20:00 < schultmc> *GAVEL*
20:00 < schultmc> .
20:00 < schultmc> [item 1, Opening]
20:00 < schultmc> Welcome to today's Software in the Public Interest Board Meeting, which 
20:00 < schultmc> is now called to order. Today's agenda can be found on the web at: 
20:00 < zumbi> \o
20:00 < schultmc> https://www.spi-inc.org/meetings/agendas/2024/2024-01-08/
20:00 < schultmc> .
20:00 < jconway> o/
20:00 < schultmc> [item 2, Roll Call]
20:00 < schultmc> Directors, please state your name
20:00 < zumbi> Héctor Orón Martínez
20:00 < schultmc> Guests, please /msg your names to zv if you wish your attendance to be
20:00 < jconway> Joe Conway
20:00 < schultmc> recorded in the minutes of this meeting.
20:00 < schultmc> .
20:00 < fungi> Jeremy Stanley
20:00 < milan> Milan Kupcevic
20:00 < schultmc> zv, do we have any regrets?
20:00 < schultmc> .
20:00 < zv> Zach van Rijn
20:00 < schultmc> Michael Schultheiss
20:00 < zv> no regrets
20:00 < fsf> Forrest Fleming
20:00 < schultmc> Snow-Man did mention earlier today he was unavailable
20:00 < jesusalva> Jonatas L. Nogueira
20:01 < schultmc> So that's everyone available today
20:01 < zv> technically that is < 24 hours notice
20:01 < zv> I don't know how much we want to be strict about that
20:01 < schultmc> iirc last meeting he did mention he may not be available
20:01 < schultmc> [item 3, President's Report]
20:01 < schultmc> I am working with our broker at Merrill Lynch to establish the recommended
20:01 < schultmc> investment strategy we discussed at the last in person meeting. They drafted new 
20:01 < schultmc> paperwork for myself and Stephen Frost to sign and we should have
20:01 < schultmc> that paperwork signed and submitted shortly.
20:01 < schultmc> .
20:01 < schultmc> Thank you to SPI Director Jonatas L. Nogueira for helping track outstanding tasks.
20:01 < schultmc> .
20:01 < schultmc> Continued thanks to SPI Vice President, Stephen Frost, for handling contracting 
20:01 < schultmc> with SPI's contractors. Stephen continues to do a fantastic job working with our 
20:01 < schultmc> contractors and legal counsel.
20:01 < schultmc> .
20:01 < schultmc> </done>
20:02 < schultmc> [item 4, Treasurer's Report]
20:02 < schultmc> zumbi?
20:02 < zumbi> Most 2023 payments were processed and we are working towards closing 2023 books, thanks tbm.
20:02 < zumbi> New reimbursement system is now deployed in SPI infrastructure, thanks Perdu and we are starting its evaluation.
20:02 < zumbi> .
20:03 < schultmc> [item 5, Secretary's report]
20:03 < schultmc> zv?
20:03 < zv> I am catching up on Secretarial duties regarding an in-person
20:03 < zv> meeting and ensuring CoI forms are current and done correctly.
20:03 < zv> .
20:03 < zv> No other news or updates.
20:03 < zv> .
20:03 < zv> Please reach out if I may be of assistance in any way.
20:03 < zv> (done)
20:03 < jesusalva> schultmc: But Snow-Man wasn't present in last meeting? He may have sent the regret earlier in some other way, though, zv would need to check
20:04 < fsf> I don't think we need to index too much on whether something is marked as 'regretted' or not :)
20:04 < schultmc> jesusalva: ah - I must be misremembering
20:04 < schultmc> [item 6, Outstanding minutes]
20:04 < schultmc> The minutes for the 2023-12-11 meeting require approval.
20:04 < schultmc> They are available at https://www.spi-inc.org/meetings/minutes/2023/2023-12-11/
20:04 < fsf> Voting started, 8 people (fsf,fungi,jesusalva,jconway,milan,schultmc,zv,zumbi) allowed to vote on Meeting minutes for Monday December 11, 2023. - You may vote yes/no/abstain only, type !vote $yourchoice now.
20:04 < fungi> !vote yes
20:04 < jesusalva> !vote yes
20:04 < schultmc> !vote yes
20:04 < jconway> !vote yes
20:05 < zv> !vote yes
20:05 < zumbi> !vote yes
20:05 < milan> !vote yes
20:05 < fsf> !vote yes
20:05 < fsf> Current voting results for "Meeting minutes for Monday December 11, 2023": Yes: 8, No: 0, Abstain: 0, Missing: 0 ()
20:05 < fsf> Voting for "Meeting minutes for Monday December 11, 2023" closed.
