Board of Directors Meetings

    From The Document Foundation Wiki
    < TDF


    For meetings of the Membership Committee, please see TDF/Membership Committee Meetings

    What it's about

    Discussions of the Board of Directors take place on public mailing forum. Once every month, the board meets via video conference, to discuss ongoing topics and recent activities directly. The conference calls are open for everyone to join, following our approach to transparency and openness.

    Reaching the board outside regular meetings

    You can always reach the board privately by mailing to info@documentfoundation.org, or (preferrably, since we're default-open) publicly by posting to the board-discuss forum.

    Some important notes

    • Although being public, these calls are not to be considered as official press statements for journalists. Journalists are invited to join, but for media Q & A, there will be separate sessions where official statements by TDF representatives are made.

    How to prepare yourself

    • Most topics we will discuss have been raised on our main mailing lists already, especially discuss and marketing. Please have a look at them, to stay up to date on recent activities.

    Next Call

    Date and Time

    The TDF BoD calls will take place once a month, Monday, 1800-2000 Berlin time all season, starting March 11, 2024.

    Important Notes

    • Contracts and obligations with third parties have to be approved by two BoD seat holders, amongst them the BoD chair, and in case (s)he cannot, the BoD deputy chair. Alternatively, a warrant can be issued by one of these.
    • Decisions need a quorum of 1/2 of the participating or represented BoD seat holders. If decisions are tied, the vote of the BoD chair (or his representative), and if not available, the vote of the BoD deputy chair (or his representative) are decisive.
    • People coming late or leaving early need to be mentioned in the minutes

    Videoconference Details

    The calls take place via Jitsi at https://jitsi.documentfoundation.org/TDFBoard

    Archives

    Minutes 2024-02-06 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2024-02-06, Brussels
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2024-02-05 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2024-02-05, Brussels
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2024-01-22 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2024-01-22
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2024-01-08 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2024-01-08
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-12-18 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Formal Meeting 2023-12-18
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-11-27 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-11-27
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-11-13 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-11-13
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-10-30 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-10-30
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-10-16 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-10-16
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-10-02 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-10-02
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-09-20 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-09-20
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-09-19 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-09-19
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-09-18 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Formal Meeting 2023-09-18
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-09-18 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-09-18
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-09-04 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-09-04
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-08-21 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-08-21
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-08-07 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-08-07
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-07-31 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-07-31
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-07-24 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-07-24
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-07-09 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-07-09
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-07-08 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-07-08
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-06-26 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-06-26
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-06-12

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-06-12
    Meeting Minutes

    Date: 2023-06-12
    Location: Jitsi

    Session chair: Thorsten Behrens
    Keeper of the minutes: Stephan Ficht

    In the meeting:

      Board Members - Thorsten Behrens, Cor Nouws, László Németh, Paolo Vecchi, Gabor Kelemen, Emiliano Vavassori (joined later)
      Board Deputy Members - Gabriel
      Membership Committee Members - Uwe, 
      Membership Committee Substitute Members - #
      Community - Helen, Jeremy, Dennis
      Team - Stephan Ficht, Florian Effenberger, Hossein, Heiko, Olivier, 
    

    Representation: none

    The Board of Directors at time of the call consists of 7 seat holders without deputies. In order to be quorate, the call needs to have 1/2 of the Board of Directors members, which gives 4. A total of 5 Board of Directors members are attending or represented in the call.

    The board waives all formal statutory requirements, or requirements in the foundations articles, or other requirements regarding form and invitation, time limits, and for the topics discussed in this meeting.

    The meeting is quorate and invitation happened in time. From now on, motions can be passed with the agreement of a simple majority of those remaining present. The majority threshold is currently 3.


    ///// Someone to start recording via Chrome /////

    Florian/Thorsten

    Recurring item: Publication of previous board minutes

    * board-discuss (now in Discourse)
    * tdf-members
    * wiki page for minutes
    * wiki page for decisions
    * private minutes to the MC
    

    Any updates regarding director affiliations and substantial interests:

    * no changes, current affiliations see election page:
     https://elections.documentfoundation.org/2021-board/candidates.html
    

    Would any of the directors present need to declare an interest, for any of the listed agenda items?

    * 1. 
    * 2. Thorsten, Gábor, Cor
    * 3. Thorsten, Gábor, Cor
    * 4. 
    * 5. 
    

    The public meeting commences at 16:02 UTC / 18:02 Berlin time.

    AGENDA:

    Public Part

    1. Answering questions from the community (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      Rationale: Provide an opportunity for the community to ask
      questions to the board and about TDF
    
    * Strategic goals of TDF? (Stephan)
      * lacks attention and time needed to work on them, but not forgotten (Cor)
      * agenda item for in-person board meeting in Budapest, and also for Bucharest conference
      * members of community and staff invited [to discuss], any specific questions
      * don't know what are the strategic goals actually (Stephan)
      * we defined 6 last year (see https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/f/1129830)
        * double number of developers
        * significantly increase contributions non-EU communities & entities
        * in 2 years, get two additional companies into the ecosystem
        * 10% of project budget decided/voted on by members
        * substantially increase diversity in the project
        * teaching LO programming & coding details be an university - computer science subject
      * first three ones urgent and important strategic goals (László)
        * doubling the number of developers
        * two new ecosystem companies within two years
        * 3rd: creating more contributions from Asia, not only from Western Europe or USA but other parts of the world
        * 4th: to create biggest FLOSS foundation of the world with stopping the arguing, the bad habits around foundation
        * other important goals
        * eg. to spending 10% of budget for some project democracy involving community or our members, especially members to decide about this amount of money
        * at OpenOffice.org times was a voting for most important developping areas in the OpenOffice.org bugchecker
        * possible to create similar for LibreOffice
        * add email addresses to get information about bug
        * eg. related to tendering would be fine to add the 10% to the ranking
        * because it is very important feedback for community members
        * most annoying problems will be resolved by the support of the foundation, all the money of that order supporters done worth of the foundation
      * two of those items you, Laszlo, that you mentioned we will deal later in this call with the budget (Thorsten)
        * we do indeed plan the draft proposal to set aside some 10% for that.
        * Heiko already mentioning/proposing to have the bugzilla voting there
        * I suspect that might something we want to reserve for members or for, let's say, core contributors
        * on diversity or getting contributions from slightly less well represented regions the other idea is bump Outreachy
        * run Outreachy and bump the budget a little bit
        * had mentoring, students stipend honouring KJ [Klaus Jürgen Weghorn], perhaps that moving to Outreachy
        * with GSoC this year there is quite non Central Europe, non US participants there. So that seems at least under way
        * any other comments from board members to this?
      * there is another strategic item (Gabriel)
        * teaching LibreOffice programming in university
        * wrt next LibOCon discussed to have kind of partnership with Bucharest university in this direction
        * together with Hossein, Ilmari and other team members created proposal for workshop at LibOCon
        * depending on outcome of workshop partnership will continue
        * hoping for positive results after workshop
      * thanks a lot Gabriel and Hossein (Thorsten)
        * a lot of work for organizing and holding that
      * need help in this area (Hossein)
        * can work on the proposal
        * lengthy programm, covers different areas
        * need help implement ideas and provide contents
        * several things needed for partnership and gathering people
        * eg. use SDK
    
     * folder: https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/f/1129829
     * explanation: https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/f/1129830
     
    * partnership w university, workshop (Gabriel)
      * need help in this area (Hossein)
        * program is lengthy
        * help too implement the idea
        * use SDK
        * focus on some areas, gather attention
        * many things related to open source
        * general ideas about open source, gerrit
      * already brought up to ESC (Thorsten)
        * having quick shout out on dev mailing list
        * I know a few people might be willing to support you there
        * lots of knowledge in the community
        * just needs some nudging
    * Budapest [board meeting] was mentioned (Paolo)
      * some board members will go there in July
      * no agenda so far
      * very close to LibOCon in Bucharest
      * when agenda will be available for those interested to what will be discussed?
    * nothing ready yet (Thorsten)
     * feel free to suggest something
     * as always for meetings 4 days deadline for invitation in advance
     * happy to hear if there is interest, suggestions
     * discuss on internal list
    

    The public meeting ends at 16:18 UTC / 18:18 Berlin time.

