Re: Board Meeting Reminder for Tue Jan 7th, 20:00 UTC

On Sun, Jan 05, 2003 at 07:10:40PM +1000, Anthony Towns wrote:
> Presumably there is to be a board meeting this Tuesday, at the usual time;
> but there doesn't seem to have been an announcement yet.

From: "M. Drew Streib" <dtype(at)dtype(dot)org>
To: board(at)spi-inc(dot)org
Subject: meeting
Date: Wed, 01 Jan 2003 01:01:02 +0000
Message-Id: <E18TXFm-00044w-00(at)dtype(dot)org>

This is a reminder that there will be a SPI board meeting on the
first Tuesday following this message (maybe even today) at 2000 UTC.
This is my cheap cron hack until I get something better.

> So, the meeting should take place on #spi on irc.oftc.net, at 2003-01-07
> 20:00 UTC. The meeting will probably be closed or adjourned by 21:00
> UTC. As Nils appears to still be a member of the board, the quorum for
> conducting business remains at six of the eight board members.

Incorrect. Nils resigned effective 31 December.

> The agenda of things for discussion is probably something like:
>
> 1. Approving minutes of last meeting
> 2. Report from the treasurer (Branden)
> 3. Removal of Nils from the board
> 4. Resolution 2002-12-17.wta.1: Charter for the bylaws committee
> 5. New board members
> 6. eCos Membership
> 7. Tax writeoffs / OFTC
> 8. Listing in United Way
> 9. Accepting Sincere Choice
> 10. Copyright assignment (Martin Michlmayr)

I admire your optimism in thinking we could get through all of this in
less than an hour. Wichert has been keeping track of an agenda, of
which you appear to be unaware; surprising, given your presence in the
#spi channel on irc.oftc.net, in which the /topic for the past several
days has contained the text:

draft agenda for the next meeting at http://www.spi-inc.org/~wichert/agenda

> Wichert, could you as secretary please make an announcement like this
> (indicating time, location and agenda for the meeting -- ideally with
> more information on the individual points than there is above) both a
> week and two hours in advance of board meetings in future? For those of
> us not on the board list, it's very difficult to see what, if anything,
> is going on, without regular reports and announcements from the board.

At the very least we can ask Drew to alter his cheap cron hack to mail
spi-general as well as the Board list, which as you note is invisible to
most SPI members.

> Ean, as VP, could you please ensure that things keep moving ahead? In
> particular, why have the board failed to remove Nils from its number?

We haven't.

> Note that the failure of the board to meet quorum at any time during
> October, November or December puts it in technical violation of the
> requirement in the by-laws that regular meetings shall be held quarterly.

What do you propose we do about this? Board members refused to show up.
Some of those same Board members vetoed their own removal when asked to
step down for nonattendance. Do you have a TARDIS we can borrow?

Do you have any constructive suggestions to offer that aren't already in
the works? Do you regard (self-)flagellation as constructive? Is it
fruitful to wring your hands over spilt milk?

At any rate, thanks for de facto assisting Wichert with his secretarial
duties. I especially appreciate you keeping track of pending business,
even if we likely won't have time to address it all at the next meeting.

It might be worthwhile for some contributing members to nominate
themselves to research certain of the above issues, if they have an
interest in one or more. I'm sure it would do Joey Schulze's heart
proud of this sort of thing could happen in an unofficial, informal
capacity rather than by chartering a committee for each one; he'd no
doubt find himself in the unhappy position of having to veto such
charters. :-P

--
G. Branden Robinson, Treasurer
Software in the Public Interest, Inc.
treasurer(at)spi-inc(dot)org
http://www.spi-inc.org/