale> perhaps the next secretary? 22:49 < luca> i'm happy to do that at the next President's pleasure 22:49 < luca> or the next Secretary 22:49 < xnox> Ideally with a matching PBX number with the right sort of prefix/city code as the address?! 22:49 < luca> either way; but it'd be good to Establish Ourselves 22:49 < bdale> ok, cool, if luca will lead and make sure this happens, I'm sure the right folks can engage 22:49 < luca> arguably in NYC 22:49 < Hydroxide> maybe doing that virtual office in NYC would help make NPCC happy, yes :) 22:49 < bdale> Hydroxide: good point 22:49 < bdale> anything else on this? 22:50 < luca> nope 22:50 < bdale> [item 8.3, Voting algorithm review] 22:50 < Hydroxide> they also might be satisfied by changing our official NY office county from Albany to the corresponding NY county 22:50 < luca> i asked tbm to add this; we don't need to act now; but we should delierate whether a change is needed, etc. 22:50 < bdale> ok 22:50 < luca> we have a year to make the change IF we believe a change is necessary 22:50 < luca> but i don't want to see that email thread's ideas simply ignored 22:51 < bdale> I suggest this be kept on the agenda for next month, and anyone interested try working this into a concrete proposal for inclusion in the proposed new bylaws 22:51 < Hydroxide> I think it's fine if someone who views that as an urgent priority rather than merely something legitimately broken wants to spearhead a discussion and bring a proposal back to the rest of us 22:51 < luca> i'd like them acknowledge and acted on or dismissed after a debate 22:51 < Hydroxide> I'm open to considering a concrete proposal after the differing voices have been coalesced into one proposal (or two) 22:51 < bdale> luca: I get it. my gentle suggestion is keep it on items up for discussion until it gets closed 22:51 < luca> it's not urgent, since we have a year; but it's appropriate for some self reflection 22:51 < zobel> are we on 8.2 or 8.3 now? :) 22:51 < luca> bdale: works for me 22:52 < bdale> Hydroxide: are you up for ring-leading? 22:52 < bdale> stuff always gets done better when there' 22:52 < bdale> s a name attached... 22:53 < bdale> hush or lag? ;-) 22:53 * xnox thinks our voting algorithm as good/as bad as any other, and is good enough to do the job. 22:53 < Hydroxide> bdale: regarding the voting propopsal thing, no, i don't feel it's as urgent compared to our other problems 22:53 < bdale> ok 22:53 < bdale> so leave it on the agenda for next month and move on? 22:53 < Hydroxide> bdale: if luca or someone else does, they're welcome to. I care more about getting our bylaws overhauled :) 22:53 < luca> again, it's not a question of urgency; it's a question of transparency 22:53 < bdale> Hydroxide: ok. if you want to take over championing the new bylaws, I'll be happy to continue to help. there are a number of inputs to review and incorporate 22:54 < bdale> ok 22:54 < bdale> moving on 22:54 < bdale> [item 8.4, Enumeration of open issues] 22:54 < bdale> ? 22:54 < tbm> I agree with luca that it woul be good to formally acknowledge the discussion 22:54 < tbm> luca asked for that agenda item 22:54 < luca> i asked this to be added; as a new director, i wanted a sense of what's "on our table" 22:54 < bdale> how is this different from item 7, or from the list of sub-items on 8? 22:54 < luca> if that's captured by these minutes, that works for me 22:54 < bdale> ok 22:54 < bdale> I think so 22:55 < luca> but i don't see the various projects seeking membership listed, for example 22:55 < bdale> the only thing not listed has already been mentioned, which is the proposed new bylaws which need work to get to a v2 22:55 < bdale> [item 8.5, New directors' orientation] 22:55 < bdale> tbm says not done yet? anything else? 22:55 < luca> so, short of trolling the mailing list archive, how do i know what's an open thing 22:55 < luca> trawling, maybe; not trolling 22:55 < bdale> luca: meeting minutes + email archive 22:55 < tbm> I am not sure we're done with 8.4 yet 22:55 < tridge> i've volunteered to put together some orientation info based on what I learn as a new director 22:56 < tbm> The big items are moving to a ledger based accounting system 22:56 < tridge> and I've started asking Qs on the board list so I can gather info for that 22:56 < tbm> getting the new bylaws ready for a vote 22:56 < luca> anyway, i'd live to see a complete list of open items 22:56 < tbm> anyway, I'm fine with taking this to the board list. I'll try to follow up on some outstanding tasks so you see what's been going on 22:56 < bdale> tridge: awesome. suggest you be prepared to report on progress at next board meeting? 