    Private Part

    2. Vote, Status Report, Discuss: TDF 2023 Budget Planning (tdf-board, 35 mins)

      Update on budget, new items, continue planning from FOSDEM in-
      person meeting
    

    3. Discuss: Handling of ESC projects (Paolo Vecchi, 10 mins)

    4. Discuss: Review legal budget (Paolo Vecchi, 5 mins)

      * skipped
    

    5. Discuss: Last minute item(s) (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      Rationale: if there is time left, and anything is popping up after
      sending the agenda
      * none
    

    The private meeting ends at 17:09 UTC / 19:09 Berlin time.

    Thorsten Behrens (Session chair)
    Stephan Ficht (Keeper of the minutes)

    Minutes 2023-05-29

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-05-29
    Meeting Minutes

    Date: 2023-05-29
    Location: Jitsi

    Session chair: Thorsten Behrens
    Keeper of the minutes: Cor Nouws

    In the meeting:

      Board Members - Thorsten, Cor, Paolo, Lázsló, Emiliano (joined later)
      Board Deputy Members - Gabriel
      Membership Committee Members - #
      Membership Committee Substitute Members - #
      Community - Alfredo, Tammy, Jessy
      Team - Hossein, Olivier
    

    Representation: Gabriel for Emiliano

    The Board of Directors at time of the call consists of 7 seat holders without deputies. In order to be quorate, the call needs to have 1/2 of the Board of Directors members, which gives 4. A total of 5 Board of Directors members are attending or represented in the call.

    The board waives all formal statutory requirements, or requirements in the foundations articles, or other requirements regarding form and invitation, time limits, and for the topics discussed in this meeting.

    The meeting is quorate and invitation happened in time. From now on, motions can be passed with the agreement of a simple majority of those remaining present. The majority threshold is currently 3.


            • Someone to start recording via Chrome *****

    Florian/Thorsten

    Recurring item: Publication of previous board minutes
    * board-discuss (now in Discourse)
    * tdf-members
    * wiki page for minutes
    * wiki page for decisions
    * private minutes to the MC
    

    Any updates regarding director affiliations and substantial interests:

    * no changes, current affiliations see election page:
     https://elections.documentfoundation.org/2021-board/candidates.html
    

    Would any of the directors present need to declare an interest, for any of the listed agenda items?

    * 1. 
    * 2. 
    * 3. 
    

    The public meeting commences at 16:# UTC / 18:# Berlin time.

    AGENDA:

    Public Part

    1. Answering questions from the community (tdf-board, 30 mins)

      Rationale: Provide an opportunity for the community to ask
      questions to the board and about TDF
    


    * Alfredo: Reading about very worring this happening in the board. Please explain. Thank you. 
    
    * Thorstem: tempest in a tea cup - something got public that should not have been. Now we fixed that
    
    * Paolo: Just a tempest in a tea cup? You must be joking. You deleted a vote I sent out claiming it contained confidential legal information. The quotes simply confirmed issues that were already public, so nothing privileged/confidential shared. That affects my duties and ability to do board work. As you made a mistake, just revert changes. Not even asking for you to apologize. 
    
    * Thorsten: you're not blocked
    
    * Cor: RoP changed, accept it. Its not the board did not notice your input, Paolo - but we simply decided otherwise. That you don't accept it, is clear. A waste of time. Not a valid way to behave as a board member. Covering things up, and accusing - also not ok.
    

    18:17 Emiliano joins, representation changes to Gabor

    * Laszlo: worried about the mails, we have lots of problems. Under the lid. Agree with Thorsten, we must share, what can be shared. Plan to present something at next LibOCon, on the history - which is related to this. Be good to know about our history. sent a few messages on board-discuss, on the root of the problem. Share link: https://www.mail-archive.com/search?q=laszlo.+nemeth&l=board-discuss%40documentfoundation.org - related problems, and answers. So I'm actually contributing to the discussion. A long list of mails to answers, perhaps publicly. Also on the future. The thing here, was a board decision, not just Cor or Thorsten
    
    * Cor: hard to keep track on the amount of information - but usually a bit more flexible. But, with a day job. Emiliano. Lazslo, Gabriel, Gabor - cannot be anything else, but both the struggle, and the avalanche after the day job, careful in replying, only expected after past behaviour. There are quite some thoughtful replies. There are board members, doing productive things like hiring QA
    

    2. Discuss: Schedule meetings during LibOCon in Bucharest (tdf-board, 15 mins)

    * Gabriel:
     * questions on exact schedule
     * structure like the past years
     * 21-23rd of Sept main days
     * 18-20th rest of the meetings
     * community day on the 20th
     * 19th MC/board/staff
     * 18th board-only
    
    * Cor:
     * posted to TDF internal
     * good to take time, have organized discussions, on various topics
     * which are important for foundation and community
     * there are items that keep popping up - be good to sort out, and not sweep under the rug
     * not every detail matters, but: general direction of development, and ecosystem
     * natural questions, looking at the history of the foundation
     * was in the community council
     * it is obvious, people are concerned, wrt balance of power
     * seems much of that is beneath current discussions
     * also important: how to grow ecosystem number
     * next decade manifesto
     * also: a report, on areas where we can improve in working together
     * all these things matter to members - valuable to meet on wednesday
    
    * Thorsten:
     * might need larger room
    
    * Gabriel
     * no prob. still vacation time
    
    * Tammy: no input, I'm new here
    
    * Olivier:
     * in favour
    
    * Gabriel
     * very happy if we can discuss, and end in something positive
     * schedule: asking hossein wrt the workshop? when?
    
    * Hossein
     * busy with personal stuff - couldn't check yet, what is the best time for the workshop
     * the actual program - needs contributions from me, stephane, others
     * hope others can help? workshop programme - covers different things, from opensource, to programming (sdk, extensions, core hacking)
     * so, can be flexible for the schedule - but having help in the area is appreciated. will help achieve the goals for the workshop
     * can prepare good materials. the plan is 3 days workshop
     * will discuss schedule with gabriel
    
    * gabriel
     * end of uni year, vacations soon starting
     * don't have enough time otherwise to promote
     * in a hurry, go to university tomorrow, share some posters
     * discuss with representatives? needs an answer ASAP
     * unsure when to schedule - not sure exact days are issue
     * of course, if main conference is in parallel - then its an issue
     * otherwise, concerned about Hossein/not being able to participate in conference?
    
