Meeting log for 2009-06-17

HIGHLIGHTS

1. Opening
21:00:06 <Hydroxide> This meeting of the Board of Directors of
Software in the Public Interest, Inc. Is now called to order. Board
members, please state your name for the record. Others who wish to be
recorded as attending,

2. Roll call
21:00:10 <cdlu> David Graham (semi-present in the UK)
21:00:13 <schultmc> Michael Schultheiss
21:00:13 <Hydroxide> Jimmy Kaplowitz
21:02:06 <zobel> Martin Zobel-Helas
21:02:10 <Ganneff> Joerg Jaspert
21:06:30 <luk> Luk Claes

3. President's report
21:06:46 <Hydroxide> moving on. no president's report today.

4. Treasurer's report
21:07:25 <schultmc> This is a fairly standard report - most of April's
donations were deposited in May and are reflected here The negative
balance for The HeliOS project is due to a quirk in our accounting
method - had we used accrual based accounting their balance would not
be negative I don't have an exact figure [for how much of debian's
Assets are reserved for Debconf]

5. Secretary's report
21:13:44 <Hydroxide> OSUNIX is at an earlier stage in the process of
possibly joining (pending legal advice) the Open64 one is the only one
that has had an official application started, and the other one is
pending legal advice pre-application, hence my choice of which to
mention in the report I'll probably email the membership about both
projects soon in the interest of not letting the legal advice delay
the process for either project more than necessary though I'll ask the
membership to not try to armchair-lawyer the issue we're asking the
lawyers about, and to confine their comments to other topics.

6. Outstanding minutes
21:18:10 <Hydroxide> the april one was only amended to say that the
seecond vote approved the March 2009 minutes instead of the January
2009 minutes. just the title of the vote changed. I verified that this
was correct in the logs. can we have unanimous consent to accept that
change?

21:20:08 <Hydroxide> voting results for "May 20th minutes": Yes: 5,
No: 0, Abstain: 1, Missing: 0 ()

7. Items up for discussion
21:20:16 <Hydroxide> no items in the discussion section.

8. Any other business
21:21:37 <schultmc> I haven't dealt with the voting app. I can help
look into it but Maulkin or luk may know more about it. I'll see what
I can find out in the meantime though

21:26:01 <codestr0m> well I won't delay the board so much, but any
questions about open64 are welcomed here or offline. I hope by next
meeting that will be an approved project
21:27:11 <Hydroxide> ok. every board member should have his email
address in their board inbox from his open64 application email or talk
to him on IRC

9 Next board meeting
21:31:13 <Hydroxide> ok. I move that we set the next board meeting,
i.e. the annual board meeting, to occur at 2000 UTC on July 8th that
will avoid conflicts with Canada Day and travel to DebCamp and be on
the same day of the week

