Board meeting, March 12th, 2015
Board members present
- Bdale Garbee (bdale) (President)
- Michael Schultheiss (schultmc) (Treasurer)
- Martin Michlmayr (tbm) (Secretary)
- Robert Brockway (Solver)
- Joshua D. Drake (linuxhiker)
- Martin Zobel-Helas (zobel)
Board members partially present
- None
Board members absent with regrets
- Joerg Jaspert (Ganneff) (Vice President)
- Jonathan McDowell (Noodles)
- Gregers Petersen (glp)
Board members absent
- None
Board advisors present
- None
Registered guests present
- Josh Berkus (jberkus)
- Luca Filipozzi (luca)
- David Graham (cdlu)
- H W Tovetjärn (totte)
These are the minutes for the March 12th, 2015 SPI Board Meeting, held at 20:30 UTC in #spi on irc.spi-inc.org. LOG.
President's Report
Bdale Garbee had nothing to report.
Treasurer's report
Michael Schultheiss has published the January treasurer's report and is working on the February report.
The SPI general fund received an anonymous donation of $10,000.
Martin Zobel-Helas asked why the earmark for Swathanthra Malayalam Computing was negative. Michael explained that this is due to GSoC funds not yet received. Josh Berkus felt that GSoC funds should be tracked differently and would talk to Michael about this later.
Secretary's report
Martin Michlmayr expressed that the minutes and web site were up to date. He made some updates to the trademark pages. X.Org had some questions regarding updates to their by-laws recently. Michael Schultheiss and Martin Michlmayr sent them some comments.
Outstanding minutes
Vote on Meeting Minutes for 12th February 2015:
| Robert Brockway | Abstain |
| Joshua D. Drake | Yes |
| Bdale Garbee | Yes |
| Martin Michlmayr | Yes |
| Michael Schultheiss | Yes |
| Martin Zobel-Helas | Yes |
Motion passed with a vote of 5 yes, 1 abstain, 0 missing.
Items up for discussion
Elementary OS situation and board member accountability
Josh Berkus asked the Board to consider the following three issues:
- whether any remedial action by the board of SPI towards Elementary OS and/or other parties is required;
- some kind of formal review of board member Drake's actions to clear him of wrongdoing;
- a possible amendment to the bylaws a la David Graham's proposal.
The Board observed that the discussion had settled and that no remedial action was required. The Board debated voting on whether the SPI President should issue a formal statement but agreed to leave the decision to the President. (Bdale Garbee as President sent a statement to the Elementary OS council after the Board meeting.)
The Board voted on the question: Should a formal investigation of the interactions between Joshua Drake and Daniel Foré referencing SPI be initiated?
| Robert Brockway | No |
| Joshua D. Drake | Abstain |
| Bdale Garbee | No |
| Martin Michlmayr | No |
| Michael Schultheiss | No |
| Martin Zobel-Helas | No |
Motion failed with a vote of 0 yes, 5 no, 1 abstain, 0 missing.
The Board agreed to work on a resolution on board member accountability based on David Graham's proposal.
Trademark renewal and record keeping
Martin Michlmayr asked what kind of process was in place to handle trademark renewals. Robert Brockway explained that he had been adding information to the SPI trademark page with the intention that it hold authoritative information on dates of renewal, etc.
Martin offered to write a script to remind the Board of filing deadlines. He'd also add trademark registration certificates, which can be downloaded from the USPTO web site, to a Git repo.
Any other business
Martin Zobel-Helas asked for a volunteer from the Board to follow up with a prospective member project since he lacks the time.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned until Thursday, April 9th, 2015 at 20:30 UTC in #spi on irc.spi-inc.org.
Appendix A: Current Board Membership
| Last elected | Name | Role |
|---|---|---|
| July 2013 | Bdale Garbee | President |
| July 2013 | Joerg Jaspert | Vice President |
| July 2014 | Martin Michlmayr | Secretary |
| July 2012 | Michael Schultheiss | Treasurer |
| July 2012 | Jonathan McDowell | |
| July 2013 | Joshua D. Drake | |
| July 2013 | Martin Zobel-Helas | |
| July 2014 | Robert Brockway | |
| July 2014 | Gregers Petersen |