    * Hossein:
     * can we overlap with actual conference?
     * depends on size of workshop (wrt room sizes)
     * having before or after the main conference, would be best
    
    * Cor:
     * comes down to marketing?
     * who's the kind of person we want in the workshop?
     * suggestion: one day on tuesday? then the next two days, just half-days, so they can join the conference?
     * Muhammed Kara, the blooged on the some teaching endeavours he did - gave quite some courses, during uni - with the idea to entice them to do libo hacking
     * he might have ideas, experience, materials? perhaps useful to poke him for hossein
     * more general discussion topics - lets plan, please everyone look out for updates!
    
    * Hossein:
     * will poke Muhammed
     * also held a workshop at uni - but not the extended workshop we have now
     * target audience are students
     * important to have them - make sure we have people, who can/will present
     * big gap - asking people to travel twice is a prob - can't have gaps between conf and workshop, sadly
    
    * Tammy:
     * asking if it can be virtual? will not be there
     * perhaps could help, remotely?
    
    * Hossein:
     * virtual event, if its a small one - is possible
     * the blocker will be, preparing material for workshop is time-consuming
     * not all people presenting (him, stephane)
     * can prepare all the materials
     * but: a small session, to understand, who will attend
     * ask who want to attend, to be present?
     * for efficiency, for the virtual event, vs. in person - believes
     * better onsite, for helping people out
     * but: prelim session, to prepare, with interested people, so get prereqs prepared - could be useful?
     * have some laptop/mobile phone, to present the workshop online
    
    * Thorsten
     * suggests remote teachers, and a 2nd event purely virtual
    
    * Hossein:
     * will think about it - but a lot of work surely
     * use chatrooms in any case
     * needs audience to prepare, knowing who/how many, and have them instruct to prepare properly
     * be great to have a chat room way before, to meet & sync
    
    * Gabriel
     * very difficult to know who will participate
     * people will just show up
     * suppose that - people who will attend, will have the needed skills
     * unclear if smart to have workshops overlap the conference
     * might be better to have people being able to meet community, and overlap the events
     * if the event is a success, uni will be happy to continue collaboration - e.g. involve libo in 
    

    The public meeting ends at UTC / 19:15 Berlin time.

    Private Part

    3. Discuss: Last minute item(s) (tdf-board, 15 mins)

      Rationale: if there is time left, and anything is popping up after
      sending the agenda
    

    The private meeting ends at ### UTC / ### Berlin time.

    Thorsten Behrens (Session chair)
    Cor Nouws (Keeper of the minutes)

    Minutes 2023-05-15 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-05-15
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-04-17

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-04-17
    Meeting Minutes

    Date: 2023-04-17
    Location: Jitsi

    Session chair: Thorsten Behrens
    Keeper of the minutes: Thorsten Behrens, N.N.

    In the meeting:

      Board Members - Thorsten, Cor, Gabor, Laszlo, Emiliano (joining 18:15)
      Board Deputy Members -
      Membership Committee Members - Gabriel, Uwe
      Membership Committee Substitute Members -
      Community - Simon, Timo, "M"
      Team - Sophie (for 5 minutes)
    

    Representation: None

    The Board of Directors at time of the call consists of 7 seat holders without deputies. In order to be quorate, the call needs to have 1/2 of the Board of Directors members, which gives 4. A total of 5 Board of Directors members are attending or represented in the call.

    The board waives all formal statutory requirements, or requirements in the foundations articles, or other requirements regarding form and invitation, time limits, and for the topics discussed in this meeting.

    The meeting is quorate and invitation happened in time. From now on, motions can be passed with the agreement of a simple majority of those remaining present. The majority threshold is currently 3.


            • Someone to start recording via Chrome *****


    Recurring item: Publication of previous board minutes

    * board-discuss (now in Discourse)
    * tdf-members
    * wiki page for minutes
    * wiki page for decisions
    * private minutes to the MC
    

    Any updates regarding director affiliations and substantial interests:

    • no changes, current affiliations see election page:
     https://elections.documentfoundation.org/2021-board/candidates.html
    

    Would any of the directors present need to declare an interest, for any of the listed agenda items?

    • 1.
    • 2.
    • 3.
    • 4.
    • 5. Thorsten, Gabor, Cor
    • 6. Thorsten, Gabor, Cor
    • 7.
    • 8. Thorsten, Cor, Gabor
    • 9.

    The public meeting commences at 16:02 UTC / 18:02 Berlin time.

    AGENDA:

    Public Part

    1. Answering questions from the community (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      Rationale: Provide an opportunity for the community to ask questions to the board and about TDF
    
      * none this time
    

    2. Vote, Discuss: Review & final decision FSF AB seat (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      * serious accusations around RMS & treatment of women
      * March 2021: situation deteriorates, RMS returns to board:
        https://twitter.com/nixcraft/status/1373905399707955202
      * previous decision: suspend AB seat, until RMS/FSF situation clarifies
      * our blog: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2021/03/25/statement-on-rms-and-fsf/
      * number of organisations issue similar statements:
        * sfconservancy/outreachy:
          https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/mar/23/outreachy-fsf/
        * Drupal: similarly anodyne statement like TDF -
    
    https://www.drupal.org/association/blog/statement-from-drupal-association-board-regarding-the-free-software-foundation-fsf
        * EFF: https://www.eff.org/de/deeplinks/2021/03/statement-re-election-richard-stallman-fsf-board
    
      Further information:
      * https://www.fsf.org/about/staff-and-board/board/board-process-graph
      * https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-board-frequently-asked-questions-faq#BoardvsVoting
      * current members eligible for voting: Odile Bénassy, Ian Kelling, Geoffrey Knauth, Henry Poole, Richard Stallman, Gerald Sussman, and Alexandre Oliva.
    
      Eyal input:
      * https://stallmansupport.org/debunking-false-accusations-against-richard-stallman.html
      * https://itsfoss.com/richard-stallman-controversy/
      * generally considers the old decision to be out-of-line
    
      Discussion: reinstate, or permanently remove FSF?
    
      Simon:
       * has anyone contacted Zöe, to understand matters somehow better?
       * they have had some staffing problems
       * extremely intemperate reactions at the time, and currently
       * assume there's equally held & strong opinion the other way round?
       * suggests: perhaps defer to a new board, to make this decision?
       * situation has apparently not calmed down sufficiently
    
     Cor:
      * how likely, given the long time, that people will have changed their mind?
      * for a responsible way to resolve it - why expect this to happen in 2024?
    
     Simon:
      * you should consult Zöe first in any case, she can if needed provide necessary reassurance
      * publicly available information is not presented moderately
      * as a warning, this topic might be used in electioneering
    
     Thorsten:
      * how is the board thinking about asking Zöe & postponing for the moment?
    
     Gabor:
      * supports postponing, in favour of reaching out to FSF first of all
      * everything else is not fair - this needs more information
    
     Lazslo:
      * agrees to wait a little bit longer
      * saw the news about Zöe, and her role - yet, it was already last year in March
      * maybe we can wait, and leave it to the next board - two years, it is like for our term?
      * time can solve a lot of problems
      * asking is a good idea anyway
      * read opinions from Michael & Thorsten - not an expert, so good to hear directly from Zöe
    
     Cor:
      * does not agree fully with Eyal
      * when we acted initially - there was a lot of noise everywhere
      * but when looking now, it might well be, our acting was biased?
      * seeing how FSF now works on their procedures - looks good!
      * no objections in general to have them back
    
     Motion:
      * reach out to Zöe first, shelve decision until receiving an answer
      * unanimous approval
    

    3. Discuss: Have a members-only board call section (Thorsten Behrens, 5 mins)

      As suggested by Simon, there might be topics on the agenda that should not be public, but it's useful to have TDF members join.
    
