Minutes for Board IRC Meeting of March 27th, 2010
- When: Saturday, March 27th, 16:00 UTC
- Where: irc.gnome.org, #foundation
Meeting Log
Topics Discussed
- Time for future meetings.
- Will rotate the time to make it easier for people to attend from different time zones.
- 8-hour rotation would mean something like: 0AM UTC, 8AM UTC, 4PM UTC.
- Will have future meetings on a bi-monthy basis.
- System Administration
- Fundraising via Friends of GNOME has been growing.
- Adding the donation ruler to the GNOME websites has made a bit impact on recent donations.
- Stormy reminds everyone to be on the lookout for potential sponsors.
- Would be good to have new t-shirts for the FoG program and the event box.
- ACTION: Paul will look into pricing.
- Need to make people more aware of the FoG buttons.
- ACTION: Paul will look at the buttons and mail the marketing list about placement on the site, and blog about it.
- Code of Conduct
- The board will vote at the next board meeting (April 1st) to approve.
- No comments from the community.
- GUADEC
- Slight change in schedule
- Core days will be Wednesday through Friday.
Monday & Tuesday will be more "unconference" days that can be scheduled via the Wiki.
There will be training on Monday & Tuesday as well.
- A government focused half day, most likely on Tuesday.
- Slight change in schedule
- Womens Outreach
- GSoC application process is March 29 - April 9 and this should be coordinated with the Women's Outreach Program..
- ACTION: Marina will coordinate with a GSoC application encouragement to be sent to the women forums.
- OPW (Outreach Program for Women)
http://socghop.appspot.com/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2010/timeline
- Last time we had funding for 3 women, and Google funded 3 more.
- This time we only have funding for one student - funded by Google.But we recently put out a new call for funding.
- We are encouraging all women to apply for GSoC. After that process is over we will look at OPW and see how many more we can hire.
- So far we have funding for one student.
Transcript
vuntz |
everybody, feel free to add agenda items: http://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/MeetingAgenda is a bit empty right now :-) |
jcastro |
good morning! |
vuntz |
good afternoon :-) |
N_Nick |
good evening :) |
vuntz |
marina: hey, good to see you! |
marina |
hi vuntz! |
luis |
morning, marina! |
marina |
morning, luis! |
vuntz |
and it's not too late to add topics: for this, please edit http://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/MembersAgenda |
luis |
stormy: I accidentally clashed with your edit, sorry |
vuntz |
woo, many more topics now |
pcutler |
vuntz: maybe rotate every other month - jorge, yippi and I are all US eastern / central, maybe there's a night we can host one later our time that would be morning Asia / Pacific |
stormy |
luis: I see my stuff. Did I clobber your edits? |
luis |
stormy: no, it seems that it is still there |
vuntz |
pcutler: this would mean losing european people, but we'll have to come up with something like this in all cases |
luis |
vuntz: I think the idea behind the Ubuntu plan is that you have to lose someone every time |
vuntz |
nod |
luis |
eight hour might work for us too |
pcutler |
I like the idea of eight, once a quarter at minimum for participants |
zana |
it's just a matter of reminding people ahead of time because it would be hard for people to remember which rotation it is |
luis |
zana: right, but they need to be publicized well anyway :) |
vuntz |
(that reminds me I wanted to blog about this meeting to get the word on pgo...) |
yippi |
every other month sounds good to me. |
vuntz |
8-hour rotation would mean something like: 0AM UTC, 8AM UTC, 4PM UTC. |
jcastro |
let's go for it! |
pcutler |
+1 |
vuntz |
okay, no -1 => let's try it |
luis |
that was more a 'question from the membership' than a topic for actual discussion, I hope :) |
vuntz |
yeah :-) |
stormy |
I'd like all staff to be covered by income we can definitely count on. |
luis |
<nod> |
stormy |
We are also growing Friends of GNOME support but I think most of the fundraising will be targetted. |
luis |
how much of the support in the current drive has come in the form of recurring donations? |
stormy |
We have around 100 subscribers. |
luis |
(from non-corporates, I mean) |
stormy |
The drive has not gotten us a lot of new ones. |
jcastro |
perhaps we should advertise the subscriber option more? |
stormy |
At the very least, the ruler should count subscribers, not $'s if that's what we want. |
pcutler |
and we may see a bit of fall off as we come up on the 1 year anniversary of J5's blog post that asked for help as people get their gifts |
luis |
pcutler: oh, are they not auto-renewing after the first year? |
stormy |
