Board meeting, August 15th, 2006

These are the minutes for the August 15th, 2006 SPI Board meeting, held at 19:00 UTC in #spi on irc.spi-inc.org. LOG

Board members present

  • Bdale Garbee (bdale) (President)
  • Michael Schultheiss (schultmc) (Vice President)
  • Neil McGovern (Maulkin) (Secretary)
  • Josh Berkus (jberkus) (Treasurer)
  • Ian Jackson (Diziet)
  • David Graham (cdlu)
  • Branden Robinson (Overfiend)
  • Martin Schulze (Joey)
  • Jimmy Kaplowitz (Hydroxide)

Board members absent with regrets

  • None

Board members absent

  • None

Board advisors present

  • Robert Treat (xzilla) (postgresql)

Registered guests present

  • Joerg Jaspert (Ganneff)
  • Joshua D. Drake (linuxpoet)
  • Joey Smith (TML)
  • Javier Fernandez-Sanguino (javifs)
  • MJ Ray (slef)
  • Kaare Thor Olsen (Kaare)
  • Steve Langasek (vorlon)
  • Greg Sabino Mullane (greg)
  • John Goerzen (CosmicRay)
  • Daniel Baumann (panthera)

These are the draft minutes for the August 15th, 2006 SPI Board meeting, held at 19:00 UTC in #spi on irc.spi-inc.org.

President's Report

No formal report was received

Treasurer's Report

Jimmy Kaplowitz has submitted reports from Jan through April on the 1st August. Approval from the board will occur after the handoff to the new treasurer (Josh Berkus) has occurred.

The board thanks Jimmy for his work to date and looks forward to the report next time.

Outstanding Minutes

Current status: August 1st, 2006 is ready to be voted on and approved this meeting. David Graham is processing the previous unapproved minutes, which will be presented next meeting for approval.

Motion to accept the August 1st minutes, moved by Neil McGovern, seconded by David Graham.

Bdale GarbeeYes
Michael SchultheissYes
Neil McGovernYes
Josh BerkusAbstain
Ian JacksonAbstain
David GrahamYes
Branden RobinsonYes
Martin SchulzeYes
Jimmy KaplowitzYes

Resolution 2006-04-03.jfsp.1: Debian trademark in Spain

No update has been received from Greg Pomerantz as to this issue. Bdale Garbee is to follow up.

Resolution 2006-08-07.dbg.2: Attendance Policy

Vote deferred until next meeting.

Resolution 2006-08-15.bg.1: Freedesktop.org as Associated Project

Motion 2006-08-15.bg.1 to invite Freedesktop.org as an Associated Project, proposed by David Graham, seconded by Branden Robinson.

David Grahamyes
Jimmy Kaplowitzyes
Branden Robinsonyes
Ian Jacksonyes
Martin Schulzeyes
Neil McGovernyes
Michael Schultheissyes
Josh Berkusyes
Bdale Garbeeyes

Motion passes with a vote of Yes: 9, No: 0, Abstain: 0.

Tax filing and book keeping status

Form 8688 has to be posted today to apply for an extension on filing taxes until November. Branden Robinson to action. Josh Berkus expects to be spending a good portion of September doing filings.

Website rebuild

The website transition has happened. We're now using a new server, and thanks is extended to the admin team and Black Cat Networks for their support in doing so. There was a couple of issues during the transition process, but these seem mostly resolved now.

Items from the DPL (see Appendix C)

Items one to three need input from Greg Pomerantz, which Bdale Garbee will action, and items four and five are to be discussed with Josh Berkus. For item six, the consensus of the board is that we're ok with it.

Any other business

Some concern was expressed over the timing of the board meetings in future. This will be discussed later via email.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned until September 19th, 2006 at 19:00 UTC.

Appendix A: Current Board Membership

Date electedNameRole
[2004-07-29]Bdale GarbeePresident
[2006-07-31]Michael SchultheissVice President
[2006-07-31]Neil McGovernSecretary
[2006-07-31]Josh BerkusTreasurer
[2004-07-29]Branden Robinson
[2004-02-20]Jimmy Kaplowitz
[2003-11-29]David Graham
[2003-11-29]Ian Jackson
[2003-11-29]Martin "Joey" Schulze

Appendix B: Approved Resolutions

2006-08-15.bg.1: freedesktop.org as Associated Project

Appendix C: Items from the DPL

Since there's a new board, I thought it might be a reasonable time to
go back over some of the issues that Debian would appreciate SPI input on:

    1) Response to concerns related to the acceptance of Sun Java into
       non-free, see:
           From: John Goerzen
           Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 18:28:22 -0500
           Subject: Questions about Java license and related questions
           Message-ID: <20060607232822.GA31686@katherina.lan.complete.org>

    2) Response to concerns related to interaction between Debian developers
       and citizens of embargoed countries, see:
           From: Anthony Towns
           Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 17:47:49 +1000
           Subject: Debian in embargoed countries
           Message-ID: <20060609074749.GB1408@azure.humbug.org.au>

    3) Response to concerns related to online harassment, see:
           From: Steve Langasek
           Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 17:04:51 -0700
           Subject: request for assistance with ongoing harassment
               [debianwomenpassaway@yahoo.com: Debian women: please pass away.]
           Message-ID: <20060610000450.GN13192@mauritius.dodds.net>

    4) Precise accounting of funds held for the benefit of the Debian
       project (my imprecise estimate is $0, split between -$50,000 for
       debconf, and +$50,000 for misc debian use, which will obviously
       only be useful when the HP money makes its way in)

    5) Is there any sort of online/electronic report of donations from
       Click & Pledge that can be made available?

    6) I think Debian would appreciate it if SPI would formally comment
       on the asset handling changes proposed on debian-vote, to ensure we
       can maintain a friendly and consultative relationship. (Even if the
       comment is just "yup, that's fine by us!" or whatever) See the threads
       related to:
           From: Manoj Srivastava

           Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2006 20:12:54 -0500
           Subject: Constitutional Amendment GR: Handling assets for the project
           Message-id: <87r70f92w9.fsf@glaurung.internal.golden-gryphon.com>
           http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2006/07/msg00005.html