      Examples from the past were e.g. budget discussions, and other areas where we invited some MC members to join.
    
      Simon:
       * in general, prefers fully private board neetings
       * otherwise, it opens you to populist attacks
       * but: if having public meetings, why not have tdf members join for the more private parts?
       * better than having an elastic audience, with invited guests and/or MC
       * e.g. for the tendering process, or budgetting - seems TDF trustees might have an interest?
       * everything that can't be public - but trustees should attent
       * except for executive sessions, fully board-private (like for legal or HR topics)
       * that way, you have a wider number of voices present
    
      Gabriele:
       * just TDF members can attend? instead of everyone?
       * is that not already the case?
       * for sensitive/staff topics - nobody but board should attend
       * otherwise agrees with Simon
       * could be another good reason to encourage people to become members!
    
      Laslo:
       * it is a good idea, supports it
       * optional section, to ask this type of topics?
    
      Thorsten:
       * supports the idea
       * while there might still be topics, that should be strictly board-only
       * it would still be more open, to our members
       * then again, some topics require a good deal of background?
    
      Uwe:
       * missing background is not a very good reason
       * better prepare materials in an accesible way!
       * already called for more transparency - very much likes the idea, thx Simon!
    
      Emiliano:
       * would like to say, likes the proposal
       * unfortunately, needs better preparation of board meetings
       * PoV director vs. member, should work on lowering the difference between members and board
       * favours the proposal, but - certainly challenging for the board
    

    4. Status Report: Organize next in-person BoD meeting (Gabor Kelemen, Florian Effenberger, 5 mins)

      Proposal: Gabor would like to organize the next in-person BoD meeting to make progress on various legal/budget/etc. issues sometime between April-June in Budapest. Invite interested MC members as well, as they have expressed motivation to help; also for a bit of transparency. Location would be Budapest, one or the other co-working space.
    
      Questions to discuss: what would be some potentially important topics and their deadlines? We can then choose an exact date a bit before those.
    
      Potential result: timely resolution of urgent, important issues where external factors put us into time pressure.
    
      Status from last call: Gabor setup a poll with Florian (with weekends that work locally)
    
      Gabor:
       * not much progress, will look into it this week
    

    The public meeting ends at 16:42 UTC / 18:42 Berlin time

    Private Part

    5. Status Report, Discuss: Improve tendering process (tdf-board, 10 mins)

      Reason for privacy: legal topics
    

    6. Status Report, Discuss: TDF 2023 Budget Planning (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      Update on budget, new items, continue planning from FOSDEM in-person meeting
    

    7. Status Report, Discuss: Discussion and budget for developer roles (Florian Effenberger, 5 mins)

    8. Status Report, Discuss: Next steps legal ToDo items (tdf-board, 15 mins)

    9. Discuss: Last minute item(s) (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      Rationale: if there is time left, and anything is popping up after sending the agenda
    

    The private meeting ends at 17:11 UTC / 19:11 Berlin time.

    Thorsten Behrens (Session chair)
    Thorsten Behrens (Keeper of the minutes)

    Minutes 2023-04-03

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-04-03
    Meeting Minutes

    Date: 2023-04-03
    Location: Jitsi

    Session chair: Thorsten Behrens
    Keeper of the minutes: Stephan Ficht

    In the meeting:

      Board Members - Thorsten, Cor, Paolo, Gabor, Laszlo
      Board Deputy Members - Gabriel
      Membership Committee Members - Marina, Uwe
      Membership Committee Substitute Members -
      Community - 'A', Simon
      Team - Stephan, Sophie, Florian, Guilhem
    


    Representation: Gabriel for Emiliano

    The Board of Directors at time of the call consists of 7 seat holders without deputies. In order to be quorate, the call needs to have 1/2 of the Board of Directors members, which gives 4. A total of 6 Board of Directors members are attending or represented in the call.

    The board waives all formal statutory requirements, or requirements in the foundations articles, or other requirements regarding form and invitation, time limits, and for the topics discussed in this meeting.

    The meeting is quorate and invitation happened in time. From now on, motions can be passed with the agreement of a simple majority of those remaining present. The majority threshold is currently 4.


            • Someone to start recording via Chrome *****


    Recurring item: Publication of previous board minutes

    * board-discuss (now in Discourse)
    * tdf-members
    * wiki page for minutes
    * wiki page for decisions
    * private minutes to the MC
    

    Any updates regarding director affiliations and substantial interests:

    * no changes, current affiliations see election page:
     https://elections.documentfoundation.org/2021-board/candidates.html
    * Gabor and Thorsten notify the board of trustees of allotropia's partnership with Collabora, through which they now fund part of our development work
    

    Would any of the directors present need to declare an interest, for any of the listed agenda items?

    * 1.
    * 2.
    * 3.
    * 4. Thorsten, Gabor, Cor (TDF 2023 Budget Planning)
    * 5.
    * 6.
    * 7. Thorsten, Gabor, Cor (Next steps legal ToDo items)
    * 8.
    

    The public meeting commences at 16:01 UTC / 18:01 Berlin time.

    AGENDA:

    Public Part

    1. Answering questions from the community (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      Rationale: Provide an opportunity for the community to ask questions to the board and about TDF
    
    * any questions? (Thorsten)
    
    * -none-
    

    2. Status Report, Discuss: Update on formalising board fiduciary duties (Paolo Vecchi, Cor Nouws, 5 mins)

      Board members have fiduciary duties towards the foundation.
    
      This document is a draft, how directors would ideally act in the discharge of their roles and duties:
    
      https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/f/1235729
    
      This documents contains more info and examples that TDF might consider adopting:
    
      https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/f/1069321
    
      Public link: https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/FZKYSkyPZZfty5L
    
       The discussion, progress and results should be shared in public.
    
    * refering to email about conflict of interest (Paolo)
     * stimulating bod members to participate
    * maybe some more time needed to digest (Thorsten)
    * makes sense to take more time (Cor)
     * six items
     * let's try to engage more
    * no comments so far (Paolo)
    * Simon: I looked at the directory and it contains a great deal of information, and is unclear about who created the text being proposed as a policy
    * potentially useful (Thorsten)
     * give more time
     * choose if priority
     * wait for input till next board call
    * congrats on dropping the doc (Simon)
     * high barrier to get it
     * comments of no interest at this place
     * is critical
     * political?
     * concerned as a trustee
    * many other organizations having fiduciary duties as part of laws or voluntary adoption (Paolo)
     * learning from them
     * check what's in the folder
     * in the head of the folder there is a description of the content
    * shared already on board-discuss forum (Paolo)
    * revisit in 4 weeks time latest (Thorsten)
    

    3. Status Report: Move board-discuss & tdf-members to Discourse (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      * migration happened: https://community.documentfoundation.org/t/migration-of-tdf-board-discuss-list-to-community-forum/9268/3
      * thanks a lot to Guilhem for handling this on a Sunday even, to be not disruptive during business hours!
    
