Board meeting, May 7th, 2002
Attending:
- Branden Robinson
- Drew Streib
- Ean Schuessler
- Ian Jackson
- Manoj Srivastava
- Martin "Joey" Schulze (presiding)
- Wichert Akkerman
Absent:
- Ean Schuessler
Absent with regrets:
- Nils Lohner
Agenda:
- Reports
- treasurer report
- membership report
- merchant account update
- Approving minutes from previous meetings
- Meeting schedule
- OSI advisor exchange update
- SPI Board advisor changes
- invite Guido and make him an advisor
- possibly replace Miguel de Icaza
- resolution to join FSG
- SPI logo
- next meeting
Recorder: Wichert Akkerman
Advisors present:
- Robert Levin
The Board meeting was held using Internet Relay Chat. Joey opens the meeting at 19.07 UTC.
Reports
Treasurer report
Branden reported progress with American Express Centurion Bank. The signed corporate resolution identifying him as treasurer he sent them was not enough to allow him to access the account. He does have the forms that needs to be signed by the SPI President which should be enough. He will scan them and mail them filled-out to Nils, who will have to sign them and fax them back to the bank.
Also, thanks to Michael Schultheiss's research, there may be progress on another front. Branden has written a personal check for USD35 to the New York Department of State to request a certified copy of SPI's Charter of Incorporation and a Certificate of Existence (a.k.a. Certificate of "Good Standing").
Finally, as Russell Nelson of the Open Source Initiative pointed out, Tim Sailer is still listed as the designated recipient of process on behalf of SPI. Given that Tim Sailer resigned from the SPI Board some years ago, this should be fixed. Branden does not know the exact procedure for filing new documents with the New York Department of State's Division of Corporations so that will have to be researched.
Branden has since learned that we can probably accomplish this by sending New York a document and $20 to process it. The form itself is available in PDF format.
Ian moved to thank Branden for his work and wish him luck. Everyone agreed.
Membership report
Branden proposed that the secretary ask Martin Michlmayr to make a brief report on the status of the SPI Membership Committee and mail that to the Board via e-mail at his earliest convenience. The report should include current numbers of members, rate of join, any salient complaints about the interface, and any other items of interest to the chair. Everyone agrees.
Merchant account update
Drew explained:
"Basically, it is fairly easy to setup an account and have some 3rd party take transactions on our behalf and deposit funds into our bank account. One well known example is paypal.com. For the record also note http://www.charge.com/ and http://www.gotmerchant.com/echo/. Fees for this seem pretty standard across the Board ranging from 2.2% to about 3%. Several places offer little to no monthly minimums although there are typically small charges associated with moving funds or setup. It looks like most of them set up a small bank account for you and then you make 'withdrawals' of sorts from those accounts into your own bank account."
Branden reminded the Board he is willing to waive the SPI 5% on donations for electronic donations if we can get electronic deposit into our Centurion Bank accounts.
Drew thought two things need to be decided first: will SPI receive electronic donations if we have that option available, and will that be worth the 2 to 3% processing charge (plus potential small monthly charges, usually under 25 US dollars).
Branden proposed the Board vote to:
- authorise Drew to select a payment processor
- request Drew to mail the Board with a projection of expected costs for 3 months' worth of operation
- use the email voting procedure to approve the setup of the account
- subject this business relationship to a review after 90 days
- advertise this as a pilot program until after the Board has assessed the reviews mentioned in 4)
Everyone agrees.
Approving minutes from previous meetings
Vote to approve the minutes of the January 21 meeting minutes as posted
to the SPI Board in message 20020507185150.GG22677@deadbeast.net and
revised during the meeting.
Votes for accepting the minutes:
| Branden | in favour |
| Drew | in favour |
| Ean | in favour |
| Joey | in favour |
| Manoj | in favour |
| Wichert | in favour |
The minutes are accepted with 6 votes in favour and none against.
Meeting schedule
Since scheduling and attendance of meetings has proven to be a bit troublesome Wichert proposed to have regular meetings every first Tuesday at the month at 19.00 UTC. Manoj asked if meetings during weekends would be an preferable since his attendance on weekdays will be dependent on his employer. Nobody agreed.
Vote for resolution 2002-05-07.wta, covering the regular meeting schedule:
| Branden | in favour |
| Drew | in favour |
| Ean | in favour |
| Ian | abstains |
| Joey | in favour |
| Manoj | abstains |
| Wichert | in favour |
The resolution is accepted with 5 votes in favour and two abstentions.
OSI advisor exchange update
invite Guido van Rossum and make him an advisor
Wichert explained he presented the proposed joint resolution 2002-01-21 C.02 to the OSI Board. The response there was minimal but generally positive. They agreed to exchange advisors, though unfortunately Guido van Rossum could not attend this meeting. Also related to this proposal was an update regarding the opensource.org domain: it has been successfully updated and moved to a different registrar. He proposed that we invite Guido as an advisor on the SPI Board of Directors as a representative of OSI.
Vote to invite Guide van Rossum as an advisor to the SPI Board of Directors:
| Branden | in favour |
| Drew | in favour |
| Ean | in favour |
| Ian | in favour |
| Joey | in favour |
| Manoj | in favour |
| Wichert | in favour |
The vote is unanimous with 7 votes in favour.
possibly replace Miguel de Icaza
Joey said we need to discuss the position of the advisor position for the GNOME Project Leader (GPL). Wichert agreed and added that Miguel had never shown any life-signs. Joey proposed to amend the original proposal to make the GPL an advisor on the SPI Board of Directors to invite the GNOME Foundation to appoint an advisor instead.
Vote for resolution 2002-05-07.mgs.3.br to request the GNOME Foundation to appoint an advisor to the SPI Board of Directors:
| Drew | in favour |
| Ean | in favour |
| Joey | in favour |
| Manoj | in favour |
| Wichert | in favour |
The resolution is accepted with 5 votes in favour.
resolution to join FSG
Branden moved to shelve this item until Drew can work out the concerns Ian voiced at a previous meeting with the FSG. Everybody agrees.
SPI logo
Wichert said he had mentioned earlier that SPI is going to need a proper logo and style for both the website and letterhead. He asked a friend to draft some logos, the results of which can be found at http://www.spi-inc.org/~wichert/logos/. She needs input from the Board in order to make a final logo: which of the drafts the board prefers and what needs to be changed in order for the Board to accept the logo.
Wichert mentioned one problem with the logos: they do not work in black and white and definitely need to be fixed. Manoj proposed the Board needed to decide on a few concrete requirements like: must look good in black and white, can be reduced in size for card/letterheads, etc.
Joey asked all Board members and advisors to comment on the logos, as well as on the logos Ean submitted earlier so Wichert can summarise them and present the feedback to the artists. Hopefully one of them can be selected later via an email vote.
The discussion is shelved until feedback from Board members and advisors has been received.
Next meeting
In accordance with Resolution 2002-05-07.wta, the next meeting of the SPI Board of Directors will be on June 4th at 19.00 UTC.