TIMED LOG

21:00:04 <Hydroxide> *GAVEL*
21:00:06 <Hydroxide> This meeting of the Board of Directors of Software in the Public Interest, Inc. Is now called to order. Board members, please state your name for the record. Others who wish to be recorded as attending,
21:00:10 <cdlu> David Graham (semi-present in the UK)
21:00:10 <Hydroxide> please /msg me your name.
21:00:13 <slef> stability -> 0 this evening
21:00:13 <schultmc> Michael Schultheiss
21:00:13 <Hydroxide> Jimmy Kaplowitz
21:01:24 <Hydroxide> bdale, Ganneff, luk, zobel, Maulkin: ping
21:01:33 <Hydroxide> can someone call any of them or linuxpoet?
21:01:38 <Hydroxide> I don't have the relevant phone numbers
21:01:51 <Hydroxide> I know zobel was just here
21:01:53 <schultmc> I can call linuxpoet
21:01:55 <Hydroxide> schultmc: thans
21:02:06 <zobel> Martin Zobel-Helas
21:02:10 <Ganneff> Joerg Jaspert
21:02:22 <Hydroxide> we need one more, right?
21:03:16 <Hydroxide> everyone who's waiting, please read the minutes and/or treasurer's report :)
21:03:23 <zobel> should i give luk a phone call?
21:03:28 <Hydroxide> zobel: would help, yes
21:03:45 <schultmc> Hydroxide: left linuxpoet a message
21:03:57 * Hydroxide just fixed the typo in the balance sheet title line (s/April 30/May 31/)
21:05:23 <zobel> luk will be with us in 2min
21:05:30 <Hydroxide> zobel: wonderful, thanks
21:05:58 <zobel> how much more do we need for quroum?
21:06:05 <Hydroxide> zobel: just him, I think
21:06:24 <Hydroxide> yeah, that's the minimum needed
21:06:24 <luk> hi
21:06:26 <luk> sorry
21:06:30 <luk> Luk Claes
21:06:33 <Hydroxide> great
21:06:38 <zobel> quorum!
21:06:46 <Hydroxide> moving on. no president's report today.
21:06:57 <Hydroxide> schultmc: treasurer's report. you're up.
21:07:25 <schultmc> This is a fairly standard report - most of April's donations were deposited in May and are reflected here
21:07:57 <schultmc> The negative balance for The HeliOS project is due to a quirk in our accounting method - had we used accrual based accounting their balance would not be negative
21:08:00 <schultmc> </done>
21:08:24 <zobel> schultmc: do you know how much of debian's Assets are reserved for Debconf?
21:08:28 <Hydroxide> schultmc: can we either move to a standard cash-basis accounting method without the quirk about deposit timing or else accrual?
21:08:40 <Hydroxide> (my fault for the quirk being there in the first place)
21:08:48 <schultmc> Hydroxide: this is standard cash basis
21:09:00 <schultmc> the quirk is due to how cash basis works
21:09:17 <Hydroxide> schultmc: at least according to irs.gov (which might be nonstandard I admit), cash-basis accounting says that you recognize a check when you receive the check, even if you delay depositing it
21:09:42 <Hydroxide> schultmc: as distinct from accrual, where you recognize it when you earn the check
21:09:44 <schultmc> Hydroxide: those dates are essentially the same for our purpose (or one day off)
21:09:54 <Hydroxide> schultmc: it mattered for last month's report
21:10:10 <schultmc> zobel: roughly, yes - I don't have an exact figure
21:10:33 <Hydroxide> anyway, if you want to switch to accrual, that would be fine too. it'd just be nice not to have a nonstandard accounting method.
21:10:33 <schultmc> zobel: roughly USD 36k
21:10:50 <Hydroxide> (which, again, is my own fault)
21:11:19 <Hydroxide> any other thoughts or should we move on?
21:11:29 <zobel> go on.
21:11:32 <luk> I think both the current cash based accounting
21:11:41 <luk> as well as the accrual method would be fine
21:11:53 <luk> s/would be/are/
21:11:55 <Hydroxide> ok. this doesn't need to take any more of the meeting time. it can be discussed elsewhere.
21:12:07 <Hydroxide> moving on. my secretary's report is in the agenda. any questions?
21:12:30 <luk> Maulkin asked to mention the 2 questions from Debian
21:12:38 <luk> no?
21:12:42 <Hydroxide> luk: that's unrelated to what the secretary's report is about
21:12:49 <Hydroxide> luk: it was in relation to a lawyer conversation about another matter