    * happened last night (Thorsten)
    * seems all have been done (Florian)
     * big kudos to Guilhelm for moving the ml to Discourse
    * there might be issues with imported emails containing dashed lines eg. "-----" (Paolo)
    * those I've seen cut the text below the dashes (Paolo)
    * (admit is my fault for not checking better earlier, sorry G) (Paolo)
    * when all on SSO? (Thorsten)
    * working on this (Uwe)
     * lot of work
     * hoping to get it done in the next quarter
    * reply-to is set to tdf-mebers (Florian)
    * shelve to eginning of q3, for tdf-internal (Thorsten)
    * not all ,ebers subscrivebd to internal (Cor)
     * encourage people to be there
     * fair to discuss among members, not in public
    * diff between internal and members (Marina)
    * do checks (Cor)
    * check situation about SSo (Thorsten)
    

    The public meeting ends at 16:18 UTC / 18:18 Berlin time

    Private Part

    4. Status Report, Discuss: TDF 2023 Budget Planning (tdf-board, 10 mins)

      Update on budget, new items, continue planning from FOSDEM in-person meeting
    

    5. Status Report: Leftover Brussels items (Florian Effenberger, Thorsten Behrens, 10 mins)

    6. Status Report, Discuss: Next steps legal ToDo items (tdf-board, 10 mins)

    7. Status Report, Discuss: Discussion and budget for developer roles (Florian Effenberger, 10 mins)

    8. Discuss: Last minute item(s) (tdf-board, 5 mins)

    The private meeting ends at 17:34 UTC / 19:34 Berlin time.

    Thorsten Behrens (Session chair)
    Stephan Ficht (Keeper of the minutes)

    Minutes 2023-03-20

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-03-20
    Meeting Minutes

    Date: 2023-03-20
    Location: Jitsi

    Session chair: Thorsten Behrens
    Keeper of the minutes: Stephan Ficht

    In the meeting:

      Board Members - Thorsten, Cor, Paolo, Gabor, Emiliano, Laszlo
      Board Deputy Members - Gabriel
      Membership Committee Members - Gustavo, Marina
      Membership Committee Substitute Members -
      Community - Andreas
      Team - Florian, Stephan, Sophie, Guilhem, Stéphane
    

    Representation: Gabriel for Ayhan

    The Board of Directors at time of the call consists of 7 seat holders without deputies. In order to be quorate, the call needs to have 1/2 of the Board of Directors members, which gives 4. A total of 7 Board of Directors members are attending or represented in the call.

    The board waives all formal statutory requirements, or requirements in the foundations articles, or other requirements regarding form and invitation, time limits, and for the topics discussed in this meeting.

    The meeting is quorate and invitation happened in time. From now on, motions can be passed with the agreement of a simple majority of those remaining present. The majority threshold is currently 4.


            • Someone to start recording via Chrome *****


    Recurring item: Publication of previous board min utes

    * board-discuss
    * tdf-members
    * wiki page for minutes
    * wiki page for decisions
    * private minutes to the MC
    

    Any updates regarding director affiliations and substantial interests:

    * no changes, current affiliations see election page: https://elections.documentfoundation.org/2021-board/candidates.html
    * Gabor and Thorsten notify the board of trustees of allotropia's partnership with Collabora, through which they now fund part of our development work
    

    Would any of the directors present need to declare an interest, for any of the listed agenda items?

    * 1.
    * 2.
    * 3.
    * 4.
    * 5. Thorsten, Gabor, Cor
    * 6. Thorsten, Gabor, Cor
    * 7. Thorsten, Gabor, Cor
    * 8.
    * 9.
    

    The public meeting commences at 17:00 UTC / 18:00 Berlin time.

    AGENDA:

    Public Part

    1. Answering questions from the community (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      Rationale: Provide an opportunity for the community to ask questions to the board and about TDF
    
    * some discussion on the recent decision to record board meetings (privately)
    * not ideal to have this discussion now - there was a public vote (Thorsten)
    * recording was stopped after request from Stephan
    * let's have the announcement that board meetings are recorded in the meeting / agenda email, starting next call
      * AI Thorsten add to agenda template
    * What has been your most important personal achievements in the interest of the foundation since you took over as chairman around one year ago? (Stephan)
      * running board in a difficult time, getting decisions made (Thorsten)
    * what's the relevance of raising this right now? (Cor)
    * if there's concerns - perhaps ask directly or 1:1? (Thorsten)
    

    2. Status Report, Discuss: Update on formalising board fiduciary duties (Paolo Vecchi, 5 mins)

      Board members have fiduciary duties towards the foundation.
    
      This document is a draft, how directors would ideally act in the discharge of their roles and duties: https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/f/1235729
      This documents contains more info and examples that TDF might consider adopting: https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/f/1069321
      Public link for both of the above: https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/FZKYSkyPZZfty5L
    
    * translates what law says to very simple rules (Paolo)
     * seem to be not much interest
     * feels lack of interest, little feedback
     * why no more interest from the board wrt to these simple rules
     * obvious rules
    * there were problems with the links before, now seems to work (Thorsten)
     * those things listed are pretty obvious - perhaps that's the reason for little feedback so far?
     * board has lived by those (or similar) rules
    * helpful for new board members (Paolo)
    * put that in the onboarding then (Cor)
     * stuff there is common sense
     * warning: the current draft contradicts the CoI policy in at least one place, so needs work (also to keep rulebooks consistent at TDF)
     * contradiction in regulations may raise big problems
    * given we're running late - discuss further issues via email? (Thorsten)
    * can members comment? (Sophie)
    * yes of course! (Thorsten)
    * Cor and other board members can then contribute in correcting the error he spotted and then discuss it with the members via email/nextcloud (Paolo)
    * much prefers nextcloud over email (better & more structured) (Thorsten)
    

    3. Status Report: Move board-discuss [& tdf-members] to Discourse (Florian Effenberger, Thorsten Behrens, 5 mins)

       * any remaining question?
       * what's the timeline now?
      Materials:
       * test instance https://communitytest.documentfoundation.org/c/board-discuss/194
       * import options and shortcomings, see https://redmine.documentfoundation.org/issues/3567#note-15 to #note-19.
    
    * Announcement sent today: https://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/2023/msg00070.html
    
    * agreement was: don't migrate tdf-mebers (Florian)
    * was late in this discussion, apologies (Sophie)
    * indeed, recollection was to start w. board-discuss (Thorsten)
     * within two weeks
     * tdf-members has intersecting issues with MC tools and SSO
     * let's not block on that
    * AI Sophie: clarify board-discuss migration on tdf-members
    

    The public meeting ends at 17:28 UTC / 18:28 Berlin time

    Private Part

    4. Vote, Discuss: Discussion and budget for developer roles (Florian Effenberger, 5 mins)

    5. Status Report, Discuss: Improve tendering process (tdf-board, 5 mins)

    6. Status Report, Discuss: Next steps legal ToDo items (Paolo Vecchi, 20 mins)

    7. Status Report, Discuss: TDF 2023 Budget Planning (tdf-board, 5 mins)

    8. Status Report: Leftover Brussels items (Florian Effenberger, Thorsten Behrens, 5 mins)

    9. Discuss: Last minute item(s) (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      Rationale: if there is time left, and anything is popping up after sending the agenda
    

    The private meeting ends at 18:21 UTC / 19:21 Berlin time.

    Thorsten Behrens (Session chair)
    Stephan Ficht (Keeper of the minutes)

    Minutes 2023-03-06

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-03-06
    Meeting Minutes

    Date: 2023-03-06
    Location: Jitsi

    Session chair: Thorsten Behrens
    Keeper of the minutes: Stephan Ficht

    In the meeting:

      Board Members - Thorsten, Paolo, Gabor, Cor, Emiliano, Laszlo
      Board Deputy Members - Gabriel
      Membership Committee Members - Marina, Gustavo, Gabriele, Uwe
      Membership Committee Substitute Members - Shinji
      Community - Andreas
      Team - Florian, Sophie, Stephan, Guilhem, Stéphane, Olivier
    

    Representation: Gabriel for Ayhan

    The Board of Directors at time of the call consists of 7 seat holders without deputies. In order to be quorate, the call needs to have 1/2 of the Board of Directors members, which gives 4. A total of 7 Board of Directors members are attending or represented in the call.

