Interim Board Meeting: Sep 16, 2014

Software Carpentry Foundation Interim Board Meeting: Sep 16, 2014

Attending

• NCH: Neil Chue Hong (Software Sustainability Institute) - chair
• GW: Greg Wilson (Software Carpentry)
• JB: Jenny Bryan (Univ of British Columbia)
• CG: Carole Goble (U. Manchester)
• KH: Katy Huff (UC Berkeley)
• DI: Damien Irving (University of Melbourne / Research Platforms)
• AS: Adam Stone (Berkeley Lab)
• KT: Kaitlin Thaney (Mozilla Science Lab)
• TT: Tracy Teal (Michigan State / Data Carpentry)
• DA: David Ascher (Mozilla) - nonvoting
• JG: Josh Greenberg (Sloan Foundation) - nonvoting

Actions

• CG: speak with Force11 about how they had overcome issues to do with staffing / taking in money from other countries?
• DA: elaborate on Eclipse Foundation board structure
• GW + TT + JG: create a budget for ongoing operations [revised: was originally KH instead of TT]
• KT: set up spreadsheet to track current budget/resourcing
• NCH + GW + KH to draft press release and circulate for comments [revised: was originally TT instead of KH]
• TT + JB: set up repository for tracking grant opportunities and grants submitted
• Board: circulate proposals for announcement dates (with rationales) by email before Sept 30 meeting so we can vote
• Board: vote on Sept 30 on (a) wording of press release and (b) announcement date
• Board: send questions about NumFOCUS to GW by Monday Sept 22
• e.g., can NumFOCUS be an employer for tax/insurance purposes, or would people be independent contractors paid by NumFOCUS?
• Board: propose alternatives to 501(c)3 status to mailing list by Wed Sept 24 for discussion
• Board: circulate proposals for handling funding streams (especially out-of-US contributions) to mailing list for discussion on Sept 30
• Board: contribute to KT spreadsheet
• Board: send material to TT for grant repository (past, present, and future)

Summary

• Introductions

• Date/time of next meeting

• Agreed: Sept 30 at 19:30 UTC (audio + Etherpad only)

• Discussion of timeline
• What are our preferred dates for:
  • public announcement
  • formalizing legal status
  • reconstituting the board
• Obvious dates for public announcement include:
  • before Train the Trainers/MozFest in UK (Oct 22-26, 2014)
  • before U. Washington Train the Trainers (Nov 12-14, 2014)
• General preference was October (ties in with grant cycles)
  • General consensus: earlier is better to avoid confusion in the community and reduce risk of inadvertent disclosure
• Minimum that needs to be decided before announcement can be made:
  • that the SCF is being created (done)
  • that it has an interim board with representation from organizations and instructors (done)
  • that it will have non-profit status in the US (not decided - see below)
  • mission statement (draft attached for comments)
  • process for existing organizations providing support (turned into governance discussion summarized below)
• Governance
• Individual (instructor/contributor) membership: uncontentious
• Organizational/institutional/funder membership: many issues to resolve
  • Requirements for becoming an organizational member?
  • Does every organization supporting SCF get a board seat? (Could make for an unmanageably large board.)
  • KH: American Nuclear Society uses a percentage bar (so largest N contributors get seats)
  • JG: be careful not to conflate fundraising with governance
  • DI balance of institutional board members vs instructors, institutional not to outnumber instructors
  • NCH: 1/3 institutional, 1/3 instructors, 1/3 appointed is typical recommended UK charitable service foundation arrangement
• Kinds of boards:
  • Python Software Foundation: large and active (most PSF work done by board members)
  • Mozilla Foundation: smaller; oversight rather than implementation
  • Eclipse Foundation: a large board that works successfully - could be a model in case of "catastrophic success" (DA)
  • Force11
• Q&A
  • Do we have a governance document yet for stuff like voting, budget, throwing people out, etc.?
  • No
  • Is organizational membership the only way to contribute to Software Carpentry?
  • No: hope/expect people will write us into other grants, sponsor events (e.g., WiSE workshops), etc.
  • Is US 501(c)3 decided on?
  • No, but no other proposals have been made yet
  • Is NumFOCUS decided on?
  • No: GW will gather answers to questions in advance of Sept 30 meeting
  • Alternatives mentioned include Software Freedom Conservancy, a free-standing 501(c)3, a 501(c)6, or going through a university
  • How do people outside the US donate?
  • Unknown
• Operations
• What is the core budget needed to operate minimum staff and what are the projections?
  • Action item below: create budget
• Current effort:
  • Sloan/Mozilla: 1.0 FTE for project lead, 0.75 FTE for workshop coordination, but not all Software Carpentry
  • SSI: 0.5 FTE for workshop coordination, 0.5 to fill in training, plus seed funds for workshops
  • ELIXIR: 1.0 FTE admin plus seed funds for workshops
  • ResBaz: ??? (DI to fill in)
• Required:
  • in the center:
  • 1.0 FTE for project management/overall coordination/instructor training
  • 1.0 FTE for curriculum development
  • regionally/organizationally:
  • workshop coordinators (funded by those organizations)