21:12:59 <Hydroxide> luk: not related to this meeting
21:13:21 <luk> ah, ok misinterpreted that
21:13:22 <schultmc> Hydroxide: is Open64 different from codestr0m's project?
21:13:35 <luk> yes
21:13:44 <Hydroxide> schultmc: no, but he's involved with two projects. it's different from OSUNIX, which is at an earlier stage in the process of possibly joining
21:13:45 <codestr0m> schultmc: I'm technically going to apply on behalf of two projects.. open64 and osunix
21:13:48 <Hydroxide> (pending legal advice)
21:13:53 <schultmc> ah
21:14:04 * schultmc was confused since I had only heard OSUNIX mentioned
21:14:18 <Hydroxide> schultmc: you're not reading your board mail or this IRC channel backlog then :)
21:14:36 <schultmc> Hydroxide: sure I do - I must have forgotten :)
21:14:50 <Hydroxide> the Open64 one is the only one that has had an official application started, and the other one is pending legal advice pre-application, hence my choice of which to mention
21:14:53 <Hydroxide> in the report
21:15:04 <schultmc> understood
21:15:26 <Hydroxide> I'll probably email the membership about both projects soon in the interest of not letting the legal advice delay the process for either project more than necessary
21:15:54 <Hydroxide> though I'll ask the membership to not try to armchair-lawyer the issue we're asking the lawyers about, and to confine their comments to other topics
21:15:58 <Hydroxide> anyway, ready to move on?
21:16:00 <luk> which point handles about the upcoming election btw?
21:16:14 <Hydroxide> luk: ah, good point, it's not in the agenda - we can address it briefly in AOB
21:16:32 <luk> ok
21:16:33 <zobel> can we go on with the agenda?
21:16:34 <Hydroxide> moving on
21:16:48 <Hydroxide> outstanding minutes. zobel, any movement on the three from neil's term which you agreed to prepare?
21:17:19 <zobel> no, but i hope to find time during debcamp.
21:17:28 <Hydroxide> ok. so then by the august meeting?
21:17:29 <zobel> prod me hard there.
21:17:34 <Hydroxide> zobel: I will :)
21:17:36 <Hydroxide> I'll be there
21:17:47 <Hydroxide> as for my minutes
21:17:55 <zobel> currently real life is to busy and sucks...
21:18:10 <Hydroxide> the april one was only amended to say that the seecond vote approved the March 2009 minutes instead of the January 2009 minutes. just the title of the vote changed
21:18:21 <Hydroxide> I verified that this was correct in the logs. can we have unanimous consent to accept that change?
21:18:38 <cdlu> sure
21:18:40 <luk> yes
21:18:42 <schultmc> yes
21:18:53 <Ganneff> go
21:18:54 <Hydroxide> ok
21:19:05 <Hydroxide> that's effectively a vote there, or very nearly :)
21:19:08 <Hydroxide> may 20th minutes
21:19:10 <Hydroxide> ready to approve?
21:19:16 <Ganneff> go
21:19:19 <schultmc> yes
21:19:30 <cdlu> ya
21:19:36 <Hydroxide> Voting started, 6 people (hydroxide,cdlu,schultmc,luk,zobel,ganneff) allowed to vote on May 20th minutes. - You may vote yes/no/abstain only, type !vote $yourchoice now.
21:19:36 <cdlu> they're not too complex :)
21:19:39 <cdlu> !vote yers
21:19:39 <luk> !vote yes
21:19:41 <cdlu> !vote yes
21:19:41 <Ganneff> !vote yes
21:19:42 <Hydroxide> !vote yes
21:19:42 <schultmc> !vote yes
21:19:58 <Hydroxide> zobel: ping
21:20:01 <zobel> !vote abstain
21:20:08 <Hydroxide> Current voting results for "May 20th minutes": Yes: 5, No: 0, Abstain: 1, Missing: 0 ()
21:20:11 <Hydroxide> Voting for "May 20th minutes" closed.
21:20:13 <Hydroxide> approved
21:20:16 <Hydroxide> no items in the discussion section.
21:20:21 <Hydroxide> Any other business... let's start with the elections
21:20:42 <Hydroxide> schultmc, luk: this is my responsibility, but part of that is checking with membership ctte to make sure the membership rolls are ready for the election. is that the case?
21:21:00 <schultmc> Hydroxide: yes
21:21:12 <Hydroxide> schultmc: is the webapp ready enough, or will it be by july 1st?
21:21:37 <schultmc> Hydroxide: I haven't dealt with the voting app
