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PSF Meeting Minutes for April 10, 2006

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The Python Software Foundation
Minutes of a Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors

April 10, 2006

A regular meeting of the Python Software Foundation ("PSF") Board of Directors was held over Internet Relay Chat beginning at 17:00 UTC, 10 April 2006. Stephan Deibel presided at the meeting. David Goodger prepared these minutes.

(Color legend: action items; follow-up required; in progress)

1   Attendance

The following members of the Board of Directors were present at the meeting: Stephan Deibel, Tim Peters, David Goodger, Martin v. Löwis, Andrew Kuchling, Steve Holden, and David Ascher. Also in attendance were Kurt Kaiser (Treasurer) and Neal Norwitz (Assistant Treasurer).

2   Minutes of Past Meetings

The 25 February 2006 minutes (board meeting at PyCon) were approved by a 7-0-0 vote.

The 13 March 2006 minutes were approved by a 7-0-0 vote. It was agreed to omit public mention of potential sponsors from these and future minutes.

3   Status of Past Action Items

3.1   Follow-Up Required

  1. Originally from November 2005, follow-up from December 2005: D. Goodger is to contact a potential PSF sponsor/donor.

    Status: follow-up required.

  2. Originally from November 2005, follow-up from December 2005: S. Holden is to contact a potential PSF sponsor/donor.

    Status: follow-up required. (Task transferred from D. Ascher.)

3.2   Carried Forward

The following are action items carried forward from the 13 March 2006 meeting, as highlighted in the minutes (Section 3, Status of Past Action Items):

  1. Originally from October 2005, Section 4, Public Support Committee: D. Goodger will pursue web page and installer donation link ideas.

    Status: carried forward.

  2. Originally from October 2005, Section 5, Ubuntu Development Meeting: Add "swag for events" to future agenda [D. Goodger].

    Status: carried forward.

  3. Originally from November 2005, Section 8, Trademark Policy: S. Deibel to work on the PSF trademark policy, and discuss with Milind Shaw.

    Status: carried forward. (Transferred from D. Ascher.)

  4. Originally from December 2005, Section 6, PSF Member Meeting: D. Goodger to complete the minutes for the 2005 PSF member meeting.

    Status: in progress.

  5. Originally from 14 February 2005, Section 4, Financials: K. Kaiser will ping the sponsor members who have not yet paid their 2006 PSF sponsor fees.

    Status: carried forward.

3.3   New in February/PyCon

These action items originated in the 25 February 2006 special board meeting at PyCon 2006 in Dallas/Addison Texas.

  1. Section 4, Other Business: David Ascher proposed to register PyCon as a trademark for the PSF; he will contact Milind Shaw about that.

    D. Ascher: "given the PyCon domain name ownership issues, and the reluctance on the part of some of the members re: TMs in general, I don't really think we should register more trademarks until we have a better idea what the membership wants to do about them."

    Status: dropped.

  2. Section 4, Other Business: Steve Holden will contact Brian Fitzpatrick, VP of public relations for the Apache Software Foundation.

    Status: carried forward.

  3. Section 4, Other Business: David Goodger will create a calendar of recurring PSF business events to remember.

    Status: carried forward.

  4. Section 4, Other Business: Martin v. Löwis will update the list of email addresses of PSF members.

    Status: carried forward.

  5. Section 4, Other Business: Stephan Deibel will approach the sponsor members about potential changes to sponsorship fees, such as the introduction of sponsorship levels.

    Status: in progress.

3.4   New in March

These action items originated in the 13 March 2006 board meeting on IRC.

  1. Section 4, Grants Committee: M. von Löwis agreed to draft a report on the PSF grants.

    Status: carried forward.

  2. Section 7, Paying the Treasurer or Offload Tasks to Paid Service: Kurt Kaiser is to propose compensation for the treasurer.

    K. Kaiser provided information (2006-03-13, PSF-Board list, "written invitation to PSF General Assembly" thread) on what it takes to do the treasurer's job regarding possible compensation. The board discussed the issues briefly and deferred further discussion.

    Status: replaced. S. Deibel to develop a compensation policy.

4   New Sponsor: Tabblo

We have received an application for sponsor membership from Antonio Rodriguez, CEO of Tabblo (http://theonda.org/pages/antonio).

RESOLVED that the board recommends Tabblo as a new sponsor member, for future approval by the membership.

Approved 7-0-0.

5   Notifying New Members

M. v. Löwis will contact the new PSF members elected at PyCon.

6   Trademark Policy Plan

http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonSoftwareFoundationTrademarkPolicy

S. Deibel's plan for the trademark policy is some more refinement, then take it to the PSF members, and later to our lawyer. M. v. Löwis proposed contacting our lawyer even before getting consensus, to ensure that we have a meaningful trademark policy. S. Holden suggested a deadline of April 30 to pass it to the members, and the June board meeting to round up member discussions and pass the policy to the lawyer.

T. Peters noted that we're writing very detailed pseudo-legalese now. S. Deibel suggested that instead we should be writing English that conveys to people (including lawyers) what we want, and they can turn that into legalese if necessary. But we'll still want an English language version or FAQ.

S. Deibel to ask the PSF members for input regarding the trademark policy by April 30, then incorporate their input and pass the policy to our lawyer.

7   Appointment of Vice Chairman

RESOLVED that Steve Holden is appointed to the office of Vice Chairman.

Approved 4-1-2.

8   Python.net

Deferred due to the lack of a concrete proposal.

10   Adjournment

S. Deibel adjourned the meeting at 18:00 UTC.