They have to cancel. |
pcutler |
some don't, stormy's email a month or two ago mentioned we saw some slippage |
stormy |
But some did after the first year. |
pcutler |
I'm a tiny bit worried come April / May, but hopeful |
vuntz |
fwiw, in this case, we put a $ amount since we knew what we needed for this specific goal. It's really targetted |
jcastro |
yeah that sounds better long term |
stormy |
We could do a subscriber campaign around GUADEC. |
jcastro |
we should ask people to subscribe when they register for their badge or something |
stormy |
(Developers are also giving very generously!) |
luis |
stormy: it might be good to ask that question when we get the subscription? (dev or user) |
stormy |
So the ruler on gnome.org and pgo is reaching more people |
yippi |
i'd like to see more outreach to end users in the FoG program |
stormy |
At that time something like 95% were not contributors. |
vuntz |
stormy: oh, it'd be nice to track if people are coming from the ruler, and if yes, from which website |
yippi |
the ruler definitely seemed to help a lot |
stormy |
Supposedly we can do this with our website metrics. |
luis |
if I had a suggestion for http://www.gnome.org/friends/ who would I email? |
yippi |
the marketing list, i'd think |
pcutler |
luis: friends@gnome.org or the mktg list |
yippi |
it would also be nice to have some new swag for the FoG program. |
stormy |
luis, the marketing list, not friends@gnome.org |
pcutler |
We'll be launching a new GNOME store to buy swag with 2.30 next week, and we hope to refresh / change designs quarterly |
stormy |
friends@gnome.org goes to Rosanna and me. It gets all the paypal info. |
yippi |
right, i know you can't buy the new FoG t-shirt...i was just thinking we might want to consider a new design. |
luis |
stormy: OK, email sent |
yippi |
when you see someone with a tshirt you don't know if they donated 4 years ago or last month |
bkuhn |
It would also be good to encourage the use of social networking sites like identica to encourage giving, including GIVE buttons on people's websites and blogs. |
yippi |
but if we had newer tshirts, then people would be able to express that they donated recently |
vuntz |
bkuhn: I think we have buttons that people can put on their website now |
stormy |
bkuhn, we have badges people can use to promote http://www.gnome.org/friends/promote.html |
yippi |
perhaps a sysadmin campagin specific fog tshirt |
vuntz |
bkuhn: but if you didn't know about that, it means we need to advertize this more :-) |
yippi |
i'd also like to see us give GNOME polo shirts out to people who run the EventBox |
bkuhn |
vuntz: Well, I don't see the buttons used very many places. |
zana |
yippi: last time i priced embroidered polo shirts, they were ~$35 each |
yippi |
they are a bit expensive, but having people at booths look professional would be worth it I think. we don't send the eventbox to that many people per year, do we? |
jcastro |
vuntz: I didn't even know about the buttons either |
yippi |
er, perhaps customers is probably not the word i meant, but you know what I mean |
jcastro |
they need to be linked from the main friends page, that's why no one sees them |
pcutler |
jcastro: we do do that after you donate |
jcastro |
oh ok |
stormy |
After you donate, there's a link to the buttons. We obviously need to make it more obvious. |
vuntz |
okay, let's try to note stay on this topic for the whole meeting :-) |
pcutler |
yippi: I'll make a note to look into the event box and we can price it out for a next step |
yippi |
yes, perhaps we could also get polo shirts at a discount if we bought in bulk |
pcutler |
I'll take a look at the buttons and mail the marketing list about placement on the site, and blog about it |
yippi |
we should reward booth volunteers i think |
vuntz |
fwiw, in europe, we give free t-shirts to people helping at the booth |
stormy |
We were also including free tshirts. |
yippi |
vuntz, that's good, but i think they should be included in the eventbox |
stormy |
I assume that is still happening with Larry taking over. zana? |
zana |
as far as i know |
stormy |
Did you send him enough shirts? |
yippi |
does larry have a stock of tshirts? |
zana |
but I think he's just shipping from one event to the next |
stormy |
Nevermind, let's discuss this at the marketing meeting! |
vuntz |
(pcutler: good. One AI for you, I love this :-)) |
zana |
i gave him what i had left of the old shirts; don't remember now how many |
pcutler |
vuntz: I've got two! |
vuntz |
stormy: good point |
pcutler |
another action item, need to schedule that marketing IRC meeting, heh |
vuntz |
or shall we move to the next agenda item? |
pcutler |
vuntz: let's very briefly talk about GNOME 3.0 marketing |
vuntz |
pcutler: that's on the agenda too |
pcutler |
