[Eg-oversight-board] before next board meeting

[Kathy Lussier]

Hi Rogan!

Quoting rogan at roganhamby.com:

> I wanted to bring up a few things before the next board meeting to  
> get them out of the way so that perhaps the time in the meeting can  
> be more discussion.
>
> 1) I had to miss the last meeting and when I reviewed the IRC log I  
> admit to having some concerns.  Engagement seemed low.  I admit that  
> I'm comfortable with IRC but I want to make sure the board feels  
> comfortable discussing everything that we need to.  If anyone feels  
> like it would be better to move back to phone calls we should have  
> that discussion.  But, maybe it was also just a fluke.

I agree that the first IRC meeting didn't go as well as I would have  
hoped. However, I think this was partially due to the fact that there  
was some confusion over the nomination and voting process. As people  
get more comfortable with the medium, we may find they go a little  
more smoothly. I also see a lot of value in holding meetings out in  
the open where anyone in the community can follow along. However, I am  
somebody who prefers IRC meetings to conference calls, so I would love  
to hear from others who are not as comfortable with the medium.

For what it's worth, I've also found that engagement can be low for  
some conference calls. Perhaps more e-mail discussion between meetings  
would be warranted?



> 2) Andrea and Shauna - if you're still interested in playing  
> wranglers to help front end users supply documentation for  
> developers I'm sure that would be welcome so let's try to find some  
> time to chat about it.  The obvious goal (to me) would be test cases  
> but there may be other opportunities and there will definitely be a  
> need for some structure I think.
>
> http://www.open-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=qa:eg_test_cases
>
> Here is an example of some already up on the WIKI.  They can be  
> structured a bit differently but this shows you the fundamentals.   
> It may seem obvious to front end users what has to be done but those  
> kinds of accurate repeated steps are very important.  After those  
> looking at automated tools for testing like selenium  
> http://docs.seleniumhq.org/projects/ide/ is the next step.
>
> My personal opinion is that once we have some people willing to wear  
> official wrangling hats that they start working with the developer  
> community to identify priorities and what would be most helpful.

Sorry to answer a question that wasn't directed at me, but my  
recollection from the meeting at the conference was that the goal was  
to engage the community in helping in many different activities, not  
just in developing test cases, though I do think the test cases are  
important. I'm guessing there are those who will be happy to  
contribute to the test cases, but others may not find that it is the  
right fit, and I wouldn't want to miss out on the other opportunities  
for involvement.

Having said that, even though I didn't volunteer to wrangle, I would  
be happy to work on a set of acquisitions test cases.


> 3) I'd like to find a couple of souls willing to work with me to  
> look at grant opportunities.  My bias is geared towards looking at  
> what we could do that could be large scale impacts.  To be clear,  
> this would be an investigative function at this time that would  
> bring information back to the board and the community about what we  
> think the opportunities and possiblities are.  We would need to jump  
> logistic, financial and legal hurdles that involve a lot of parties  
> before we decided to do anything but this is the first step on that  
> road.

I'll raise my hand. At the same time we're looking for grant  
opportunities, should we also be starting discussions on where we want  
to focus our efforts if funding does come through?

Thanks for kicking off this discussion Rogan!

Kathy