[Eg-oversight-board] Fwd: [Evergreen-governance-l] Evergreen Oversight Board minutes, 6-21-11

Dan Scott dan at coffeecode.net
Sat Jun 25 21:47:54 EDT 2011 

And of course I should have CCed
eg-oversight-board at list.evergreen-ils.org - not
@list.georgialibraries.org. Apologies for the confusion.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dan Scott <dan at coffeecode.net>
Date: Sat, Jun 25, 2011 at 9:42 PM
Subject: Re: [Evergreen-governance-l] Evergreen Oversight Board minutes, 6-21-11
To: Amy Terlaga <terlaga at biblio.org>
Cc: eg-oversight-board at list.georgialibraries.org, evergreen at sfconservancy.org


On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 11:22 AM, Amy Terlaga <terlaga at biblio.org> wrote:
> Hi all—
>
> I didn’t think the new list was ready so here are the minutes from last
> Tuesday’s meeting.
>
> Elizabeth took a pass at edits, but if you have any corrections just let me
> know.

Thanks Amy, these are very thorough! I've converted these to AsciiDoc
format and pushed them into the governance git repository
(http://git.evergreen-ils.org/?p=contrib/governance.git;a=tree;f=minutes)
- I've also CCed the evergreen at sfconservancy.org address to ensure the
Conservancy is in the loop (although I guess I'm risking people
getting duplicates of this message - hrm...)

Please find attached the AsciiDoc text source format, along with HTML
and PDF representations.

I made a few minor changes while editing this:

 * Called out specific action items in *BOLD* - this should make it
easier to follow up on things we said we would do
 * Included links to relevant emails for Stephen Wills' Conflict of
Interest item and my motion
 * Included the full text of the motion I put forth to excise the
vestigial mention of the Treasurer from the Rules of Governance

There are other areas that I noted in passing probably need some
massaging, but I'll leave that to a separate email. Once we're happy
with the minutes, I'll publish them on the Governance wiki page at
http://evergreen-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=governance:structure

Dan
-------------- next part --------------
Evergreen Oversight Board minutes of Tuesday, June 21, 2011
===========================================================

Present
-------
Stephen Elfstrand, Elizabeth McKinney, Lori Bowen Ayre, Amy Terlaga, Steve
Wills, Dan Scott, Shauna Borger, Michele Montague, Sharon Herbert, Jim
Corridan, Chris Sharp

Software Freedom Conservancy Email
----------------------------------
Elizabeth went through Bradley Kuhn's email dated 6-13-11 regarding project
transition to Conservancy.

  * We will transfer the existing funds - the remains of the past three confererences
  * We will also transfer the coming funds - the Evergreen summer of code conference
  * Question: How do we tag specific funds for specific projects?
    ** *ACTION*:Elizabeth will follow up with Bradley so that we can provide
       instructions to the community for donating to specific projects.
  * Support Evergreen: a means to contribute to Evergreen is now on the Evergreen website
  * Elizabeth asked if we needed a treasurer. There had been a treasurer
    position listed in the bylaws, and if we do not need one, any mention of
    it should be removed. Dan mentioned that this was just an oversight while
    he was editing the document.
  * SVN access is available to Evergreen’s conservancy records.
     ** *ACTION* Dan Scott will get access.
  * The Official Oversight Board Communication to the SFC - evergreen at sfconservancy.org
  * Chris Sharp can transfer over member users to
    eg.oversight.board at list.evergreen-ils.org. This will be our email list for
    our board-related discussions. *Question*: How will we participate in
    future discussions? We all should agree to participate and agree on the
    forum. The list is publicly documented so others can share in the
    discussion.

Voting
------
Lori asked if we could put something in the subject line like VOTE with a
summary of the vote also in the subject line if we’re going to be voting
online. The board can use +1, -1, 0 to indicate vote.

Stephen Elfstrand prefers voting during the monthly meetings. Jim Corridan
prefers that decisions are made during the meeting. Dan Scott would prefer the
bulk of the discussion to happen online.

*DECISION*: We will hold votes at our monthly meetings after having online
discussions unless there is a time constraint. An email vote will be allowed
given time constraints.

project-reps at sfconservancy.org – As part of our Conservancy membership, the
entire oversight board will be subscribed to the list so that we can
communicate with other member project reps. We will be getting emails from all
project reps in the conservancy.

Discussion with project developers – the Conservancy would like to communicate
Conservancy information to the project developers. Dan is suggesting that a
footer could be added to the Evergreen website that explains our affiliation
with the SFC; Amy and Lori will talk to Anoop Atre to see if this could be
added to the current Evergreen website.

Galen submitted a paragraph that explains Evergreen for the SFC website.

Oversight Board learning from SFC
---------------------------------
Elizabeth contacted Bradley to see if there are other SFC projects that we can
learn from.  Dan said that Bradley would be willing to sit in on our meetings
to answer any questions we might have.

Follow Up from Last Month’s Meeting
-----------------------------------
Evergreen Summer of Code – was there any further discussion with Jason to see
if he would mentor another student? Dan preferred to have this taken out of
Summer of Code and made into a bounty. This wouldn't limit us to just the
summer projects.