21:21:54 <luk> I think everyone hopes Maulkin will take care of it :-)
21:21:57 <schultmc> I can help look into it but Maulkin or luk may know more about it
21:21:59 <Hydroxide> schultmc: actually, it just needs to be ready by july 13th since nominations are the only thing before then
21:22:44 <schultmc> Hydroxide: ping Maulkin - I'll see what I can find out in the meantime though
21:22:58 <Hydroxide> schultmc: ok, we'll take this offline. I'll send an email announcement about the election within the next few days
21:23:31 <Hydroxide> any other business before we set next meeting date? (about which we'll need to deviate from the agenda because of the annual meeting)
21:23:39 * codestr0m wonders if I should speak up
21:23:54 <Ganneff> codestr0m: usually its limited to board
21:24:36 <Hydroxide> codestr0m: if you have something to say, go ahead
21:24:53 <Hydroxide> Ganneff: or at least without requesting it. I interpreted what he said as a request to speak
21:26:01 <codestr0m> well I won't delay the board so much, but any questions about open64 are welcomed here or offline
21:26:20 <codestr0m> I hope by next meeting that will be an approved project
21:26:34 <Hydroxide> anyone have online questions for codestr0m?
21:26:49 <Hydroxide> or any other business? if not, let's talk about the annual meeting
21:26:52 <luk> not at this moment
21:27:11 <Hydroxide> ok. every board member should have his email address in their board inbox from his open64 application email
21:27:16 <Hydroxide> or talk to him on IRC
21:27:22 <Hydroxide> moving on
21:27:30 <Hydroxide> the annual meeting of the membership is july 1st by our bylaws
21:28:00 <luk> right
21:28:04 <Hydroxide> http://www.spi-inc.org/corporate/by-laws
21:28:27 <zobel> looks okay to my schedule.
21:28:47 <Hydroxide> oh, wow, it can be modified by up to two weeks if such day be a legal holiday. how did we miss that provision before?
21:28:59 <cdlu> Hydroxide, I may not be able to make July 1 on account of it being Canada Day
21:29:19 <Hydroxide> cdlu: see above. did we conclude that the "legal holiday" provision is restricted to US/NY legal holidays?
21:29:20 * cdlu has other volunteer responsibilities on our national holiday
21:29:43 <cdlu> Hydroxide, it's a holiday somewhere pretty much always so I think we should interpret it that way.
21:29:51 <Ganneff> Hydroxide: unless written exactly like that in bylaws we should interpret it to "any legal holidays of a country with a board member"
21:29:59 <Ganneff> :)
21:30:13 * luk agrees with Ganneff
21:30:14 <cdlu> except that it's a membership meeting not a board meeting
21:30:24 <Hydroxide> cdlu: it actually says "annual board meeting" in the by-laws, oddly enough
21:30:32 <cdlu> hydroxide, well then :)
21:30:33 <Hydroxide> cdlu: they're very badly written :)
21:30:43 <slef> Ganneff: exploit, scope: co-option :)
21:30:55 <cdlu> ya, we've been talking about fixing them since before my brother met the girl he just had a kid with...
21:31:13 <Hydroxide> ok. I move that we set the next board meeting, i.e. the annual board meeting, to occur at 2000 UTC on July 8th
21:31:21 <Hydroxide> that will avoid conflicts with Canada Day and travel to DebCamp
21:31:27 <Hydroxide> and be on the same day of the week
21:31:28 <cdlu> suits me
21:31:32 <schultmc> fine with me
21:31:50 <Ganneff> that should work
21:31:55 <Hydroxide> going.....
21:31:58 <luk> I might still be abroad
21:32:00 <Hydroxide> going....
21:32:04 <luk> or driving home
21:32:11 <Hydroxide> luk: it's ok, we'll manage, either with you electronically or otherwise
21:32:11 <Hydroxide> :)
21:32:13 <zobel> fine with me
21:32:16 <Hydroxide> *GAVEL*

Hope that helps,
--
MJ Ray (slef)
Webmaster for hire, statistician and online shop builder for a small
worker cooperative http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ http://mjr.towers.org.uk/
(Notice http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html) tel:+44-844-4437-237