yeah, thought it was a good segue |
vuntz |
What is the plan for marketing GNOME 3.0? |
pcutler |
so a couple things: |
yippi |
maybe we could just give people who run the event box a special code so they can purchase a polo or tshirt directly without it needing to be in the box |
pcutler |
1 - at the marketing hackfest last November, we laid a lot of the groundwork, and agreed on our target audience for 3.0, a theme, and some of the things we want to do |
yippi |
rather than trying to include it in the box physically |
pcutler |
2 - we'll be having a hackfest in Zaragoza, Spain the first week of May to do 3.0 specific work |
yippi |
at the last marketing hackfest, i felt it would have been more productive if there had been more graphic designers attending. perhaps we can invite more for the next one. |
pcutler |
yes, we're trying. Andreas is coming, so that will help |
vuntz |
wiki page for the Zaragoza hackfest: http://live.gnome.org/Hackfests/Marketing-2010-05 |
pcutler |
that's my little speech on marketing, what kind of questions are there? |
vuntz |
pcutler: can we assume that, after the hackfest, all the planning for marketing will be done, and what will be left will "only" be execution? |
pcutler |
yes, I would hope so. "only" execution. :) |
yippi |
is marketing ever done? |
vuntz |
yippi: marketing for 3.0, I mean |
pcutler |
for example, on the video stuff, i had a conversation with jason last week, and I'd like to do as much planning on that before hand (applications highlighed in the video, storyboarding, etc) |
yippi |
are we planning to only make training/promo videos for YouTube, or also a possible TV ad? |
pcutler |
there are some concerns about 3.0 is, especially after the UX hackfest, but we'll be talking through that this month |
yippi |
PublicTV allows charities to run ads for free |
pcutler |
yippi: I think Jason is planning on promo videos for GNOME Miro community, YouTube, etc |
yippi |
and many are not particularly hi-fidelity |
pcutler |
similar to the Google Chrome / Nexus One short 1 minute videos |
owen |
pcutler: Is there a concise definition of what the marketing team is trying to accomplish somewhere? |
pcutler |
owen: That's a great question. I'd say no at this point. |
owen |
pcutler: it seems hard to answer a question like "should we try create a public tv spot" without that |
luis |
:) |
vuntz |
anything else on the marketing? |
baptistemm |
hello, sorry for the late |
vuntz |
baptistemm: it's okay, more french mafia is good, even when late ;-) |
yippi |
it is really required for all members, or just those who sign it and new members? |
vuntz |
so, quick summary: this was an idea the board discussed a few months ago. And the original discussion about this on foundation-list lead to an unrelated looooong thread in December. But we think it's still something important, so we want to move forward and just do it |
yippi |
yes, and we also reworded things quite a bit based on foundation member and advisory board member comments |
vuntz |
yippi: would be all members in the long term, but this can only be enforced on renewals for existing members, imho |
yippi |
seems reasonable to me |
vuntz |
so it'll be discussed and voted during the next board meeting, on Thursday |
stormy |
Is someone from the GUADEC planning team here? |
vuntz |
stormy: I guess this is about the slight change in the schedule? |
stormy |
I just wanted to let people know the schedule is a bit different this year. |
yippi |
it helps to have a policy to refer to afterwords, then people at least understand what they've done wrong |
stormy |
Wed-Fri will be the core conference with scheduled talks and keynotes. |
yippi |
and one would hope a policy proactively helps people to consider such concerns and reduces the frequency of such issues |
stormy |
And a government focused half day, most likely on Tuesday. |
owen |
yippi: I was more referring to a need to "sign" it, rather than the existence of the policy. And if people sign it, does that prevent us from changing it later without having people resign? |
stormy |
wants to thank jcastro for being our latest Friend of GNOME subscriber! Thanks, jcastro! (Stormy likes this trend!) |
jcastro |
stormy: I used to give yearly but now I will sub too! |
stormy |
cool! |
vuntz |
owen: (for me, the main point is that it's a way to tell people that what's inside the code of conduct are values shared in our community, and not just by some people) |
stormy |
Subscribers are nice because it's regular donations we can count on for things like sys admin. |
vuntz |
stormy: anything else you want to mention about guadec? |
stormy |
nope, not if there are not any questions. |
vuntz |
:-) |
marina |
