Meeting:Board strategic working group 2010-01-18

Roll Call

• Attendees: John Poelstra, Matt Domsch, Paul Frields, Mike McGrath, Chris Tyler, Colin Walters

Working Group Kick-off

• Set ground rules for our meetings going forward
  • Start on time/be early
    • Communicate in advance if you will not attend so we don't have to go searching for/pinging people in vain
  • Everyone helps with meeting notes
  • Everyone leaves the meeting with an action item or something to bring back next time--we aren't leaving everything to one person
  • Meetings will last 60 minutes or less
  • John Poelstra will act as the meeting facilitator with permission to:
    • keep the meetings moving
    • make sure the meeting ends on time
    • publish meeting minutes
    • suggest ownership of tasks (among group members)
  • We will make decisions by consensus
    • Meaning--everyone agrees enough to support the proposal, even if not everyone is wild about the idea
    • The term decision is used in the context of our working group discusions--not deciding things for the board, Fedora, etc.
• Our discussions in these meetings are to:
  • pull together past unresolved issues while not solving them
  • bring loose items together into formulated proposals the board as a whole can discuss and approve
• Initial work will be cataloging all of the issues
  • Proposing (not dictating) solutions will be a follow-up step
  • Send cataloged list to advisory-board for sanity check to make sure we've collected (not solved) everything

Meeting Outcomes

• Finished in 57 minutes (3 minutes early)
• Emphasis of meeting was on setting up structure and how we plan to work issues through
• Decided on initial approach:
  1. Catalog all the issues we understand to have been raised as questions
  2. Break cataloged issues into two groups:
     • Issues we believe are resolved with a reference to where and how it was resolved
     • Issues we believe are unanswered with references to our to-do list
  3. Explain in plain terms why the working group and the Board are pursuing these issues
  4. Catalog initiatives the board has started, but not clearly resolved
     • For example, website redesign, Chris Aillon's proposal, Spot's Proposal, Persona's, etc.
• The rest of the meeting we worked as a group cataloging the issues the board is grappling with
  • https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Unfinished_Board_issues

Other Observations/Side Discussion

• Is there a disconnect between what the community thinks the board should do, and what the board thinks the board should do. Dominant views seem to be:
  • dispute mediators
  • looking out for Fedora's feature
• If the community does not agree with the Board's charter they may not agree with its actions
• Current board charter: Board#Responsibilities

Agenda for Next Meeting

1. Be ready to publish the list of resolved and unresolved issues to advisory-board list for sanity check
2. Explain why this working group and the Board are pursuing these issues
3. Catalog open initiatives

Next Meeting

• Monday, January 25, 2010 @ 15:00 EST