[OpenStack Foundation] Notice of board meetings? -was- Re: Foundation Minutes - approval needed?

Jonathan Bryce jonathan at openstack.org
Wed Sep 12 01:34:38 UTC 2012


While the bylaws are pretty explicit around notice and process for attendees at various meetings (e.g. Board meetings, Member meetings), they don't say a lot on the mechanics of remote observation of Board meetings. Heading into the meeting, we were working to organize the Board and get the key materials--like the gold member materials, asset transfer agreement for trademarks, etc--prepped and finalized. While we had posted the agenda publicly as we were building it out, I realized we hadn't sent a public email anywhere until shortly before the meeting so I decided to send a note out to this list. This raises a few questions we should probably answer around the process and inclusion of non-director Members. Love to hear your thoughts.

- How much notice for the community is appropriate? 
The Board has regularly scheduled meetings once a quarter that will be set well in advance--the next one is October 15 in San Diego. We'll publish these on the website in a standard location. For special meetings, the minimum notice for Board members is 72 hours, so any other form of notice would need to be within that, however the notice requirement can be waived by the members of the Board, so a special meeting could take place with less than 72 hours notice. Currently there aren't any special meetings scheduled.

- How and where should the notice be provided?
This email list seems like a reasonable default to use as a location for notice. We're also building out a better web presence for the Foundation, including a home for Board information. Sometimes, like last week, we may be finalizing details up to the meeting, so perhaps initial notice points to a URL that may be updated with additional information. Along those lines, up to this point, I've publicly posted draft agendas ahead of the meetings. Looking around at other governance bodies, that type of detail is not often provided publicly, so we should probably get an official position from the Board on whether they wish to continue that.

- What is a reasonable amount of time for the publication of minutes after meetings?
The minutes clearly need to be reviewed and approved by the Board before being published. The minutes represent the official, permanent record of what occurred in the meeting, and with 24 directors involved, some dialed in to a conference line from 4 different continents, ensuring that everyone signs off on the minutes is especially critical. For most organizations, this usually happens at each Board meeting as a regular agenda item to review and approve previous minutes. This means a delay of weeks to months for the official minutes to be published. The Board briefly discussed approving minutes over email prior to a subsequent meeting, but it sounded like there might be some complications or adjustments needed with the bylaws to make this possible. In the meantime, announcements and news will become public as the activities and events occur.


As an organization, we are two weeks into a journey that I hope will continue for many years into the future, trying some new approaches, so I would expect we'll have a few things to figure out along the way. Thanks for your patience as we get established, and I'd like to hear feedback from anyone on the questions above.

Jonathan




On Sep 7, 2012, at 4:07 PM, Lloyd Dewolf wrote:

> On Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 9:34 AM, Jonathan Bryce <jbryce at rackspace.com> wrote:
>> We'll be trying to cover this and some other leftover business from last week's meeting at a special teleconference meeting of the Board today:
>> 
>> http://wiki.openstack.org/Governance/Foundation/07Sept2012BoardMeeting
> 
> Hi Jonathan,
> 
> Did I miss the thread where this meeting was announced? Or was this
> notice 30 minutes before the meeting the only notice to the community?
> 
> Thank you,
> --
> @lloyddewolf
> http://www.pistoncloud.com/




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