Board strategic working group 2010-01-18

Roll Call

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

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

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
- Unfinished_Board_issues

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

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