    The board waives all formal statutory requirements, or requirements in the foundations articles, or other requirements regarding form and invitation, time limits, and for the topics discussed in this meeting.

    The meeting is quorate and invitation happened in time. From now on, motions can be passed with the agreement of a simple majority of those remaining present. The majority threshold is currently 4.

    Recurring item: Publication of previous board minutes

     * board-discuss
     * tdf-members
     * wiki page for minutes
     * wiki page for decisions
     * private minutes to the MC
    

    Any updates regarding director affiliations and substantial interests:

    * no changes, current affiliations see election page: https://elections.documentfoundation.org/2021-board/candidates.html
    * Gabor and Thorsten notify the board of trustees of allotropia's partnership with Collabora, through which they now fund part of our development work
    

    Would any of the directors present need to declare an interest, for any of the listed agenda items?

    * 1.
    * 2.
    * 3.
    * 4.
    * 5. Thorsten, Cor, Gabor
    * 6.
    * 7.
    * 8.
    * 9.
    

    The public meeting commences at 17:04 UTC / 18:04 Berlin time.

    AGENDA:

    Public Part

    1. Answering questions from the community (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      Rationale: Provide an opportunity for the community to askquestions to the board and about TDF
    
    * Community members ask for travel refunds, but we have no budget - what to do? (Sophie)
      * Let's carry-over previous year's budget? (Thorsten)
      * Should be between 20-40k €, can look up exact number (Florian)
      * No objections
    
    * any further questions? (Thorsten)
    * working for next edition of Latam (Gustavo)
     * started to work on agenda
     * question about the budget
     * need time to decide things
     * when is decision to be taken wrt budget
     * this month?
     * Sophie answered patially
    * when does the event happen? (Cor)
    * ~ Aug in Guadaljara (Gustavo)
     * may change
     * need guarantee to run event
    * very likely to find the money (Thorsten)
     * AI: to decide in March
     * run vote on this
     * follow up on initial email
     * have to run the budget before
    

    2. Status Report: Organize next in-person BoD meeting (Gabor Kelemen, Florian Effenberger, 5 mins)

      Proposal: Gabor would like to organize the next in-person BoDmeeting to make progress on various legal/budget/etc. issues sometime between April-June in Budapest. Invite interested MC members as well, as they have expressed motivation to help; alsofor a bit of transparency. Location would be Budapest, one or the other co-working space.
    
      Questions to discuss: what would be some potentially importanttopics and their deadlines? We can then choose an exact date a bit before those.
    
      Potential result: timely resolution of urgent, important issues where external factors put us into time pressure.
    
      Status from last call: Gabor setup a poll with Florian (with weekends that work locally)
    
    * poll is set up (Florian)
      * happy to share with MC as well
      * Gabor to quickly cross-check if all poll dates are ok
    * will look soonly in possible venues (Gabor)
    

    3. Discuss: Discuss formalizing board fiduciary duties (Paolo Vecchi, 5 mins)

      Board members have fiduciary duties towards the foundation.
    
      This document is a draft, how directors would ideally act in the discharge of their roles and duties:
    
      https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/f/1235729
      Public link to documents: https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/FZKYSkyPZZfty5L
    
      This documents contains more info and examples that TDF might consider adopting:
    
      https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/f/1069321
    
      The discussion, progress and results should be shared in public.
    
    * rediscuss properly to implement (Paolo)
     * new members must understand what fiduciary duties are and follow them
     * recent events pushed me to promote them again
     * folder shared w all elements present
     * standardize set of fiduciary duties
    * issues w links shared (Cor)
    * seems to be fixed (Paolo)
     * board aware of WIP
     * time to implement it
     * perhaps take example wrt to other foundation
     * provide active participation of the staff in board meetings to improve
     * transparency, accountability and improve trust.
    * good to consider, as TDF is growing and formalizing things (Thorsten)
     * had the last, and this board working on a number of policies, also with support from MC (Thorsten)
     * but: offensive that board members should somehow not be aware of their fiduciary duties
     * rejects the notion this is the case - also expectations and processes are part of the (in particular new board) onboarding procedures (Thorsten)
     * for the proposal: probably not all people found time to check
     * and relative to other important _and_ urgent things - this is now 2nd tier
     * lets review & discuss, if necessary internally
     * all directors, please do have a look to these docs in the folder
    * Some didn't notice that we are having a governance review (Paolo)
     * the the board did not discuss a vote that went from a CoC and communication review to a full governance review
     * board members seem not to have realise that there has been a massive change of scope
     * Interviewer from contracting company stated fiduciary duties is a normal thing and every board should have them clearly defined but we don't.
     * glad to see that Paolo sees benefit in the communication review process now (Thorsten)
    

    The public meeting ends at 17:26 UTC / 18:26 Berlin time

    Private Part

    MC remains in the meeting

    4. Vote, Discuss: Discussion and budget for developer roles (Florian Effenberger, 5 mins)

      Reason for privacy: HR topics
    
      Florian to update the board on recent progress, possibly decide on concrete hirings
    

    5. Status Report, Discuss: Improve tendering process (tdf-board, 10 mins)

      Reason for privacy: legal topics
    

    6. Status Report, Discuss: TDF 2023 Budget Planning (tdf-board, 15 mins)

      Reason for privacy: legal & tax topics
    
      Update on budget, new items, continue planning from FOSDEM in-person meeting
    

    7. Status Report: Leftover Brussels items (Florian Effenberger, Thorsten Behrens, 5 mins)

      Reason for privacy: legal topics
    

    8. Vote: Next steps legal ToDo items (Paolo Vecchi, 5 mins)

      Reason for privacy: legal topics
    

    9. Discuss: Last minute item(s) (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      Rationale: if there is time left, and anything is popping up after sending the agenda
    

    The private meeting ends at 19:06 UTC / 20:06 Berlin time.

    Thorsten Behrens (Session chair)
    Stephan Ficht (Keeper of the minutes)

    Minutes 2023-02-20

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-02-20
    Meeting Minutes

    Date: 2023-02-20
    Location: Jitsi

    Session chair: Thorsten Behrens
    Keeper of the minutes: Florian Effenberger

    In the meeting:

      Board Members - Thorsten, Ayhan, Cor, Gabor, Paolo, Laszlo, Emiliano
      Board Deputy Members - Gabriel
      Membership Committee Members - Marina, Uwe, Gabriele (from 17:15 UTC/18:15 Berlin time on)
      Membership Committee Substitute Members - Shinji
      Community - Deirdre, Andreas
      Team - Olivier, Florian, Sophie
    

    Representation: None

    The Board of Directors at time of the call consists of 7 seat holders without deputies. In order to be quorate, the call needs to have 1/2 of the Board of Directors members, which gives 4. A total of 7 Board of Directors members are attending or represented in the call.

    The board waives all formal statutory requirements, or requirements in the foundations articles, or other requirements regarding form and invitation, time limits, and for the topics discussed in this meeting.

    The meeting is quorate and invitation happened in time. From now on, motions can be passed with the agreement of a simple majority of those remaining present. The majority threshold is currently 4.

