OSI Board Meeting Minutes, November 9, 2005

November 9, 2005

Attendees:

Mr. Michael Tiemann, President
Ms. Danese Cooper, Secretary/Treasurer
Mr. Russ Nelson, Director
Mr. Mark Radcliffe, General Counsel
Mr. Eric Raymond, Founder and Director Emeritus
Mr. Ken Coar, Director
Mr. Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, Director

Cannot confirm attendance from notes:
Mr. Chris DiBona, Director
Mr. Joi Ito, Director
Mr. Bruno Souza, Director
Mr. Sanjiva Weewarawana, Director
Ms. Laura Majerus, Director of Legal Affairs

Quorum Established at 11:00 am EDT/ 08:00 PDT (unconfirmed)

Agenda:

1) Secretary/Treasurer (Ms. Cooper) presented:

a) Financials

  • Report about current cash reserves
  • Discussion of remaining claims related to Open Source Awards.

b) Ms. Cooper will send minutes to Mr. Radcliffe for review. She will put them in the standard form that Mr. Radcliffe will be sending her.

2) Face to face meetings:

a) Discussion: F2F meetings during conferences are not a great idea because people get pulled away. The OSI Board should schedule meetings prior to the conference. Ms. Cooper suggests that many members of the Board will be at ApacheCon (December 10-14, 2005), and perhaps the OSI Board could get people together in North America after ApacheCon. Mr. Tiemann can’t travel but the OSI Board might be able to meet in Raleigh, or Mr. Tiemann could call in.

b) Discussion of 2006 calendar F2F meeting plans.

c) Action Items:
Ms. Cooper wants a board meeting in the winter to talk about membership.

3) BOD Seats coming vacant in 2006

a) Discussion:
How does the OSI handle the board member vote? Mr. Tiemann’s, Mr. Ito’s, and Mr. DiBona’s seats are coming up for a vote. Mr. Tiemann asks if a new board member should have a one-year probationary term? This would allows the OSI Board to give a chance to future candidates without being locked into a three-year period. Mr. Tiemann appends Mr. Ernie Prabahkar, of Apple Computer, to his list of suggested board members.

Ms. Cooper notes that it takes 6 months for a new board member to understand the issues OSI faces. She also says that we should run our board member choices past license-discuss. Mr. Tiemann and Ms. Cooper both advocate for more board observers. Ms. Cooper suggests that a lawyer on the board will disrupt the "We don’t give legal advice because we’re not lawyers" design. Much discussion of individuals followed.

4) Next BOD meeting set for December 7th, 2005.

Committee Reports:

1) Fundraising committee status presented by Mr. Tiemann

Fund-raising report has been sent to the OSI BOD list.

2) Licensing committee status presented by Mr. Nelson (no quorum present so no motions passed)

a) License approval has several pending licenses which should stay that way. The OVPL conference call resulted in no commitment for change from them. The OSI will tell them that their license violates the anti-discrimination term. The OSI is trying to work with them to come up with an acceptable license. The OSI should praise their support for Australian warranty disclaimer requirements.

b) Motion: The OSI Board votes to authorize Mr. Nelson to draft a statement turning down the OVPL license for non-compliance with no-discrimination clause of OSD. Mr. Nelson will promptly send this statement to the Board and if the there are no changes from the Board within 48 hours, Mr. Nelson will send that statement to the license-discuss mailing list and OVPL, as an official statement of the Board. Mr. Tiemann moved that Mr. Nelson draft a statement to reject the OVPL license for non-compliance with no-discrimination clause of OSD. Mr. Coar seconded. Passed by General Assent.

c) License proliferation: Mr. Nelson reports that tiering is now controversial which is a good thing because it reflects a better understanding. Mr. Raymond joined the conference call and reported that he’s struggling to get people to keep the top tier VERY VERY small for normative purposes. Mr. Tiemann suggests that people may be unwilling to decide, and the principle to follow is that it’s easier to upgrade a license than downgrade it. Mr. Tiemann suggests that the committee write two strawman reports WITH the implications of their effects on the community.

Meeting adjourned at 10:00 am PDT (unconfirmed)