Lori reported that the IMLS group discussed using part of the IMLS grant money;
this could be set aside a fund for a bounty for specific Evergreen projects.
Elizabeth suggested that we set this up through the SFC.

Conflict of Interest Guidelines
-------------------------------
The following is an email from Steve Wills, dated June 21, 2011
(http://list.georgialibraries.org/pipermail/evergreen-governance-l/2011-June/000481.html):

..............................................................................
Just a few thoughts in the interest of efficiency.

Since our last meeting I have been studying the topic of ethics and conflicts
in non-profits.

I wanted to get a feeling for current thought about the subject and I am not
finished with that effort. In general, my reading centers around a debate over
having a practical case approach vs. a statement of philosophy coupled with
general guidelines.

Personally, I find myself leaning toward a statement of philosophy as an
approach to the issue.  We have the spine of this already.

I want to recognize that conflicts arise from time to time and need to be
dealth with. That the topic can be uncomfortable since it implies a feeling of
distrust. I like the idea of a statement that this is ok and can lend to
greater diversity as long as conflicts are disclosed and members recuse
themselves as necessary.

In general my reading is supporting the idea that the greater the transparency
of management, the less the risks of conflict are.

I would like another month to continue this study before being proposed
language changes, if any, to the board.

Respectfully,
Steve Wills
..............................................................................

Communications Committee
------------------------
Lori reported that due to conflicting schedules, there has been more activity
on the web team list than during meetings in getting work done.

Jim Craner has produced a plan for the new website including wireframes; the
question remains what platform should we build it on. Drupal may be a good
choice, but the team is not sure if this is the right tool. The existing
website has had incremental changes made to it.  Lori would like to see tighter
integration between the current website designers (Ben and Anoop) and the team.

Conference Committee
--------------------
Chris Sharp reported that Grace Dunbar sent out the survey of the 2011
conference. Chris just put out on the list the need for a site selection
committee for 2013.

Shauna and Jim will be putting together a program selection committee soon.
They would like to see the 2011 survey.

Chris Sharp can set up a permanent conference list with private archives -
evergreenconference at list.evergreen.org list.

The Release Process
-------------------
Stephen Elfstrand has suggested that we appoint a formal release manager to
improve upon documentation and quality assurance for future releases of the
software.

Dan expressed his concern that we would be viewed as heavy handed on the
matter. The best that we can do right now is to beat the bushes to get
volunteers for documentation, writing release notes, and testing.

Question – how does the process work now? Anyone can be a release manager?
Right now, yes, if you volunteer to write the release notes and help with the
documentation, you can take on that role. However, it is a communal effort
right now. What would help with the quality control – filing bug tickets as
they're found. If we could get the release team process streamlined and
focused, get more non-developers involved so that the releases are more bug
free.

Question – Is there a softer way to handle this than appointing a release
manager? Can we put out a list of expectations?  Lori has been working on an
Evergreen feature list starter kit; her colleague, Brian has the job of
installing the latest releases to see the new features. He can play a role here
and contribute to the release notes. Right now there is a change log only for
2.1. He can help the community.

*ACTION*: Lori will have Brian contact Galen directly.

Steve Wills would like this to be a check-in topic for future meetings.

Dan Scott explained that there have been some changes made in the past couple
of months – move towards git. Instead of developing right in the core
repository, we're developing off to the side and then move only more stable
versions into the core.

Stephen Elfstrand suggested that maybe we use softer language than his previous
suggestion of a release manager. He and Dan Scott will work on this as a
recommendation to the community for more participation in the release process,
including bug testing and reporting.

Domain and the SFC
------------------
Do we all agree to transfer our domain to the SFC? The motion passed
unanimously.

Treasurer Position Wording
--------------------------

Dan Scott brought forward a motion via the mailing list on June 17, 2011
(http://list.georgialibraries.org/pipermail/evergreen-governance-l/2011-June/000475.html):

..............................................................................
Be it resolved that, given that the Rules of Governance do not
describe a Treasurer position, section 2.4.a.i be modified to remove
the mention of a Treasurer, changing the text from:

i. Chairperson: The Chairperson shall convene and preside at all
membership meetings. However, the Chairperson
may appoint another board member to preside at meetings in the
following order: (1) the Vice Chairperson; (2) the
Secretary; (3) the Treasurer.

to:

i. Chairperson: The Chairperson shall convene and preside at all
membership meetings. However, the Chairperson
may appoint another board member to preside at meetings in the
following order: (1) the Vice Chairperson; (2) the
Secretary.
..............................................................................

The motion passed unanimously.

Copyrights, Trademarks, and the SFC
-----------------------------------
GPLS will transfer over all copyrights and trademarks over to the SFC for the
legal protection.

Next Steps and Recap
--------------------
* *ACTION*: Elizabeth will work with Bradley on the transfer of funds,
  copyright, trademarks
* *ACTION*: Dan will work with the developers and with Stephen Elfstrand
* *ACTION*: Stephen Elfstrand recommended that we review the financial standing
  of the project each month.

Adjournment
-----------
The meeting adjourned at 2:21pm
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