Meeting log for 2011-08-10

There were a couple of questions about the accounts and reporting, all
the resolutions passed uncontested and Drizzle have already accepted
their invitation to associate. Hiding in AOB, there was a report on
progress with the debian trademark.

HIGHLIGHTS

21:30:43 <bdale> [item 1, Opening] Welcome to today's Software in the
Public Interest board of directors meeting, which is now called to
order. Today's agenda and details of pending resolutions can be found
on the web at:
http://www.spi-inc.org/meetings/agendas/2011/2011-08-10/

21:30:43 <bdale> [item 2, Roll Call]
21:30:50 <Noodles> Jonathan McDowell
21:30:52 <Hydroxide> Jimmy Kaplowitz
21:30:53 <schultmc> Michael Schultheiss
21:30:54 <zobel> Martin Zobel-Helas
21:30:56 <bdale> Bdale Garbee
21:30:57 <Solver> Robert Brockway
21:31:13 <Ganneff> Joerg Jaspert
21:31:15 <Noodles> I've had regrets from Clint.

[item 3, President's Report]

<bdale> In late July, we held a well-attended SPI BOF during Debconf11
in Banja Luka. For anyone interested, a video recording of the
meeting is available online at
http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meetings/2011/debconf11/low/703_SPI_BOF.ogv
I'd also like to congratulate and welcome our new board members Clint
Adams and Robert Brockway, and welcome Jimmy back to the board for
another term. And profound thanks to David Graham who chose to
retire from the board this year after many years of service!

[item 4, Treasurer's Report]

<schultmc> Standard report is in the agenda

<Hydroxide> we're getting close to the $250k assets level. this is
great, but it does mean we may need a formal CPA audit soon under NY
(and IRS?) rules. have you started planning for this?

<schultmc> yes - although we're exempt from that requirement currently

<Hydroxide> will we still be exempt when we cross that threshold?

<schultmc> yes - it has to do with how much we collect from NY sources

[item 5, Secretary's report]

<Noodles> Nothing in particular from me. There was a comment here in
the past few weeks about Tux4Kids not being on the project page; I've
had a trawl through the resolutions, confirmed they had one and added
them. I didn't see any other missing projects. (Though I failed to
find the resolutions for some of the existing ones, which I need to go
and have a better look for.) freedesktop.org, Fresco, OFTC, OpenVAS,
Open Voting Foundation + PostgreSQL FWIW.

<bdale> related to this, I'd like to know that we have a current list
of contacts for our associated projects, and know where to find that
list routinely. please take that as an action item, then, and feel
free to cc me on any discussions that result

[item 6, Outstanding minutes]

voting results for "Minutes for July 13th 2011 AGM": Yes: 6, Abstain: 1

[item 7, Items up for discussion]

voting results for "Resolution 2011-08-10.bg.1 - Drizzle as associated
project": Yes: 7

voting results for "Resolution 2011-08-10.bg.2 - Arch Linux as
associated project": Yes: 7

[item 8, Appointment of board officers]

voting results for "Reappoint Bdale, Michael, Jonathan and Joerg in
their board officer positions": Yes: 7

[item 9, Any other business]

<Ganneff> the board subscription change clint mentioned on board@ - is
that ok to change to that other guy or do we even have a "role"
address so its not person bound for them? thats the
softwarefreedom.org board@ subscriber

<bdale> I think for legal reps, having specific individuals makes
sense

<Hydroxide> I just heard back from Mishi Choudhary at SFLC today -
apparently WIPO has given us a certificate of registration for the
Debian trademark under the Madrid Protocol, for the EU, (People's
Republic of) China, Japan, and (for some reason listed separately) the
UK. I think there may be further processing needed on the various
countries' trademark offices, but that's good news. for some reason
she didn't CC board(at)(dot) the only action may be following up with
specific countries where pre-existing trademarks (usually owned by
friendly people/orgs) already exist, to sort out the duplicates, and
remembering to follow up in 2021 for renewals :)

<Hydroxide> the other issue I had was the same suggestion of extending
our new associated project invitations in person to those who have
reps present

<hingo> Yes, on behalf of Drizzle project, I'd like to accept the
associated project status.