20:05 < schultmc> [item 7, Items up for discussion]
20:05 < schultmc> [item 7.1] Phone system
20:05 < schultmc> Perdu?
20:06 < Perdu> As said just before the meeting, you answered most questions in the tickets
20:06 < Perdu> 2 remain
20:06 < zumbi> jesusalva: I vaguely remember Stephen arrived late to the last meeting and mentioned he might be away this meeting... I have not checked meeting minute logs, it should be there
20:06 < Perdu> - can a director review the ToS for voips.ms? https://voip.ms/terms-of-service
20:06 < Perdu> - What's SPI official number (i.e. the one I should put for instance as domain contact for domains)? Is this the treasurer one?
20:06  * schultmc read through the terms and didn't see anything glaringly bad
20:06 < jesusalva> fsf: https://www.spi-inc.org/corporate/resolutions/2006/2006-08-07.dbg.2.iwj.1/ ─ regrets allow twice the absences than not marking as a regret do. It doesn't need to be sorted out right now, though. (A year allows 2 absences without regrets, or 4 with regrets)
20:07 < jesusalva> zv: It's not https://www.spi-inc.org/meetings/logs/2023/2023-12-11.txt he might have came after the gavel tho
20:07 < jesusalva> But if he did then it still counts
20:07 < schultmc> the only active number is the treasurer one
20:07 < zumbi> gvoice one?
20:07 < schultmc> we can either use that or obtain a new one for non-treasurer use
20:07 < schultmc> but voip.ms also has usage requirements
20:07 < zumbi> we do not really track phone calls on that one
20:08 < schultmc> the treasurer one is used frequently, the non-treasurer one is rarely utilized thus subject to cancellation for non-use
20:08 < zumbi> I was suggested some other phone service I had in my backlog to check on https://grasshopper.com/
20:08 < zv> personal recommendation, anveo.com
20:09 < schultmc> I've used grasshopper in other capacities
20:09  * jesusalva doesn't uses phone for telephoning, so no comments here
20:09 < schultmc> fwiw, the only time I've needed to answer incoming calls for SPI was for Dun & Bradstreet verification
20:09 < zumbi> It was recommended to me as it was good for multiple users using the same line
20:09 < schultmc> that was a very complicated process due to difficulty in updating official phone numbers with D&B
20:10 < schultmc> so whatever solution we use should have the ability to forward calls as needed
20:11 < zumbi> I am fine if we use treasurer phone for now
20:11 < zumbi> .. it is certainly not used a lot for phone calls
20:12 < schultmc> treasurer team's primary need is shared incoming SMS 
20:12 < schultmc> secondary is incoming phone calls (rarely used)
20:12 < zumbi> .. but if we need non treasurer access, it is probably worth investigating new number
20:12 < schultmc> +1
20:13 < Perdu> So, should I compare the different providers? Or just stick with voips.ms (which was mentioned in a previous meeting - not sure if it was a decision or not)
20:13 < jesusalva> I don't believe it was
20:13 < jesusalva> It is not in the minutes either
20:14 < zumbi> We need to come up with required needs then check which platform fullfil the most
20:14 < Perdu> There was no official vote at least
20:14 < jesusalva> No wait
20:14 < jesusalva> "Individual board members have had good success with https://voip.ms; board members are generally in agreement that a paid provider with service level agreements (SLAs), etc. is the appropriate path forward."
20:15 < Perdu> 20:21 < schultmc> Seems like there's consensus - I'll ask tbm to obtain a quote
20:15 < jesusalva> "To prevent similar issues in the future, SPI will investigate a paid VOIP provider"
20:15 < jesusalva> Perdu: I advise to use the minutes in preference to logs, because minutes are later voted, confirming them
20:15 < jesusalva> So while there was no vote on this specifically, the minute as a whole mentioning that was voted
20:15 < zumbi> - for example, we need multiple users to be able to access the phone line or call forwarding to multiple users, etc..
20:16 < schultmc> Seems like a feature comparison would be prudent
20:16 < jesusalva> Also, Perdu, once minute is released the logs lose their power ─ https://www.spi-inc.org/corporate/resolutions/2004/2004-05-28.dbg.1.iwj.1/
20:17 < Perdu> Oh I see
20:18 < Perdu> So, how and when will required needs be decided and redacted?
