Meeting log for 2010-03-10

[MJ Ray]

Back in March, I took on another role while has meant I've not had
time to summarise SPI meetings since.  I'll post up to date in the
coming days to help inform my own voting in the forthcoming election
(in which I will not stand) and whether I post any more will depend on
whether my other role is renewed, whether anyone else finds these
useful and whether anyone else will post them instead.

HIGHLIGHTS:

20:00:08 <bdale> [item 1, Opening] Welcome to today's Software in the
Public Interest board of directors meeting, which is now called to
order.  Today's agenda and details of pending resolutions can be found
on the web at:
http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/agenda/2010/2010-03-10.html

[item 2, Roll Call]
20:00:20 <cdlu> David Graham
20:00:21 <schultmc> Michael Schultheiss
20:00:25 <Hydroxide> Jimmy Kaplowitz
20:00:26 <bdale> Bdale Garbee
20:00:27 <Noodles> Jonathan McDowell
20:00:34 <linuxpoet> Joshua D. Drake
20:00:50 <Ganneff> Joerg Jaspert

[item 3, President's Report]

<bdale> I've made some progress on the previously reported effort to
arrange discounts for SPI associated projects on server and storage
hardware from HP.  After review of the contract terms by SPI's lawyer
and board, we are now waiting for HP legal to review and propose
changes based on our feedback, as the defaults for the program we're
trying to arrange this under are unacceptable to SPI.

[item 4, Treasurer's Report]

<schultmc> two standard reports are in the agenda due to last month's
lack of quorum SPI has also received its sales and use tax exempt form
from New York State nothing special to comment on, other than The
HeliOS project making up its perceived deficit and SPI is in the
process of changing its clickandpledge account so there will be less
delay between a donation and deposit in SPI's account SPI is insulated
from paypal shenanigans by NetworkForGood, another payment processor
we have an account with they accept paypal rather than us doing so
directly us only for credit cards, anywhere for paypal for sufficient
definitions of anywhere (probably not literally anywhere)

[item 5, Secretary's report]

<Noodles> Nothing to report here. As I mentioned before the meeting
I'd been hoping someone familiar with adwords would come forward about
the Google stuff, but I've seen nothing.  It was mentioned on -private
I think.  And I know Yafaray are interested in taking advantage of it.

[item 6, Outstanding minutes]

voting results for "Meeting Minutes for January 13th, 2010": Yes: 6,
No: 0, Abstain: 1, Missing: 0 ()

voting results for "Meeting Minutes for February 10th, 2010": Yes: 5,
No: 0, Abstain: 2, Missing: 0 ()

[item 7, Any other business]

<cdlu> Just note for the record that the 2010 board elections are in
three months, and there are four vacancies.

[item 8, Next board meeting]

<bdale> Our next regularly-scheduled monthly meeting should be April
14th at 20:00 UTC.

20:14:04 <bdale> *GAVEL*


TIMED LOG:

