Minutes for February 4, 2003 board meeting

[Wichert Akkerman]

SPI board meeting, February 4th, 2003
    Meeting opened: Tue Feb 04 19:11:00 UTC 2002
    Meeting closed: Tue Feb 04 20:01:08 UTC 2002

Attending:
    Ean Schuessler (presiding)
    Ian Jackson
    Branden Robinson
    Drew Streib
    Martin Schulze
    Manoj Srivastava

Absent with regrets:
    Wichert Akkerman

Attending advisors:
    Martin Michlmayr
    Guido van Rossum

Attending contributing members:
    Michael Banck
    Rune B. Broberg
    Rene Engelhard
    Lukas Geyer
    David Graham
    David B. Harris
    Benjamin Mako Hill
    Peter Palfrader
    Bruce Perens
    Josip Rodin

Agenda:
    1. Copyright assignment
    2. Status of the membership
    3. Voting period for new board members
    4. On-line donations
    5. Scheduling the next meeting

Recorder: David B. Harris (contributing member)



1. Copyright assignment

Ean Schuessler asks, "should SPI accept copyright assignments, similar to the
Free Software Foundation?" He suggests the topic be discussed on SPI's mailing
lists before any decision is made.

Martin Schulze points out that SPI already holds copyright on various works
for the Debian project.

Ian Jackson states that, if SPI accepts other copyright assignments, it may be
required to defend those copyrights. SPI may also be liable for any
infringement the assigned material may cause.

Ian Jackson suggested that the Secretary begin a discussion on the SPI mailing
lists, and prepare a report for the board's next meeting.

The suggestion was accepted as such, and the Secretary will be asked to begin
the process upon his return.



2. Status of the membership

Peter Palfrader states that sixty-five (65) of two hundred and twenty-four
(224) contributing members have cast their vote on the new board members'
election.

Since the Secretary's call for votes, between five and ten new contributing
members have joined.



3. Voting period for new board members

Ian Jackson moved that the election period be extended another two weeks,
to allow more time for contributing members to vote. More effort will be made
on the part of the board to ensure that all contributing members are aware of
the election.

The motion was accepted unanimously, the new deadline for voting is Friday, 21
Feb 2003, 23:59:59 UTC.



4. On-line donations

Drew Streib suggests opening a PayPal account, with which to accept donations
on-line. This will also provide a means for credit card donations.

Bruce Perens states that PayPal has worked well for the Global Technology
Policy Institute (http://techp.org), and that they have collected about
$4000USD.

Drew Streib, Branden Robinson, and Ian Jackson expressed concerns with
respect to PayPal's Terms Of Service, as well as PayPal's history.

The Treasurer suggests that SPI use an established, well-known, professional
institution.

The discussion will be continued on the general SPI mailing list.



5. Scheduling the next meeting

Martin Schulze asks that the following meeting take place on Tuesday, March
11th.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 11th, at 19:00 UTC.

-- 
Wichert Akkerman <wichert at wiggy.net>           http://www.wiggy.net/
A random hacker