20:18 < Perdu> This has been on hold for a while, having a clear process would help
20:18 < schultmc> The shared SMS is needed by the treasury team almost daily
20:19 < schultmc> incoming calls are needed <1 time per year usually but could potentially be used more often
20:19 < schultmc> separate phone number for non-treasury use would be prudent given the need to limit access to treasury info
20:20 < schultmc> although we need to not hit expiry for non usage quotas
20:20 < Perdu> There's no need to move the treasurer number from google phone, is there?
20:20 < schultmc> porting it to a paid provider would help protect it from future deletion by Google
20:20 < schultmc> Google does sunset technologies on occasion
20:22 < Perdu> Also mentioned earlier: ability to forward call to multiple users
20:22 < Perdu> Alright, I'll use this list of criteria to compare provider and send result to board@
20:22 < Perdu> providers
20:22 < Perdu> *
20:22 < schultmc> Thank you
20:23 < schultmc> [item 8, Any other business]
20:23 < schultmc> Anything to discuss?
20:23 < jesusalva> Yes
20:24 < jesusalva> The financial audit is upon us again, and there's still discussion pending if we'll rotate auditing firm or not
20:25 < zumbi> can you give more context on why we should rotate auditing firm?
20:25 < zv> there was a general guideline to rotate at least every 4 years iirc
20:26 < jesusalva> I was corrected, IRS uses 5 years in their guidelines, and we probably should observe their guideline I think
20:26 < jconway> +1
20:26 < zv> jesusalva: didn't you say this would be year 6?
20:26 < jesusalva> zv: Yes, given their first completed audit was 2018
20:26 < jesusalva> So 2023 report will or would be the sixth
20:27 < jesusalva> We're not required to rotate, but we should if we want to follow best practices.
20:27 < zumbi> do we have quotes from other firms?
20:27 < zv> how much notice would a firm need to have before we can reasonably commit to changing firms?
20:28 < schultmc> Availability to file the extension by 2024-05-15 and complete the audit and tax filings by 2024-11-15
20:28 < zumbi> current one asks us every year if we want to go ahead and send us a quote. I think this needs no notice.
20:29 -!- milan [~milan@000268e7.user.oftc.net] has quit [Remote host closed the connection]
20:29 < jesusalva> I don't believe we asked tbm to get quotes from others, so we probably don't have
20:29 -!- milan [~milan@000268e7.user.oftc.net] has joined #spi
20:30 < jesusalva> PS. I also have no opposition to staying with current one if we others are more expensive or cannot meet the deadlines
20:30 < fungi> i agree with what was suggested in the e-mail thread, that this might be tight timing for picking a new auditing firm for fy2023, so i'd be okay with focusing on what we should do for the fy2024 audit well in advance and proceed with the current relationship for fy2023
20:30 < zv> +1
20:30 -!- milan [~milan@000268e7.user.oftc.net] has quit [Remote host closed the connection]
20:31 < zumbi> my personal opinion is that we should check with tbm, ask current firm to fo 2023 and start looking for new firm to do 2024
20:31 < jesusalva> Well, I'm the one who gave that suggestion, so I obviously +1 it as well :)
20:31 < jconway> +1
20:31 < zumbi> s/fo/do
20:31 < fsf> +1
20:32 < zv> anything else for Other Business?
20:32 < jesusalva> I think zumbi wanted to say about website?
20:32 < schultmc> tbm's contract is up for renewal as of 2024-01-01 - does anyone have any objection to asking him if he'd like to continue contracting with us?
20:32 < fungi> no objection from me
20:32 < jesusalva> I think we should take advantage of the communication commitee and see if we have CM interested in maintaining SPI digital presence, this would help fungi in making sure we're not forgotten
20:32 < zumbi> +1 on asking tmb
20:32 < jconway> any further thoughts/plans for face-to-face board meeting?
20:33 < jesusalva> No objections on me regarding tbm renewal
20:33 < zv> no objection for contract
20:33 < jconway> no objection
20:33 < zv> I'd ask for f2f meeting comments to be emailed to me if they aren't concise/immediate for this meeting
20:33 < jesusalva> Right now, our only social presence is a Twitter account unmaintained since 2017, and the annual report we publish
20:34 < jesusalva> And as I said earlier, that's usually the sort of stuff easier to resolve through a f2f...
20:34 -!- milan [~milan@000268e7.user.oftc.net] has joined #spi
20:35 < zv> question from Secretary: are there other core responsibilities that I should be picking up that I am not aware of within SPI? is anyone picking up Secretary slack in ways I might not be aware?
20:35 < zumbi> There is an old ticket to refurbish website and logo, maybe check on social media renewals for owners too... I was planning to ask for quotes to local web design company - which I engaged with them about year ago or so. This is not high priority, but asking directors if they are fine to start on getting quotes for such purpose.