22:57 < tridge> sure 22:57 < tbm> regarding 8.5: new directors can ask on the board list. 22:57 < bdale> luca: we've never had one, so that just requires making one from the minutes of this meeting + perhaps discussion on board list? 22:57 < tbm> I am still hoping to document a few more things 22:57 < tbm> happy to work with tridge on this. 22:57 < bdale> cool 22:57 < luca> bdale: a job for a Secretary, maybe :) 22:57 < bdale> could be 22:57 < luca> where are we on the agenda? 22:57 < bdale> done with 8.4 and 8.5? 22:57 < xnox> there are two in progress member project applidations that I've been replying to "O...I" and "Q....s". I don't think we are at the stage to draft resolution for either of them. 22:58 < tbm> Ganneff: how can new directors get access to mailing list archives? 22:58 * xnox ponders if we need a "tasks" git repo 22:58 < bdale> everyone I was talking to has either been voted in or handed off to others, fyi 22:58 < luca> tridge: "as a director, you need to do these three things; get access to this git repo; be on this mailing list; etc." 22:58 < Ganneff> tbm: mailman webinterface 22:58 < bdale> xnox: maybe a file in the board repo would suffice? 22:58 < tbm> Ganneff: ok, great 22:59 < xnox> yeah. 22:59 < luca> xnox: or an RT queue 22:59 < bdale> [item 8.6, SPI in Canada] 22:59 < Ganneff> for role addresses, mboxes exist too. 22:59 * xnox has no access to RT last time I tried 22:59 < tridge> RT queue I think 22:59 < luca> xnox: the discussion doesn't need to be there, just the tracking 22:59 < tridge> I also don't have RT access yet 22:59 < xnox> luca, yeah, but helps with creating a "mini mailing list" and closing when done. 22:59 < Ganneff> rt access must be handed out for new people (and those of old who didnt ever asked/got one before) 22:59 < luca> xnox: indeed 23:00 < luca> i asked for 8.6 23:00 < zobel> running low on battery... 23:00 < luca> there are two motivations 23:00 < luca> (1) Debian has a lot of equipment at UBC 23:00 < luca> but we don't have a TO in Canada 23:01 < luca> SPI (USA) has sufficed, for the most part; but it might be useful to have SPI (Canada) 23:01 < luca> (2) DebConf17 needs an organization to marshal Canadian funds 23:01 < bdale> my guess is you won't get much objection, but you also won't get a lot of interest until/unless this is a specific proposal 23:01 < Hydroxide> I have investigated case #2 and can offer a specific proposal 23:01 < Hydroxide> it would handle both cases 23:01 < xnox> luca, I've been thinking a bout "SPI Anglais" based in the UK as well to catch/offer SPI-like services in the UK / EU (tax-efficient donations) 23:02 < bdale> can this move to a list? 23:02 < bdale> not clearly board meeting content 23:02 < luca> agree that discussion required 23:02 < xnox> luca, I think based on charter and laws everywhere, we'd have to keep the entities independent. And like probably license the logo use, or some such. 23:02 < Hydroxide> I'm fine with a mail, sure. 23:02 < bdale> until/unless some explicit relationship between such a hypothetical organization and SPI were proposed 23:02 < luca> just wanted a sense of the board ... useful / not useful? 23:02 < luca> if useful, we can discuss further 23:02 < Hydroxide> my proposal is not to make a separate organization for Canada, just use SPI 23:02 < Hydroxide> for the UK the details might be different 23:03 < Hydroxide> but yes I can explain more on the list 23:03 < bdale> anything else on 8.6 now? 23:03 < Hydroxide> there are specific reasons why the tradeoffs of hassle work that way for Canada which I haven't investigated for the UK. 23:03 < xnox> luca, needs a survey if there is demand for such a thing across our project, and what sort of set of services one wants to provide. 23:03 < luca> no; i'm hearing 'useful' 23:03 < bdale> I agree, useful to at least explore the options 23:03 < bdale> moving on 23:04 < bdale> [item 9, Appointment of board officers] 23:04 < tbm> I received the following nominations: 23:04 < tbm> * President: Martin Michlmayr 23:04 < tbm> * Vice-President: Joerg Jaspert 23:04 < tbm> * Treasurer: Michael Schultheiss 23:04 < tbm> * Secretary: Valerie Young 23:04 < bdale> it appears to me that we have one nomination in hand for each of the 4 roles. any other nominations? if not, we could vote to approve in one vote? 23:04 < zobel> *cough* 23:04 < bdale> zobel: yes? 23:06 < Hydroxide> one vote seems great to me, as does the slate of officers. thanks to tbm and spectranaut for volunteering for those new roles and to Ganneff and schultmc for continuing! 