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Zope Foundation Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors - November 2 2009

Date and Time: Monday, November 02, 2009 16:00 UTC
Location: IRC meeting, irc://irc.freenode.net/#zope-foundation
Directors Present:
- Faassen, Martijn
- Jung, Andreas
- Page, Rob
- Theune, Christian
- Vagelpohl, Jens


Agenda
------
- Call to Order
- Treasurer's report
    - Non-profit status update
- Operational Issues
    - Status CRM
    - Thoughts on improving membership data quality
- Membership Committee
    - New members since last meeting
- IP Committee
    - Updated copyright transfer agreement for commits made
      in "limbo time".
- Repo committee
    - New committers since last meeting
    - Changing the copyright attribution in the repo to the
      foundation
- Website
    - website progress
- New business
    - Giving support to "FOSS-ORI" by being listed as
      supporting organization
- Next meeting


Call to Order
-------------
The chairman calls the meeting to order at 16:04 UTC.


Treasurer's report
------------------
The treasurer has no update on the non-profit status. He is still
completing the new set of documentation required by the IRS.


Operational issues
------------------
After the treasurer has applied his database changes to the basic
SugarCRM database the secretary has completed entering information
for all members and contributors into the CRM system. The CRM is
now functional and available to board members.

Working through every single membership and contributor record has
highlighted deficiencies in the current set of membership records.
Contributor information is complete and up-to-date due to the fact
that every contributor was asked to submit the new contributor
agreement or be locked out. The board did not require existing
foundation members to submit a new membership agreement, though.
The secretary suggested picking up this topic again next year since
having to submit yet another signed paper may not be received well
by the membership at this time. The secretary will personally
follow up on incomplete sponsor membership documentation, though.


Membership Committee
--------------------
The secretary reports that no new members have joined the foundation
since the last board meeting.

The chairman suggests a membership drive to gain more members. As
a prerequisite, the foundation needs to come up with a clear
message what it means to be a member, and what members can do to
help the foundation, and by extension the community as a whole.


IP Committee
------------
The chairman has now signed the copyright assignment agreement and
it is on the way back to Zope Corporation to be countersigned by
Rob Page in his function as Zope Corporation representative. Once
Rob has signed it he will forward it to [email protected]
via email or Fax for the secretary to archive.


Repo committee
--------------
Christian Theune reports that no new contributors have signed up
since the last meeting.

The copyright assignment changeover script has seen some testing
on live Subversion data now. Final runs can be made once the
copyright assignment agreement has been archived by the secretary.

Right now there is some confusion about the best way to perform
the copyright assignment switch. Christian Theune has heard that
a simple replacement of the existing copyright assignment with one
that assigns to the Zope Foundation may not be fully correct. The
alternative is to retain the original copyright assignment and
add a second assignment for the Zope Foundation. These assignments
would be qualified by the copyright years affixed to each
assignment, similar to the way Python itself displays its
copyright assignments when the user types "copyright" at the
interpreter prompt. Christian could not find any conclusive
documentation, so after a short discussion the chairman suggests
a vote on the "additive" copyright assignment strategy. A majority
votes for following the example set by Python and adding a new
copyright assignment next to the existing assignment, qualified
with the year 2009. Christian Theune will change the script
accordingly.

Website
-------
Andreas Jung is working with the current zope.org Webmaster,
Michael Haubenwallner, on the new site structure.

For the site design Andreas suggests re-using the design
currently being developed for the relaunch of www.zope.de,
which will be done as a set of reusable Plone design
templates. He further suggests contracting out the necessary
changes for zope.org to the company currently developing the
www.zope.de-Design, Banality. Andreas feels the work can be
done on a budget of EUR 2500 and he will clear up any design
copyright issues with Banality.

The chairman then moves to require any design to be used by
the foundation to come with a license that allows free layout
and design changes by the foundation without any limitations,
to avoid the licensing issues hampering the previous new.zope.org
effort. The motion is seconded and carried unanimously.

To support the current website progress the chairman then
moves to implement Andreas' suggestions and award a EUR 2500
budget to Banality for zope.org design work, which passes
unanimously as well.

To avoid delays the chairman sugests to keep the scope small
and the amount of pages minimal. Pages should only be added
as content of a suitable quality is produced. Andreas will
delegate most content work to Michael Haubenwallner.


New business
------------
Xavier Heymans from ZEA Partners had sent email to the
chairman and the secretary suggesting supporting organization
status for FOSS-ORI[1]. This status entails no obligations
other than an official statement of support for the goals
pursued by FOSS-ORI, which are deemed worthwhile by the board.
The chairman moves to make the Zope Foundation a supporter
for FOSS-ORI, which is seconded and passed unanimously.


Adjournment
-----------
The chairman asks the secretary to solicit suggestions and
opinions for the next meeting date. The results will be announced
on [email protected] once they are ready.

The chairman adjourns the meeting at 16:45 UTC.

These minutes were written by the secretary, Jens Vagelpohl,
according to the notes taken during the meeting.

These minutes were posted to the [email protected] mailing
list and approved by all directors on November 4, 2009.

The Chairman bid the Secretary keep these minutes on file.

[1] http://www.foss-ori.org/