[item 10, Next board meeting]

<bdale> 14th September 2011 at 20:30 UTC

22:01:36 <bdale> *GAVEL*

TIMED LOG

21:30:42 <bdale> *GAVEL*
21:30:43 <bdale> [item 1, Opening] Welcome to today's Software in the Public Interest board of directors meeting, which is now called to order.
21:30:43 <bdale> Today's agenda and details of pending resolutions can be found on the web at: http://www.spi-inc.org/meetings/agendas/2011/2011-08-10/
21:30:43 <bdale> [item 2, Roll Call]
21:30:43 <bdale> Board members, please state your name for the record. As we have nine board members, quorum for today's meeting is six.
21:30:46 <bdale> Guests (including board advisors), please /msg your names to Noodles if you wish your attendance to be recorded in the minutes of this meeting.
21:30:50 <Noodles> Jonathan McDowell
21:30:52 <Hydroxide> Jimmy Kaplowitz
21:30:53 <schultmc> Michael Schultheiss
21:30:54 <zobel> Martin Zobel-Helas
21:30:56 <bdale> Bdale Garbee
21:30:57 <Solver> Robert Brockway
21:31:08 <Hydroxide> that's quorum.
21:31:13 <Ganneff> Joerg Jaspert
21:31:15 <Noodles> I've had regrets from Clint.
21:31:27 <bdale> who's missing?
21:31:29 <Noodles> Joshua.
21:31:47 <bdale> ok .. hopefully he'll join us, but I think we can proceed
21:32:02 <bdale> [item 3, President's Report]
21:32:02 <bdale> In late July, we held a well-attended SPI BOF during Debconf11 in Banja Luka. For anyone interested, a video recording of the meeting is available online at
21:32:02 <bdale> http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meetings/2011/debconf11/low/703_SPI_BOF.ogv
21:32:02 <bdale> I'd also like to congratulate and welcome our new board members Clint Adams and Robert Brockway, and welcome Jimmy back to the board for another term.
21:32:04 <bdale> And profound thanks to David Graham who chose to retire from the board this year after many years of service!
21:32:30 <Hydroxide> thanks and congrats as well
21:32:47 <zobel> during that bof a few items came up, we should work on
21:32:55 <bdale> yes
21:33:09 <bdale> good things to do in email
21:33:19 <bdale> [item 4, Treasurer's Report]
21:33:19 <bdale> Michael?
21:33:30 <schultmc> Standard report is in the agenda
21:33:42 <schultmc> nothing much of note
21:33:52 <Hydroxide> schultmc: one question about that
21:34:25 <Hydroxide> schultmc: we're getting close to the $250k assets level. this is great, but it does mean we may need a formal CPA audit soon under NY (and IRS?) rules. have you started planning for this?
21:34:47 <schultmc> Hydroxide: yes - although we're exempt from that requirement currently
21:35:01 <Hydroxide> schultmc: will we still be exempt when we cross that threshold?
21:35:09 <Hydroxide> and, glad to hear it's on your radar
21:35:17 <schultmc> Hydroxide: yes - it has to do with how much we collect from NY sources
21:35:35 <Hydroxide> ok.
21:36:03 <bdale> schultmc: glad you're on top of it, let us know if there are any board actions required around this
21:36:05 * Hydroxide still has questions about e.g. IRS rules but we don't need to take up meeting time with that. I appeciate your work on these requirements
21:36:12 <schultmc> bdale: will do
21:36:29 <bdale> [item 5, Secretary's report]
21:36:29 <bdale> Jonathan?
21:37:15 <Noodles> Nothing in particular from me. There was a comment here in the past few weeks about Tux4Kids not being on the project page; I've had a trawl through the resolutions, confirmed they had one and added them. I didn't see any other missing projects.
21:37:33 <Noodles> (Though I failed to find the resolutions for some of the existing ones, which I need to go and have a better look for.)
21:37:45 <Solver> Thanks for following up on that noodles
21:37:56 <bdale> oh, thanks for taking care of that .. some projects may pre-date our current resolution process, but they'd be easy to guess at
21:38:31 <Noodles> freedesktop.org, Fresco, OFTC, OpenVAS, Open Voting Foundation + PostgreSQL FWIW.