    Recurring item: Publication of previous board minutes

    * board-discuss
    * tdf-members
    * wiki page for minutes
    * wiki page for decisions
    * private minutes to the MC
    

    Any updates regarding director affiliations?

    * no changes, current affiliations see election page:
     https://elections.documentfoundation.org/2021-board/candidates.html
    

    Would any of the directors present need to declare an interest, for any of the listed agenda items?

    * 1.
    * 2.
    * 3.
    * 4.
    * 5.
    * 6. Thorsten, Gábor, Cor
    * 7.
    

    The public meeting commences at 17:03 UTC / 18:03 Berlin time.

    AGENDA:

    Public Part

    1. Answering questions from the community (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      Rationale: Provide an opportunity for the community to ask questions to the board and about TDF
    
    * Any progress on Gabor's proposal wrt. tendering, discussed in Brussels? (Olivier)
      * work in progress, some discussions, updates probably as early as next week (Florian)
    

    2. Vote, Discuss: Review & final decision FSF AB seat (tdf-board, 10 mins)

      * serious accusations around RMS & treatment of women
      * March 2021: situation deteriorates, RMS returns to board:
        https://twitter.com/nixcraft/status/1373905399707955202
      * previous decision: suspend AB seat, until RMS/FSF situation clarifies
      * our blog:
    

    https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2021/03/25/statement-on-rms-and-fsf/

      * number of organisations issue similar statements:
        * sfconservancy/outreachy:
          https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/mar/23/outreachy-fsf/
        * Drupal: similarly anodyne statement like TDF -
          https://www.drupal.org/association/blog/statement-from-drupal-association-board-regarding-the-free-software-foundation-fsf
        * EFF: https://www.eff.org/de/deeplinks/2021/03/statement-re-election-richard-stallman-fsf-board
    
      Discuss: reinstate, or permanently remove FSF?
    
    * Quick summary of situation, reference to blogpost, key people at FSF seems not to have changed - defer
      decision or make temporary suspension a permanent one? (Florian)
      * no significant change, the previous people are still around
      * actually change at FSF, new election, suggest to keep temporary suspension a bit longer (Paolo)
      * When is election due? (Thorsten)
      * around March (Paolo)
      * shelve until April then? (Thorsten)
      * want actual positive change to happen, let's see before taking any decision (Paolo)
      * Anyone not happy with shelving this until April? (Thorsten)
        * no one raises hand
    

    3. Discuss: Next in-person BoD meeting (Gabor Kelemen, 5 mins)

      Proposal: Gabor would like to organize the next in-person BoD meeting to make progress on various
      legal/budget/etc. issues sometime between April-June in Budapest. Invite interested MC members as well,
      as they have expressed motivation to help; also for a bit of transparency. Location would be Budapest,
      one or the other co-working space.
    
      Questions to discuss: what would be some potentially important topics and their deadlines? We can then
      choose an exact date a bit before those.
    
      Potential result: timely resolution of urgent, important issues where external factors put us into
      time pressure.
    
    * Have another in-person meeting similar as in Berlin (Gabor)
      * happy to organize this in Budapest
      * depends on how urgent are tasks to solve and what are hard deadlines
      * 2nd half of April, mid-May
      * coworking space can host us
      * invite interested MC members, showed interest in Brussels and help us with our problems
    

    - Gabriele Ponzo joins 17:15 UTC/18:15 Berlin time -

    * should prepare meeting upfront, have information in time (Cor)
    * loves to have a meeting, want to see positive and fast progress on various issues working on, before
      setting a date (Paolo)
    * set tentative date, easier to solve controversial issues in person (Thorsten)
    * lets run a Nextcloud poll (Florian)
    * lets not block on external deadlines, rather make sure everyone can join (Florian)
    * AI Gabor setup a poll with Florian (with weekends that work locally)
    

    4. Discuss: Improving boards minuting (Florian Effenberger, Thorsten Behrens, 10 mins)

      Suggesting a set of steps that we can make here:
      1- create audio recording
      2- possibly have them in written form by making use of 'speach to text' techn.
      3- someone creates proper minutes from 1(+2); minutes give a broad summary of statements, and clear
         AI's/conclusions/decisions.
      4- these should be available in the week after a meeting and to be approved in the next meeting.
    
    * want to improve minutes, costs time, struggle for everyone (Cor)
    * clearly state various positions of directors and involved people
    * in the old days of TDF, had recorded phone calls (Thorsten)
    * not necessary to publish the recording, but supports after-meeting work for minuting
    * What about private part of the call that touches confidential topics? (Marina)
    * can't put that into cloud services for transcript
    * something running on our own servers? (Cor)
    * concerned to have not much on the private part, and therefore not improve the current situation (Marina)
    * idea is to have entire call recorded (Thorsten)
    * minuting is work, needs to be given time - work is the same whether automated transcription or not (Uwe)
    * agrees that minuting needs time (Gabriele)
    * heard of Cabolo, never saw it in practice, no idea about cost
    * suggest to have records as well as minutes (Paolo)
    * people might not feel comfortable to join a recorded call (Thorsten)
    * less topics and especially less controversial topics in the past (Florian)
    * back then, about one hour for post-production of a one hour meeting
    * time well spent, localization, involve community (which is a problem these days) etc.
    * turn into e-mail vote to record meetings (Thorsten)
    * need to ask Guilhem for the technical details (Florian)
    

    5. Status Report: Move board-discuss & tdf-members to Discourse (Florian Effenberger, Thorsten Behrens, 5 mins)

      * Status of the migration
      Florian asked Guilhem: "have an up to date migration test at
      https://communitytest.documentfoundation.org/c/board-discuss which is ready for review. for the final
      migration i'll need to know how to populate subscribers and their preferences, as per Sophie's questions
      on https://redmine.documentfoundation.org/issues/3567#note-20 (for pt-br)"
    

    The public meeting ends at 17:38 UTC / 18:38 Berlin time.

    6. Status Report, Discuss: Improve tendering process (tdf-board, 20 mins)

      Reason for privacy: legal topics
    

    7. Discuss: Last minute item(s) (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      Rationale: if there is time left, and anything is popping up after sending the agenda
    

    The private meeting ends at 18:12 UTC / 19:12 Berlin time.

    Thorsten Behrens (Session chair)
    Florian Effenberger (Keeper of the minutes)

    Minutes 2023-02-07 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-02-07
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-02-06 / not released yet

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-02-06
    Meeting Minutes

    Minutes 2023-01-23

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-01-23
    Meeting Minutes

    Date: 2023-01-23
    Location: Jitsi

    Session chair: Thorsten Behrens
    Keeper of the minutes: Florian Effenberger

    In the meeting:

      Board Members - Thorsten Behrens, Gábor Kelemen, Ayhan Yalçinsoy, Cor Nouws, Paolo Vecchi, László Nemeth, Emiliano Vavassori (from 17:25 UTC/18:25 Berlin)
      Board Deputy Members - Gabriel Masei
      Membership Committee Members - Gabriele Ponzo, Marina Latini
      Membership Committee Substitute Members -
      Community - Michael Weghorn, Krystof, Andreas
      Team - Florian Effenberger, Sophie Gautier, Xisco Fauli, Hossein Nourikah
    

    Representation: None

    The Board of Directors at time of the call consists of 7 seat holders without deputies. In order to be quorate, the call needs to have 1/2 of the Board of Directors members, which gives 4. A total of 7 Board of Directors members are attending or represented in the call.