yep, so I wanted to know if we have funding for a specific number of women, in which case we should set up our own application process and encourage women to apply for both OPW internships and GSoC |
stormy |
We planned to fund the outreach program for women like we did last time |
marina |
(by e-mailing gnome women list, Women in GNOME Facebook group, and several women that have contacted us expressing interest |
stormy |
So far we only have funding for one student. |
marina |
I think it is very important to encourage women to apply for GSoC |
vuntz |
nod |
zana |
stormy: i thought we paid for last time with the mentorship fees we get from google for the GSOC? |
marina |
and it would be good to know our plans for OPW internships before we make such encouragements |
stormy |
I thought Google kicked in specifically for the women's program. |
vuntz |
zana: hrm, I think we had some specific donation from Google for it |
stormy |
We had funding for 3 (maybe from GSoC) and then they funded 3 more. |
zana |
vuntz: we started with using the mentorship fees, then google found out and doubled it for that |
rubenv |
there is a gsoc meeting going on right now |
stormy |
Google is the one that gave us the funding for the one student this year, fyi. |
crevette |
marina: (sorry, I xas disconnected) there is also debian-women list IIRC, you can perhaps contact them (if you didn't already) |
marina |
vuntz: not yet, but I suppose there wouldn't mind getting a couple extra applications from women what do you think we should discuss? |
vuntz |
marina: oh, nothing specific. Just for the coordination :-) |
marina |
the application form that was used in 2006 is here: http://projects.gnome.org/outreach/women/2006/apply |
vuntz |
marina: so, do you need help for the next steps? Or is everything on track? |
marina |
vuntz: yes, I need to know whether to resurrect this form and have our own application process for a specific number of participants or whether to e-mail everyone encouraging them to apply for GSoC and update the wording on the outreach page |
vuntz |
marina: I think we want to encourage the women to apply to GSoC first |
stormy |
I like vuntz's idea. |
marina |
vuntz: when do you think we'll know if we want to do our own application process? |
jcastro |
yeah that makes sense |
stormy |
Wouldn't we want to do ours no matter what? |
vuntz |
marina: http://socghop.appspot.com/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2010/timeline |
marina |
stormy: if we have funding for a meaningful number of people |
vuntz |
marina: so I'd say mid-April |
marina |
(meaningful for setting up our own application process, contacting universities, and getting a 100 applicants like we did last time) |
vuntz |
stormy: oh, I think we should do ours anyway. But maybe not talk about it too much while applications for GSoC are still open |
stormy |
marina, I agree. |
marina |
vuntz: so you see it more as a way of getting more women to participate in GNOME if we don't get enough GSoC women participants? |
rubenv |
are we doing a WSOP again? |
vuntz |
marina: remove the "if" :-) |
marina |
rubenv: we are thinking about it |
vuntz |
marina: well, I hope we'll do better, but I don't think it'll be perfect either. |
rubenv |
so let us know if you need anything from the GSoC admins |
stormy |
We can get lots of women in GSoC and still do a Women's outreach. |
yippi |
so our plan is to announce our women's outreach program after GSoC? |
marina |
vuntz / stormy / rubenv : ok, so I'll coordinate with you guys in the next couple days with a GSoC application encouragement to be sent to all the women forums, and in particular whether or not we mention a possibility of OPW there at all |
vuntz |
sounds good |
rubenv |
perfect |
vuntz |
we're already out of time, but very quickly, one last thing |
rubenv |
vuntz, nothing in particular besides a short status update along the lines of "all ok / what we are doing and planning" |
vuntz |
okay Let's just see if there's any GSoC-related question? |
pcutler |
thanks! |
vuntz |
so the next meeting will be on April 24th, at 0 AM UTC, if I'm not mistaken! |
luis |
:) |
bkuhn |
Ok, thanks. |
stormy |
See you all then! |
vuntz |
apologies to stormy for skipping the "Representing GNOME at events, ideas for encouraging more people to do that?" topic, but 1 hour is short |
yippi |
vuntz, i just sent you my notes for doing minutes. Can you publish them? |
vuntz |
yippi: well, maybe send to foundation-list for review? |
jrb |
do we give additional gifts to people who stay subscribed for a second year? |
gpoo |
jrb: no, afaik |
yippi |
they are still quite rough, i sent it to board-list for the board to review before we publish them. |
jrb |
(just saw dcm wondering about that on twitter last night) |
gpoo |
jrb: we should have a strategy to keep subscribers on board |
stormy |
jrb, zana and I discussed it. |