21:38:35 <bdale> related to this, I'd like to know that we have a current list of contacts for our associated projects, and know where to find that list routinely
21:39:06 <Noodles> I think the project pages themselves would be best, but we'd need to check with projects that they're ok with having contact email addresses listed publicly.
21:39:24 <schultmc> we should also make sure liaisons are subscribed to spi-projects
21:39:32 <bdale> please take that as an action item, then, and feel free to cc me on any discussions that result
21:39:50 <bdale> schultmc: good point
21:40:04 <bdale> ok, anything else?
21:40:09 <Noodles> Nope.
21:40:21 <bdale> [item 6, Outstanding minutes]
21:40:21 <bdale> Jonathan, I believe we have last month's to vote on?
21:40:33 <Noodles> Yup, nothing else outstanding.
21:40:38 <Noodles> Voting started, 7 people (bdale,zobel,hydroxide,schultmc,solver,ganneff,noodles) allowed to vote on Minutes for July 13th 2011 AGM. - You may vote yes/no/abstain only, type !vote $yourchoice now.
21:40:43 <Ganneff> !vote yes
21:40:46 <Noodles> !vote yes
21:40:48 <Hydroxide> !vote yes
21:40:50 <bdale> !vote yes
21:40:51 <Solver> !abstain
21:40:57 <Solver> !vote abstain
21:41:08 <zobel> !vote yes
21:41:25 <schultmc> !vote yes
21:41:29 <Noodles> Current voting results for "Minutes for July 13th 2011 AGM": Yes: 6, No: 0, Abstain: 1, Missing: 0 ()
21:41:32 <Noodles> Voting for "Minutes for July 13th 2011 AGM" closed.
21:41:46 <bdale> thank you
21:41:52 <bdale> [item 7, Items up for discussion]
21:41:52 <bdale> [item 7.1, SPI Resolution 2011-08-10.bg.1 (Drizzle as associated project)]
21:41:52 <bdale> Are there any questions about this resolution, or are we ready to voite?
21:41:59 <bdale> vote, even
21:42:02 <Solver> I'm happy to proceed
21:42:22 <Noodles> Voting started, 7 people (bdale,zobel,hydroxide,schultmc,solver,ganneff,noodles) allowed to vote on Resolution 2011-08-10.bg.1 - Drizzle as associated project. - You may vote yes/no/abstain only, type !vote $yourchoice now.
21:42:24 <Hydroxide> !vote yes
21:42:26 <schultmc> !vote yes
21:42:27 <Ganneff> !vote yes
21:42:28 <bdale> !vote yes
21:42:33 <Solver> !vote yes
21:42:40 <Noodles> !vote yes
21:42:47 <zobel> !vote yes
21:42:50 <Noodles> Current voting results for "Resolution 2011-08-10.bg.1 - Drizzle as associated project": Yes: 7, No: 0, Abstain: 0, Missing: 0 ()
21:42:53 <Noodles> Voting for "Resolution 2011-08-10.bg.1 - Drizzle as associated project" closed.
21:43:02 <bdale> thank you
21:43:12 <bdale> [item 7.2, SPI Resolution 2011-08-10.bg.1 (Arch Linux as associated project)]
21:43:12 <bdale> Are there any questions about this resolution, or are we ready to vote?
21:43:18 <bdale> sorry, that should be .2
21:43:24 <Ganneff> vote
21:43:26 <Noodles> Voting started, 7 people (bdale,zobel,hydroxide,schultmc,solver,ganneff,noodles) allowed to vote on Resolution 2011-08-10.bg.2 - Arch Linux as associated project. - You may vote yes/no/abstain only, type !vote $yourchoice now.
21:43:29 <zobel> !vote yes
21:43:30 <Ganneff> !vote yes
21:43:30 <schultmc> !vote yes
21:43:31 <Noodles> !vote yes
21:43:32 <Solver> !vote yes
21:43:43 <Hydroxide> !vote yes
21:44:18 <Noodles> bdale?
21:44:24 <bdale> phone
21:44:26 <bdale> !vote yes
21:44:28 <bdale> sorry
21:44:32 <Noodles> Current voting results for "Resolution 2011-08-10.bg.2 - Arch Linux as associated project": Yes: 7, No: 0, Abstain: 0, Missing: 0 ()
21:44:35 <Noodles> Voting for "Resolution 2011-08-10.bg.2 - Arch Linux as associated project" closed.
21:44:58 <zobel> congratulations to both projects.
21:44:59 <bdale> [item 8, Appointment of board officers]
21:45:00 <bdale> Jonathan, do you want to take the lead on this, starting with the results of your email poll regarding who among us are willing to continue their current roles?
21:45:09 <hingo> Thank you :-)
21:45:35 <Noodles> I've had self nominations from bdale, schultmc and myself to continue in our existing positions (President, Treasurer + Secretary respectively).
21:45:52 <Noodles> I haven't seen anything about Vice President, nor from any one else for those positions.