    The board waives all formal statutory requirements, or requirements in the foundations articles, or other requirements regarding form and invitation, time limits, and for the topics discussed in this meeting.

    The meeting is quorate and invitation happened in time. From now on, motions can be passed with the agreement of a simple majority of those remaining present. The majority threshold is currently 4.


    Any updates regarding director affiliations?

    • no changes, current affiliations see election page:
     https://elections.documentfoundation.org/2021-board/candidates.html
    

    Would any of the directors present need to declare an interest, for any of the listed agenda items?

    • 1.
    • 2.
    • 3.
    • 4.
    • 5.
    • 6.
    • 7.

    -> none registered.

    The public meeting commences at 17:03 UTC / 18:03 Berlin time.

      1. AGENDA:
        1. Public Part

    1. Answering questions from the community (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      Rationale: Provide an opportunity for the community to ask questions to the board and about TDF
    
      * no questions brought up
    

    2. Status Report: Strategy 2022 Items - Status (Thorsten Behrens, Cor Nouws, Gabriel Masei, Gábor Kelemen, 5 mins)

      Regular reporting about status of the Strategic items in
      https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/f/1129829
    
      * not much development on this recently
      * AI: will setup a poll to get people in a room for brainstorming on items (Cor)
      * but it's important to make progress here, let's have that on the agenda for the FOSDEM in-person meeting (Thorsten)
    

    3. Discuss, Vote: Decide on BZ request from Ilmari (Gábor Kelemen, 10 mins)

      * TDF relies on BugZilla for it's daily operations (Thorsten)
      * no major upgrade in a long time, many good features stuck (Thorsten)
      * goal: sort remaining issues to be able to release new version (Thorsten)
      * decide today or should we fold this into budget decisions? (Thorsten)
      * good proposal, need those updates (Gábor)
      * undermaintained open source upstream project
      * AI: collect all the bits, then send off vote e-mail (Gábor)
    

    4. Status Report: Updating CoC policy (Cor Nouws, 5 mins)

      * status update & next steps
      * getting each other up to date, started last year during LibOCon
      * important topic, should be shared between board, CoC group and perhaps also MC (Thorsten)
      * CoC team not informed, should have done so before putting it in agenda (Marina)
      * new CoC team had initial meeting after putting in place current CoC policy
      * discussing how to handle communication of CoC team on a technical level, will discuss with Guilhem when he's back from vacation
      * CoC folder shared with corporate addresses - should be changed
      * want to review policy, can't be done in a rush
      * current version allows us Outreachy participation
      * very interested in the topic, happy to be included (Thorsten)
      * maybe discuss at FOSDEM?
      * Sage Sharp and Karen Sandler can give feedback, after the Outreachy program (Sophie)
      * needs some work and feedback from CoC committee
      * let's use face time at FOSDEM, perhaps meet with Karen there? (Thorsten)
    

    5. Status Report: Hiring TDF developers (Florian Effenberger, 5 mins)

      * next steps & progress
      * roles open until February 10 (Florian)
      * got good number of applications, scheduling interviews
      * had first interview actually today - thanks to Gabriel, Emiliano, Hossein, Ilmari, Mike
      * expecting more applications close to the deadline
      * good to have FOSDEM, for a last-minute push
      * we do have a number of strong candidates
    

    The public meeting ends at 17:20 UTC / 18:20 Berlin time.

        1. Private Part

    6. Discuss: Plan FOSDEM in-person agenda (tdf-board, 20 mins)

    7. Discuss: Last minute item(s) (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      Rationale: if there is time left, and anything is popping up after sending the agenda
    

    The private meeting ends at 18:46 UTC / 19:46 Berlin time.

    Thorsten Behrens (Session chair) Florian Effenberger (Keeper of the minutes)

    Minutes 2023-01-09

    The Document Foundation
    Board of Directors Meeting 2023-01-09
    Meeting Minutes

    Date: 2023-01-09
    Location: Jitsi

    Session chair: Thorsten Behrens
    Keeper of the minutes: Florian Effenberger

    In the meeting:

      Board Members - Thorsten, Cor, Paolo, Gabor, Laszlo, Emiliano (from 17:11 UTC/18:11 Berlin on)
      Board Deputy Members - Gabriel
      Membership Committee Members - Marina
      Membership Committee Substitute Members -
      Community - Jessy
      Team - Florian, Ilmari, Sophie
    

    Representation: Gabriel for Ayhan

    The Board of Directors at time of the call consists of 7 seat holders without deputies. In order to be quorate, the call needs to have 1/2 of the Board of Directors members, which gives 4. A total of 7 Board of Directors members are attending or represented in the call.

    The board waives all formal statutory requirements, or requirements in the foundations articles, or other requirements regarding form and invitation, time limits, and for the topics discussed in this meeting.

    The meeting is quorate and invitation happened in time. From now on, motions can be passed with the agreement of a simple majority of those remaining present. The majority threshold is currently 4.

    Any updates regarding director affiliations?

    • no changes, current affiliations see election page:
     https://elections.documentfoundation.org/2021-board/candidates.html
    

    Would any of the directors present need to declare an interest, for any of the listed agenda items?

    • 1. #
    • 2. #
    • 3. Thorsten, Cor
    • 4. #

    The public meeting commences at 17:03 UTC / 18:03 Berlin time.

    AGENDA:

    Public Part

    1. Answering questions from the community (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      Rationale: Provide an opportunity for the community to ask
      questions to the board and about TDF
    
    • When will we have final decision for Bugzilla proposal? (Ilmari)
     * long-awaited Bugzilla 6
     * had quiet period, no discussion since last call (Thorsten)
     * not in oversight area, but happy to help (Cor)
     * happy to help, can drive this (Gabor)
    
    • Offer fine as is, or decrease scope? (Ilmari)
     * might need some finessing wrt non-important bits for TDF (Thorsten)
     * importance of Bugzilla, if fairly balanced, no problem at all (Cor)
    
    • Final decision for WollMux adoption proposal? (Marina)
     * previous board decision, no opposition nor concerns on board-discuss (Thorsten)
     * fine by me (Cor)
    

    Emiliano joins the meeting at 17:11 UTC/18:11 Berlin

    • Budget proposal deadline? (Marina)
     * as early as possible (Thorsten)
     * first budget draft approx. end of next week (Florian)
     * some proposals missing anyways, Christmas period (Thorsten)
     * also let us know if budgets can be dissolved or lowered (Florian)
    

    2. Discuss, Vote: Join ALTER EU (Thorsten Behrens, 5 mins)

      The ALTER EU coalition, with over 200 members, many of which are
      FOSS projects. Membership is free, and is related to approving the
      10 objectives of the coalition.
    
    • Any further information needed? (Thorsten)
     * Nobody
    
    • Vote on the above
     * 6 approvals, 1 abstain -> motion approved
     * AI Thorsten: follow-up with Italo
    

    The public meeting ends at 17:18 UTC / 18:18 Berlin time.

    Private Part

    3. Discuss: Legal working group setup (tdf-board, 45 mins)

      Continue discussion from last board call
    

    4. Discuss: Last minute item(s) (tdf-board, 5 mins)

      Rationale: if there is time left, and anything is popping up after
      sending the agenda
    

    The private meeting ends at 18:17 UTC / 19:17 Berlin time.

    Thorsten Behrens (Session chair)
    Florian Effenberger (Keeper of the minutes)