Minutes: OpenEmbedded eV Board meeting, 20-Jun-2011

Minutes: OpenEmbedded eV Board meeting, 20-Jun-2011

[Denys Dmytriyenko]

Minutes: OpenEmbedded eV Board meeting, 20-Jun-2011

Attendees:

Michael Lauer (mickey)
Philip Balister (Crofton)
Florian Boor (florian)
Denys Dmytriyenko (denix)

Agenda:

00) congratulate Mickey with the recent birth of his daughter

01) denix agrees to take meeting minutes

02) state the agenda topics, collect any last minute additions:
* current status of hosting services
* funding the purchase of a network switch for the servers
* general discussion of eV budget, spendings
* another call for donations
* TSC election proposal from RP
* upcoming events and the creation of a "show" box

03) discussed the current state of OE hosting services
* list of funding requested by infrastructure team (Tom King) reduced to the 
network switch
* other items were resolved with the help of The Linux Foundation:
  ** LF sponsors Tom's travel
  ** LF donates hosting servers
* denix asked for clarification of what is being donated and whom it's donated 
to (i.e. is there a lease being signed?):
  ** LF grant/donation is not directly to OE eV, but rather to nas-admin group 
at OSUOSL that serves OE infrastructure among other Open Source projects
  ** the remaining piece of equipment OE eV needs to fund is the network 
switch
  ** Board to ask Tom for more details for the following:
    = hardware side, preferably accompanied by pictures of the actual rack and 
equipment
    = organization charts and interactions of the involved parties: Tom, OE 
infrastructure team, nas-admin, OSUOSL etc.

04) approve to fund the network switch
* estimated at $1500 = ~800-1000 eur
* somewhat expensive, server grade - "not the type used at home"
* Board to trust Tom on selecting the right switch
* figure out the way to transfer money to nas-admin/OSUOSL
  ** Tom to coordinate

05) OE eV budget
* currently there is around 3000 eur in the bank
* florian to check with the bank in Germany if possible to open a debit/credit 
card linked with the eV account
* preferably without annual or any idle fees

06) call for donation
* OE needs an income stream - another call for donations in the mailing lists
* denix to check if TI can make another donation
  ** may be difficult, as TI and other companies are LF/Yocto members and pay 
dues
  ** thus, latest LF donations to OE as a "feedback" channel make sense

07) review RP's proposal of TSC re-election
* proposal is for Richard and Stefan to step down first and run elections for 
1 seat
* then continue with one-at-a-time elections going forward
* alternative is to elect the entire TSC at once:
  ** deemed unnecessary and bad for the project
* agree and approve RP/TSC proposal
* Board to initiate the election process:
  ** announce another round of candidates for 1 TSC seat, discussion phase, 
call for votes (Mickey)
* discuss the voting logistics - ask if Graeme can help with counting the 
votes, or use one of the proposed software
* Crofton says Graeme is on travel for next 2 weeks, but agreed to count the 
votes after that
  ** that gives proper timing for announcement, discussion and call for votes 
phases

08) upcoming events and show box
* agree to allow spending up to 500 eur at florian's discretion on the show 
box
* ac adapters, multiplugs, switch, accesspoint, flyers, posters, tft + cables, 
tape, some lights
* include some dev boards, donated by companies
* some of the items already exist and were previously donated
* need table cloth, which exists, but needs washing
* ELC-E in Prague in October
* agree to schedule the General Assembly at ELC-E (Crofton)
* Crofton to talk to Jefro/RP about reserving a room

09) Board to have another meeting in 3 weeks
* around 8th-10th of July

Re: Minutes: OpenEmbedded eV Board meeting, 20-Jun-2011

[Dirk Hohndel]

On Thu, 23 Jun 2011 23:53:11 -0400, Denys Dmytriyenko <denis@denix.org> wrote:
> Minutes: OpenEmbedded eV Board meeting, 20-Jun-2011
> 
> Agenda:
> 06) call for donation
> * OE needs an income stream - another call for donations in the mailing lists
> * denix to check if TI can make another donation
>   ** may be difficult, as TI and other companies are LF/Yocto members and pay 
> dues
>   ** thus, latest LF donations to OE as a "feedback" channel make sense

We (or more likely, the Board) should establish clearly how this OE
income stream should work.

Do we (the OE members) WANT to have the LF provide a well defined
reasonable income stream to OE? Then RP or I can trigger that
conversation with Jim Zemlin, Exec Director of the LF.

Or do we PREFER to solicit independent donations to avoid the perception
of being dependent on LF? In that case please talk to DaveS or me about
an Intel donation to OE.

> 08) upcoming events and show box
> * agree to allow spending up to 500 eur at florian's discretion on the show 
> box
> * ac adapters, multiplugs, switch, accesspoint, flyers, posters, tft + cables, 
> tape, some lights
> * include some dev boards, donated by companies
> * some of the items already exist and were previously donated
> * need table cloth, which exists, but needs washing
> * ELC-E in Prague in October
> * agree to schedule the General Assembly at ELC-E (Crofton)
> * Crofton to talk to Jefro/RP about reserving a room

Are there other embeddedd events that we want a presence at?
The Yocto Project has so far tracked the LF events for obvious reasons
(and ELC / ELC-E are now LF events as well), but is there anything else
out there that would make sense to have a presence at?
 
/D

-- 
Dirk Hohndel
Intel Open Source Technology Center

Re: Minutes: OpenEmbedded eV Board meeting, 20-Jun-2011

[Philip Balister]

On 06/24/2011 09:37 AM, Dirk Hohndel wrote:
> On Thu, 23 Jun 2011 23:53:11 -0400, Denys Dmytriyenko<denis@denix.org>  wrote:
>> Minutes: OpenEmbedded eV Board meeting, 20-Jun-2011
>>
>> Agenda:
>> 06) call for donation
>> * OE needs an income stream - another call for donations in the mailing lists
>> * denix to check if TI can make another donation
>>    ** may be difficult, as TI and other companies are LF/Yocto members and pay
>> dues
>>    ** thus, latest LF donations to OE as a "feedback" channel make sense
>
> We (or more likely, the Board) should establish clearly how this OE
> income stream should work.
>
> Do we (the OE members) WANT to have the LF provide a well defined
> reasonable income stream to OE? Then RP or I can trigger that
> conversation with Jim Zemlin, Exec Director of the LF.
>
> Or do we PREFER to solicit independent donations to avoid the perception
> of being dependent on LF? In that case please talk to DaveS or me about
> an Intel donation to OE.

This is a very good question.

I would like to see the eV have a steady income from a diverse group of 
people. At the same time, any income is helpful.

A reliable income stream allows the board to make long term plans. We 
need to provide the nas-admin group at OSUOSL with better financial 
support to cover our infrastructure needs as the project grows.

Basically, we have two sources of income, corporate sponsorship and 
individual donations. As a board member, I would like to hear from the 
membership what people think, both about how we should spend money and 
how we should raise money.

Philip