20:36 < jesusalva> I still feel refurbishing the website has risks on maintainability or to scare some of our users if it relies on JavaScript (as we actually do cater to JS-free people)
20:37 < jesusalva> (and forcing our members to use JavaScript would not be a nice thing to do :P)
20:37 < zumbi> note this is design only, we keep same technology
20:37 < zv> a modern static site generator could be worth looking into if maintainability is a concern, independent of design
20:37 < zumbi> essentially, updating the CSS
20:38 < jesusalva> Most web designers I know jump straight to adding JavaScript stuff. If you know better ones, I will not oppose, although we feel we lack a bit in content
20:38 < zv> jesusalva: that subject is probably premature
20:38 < zumbi> new logo does not need JS :)
20:38 < zv> content is relevant imo
20:38 -!- danvet_ [~Daniel@2a02:168:57f4:0:efd0:b9e5:5ae6:c2fa] has quit [Ping timeout: 480 seconds]
20:38 < jesusalva> s/we feel/I feel/
20:39 < jesusalva> Our logo is kinda ugly, but given we barely have digital presence, it doesn't really matter? I feel fungi would have better opinions
20:39 < jesusalva> As fungi is currently doing outreach to others like OSI
20:39 < zumbi> We could do an open call to the community as a contest or something, but we have failed to do that for years now
20:40 < zv> zumbi: clarify "failed" in this context? failed to do it, or failed to obtain satisfactory results?
20:40 < zumbi> jesusalva: it'd be good to change our digital presence, that's one step on that direction
20:40 < zumbi> zv: failed to do it
20:40 < zv> ack
20:40 < fungi> eh, i mean, i have some familiarity with the web stacks used by some other open source foundations for their sites, but i don't think our interactions with other foundations necessitate refreshing our site design
20:40 < zumbi> RT#2564
20:41 < zv> I feel brand and reputation are worth further discussion, a separate meeting, or a topic for f2f, to have honest/candid conversations
20:41 < fungi> i do agree that the look of the site could stand to be "jazzed up" a little, and that's totally doable with static html, no browser-side scripts needed
20:42 < fungi> but i think our web presence, and any presence on social media for that matter, is somewhat tangential to establishing relationships with other organizations/foundations
20:42 < jesusalva> I did said these stuff are easier to resolve in a F2F, didn't I? :p
20:42 < zumbi> .. but the question is if we should gather a quote
20:43 < fsf>  Sorry folks, I need to run. I have nothing pressing to add
20:43 < zv> imo table that until we have more clarity on our needs
20:43 < zv> (that == quote)
20:44 < fungi> seeking quotes/tenders for that work seems fine to me if we agree it needs doing, it's the sort of thing our general fund is there to cover
20:44 < zumbi> zv: I assume you have seen this is tabled since 2018 per https://rt.spi-inc.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=2564
20:44 < jesusalva> I feel we're discussing more if it needs doing now or anytime soon than if it needs to be done at all
20:46 < jesusalva> zumbi: That was a whole two terms ago :)
20:46 < jesusalva> Only schultmc from then remains, iirc
20:46 < zumbi> fsf and myself too
20:46 < zv> zumbi: ok, so broadly we agree on a possible visual overhaul, but perhaps more thought is needed for content, possible campaigns, etc
20:47 < jesusalva> For those without RT access i.e. members: https://www.spi-inc.org/meetings/minutes/2018/2018-10-05-f2f-new-york/ item 1:40
20:47 < schultmc> Discussing this at the f2f seems like a good option
20:47 < zumbi> what I am suggesting is to do the basic stuff, logo and few images, then we can move from there, we can discuss more at F2FF
20:47 < zv> while not as important for existing relationships, our website is the first impression for prospective projects
20:48 < zv> seeking quotes for a cursory redesign is OK with me, then, if we can discuss a larger overhaul f2f or in the future
20:48 < jesusalva> +1
20:48 < schultmc> Anything else to discuss?
20:49 < jesusalva> Hopefully not
20:49 < schultmc> [item 9, Next board meeting]
20:49 < schultmc> The next board meeting is scheduled for: February 12, 2024 at 2000 UTC.
20:49 < schultmc> Any objections?
20:49 < zumbi> None
20:49 < schultmc> wfm
20:49 < jconway> none
20:49 < jesusalva> Tentative regret
20:49 < fungi> sounds goof to me, i'll be available
20:49 < fungi> s/goof/good/ too
20:49 < zv> +1
20:49 < milan> none here
20:49 < schultmc> *GAVEL*