02-21

Notes form X.Org BoD telecon Feb 21, 2006

Present:
Stuart Kreitman (SK)
Stuart Anderson (SA)
Jim McQuillan (JQ)
Kevin Martin (KM)
Leon Shiman (LS)
Egbert Eich (EE)

Topics
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1. FOSDEM funding requests
2. IRS 501(c)(3) filing status / bylaws
3. Minute taking for the records of the  organization
4. Proposal: reduce frequency of calls
5. Drafting proposal for travel funding policy
6. Timetable for board elections and bylaw ratification by
   the members.
7. Follow up on the meeting with the sponsors to draft a
   proposal for an advisory group.
8. LWE Boston (April) status

1. FOSDEM funding

   Discussed funding request for FOSDEM:
   Luc Verhaegen asked for USD ~550 to accomodate people attending
   the HotHouse and DevRoom at FOSDEM.
   Request was approved.
   Daniel Stone requested partial funding of his airfare to FOSDEM.
   Although this funding request was received rather late board
   approved partial funding of USD 200 based on lowest available airfare
   for the trip.

2. IRS filings

   LS reported on the status of the IRS 501(c)(3) filings. Our legal
   counsel has assigned one of his staff members to this issue. There
   are still some issues to be resolved in connection with flaws in the
   transition processes between predecessor organizations. Also
   'open software' is not a common purpose among organizations that
   file for 503(c)(3). However problems to be expected.
   Legal counsel will use bylaws in present state for filing.
   The group that's working on the bylaw revision (KM, SA and EE)
   would like to get in touch with legal counsel about open questions.

3. Minute Taking for Records

   Issues about the level of details of the meeting minutes for the
   records were raised.
   LS reported from conversations with legal counsel that the
   organization is responsible to keep records of its meetings that
   it has applied due diligence to the issues it has dealt with.
   Therefore the records need to contain enough to show the background
   of an issue dealt with and the different roads to a resolution it
   has considered taking.
   LS will produce minutes containing enough background information
   to show that.
   EE will continue to produce notes for publications independently.
   This serves as a check for omissions in either set.
   Both should have been read and be approved by the time of the
   next meeting.

4. Proposals

   The proposal was made to reduce the frequency of the calls.
   There was support for this among the board members.

5. Travel funding Policy

   Board agrees that there is still room in approving the communication
   with the contributors about the availability of funds for travel
   support to X.Org developers events.
   Considering that funding requests that were made came in in a rather
   short timeframe for the event to attend it was agreed upon that
   the organization should put together travel funding policies.
   Some board members have some ideas on this issue. Issue was deferred
   to email discussion.

6. Election Timeframes

   People on both the election committee and the bylaw group will
   work out a time table to syncronize bylaw ratification and board
   elections. Their rough draft is pretty much in line with what LS
   has drafted.

7. Establishing an Advisory Board.

   LS circulated his minutes from the meeting with the sponsor
   organizations of X.Org. He strongly suggests to the board to read
   them to extract issues to see how to proceed on setting up an
   advisory board.

8. LWE Boston April 2006
   LS Received notice from LWE that the X.Org Foundation will be given
   booth space there. X.Org will receive a room at no charge
   to allow developers and contributors to X to meet. Preparation
   should start soon.
   Also it is proposed to hold an informal follow up meeting with
   our sponsor organizations.