Board meeting Minutes/30 January 2006

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Prior:
23 January 2006 		Board meeting Minutes Next:
6 February 2006



Minutes approved: 6 February 2006

Redactions below were approved by the Board.

Present
Tom Perrine (chair, note taker), Matthew Barr, Trey Harris, Doug Hughes, Andrew Hume, Chris Palmer, David Parter, Stephen Potter, Sam Albrecht
Apologies
Pat Wilson
Opened
20:03 Eastern Time
Closed
21:37 Eastern Time

Consent Agenda

Passes.

Held or Unapproved Minutes

MOTION: Approve redacted minutes for 16 January and 9 January. Moved Potter, second Barr, motion passes.

2005 Minutes

Here's the list of minutes that might have issues. I compared the list of what we've published with what actually exists in the Board area, as well as those that include text that claim they are approved...

  • 29 Aug - has redactions
  • 7 Sep - has pending redactions
  • 12, 26 Sep, 10 Oct, 21 Nov - have redactions
  • 4 Dec - approved, but not published to public side
  • 6 Dec - approved on 12 Dec, but not updated to reflect this, and not published
  • 12 Dec - approved 19 Dec, and updated, but not published
  • 19 Dec - approved 4 Jan 2006, but not published

ACTION: Hume will finalize these for the consent agenda for 6 February.

Action Items

Board Committees

  • Development Committee (Wilson/Potter)
    • Potter, Wilson - Draft more rigorous sponsorship policy (including definitions): done (below)
    • Wilson - Work on a proposal for {name redacted; business sensitivity} - no action
    • Albrecht - secured $1,000 cash from Splunk - will be recognized as a Founding Bronze Sponsor.
  • Partnership and Liason Committee (Perrine)
    • Perrine- Write another note to the Advisory Council as soon as biz plan first draft complete - plan not yet complete
  • Leadership Committee (Greg Rose)
  • Policy Committee (Harris)
    • Harris, Hume, Wilson - draft a liaison charter and policy. not done
    • Hume discussing roles and responsibilities of our liason to USENIX board with USENIX.
    • Discussed SAGE -> LOPSA in all policies - reminded all that Board action of 21 November 2005 authorized updates of all policies to substitute LOPSA for SAGE. Remember to update policy to add as amended 21 November 2005.
  • Communications Committee
    • Palmer -- Fix the problems with the postcard and revisit information requested
    • Albrecht - noted that Splunk had sent out a press release mentioning LOPSA as co-sponsor and with a quote from LOPSA ED.
  • Membership Committee
    • Harris, Albrecht - membership kit
      • Waiting for final graphics to place order.
    • Harris - draft "welcome email" for new members: done
    • Parter - send "welcome email" to new members: done
    • ACTION - Decide on whether to send out hard copy of Code of Ethics. If hard copy, then we need to get certificate paper, certificate mailing protectors (basically a strong piece of card stock to keep it from getting bent in the mail), be willing to replace those that will get damaged by USPS, and decide if we want them one-color or two. If we do not send out a hard copy, then we can mention the web location in the welcome package.

Program Committees

  • Conference Planning Committee (Wilson/Perrine)
    • Palmer - canvass BBLISA for Boston Linux Expo booth volunteers
    • Barr, Perrine, Wilson - present several possible scenarios for LOPSA training events
    • Albrecht - Just starting to flesh out some of this (also posted on website). Here's what I have so far:
      • August is a great meeting time - non-peak. September is OK, October - December is crazy for our meetings department.
      • Hours from our end would be about 500-600 at an average cost of about $50/hour. This is a WAG and will need more scoping. Currently includes site selection, contract negotiations (meeting rooms, sleeping rooms, food and beverage, and audiovisual), registration, collateral material preparation (reg package, program), minimal exhibit/sponsor/vendor management (recommending maybe table tops only), and on-site management.
      • I can start putting together a budget once we have length of meeting and number of meeting rooms.
  • Technical (Online) Services (Hughes/Parter)
    • Albrecht, Hughes - extend member database - beta shown last Wednesday. Should have final version by this wednesday
    • Parter - add verisign credit card processing: done with testing, waiting for packages on lopsa-02
    • Hughes - add a "how did you find out about us" question to the new member online signup process - done
    • Hughes - generate report regarding how recently non-paid folks have visited the site - done
  • Content Services Committee (Palmer/Potter)
    • Palmer, Potter - Contact other LISA '05 content contributors with hosting offer - not done
    • Palmer - talking to two potential content contributors, including a publication
    • Barr - will write book club announcement for Palmer wordsmithing, to be published this week (by 4 February)