20:00:08 <bdale> *GAVEL*
20:00:08 <linuxpoet> WTH is that?
20:00:08 <bdale> [item 1, Opening] Welcome to today's Software in the Public Interest board of directors meeting, which is now called to order.
20:00:08 <bdale> Today's agenda and details of pending resolutions can be found on the web at: http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/agenda/2010/2010-03-10.html
20:00:18 <bdale> [item 2, Roll Call]
20:00:18 <bdale> Board members, please state your name for the record.  As we have nine board members, quorum for today's meeting is six.
20:00:18 <bdale> Guests (including board advisors), please /msg your names to Noodles if you wish your attendance to be recorded in the minutes of this meeting.
20:00:20 <cdlu> David Graham
20:00:21 <schultmc> Michael Schultheiss
20:00:25 <Hydroxide> Jimmy Kaplowitz
20:00:26 <bdale> Bdale Garbee
20:00:27 <Noodles> Jonathan McDowell
20:00:34 <linuxpoet> Joshua D. Drake
20:00:45 <bdale> cool, quorum met
20:00:50 <Ganneff> Joerg Jaspert
20:01:04 <Noodles> We've had regrets from Martin Zobel-Helas.
20:01:14 <bdale> who does that leave?
20:01:19 <Hydroxide> bdale: linuxpoet 
20:01:19 <Hydroxide> err
20:01:21 <Noodles> luk__.
20:01:22 <Hydroxide> bdale: luk__ 
20:01:23 <bdale> luk__: 
20:01:24 <Hydroxide> yay tab completion
20:01:24 <bdale> right
20:01:57 <bdale> since we have quorum, I'll proceed, and he can sign in if he joins us
20:01:57 <Hydroxide> given the absence of any controversial agenda items today, I wouldn't suggest waiting too long, though it's of course nicer if he shows up
20:02:05 * Hydroxide nods
20:02:10 <bdale> [item 3, President's Report]
20:02:10 <bdale> I've made some progress on the previously reported effort to arrange discounts for SPI associated projects on server and storage hardware from HP.
20:02:10 <bdale> After review of the contract terms by SPI's lawyer and board, we are now waiting for HP legal to review and propose changes based on our feedback,
20:02:10 <bdale> as the defaults for the program we're trying to arrange this under are unacceptable to SPI.
20:03:04 <bdale> [item 4, Treasurer's Report]
20:03:04 <bdale> Michael?
20:03:27 <schultmc> two standard reports are in the agenda due to last month's lack of quorum
20:03:43 <bdale> right .. anything special to comment on?
20:03:50 <schultmc> SPI has also received its sales and use tax exempt form from New York State
20:03:59 <bdale>  \o/
20:04:09 <schultmc> nothing special to comment on, other than The HeliOS project making up its perceived deficit
20:04:25 <Noodles> Can I just say here how glad I am that we're not signed up to Paypal, given the nonsense they've been up to with Dreamwidth?
20:04:28 <Hydroxide> \o/
20:04:43 <bdale> ok, thanks .. once again, really appreciate you staying on top of this and getting reports out in advance of meetings
20:04:46 <Hydroxide> Noodles: they were up to some nonsense with Cryptome recently too. admittedly we're less controversial than they are, but still
20:04:47 <schultmc> and SPI is in the process of changing its clickandpledge account so there will be less delay between a donation and deposit in SPI's account
20:05:06 <bdale> ok.  anything else?
20:05:25 <schultmc> SPI is insulated from paypal shenanigans by NetworkForGood, another payment processor we have an account with
20:05:32 <bdale> right
20:05:36 <schultmc> they accept paypal rather than us doing so directly
20:05:52 <Hydroxide> schultmc: but only from US donors, yes?
20:05:58 <schultmc> Hydroxide: no
20:06:06 <schultmc> us only for credit cards, anywhere for paypal
20:06:10 <Hydroxide> oh, an improvement since I last checked. yay.
20:06:20 <Hydroxide> we should make that clearer at some point
20:06:22 <schultmc> for sufficient definitions of anywhere (probably not literally anywhere)
20:06:25 <Hydroxide> to potential donors, I mean
20:06:26 * Hydroxide nods
20:06:27 <slef> Sorry to interject from the gallery, but if anyone has paypal alternatives for general use, I'd love to hear about them because moneybookers have just upset one of my associates.
20:06:54 <bdale> slef: google checkout is similar in feature set but apparently only handles "sellers" in the US and UK at the moment
20:07:00 <Hydroxide> slef: can be discussed post-meeting
20:07:06 <bdale> ok, let's move on
20:07:07 <slef> Hydroxide: OK
20:07:12 <bdale> [item 5, Secretary's report]
20:07:13 <bdale> Jonathan?
