Minutes for March 11 board meeting

SPI board meeting, March 11th, 2003
Meeting opened: Tue Mar 11 19:15:00 UTC 2003
Meeting closed: Tue Mar 11 19:59:33 UTC 2003

Attending:
Ean Schuessler (presiding)
Ian Jackson
Wichert Akkerma
Drew Streib
Martin Joey Schulze
Branden Robinson

Absent with regrets:
Manoj Srivastava

Attending advisors:
Guido van Rossum
Bdale Garbee

Attending SPI members:
Bill Allombert
Christophe Barbe
Enid Gabriella "Biella" Coleman
John Goerzen
David Graham
David B. Harris
Mako Hill
Pierre Machard
Peter Palfrader
Bruce Perens
JP Sugerbroad

Agenda:
1. New board members
2. Clarification of the membership and mandate of the Membership Committee
3. Scheduling of the next meeting
4. Copyright assignments
5. OpenOffice.org project membership
6. New mailing list for SPI correspondence
7. SPI funds with respect to Debian

Recorder: David B. Harris (contributing member)

1. New board members

As per the secretary's announcement
(http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/votes/vote1/ and
http://lists.spi-inc.org/pipermail/spi-announce/2003/000044.html), Bruce
Perens, John Goerzen, and Benj. Mako Hill were voted by the contributing
membership of SPI as new board members.

Wichert Akkerman moved that the board accept the outcome of the vote and
install those individuals as board members. Ian Jackson seconded.

Bruce Perens, John Goerzen, and Benj. Mako Hill were installed as new
board members.

Wichert Akkerman : In favour
Ian Jackson : In favour
Branden Robinson : In favour
Ean Schuessler : In favour
Drew Streib : In favour
Martin Schulze : Abstains

2. Clarification of the membership and mandate of the Membership Committee

David Graham, a contributing member, asks for clarification on the
membership of the Membership Committee.

Wichert Akkerman responded that Craig Small, Martin Michlmayr, and Peter
Palfrader constitute the Membership Committee. Martin Michlmayr chairs the
committee.

Ian Jackson moved that Martin Michlmayr be petitioned to create an area of
the SPI web site detailing the Membership Committee's membership and
mandate.

Motion carried.

Wichert Akkerman : In favour
John Goerzen : In favour
Benj. Mako Hill : In favour
Ian Jackson : In favour
Bruce Perens : In favour
Branden Robinson : In favour
Ean Schuessler : In favour
Drew Streib : In favour
Martin Schulze : Abstains

3. Scheduling of the next meeting

Ean Schussler suggested that the next meeting take place on Tuesday, April
1st, at 19:00UTC.

There were no objections; the next meeting will take place on Tuesday,
April 1st, at 19:00UTC.

4. Copyright assignments

Since the contributing membership had not yet been petitioned for
opinions, Ean Schuessler delayed the board's discussion of this item until
such opinions had been garnered, via spi-general(at)lists(dot)spi-inc(dot)org(dot)

5. OpenOffice.org project membership

Wichert Akkerman stated that there was some confusion on behalf of
OpenOffice.org, who believed that the project listing on SPI's website was
for general Free Software/Open Source projects.

Ean Schuessler asked Wichert Akkerman to respond to OpenOffice.org's
email, explaining that the projects listed were SPI member projects, and
that the list is not a Free Software/Open Source directory.

6. New mailing list for SPI correspondence

With respect to motion 2003-03-11.iwj.1, Ian Jackson details that the SPI
board-only mailing list is receiving too much traffic, and that a new list
be created.

Motion 2003-03-11.iwj.1 was passed.

Wichert Akkerman : In favour
John Goerzen : In favour
Ian Jackson : In favour
Bruce Perens : In favour
Branden Robinson : In favour
Ean Schuessler : In favour
Drew Streib : In favour
Benj. Mako Hill : Abstains
Martin Schulze : Abstains

Motion 2003-02-25.iwj.1 was also voted on. Wichert Akkerman suggested that
the results of 2003-03-11.iwj.1 be apparent before voting on another, more
complicated, attempt be made at segregating various board mailing list
traffic:

Ian Jackson : In favour
Wichert Akkerman : Against
John Goerzen : Against
Bruce Perens : Against
Branden Robinson : Against
Ean Schuessler : Against
Martin Schulze : Abstains

(The motion had quite obviously failed at this point, and no more votes
were submitted.)

7. SPI funds with respect to Debian

Bdale Garbee stated:

I have never been presented with a statement of Debian's financial
health since my election as DPL. When I asked about Debian's balances
after the treasurer's report in the board meeting of 7 Jan 2003,
Branden indicated that some guidance from the board would be required
due to confusion over how funds held by SPI needed to be split. I've
seen no further action taken since that time, and now ask the board's
advice on how to get from here to a point where the DPL can receive a
concise statement of Debian's balances held by SPI.

Ean Schuessler suggested that, as a long-term solution, a finances
committee should be created, of which the Debian Project Leader should be
a member. However, he suggested that in the short term, Bdale discuss the
finances with Branden Robinson over email.

Bdale agreed to do so.

--
Wichert Akkerman <wichert(at)wiggy(dot)net> http://www.wiggy.net/
A random hacker