21:46:00 * Ganneff goes for vp again
21:46:05 <bdale> ok
21:46:16 <Noodles> Does anyone else wish to put themselves forward?
21:46:24 <bdale> so we have the slate of existing officers willing to continue. does anyone else want to nominate themselves for any of the roles?
21:46:47 * Hydroxide is fine remaining as a non-officer director for the next year
21:46:47 * zobel plans to not stand for any role ATM
21:47:04 <Solver> No plans here either, thanks
21:47:25 <bdale> ok, so do we need to vote, and if so can we do it as one approval of the slate vote?
21:47:26 <Hydroxide> given that Clint and linuxpoet aren't present, that's all the board members
21:47:26 <Noodles> Voting started, 7 people (bdale,zobel,hydroxide,schultmc,solver,ganneff,noodles) allowed to vote on Reappoint Bdale, Michael, Jonathan and Joerg in their board officer positions. - You may vote yes/no/abstain only, type !vote $yourchoice now.
21:47:48 <bdale> !vote yes
21:47:49 <Hydroxide> !vote yes
21:47:49 <schultmc> !vote yes
21:47:50 <Solver> !vote yes
21:47:51 <Noodles> I think we do need to vote (we did in previous years), but I think it can be done as one.
21:47:51 <zobel> !vote yes
21:47:53 <Ganneff> !vote yes
21:47:55 <Noodles> !vote yes
21:47:58 * Hydroxide nods at Noodles
21:48:02 <Noodles> Current voting results for "Reappoint Bdale, Michael, Jonathan and Joerg in their board officer positions": Yes: 7, No: 0, Abstain: 0, Missing: 0 ()
21:48:03 <bdale> wfm
21:48:05 <Noodles> Voting for "Reappoint Bdale, Michael, Jonathan and Joerg in their board officer positions" closed.
21:48:18 <Hydroxide> thanks and congrats/condolences to the officers :)
21:48:24 <bdale> thanks to the board for the vote of confidence, and your continued support
21:48:34 <bdale> [item 9, Any other business]
21:48:35 <bdale> Do any board members have other items for discussion they would like to address briefly?
21:48:39 <Ganneff> ay
21:48:46 * Hydroxide has two too
21:48:49 <Hydroxide> Ganneff first
21:48:51 * Noodles too.
21:48:51 <bdale> Noodles: perhaps you can invite our new associated projects here if the reps are present?
21:48:54 * zobel nothing.
21:48:58 <bdale> Ganneff: go
21:49:28 <Ganneff> the board subscription change clint mentioned on board@ - is that ok to change to that other guy or do we even have a "role" address so its not person bound for them? thats the softwarefreedom.org board@ subscriber
21:50:04 <bdale> I think for legal reps, having specific individuals makes sense
21:50:34 <bdale> if the SFLC wants to change who the designated rep is, I don't think having to update our list from time to time is a big burden
21:50:57 <Ganneff> its not.
21:51:10 <Ganneff> so aaronw its going to be then
21:51:11 <Ganneff> next
21:51:14 <bdale> and I believe Clint can be assumed to be speaking authoritatively, since he's an SFLC employee
21:51:37 <Ganneff> ok
21:51:39 <Hydroxide> I emailed the contact Clint mentioned as well as the existing contact at SFLC who I was working on a trademark issue with to confirm who our first point of contact there should be, for new issues - haven't heard back, but I agree with bdale about assumptions
21:51:55 <bdale> Hydroxide: ok .. you had an item regarding trademarks?
21:52:39 <Hydroxide> yeah. I just heard back from Mishi Choudhary at SFLC today - apparently WIPO has given us a certificate of registration for the Debian trademark under the Madrid Protocol, for the EU, (People's Republic of) China, Japan, and (for some reason listed separately) the UK
21:53:00 <bdale> cool!
21:53:01 <Ganneff> aaronw subscribed
21:53:03 <Hydroxide> I think there may be further processing needed on the various countries' trademark offices, but that's good news. for some reason she didn't CC board@
21:53:21 <Solver> Well done to all involved
21:53:23 <bdale> is there any action we need to take?