20:07:35 <Noodles> Nothing to report here. As I mentioned before the meeting I'd been hoping someone familiar with adwords would come forward about the Google stuff, but I've seen nothing.
20:07:58 <bdale> should we put a call out to contributing members or something?
20:08:01 <linuxpoet> I know a bit about adwords
20:08:09 <Noodles> It was mentioned on -private I think.
20:08:22 <Noodles> And I know Yafaray are interested in taking advantage of it.
20:08:31 <bdale> linuxpoet: maybe you and Noodles could chat after the meeting briefly?
20:08:35 <linuxpoet> sure
20:08:39 <bdale> thanks
20:08:47 <bdale> [item 6, Outstanding minutes]
20:08:47 <bdale> Jonathan?  We have two sets ready to approve today?
20:08:55 <Noodles> 2 sets, January + February.
20:09:05 <Noodles> I wasn't quite sure what the protocol was for last month so I wrote it up anyway.
20:09:11 * Hydroxide has read them, approves of them, and is ready to vote
20:09:14 <bdale> thanks, that's probably the right thing
20:09:17 <bdale> I'm ready to vote too
20:09:17 <Ganneff> go go
20:09:28 * cdlu is too
20:10:05 <Noodles> Voting started, 7 people (ganneff,cdlu,bdale,linuxpoet,noodles,hydroxide,schultmc) allowed to vote on Meeting Minutes for January 13th, 2010. - You may vote yes/no/abstain only, type !vote $yourchoice now.
20:10:10 <Ganneff> !vote yes
20:10:11 <schultmc> !vote yes
20:10:14 <Noodles> !vote yes
20:10:14 <linuxpoet> !vote abstain
20:10:15 <bdale> !vote yes
20:10:29 <cdlu> !vote yes
20:10:29 <Hydroxide> !vote yes
20:10:56 <Noodles> Current voting results for "Meeting Minutes for January 13th, 2010": Yes: 6, No: 0, Abstain: 1, Missing: 0 ()
20:10:59 <Noodles> Voting for "Meeting Minutes for January 13th, 2010" closed.
20:11:11 <Noodles> Voting started, 7 people (ganneff,cdlu,bdale,linuxpoet,noodles,hydroxide,schultmc) allowed to vote on Meeting Minutes for February 10th, 2010. - You may vote yes/no/abstain only, type !vote $yourchoice now.
20:11:15 <Ganneff> !vote abstain
20:11:17 <Noodles> !vote yes
20:11:18 <bdale> !vote yes
20:11:21 <cdlu> !vote yes
20:11:22 <Hydroxide> !vote yes
20:11:24 <linuxpoet> !vote abstain
20:11:24 <schultmc> !vote yes
20:11:31 <Noodles> Current voting results for "Meeting Minutes for February 10th, 2010": Yes: 5, No: 0, Abstain: 2, Missing: 0 ()
20:11:34 <Noodles> Voting for "Meeting Minutes for February 10th, 2010" closed.
20:11:37 <Noodles> That was nice and easy.
20:11:39 <bdale> great, thanks!
20:11:59 <bdale> [item 7, Any other business]
20:11:59 <bdale> Do any board members have other items for discussion they would like to address briefly?
20:12:17 * Hydroxide doesn't
20:12:21 <cdlu> Just note for the record that the 2010 board elections are in three months, and there are four vacancies.
20:12:30 <Noodles> I was going to suggest moving the meeting an hour later as we've had attendence issues, but I think we all hit DST by next month so that should have the same effect.
20:12:38 <Noodles> It'll be interesting to see if it helps.
20:12:51 <linuxpoet> I would suggest we start talking elections to our constituents (sp?) actively, pretty much now
20:13:00 <cdlu> Noodles, ya, 2000Z in DST is better for me than 2000Z in ST :)
20:13:07 <Hydroxide> Noodles: well, it will change the local time by an hour for each of us.
20:13:11 <bdale> [item 8, Next board meeting]
20:13:11 <bdale> Our next regularly-scheduled monthly meeting should be April 14th at 20:00 UTC.
20:13:11 <bdale> Any strong objections?
20:13:13 <Hydroxide> Noodles: doesn't matter to me though
20:13:24 <bdale> since we're talking about it already...
20:13:28 <Noodles> WFM.
20:13:33 <bdale> I'd rather leave the time alone, but I'm not militant about it
20:13:33 <cdlu> linuxpoet, as a potential candidate go for it :) it's like most country's federal elections, the period only lasts a few weeks, but the real campaigns last months or years.
20:13:43 <linuxpoet> sigh
20:13:43 <linuxpoet> :P
20:13:50 <cdlu> april 14 20:00 is fine with me
20:13:50 <Noodles> bdale: I'm for leaving it alone in UTC and seeing if DST helps.
20:13:56 <bdale> ok, great
20:14:03 <bdale> Ok, thank you to everyone present for participating today.
20:14:04 <bdale> *GAVEL*

Hope that helps,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef) Webmaster and developer for hire at | software
www.software.coop http://mjr.towers.org.uk        |  .... co
IMO only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html |  .... op