Non-Committee

  • Financial
    • Albrecht, Hume, Parter - Work on integrating databases and financial procedures
      • In process. Recommend deleting this action and replace with the following:
        • ACTION: Parter to integrate on-line merchant account into the website (see verisign above)- almost complete
        • ACTION: Hume to present draft financial policies for Board approval.
        • ACTION: Parter and Hughes to continue working with staff to enhance database reporting.
        • ACTION: Hughes (and Parter) to generate paypal report for financial reconciliation
    • ACTION: Board to approve an outside CPA prepare LOPSA 2005 tax return (estimated cost of $250) in lieu of a formal review or audit of the books.
      • Rationale: Since we've had so little activity, I suggest this as the most logical, cost effective course of action as it gets an outside person to look at the financial records of the organization. Of course the finacials will also be looked over by staff and the Treasurer. If this is not adequate, then I would also suggest forming an audit task force to provide a review of the financials.
    • REPORT: 2005 Hours report delivered to Board.
    • Albrecht needs the draft 2006 budget in order to build reports for financial reports.
    • REPORT: 2005 financial reports are waiting for reconciliation of 2005 PayPal activity as compared to database activity. Deepa is working.
  • Albrecht:
    • ACTION: Give a plausible estimate of fully loaded member cost
      • Not yet complete.
    • REPORT: Albrecht provided monthly staff activity reports for 2005.
    • ACTION: Albrecht to draft letter of agreement for LOPSA-AH 2006 work.
  • Barr:
  • Harris:
    • Put an item on this agenda regarding how the Membership Committee would like to proceed regarding membership drives
  • Hughes:
  • Hume:
    • Review minutes and provide a list of redactions pertaining to SAGECom that may now be restored
    • Contact Usenix regarding how much of the $10000 allocated to the spinoff startup remains.
      • Approximately $4200 remains - individuals will file for reimbursement first, then AH on behalf of others.
  • Palmer:
  • Parter:
  • Perrine:
  • Potter:
    • Update the Code of Ethics Review committee charge - will return via email this week
  • Wilson:
  • All:
    • Flesh out charges/specifications for 90 day services listed at projects
      • This is now urgent, and all board liasons must complete wiki pages ASAP!

Standing Reports

  • Treasurer's report
  • Membership report
    • 269 members with online accounts
    • 31 members without online accounts
    • 300 total (+2 from last week, but I think it is not quite right)
    • 13 pending
  • What is the story with fulfillment?
    • Membership kit to be in postal mail within three weeks, e.g. by 20 February
  • Online report

USENIX Grant

  • Discuss draft letters. Recommend assigning Andrew an action item to pursue getting USENIX to sign by 3/30/06.
    • BREAKING NEWS... - Sam has called the IRS and found out that the proposed expiration of USENIX funding of 9/30/06 will probably not get an expedite and was informed that 45-60 days would be better. Also, the letter should state strongly the impact of not expediting (so I will modify that section also). And the really good news - Sam has a fax number and name of who to send the letters to, along with instructions to call after 5 days if we haven't heard back from the IRS.

Sponsorship Policy

Discussion of Sponsorship policy.

SCALE

Settle final details and responsibilities for SCALE presence. Have lead volunteer (Obejas), have tentative approval from SCALE, awaiting fire marshal approval of booth layout. Booth will have connectivity and power. Barr/Palmer to solicit volunteers on 31 Janurary.

MOTION: Reserve and authorize up to $500 in expenses for SCALE presence. This includes shipping, lunch for volunteers, additional reproduction costs if needed, etc. Moved Barr, second Palmer. Passes.

Membership

Discussion of "fully loaded membership cost." Will proceed with brainstorming "membership drive" activities and costs, and compare to loaded cost when it becomes available. Brainstorm on wiki.

Other upcoming conferences

Discussion of upcoming conferences.

  • MIT SPAM conference - Boston, 28 March - Barr and Palmer attending, will have literature and other "presence" TBD. Already have table from conference organizers.
  • Linuxwork Expo - Boston, 3-6 April - Have requested space, awaiting confirmation. Palmer and TBD will attend, will solicit colunteers as soon as we have confirmation of a booth.
  • USENIX Annual Tech - Boston, 30 May - 3 June - time to start discussions with USENIX
  • O'Reilly Open Source - Portland, 24-28 July - conference committee to investigate

Return of Sponsorship Policy

Re-opened discussion of Sponsorship Policy. Revisions to account for "sponsored event acticity" at fixed priced added, discussed.

MOTION: Approve Sponsorship Policy. Moved Potter, second Parter. Passed.

Adjournment

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