21:53:55 <Hydroxide> bdale: the only action may be following up with specific countries where pre-existing trademarks (usually owned by friendly people/orgs) already exist, to sort out the duplicates, and remembering to follow up in 2021 for renewals :)
21:54:12 <Hydroxide> no board vote needed, though
21:54:12 <bdale> ok, sounds good
21:54:21 <bdale> Hydroxide: you had another item?
21:54:31 <zobel> Hydroxide: thx for working on this!
21:54:41 <Hydroxide> the other issue I had was the same suggestion of extending our new associated projects in person to those who have reps present
21:54:47 <Hydroxide> zobel, Solver: np
21:54:59 <bdale> ok .. Noodles, feel free to do that, and/or you had another item?
21:55:01 <Hydroxide> *our new associated project invitiations
21:55:15 <bdale> I see that hingo is here
21:55:23 <Noodles> hingo is here from Drizzle, do we have anyone from Arch present?
21:55:52 * Hydroxide notes for the meeting log that according to /whois, hingo is Henrik Ingo
21:56:03 <hingo> Yes. That's correct :-)
21:56:25 <bdale> hingo: as SPI liaison for Drizzle, do you want to accept our invitation?
21:56:47 <hingo> Yes, on behalf of Drizzle project, I'd like to accept the associated project status.
21:57:00 <bdale> great! congrats, and welcome.
21:57:02 <Hydroxide> \o/
21:57:13 <Noodles> hingo: Send me a logo and some blurb for your project page?
21:57:14 <hingo> If the board is interested, I'm also prepared to share a few sentences on our next steps in this process?
21:57:33 <bdale> hingo: that would be fine
21:57:34 <Solver> I'm interested
21:57:39 <hingo> A driving reason to become an associated project has been the desire to anchor drizzle.org domain name and the Drizzle name (which probably counts as a trademark) in a good non-profit organization. They're currently held by 2-3 different individuals. After this meeting I will want to approach the board to learn how we can do that.
21:57:39 <hingo> While we are completing those steps, we will probably not make any big announcements of our new SPI status, rather we'll do that when the whole process is completed.
21:58:03 <bdale> ok
21:58:07 <Ganneff> hingo: you will want to mail hostmaster(at)spi-inc(dot)org about the domain
21:58:16 <bdale> it will show up in our meeting minutes, of course, but that's not a big announcement
21:58:20 <Hydroxide> hingo: and board(at)spi-inc(dot)org about the trademarks
21:58:35 <hingo> It's not confidential, just that we'll have the big parties later.
21:58:40 <bdale> ;-)
21:59:07 <Hydroxide> hingo: ok. so are you okay with it being listed as an associated project on SPI's website before those are taken care of? (without big publicity)
21:59:35 <hingo> Hydroxide: Yes, and that's of course correct to do so. I'll make sure to send the logo.
21:59:43 <Hydroxide> k
21:59:49 <bdale> Noodles: you'll email Aaron Griffin about the Arch invite, or should I?
21:59:55 <Noodles> I'll do so.
21:59:58 <bdale> thank you
22:00:14 <bdale> ok, any other items to discuss?
22:00:25 <bdale> [item 10, Next board meeting]
22:00:25 <bdale> Our next regularly-scheduled monthly meeting will be 13 September 2011, 20:30 UTC.
22:00:25 <bdale> Any strong objections?
22:00:28 <Noodles> Do we want to move the meeting time slightly later for Solver?
22:00:42 <schultmc> September 13 is Tuesday iirc
22:00:44 <Solver> this time is good actually
22:00:48 <Solver> thanks
22:00:49 <zobel> Noodles: please not. its 22:30 starting time.
22:00:56 <Noodles> Sorry, yes, it should be the 14th.
22:00:57 <zobel> for CEST
22:01:01 <bdale> oh, oops
22:01:17 <Noodles> zobel: Fair enough.
22:01:22 <bdale> Noodles: so we're agreed 14th September 2011 at 20:30 UTC?
22:01:27 <Noodles> Sounds like it.
22:01:30 <bdale> wfm
22:01:36 <bdale> Ok, thank you to everyone present for participating today.
22:01:36 <bdale> *GAVEL*

Hope that informs,
--
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
Webmaster, Debian Developer, Past Koha RM, statistician, former lecturer.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire for various work through http://www.software.coop/