23:06 < luca> directors are elected every year? 23:06 < luca> since there's a new board every year? 23:06 < bdale> yes 23:06 < luca> okay 23:06 < zobel> luca: yes 23:06 < luca> i'm good with this 23:06 < schultmc> zobel and I are preparing for the eventuality of me no longer being Treasurer - ideally next term or sooner he'll be able to step into the Treasurer role. For now I've agreed to remain Treasurer 23:07 < luca> thanks everyone for your service to date and for volunteering for another year 23:07 < Hydroxide> luca: assuming you meant 'officers' 23:07 < bdale> schultmc: ok, I like orderly hand-overs. thanks for working with zobel on this 23:07 < luca> Hydroxide: aye 23:07 < bdale> ok. I move that we vote to approve the nominations. 23:07 < tbm> Voting started, 9 people (hydroxide,luca,ganneff,tbm,schultmc,spectranaut,tridge,zobel,xnox) allowed to vote on Appoint officers as propoed. - You may vote yes/no/abstain only, type !vote $yourchoice now. 23:07 < schultmc> !vote yes 23:07 < xnox> !vote yes 23:07 < spectranaut> !vote yes 23:07 < Hydroxide> !vote yes 23:07 < tbm> !vote yes 23:07 < tridge> !vote yes 23:07 < Ganneff> !vote yes 23:07 < zobel> !vote yes 23:08 < tbm> luca? 23:08 < luca> !vote yes 23:09 < tbm> Current voting results for "Appoint officers as propoed": Yes: 9, No: 0, Abstain: 0, Missing: 0 () 23:09 < tbm> Voting for "Appoint officers as propoed" closed. 23:09 < tbm> I'd like to thank Bdale for serving as President for so many years! 23:09 < bdale> tbm: congrats! would you like to take over, or should I host this meeting to conclusion and let you start next month? 23:09 < tbm> bdale: please continue :) 23:09 < bdale> [item 10, Any other business] 23:09 < bdale> Do any board members present have items for discussion they would like to address briefly? 23:09 < tbm> There has been some discussion about having another face-to-face meeting 23:09 < zobel> bdale: thanks for serving as President for the last 3 terms i was board member. 23:09 < tbm> or a video conference or something 23:10 < tbm> but no firm conclusion / decision 23:10 < schultmc> the NYC F2F was very productive 23:10 < bdale> an in-person meeting would be great, but I suspect doing one in 2016 will be a scheduling problem 23:10 < schultmc> 1-2 F2F a year would be very beneficial 23:10 < Ganneff> i have one short: im on vac and wont be online from later this evening til next sunday (no it at all with me), so response ewspecially to admin changing things will be delayed. 23:11 < Hydroxide> I hope to know within the next 1 to 2 weeks whether I'll have to go to Africa again this year, after which I can probably commit to a specific F2F 2016 session or say that I can't make it this year. 23:11 < bdale> [item 11, Next board meeting] 23:11 < zobel> Ganneff: can you make me treasurer in RT before you leave, please? if not done already. 23:11 < bdale> Our next regularly-scheduled monthly meeting will be September 8th, 2016, 20:30 UTC 23:11 < bdale> Any strong objections? 23:11 < Ganneff> zobel: i plan to. 23:11 < zobel> Ganneff: thx 23:11 < tbm> I'm not sure I can make September 8 23:11 < bdale> tbm: follow up in email? 23:12 < zobel> tbm: tell spectranaut 23:12 < zobel> she is secretary now 23:12 < bdale> ;-) 23:12 < tbm> Ok 23:12 < tbm> I'll try to make it. 23:12 < spectranaut> it's in my power to move meeting days? :) 23:13 < tbm> spectranaut: regrets are sent to you 23:13 < bdale> yes. usually with support/approval from the board, which is why we have this item on the agenda each month 23:13 < zobel> schultmc: btw, i spoke to bkuhn during DC16 and he looked at the structure of our bookings. while he said some of my bookings methods are a bit overly complicated, in general we are doing good. 23:13 < bdale> we've been known to push or pull a week to avoid mega-conflicts 23:13 < Hydroxide> I'm not sure whether I can do september 8 either, though very possibly. the 16th would be easier for me. 23:13 < Hydroxide> err 15th 23:13 < schultmc> zobel: good to hear 23:14 < bdale> "not sure" isn't compelling today 23:14 * zobel hands bdale the golden GAVEL for the last time! 23:14 < Hydroxide> (sticking with thursdays, didn't meant to propose a friday) 23:14 < bdale> I suggest the meeting time be kept as-is 23:14 < bdale> Ok, thank you to everyone present for participating today. And thanks everyone for the strong support I've had over the last decade as SPI President! 23:14 < bdale> *GAVEL*