Board of Directors Meeting 2021-11-19

The Document Foundation
Board of Directors Meeting 2021-11-19
Meeting Minutes

Location: Jitsi

Session chair: Lothar Becker
Keeper of the minutes: Florian Effenberger

In the meeting:
    Board - Thorsten Behrens, Lothar Becker, Michael Meeks, Cor Nouws
    Board Deputies - Nicolas Christener, Paolo Vecchi
    Membership Committee -
    Membership Committee Deputies - Uwe Altmann
    Community - Michael Weghorn, Jan Holesovsky
    Team - Florian Effenberger, Sophie Gautier, Guilhem Moulin

Representation: Paolo for Emiliano, Nicolas for Franklin

Chairman of the Board is in the meeting. One of the Chairman or Deputy Chairman is required to be present or represented for having a quorate call.

The Board of Directors at time of the call consists of 7 seat holders without deputies. In order to be quorate, the call needs to have 1/2 of the Board of Directors members, which gives 4. A total of 6 Board of Directors members are attending or represented in the call.

The board waives all formal statutory requirements, or requirements in the foundations articles, or other requirements regarding form and invitation, time limits, and for the topics discussed in this meeting.

The meeting is quorate and invitation happened in time. From now on, motions can be passed with the agreement of a simple majority of those remaining present. The majority threshold is currently 4.

The meeting commences 13:03 Berlin time.

Public Part

1. Q&A: Answering questions from the community (all, 5 minutes)
    Rationale: Provide an opportunity for the community to ask questions to the board and about TDF

* Any questions? (Lothar)
   * no questions

2. Information: European institution sponsored bug bounty (Paolo, all 5 min Paolo)
    Rationale: An European institution, to be named if we agree with the project, would like to sponsor a bug bounty for both LibreOffice desktop and On-Line

      + what is behind the bug-bounty itself? (Lothar)
          + is it search for or fixing bugs ?
      + been in contact with several European institutions (Paolo)
          + helping them to create policies to promote & develop FLOSS
          + quite known in this network.
          + finally after pushing so hard: this institution has a growing
            interest in LibreOffice.
          + an opportunity to organize a bug-bounty on LibreOffice Desktop
          + which allow us to find more bugs.
          + and hopefully more potential developers - which may provide fixes
          + everything sponsored by this institution.
          + now we agreed on what to do
          + initially wanted to add LOOL - but then the situation has been explained
          + like to organize things before the end of the year
          + since we don't know yet what we do with it.
          + so everything is focused on the desktop version
          + through board & TDF staff - have a team that can look after this opportunity.
       + questions - every bug - not just security? (Lothar)
          + all types of bugs yes (Paolo)
       + what is paid ? (Lothar)
          + the bounties - and the org. that manages the bounties (Paolo)
             + little reaction to requests for feedback to the board.
             + more info. when have a team confirming TDF is willing to participate.
             + have all the info required.
          + have this great opportunity - need feedback & support from volunteer
    + thanks for putting this together & reasonable scope (Michael)
       + if security focused - Caolan should be involved with this
       + if more generic - then Xisco is a good guy
       + concerned it stays under umbrella of TDF (Paolo)
          + so stays inside that - for benefit of TDF & LibreOffice
          + no problem with this (Michael)
    + good to get Italo & Mike from Marketing involved too (Paolo)
       + also Sophie to promote it in France.
    + great idea - will reach out & get them in the loop (Florian)
       + think it's a good initiative.
       + think it's great (Paolo)
          + don't have time & skills, stopped developing 15 years ago.
          + would be nice for someone on the team to get control
            on the platform
          + will pass those contacts on.
       + there is an intermediary that does payments etc. ? (Michael)
          + yes, main contact is institution - cnx. made to bounty org (Paolo)
     + got what you need ? (Lothar)
       + need confirmation from the board (Paolo)
          + supportive (Michael, Thorsten)
       + consensus from BoD to go ahead.
AI: Florian: bring this to next week's team call
     + will write to them - Florian will take control to organize it (Paolo)
       + a good thing to get it done somehow (Cor)
     + usual comment (Thorsten)
       + good to get this done but:
       + struggle is normally to get bugs fixed
       + great to get funding for not just finding but fixing.
     + agree (Paolo)
       + participated with several institutions
       + which provide funds for development
       + this one could be a starting-point, as they did for Jitsi
       + could organize a Hackathon
       + should develop something for LibreOffice
       + getting more people involved
       + other ways - can organize somehow - to get direct funding for TDF
         to be spent in development.
       + have developers inside TDF to deal with un-touched bugs.
       + a good oppo to do that as well.
     + agree (Thorsten)
       + OpenSSL - started with a security review, and developed
         into EU putting some money on the table.
       + shouldn't stop with this.
     + is there anything they want in exchange ? (Kendy)
       + absolutely nothing (Paolo)
          + benefit getting - from my effort, getting more aware of
            where they should invest money
          + been part of meetings - where with this institution, trying
            to find a way to fund more projects.
          + positive side to work Paolo & others are doing in the institutions
          + for them - want to help foundations & institutions that invest
            in Open Source.
       + understand it is crucial for technologial & digital sovereignty.

3. Information&Plan: Suggestion of an "attic" status of LOOL repository, input from subgroup, ESC inquiry (Thorsten, Emiliano, all 10min)
    Rationale: Status/Follow on of the action item, timeline for decision making on that

       + unclear if possible to discuss without Emiliano (Lothar)
          + postponed from the last board call.
          + any news ? when we get input from the sub-group
       + have been discussing with infra / Christian / Guilhem (Thorsten)
          + think we're almost there
          + don't feel comfortable proposing it without Emiliano signing off on it.
          + can't speak for Emiliano
             + waiting too long - suggest go to board-discuss
             + and propose / vote it there.
             + can postpone one more time if Lothar thinks it is necessary.
        + wondering if a simple E-mail for board to see status (Paolo)
           + to understand the directino it is taking.
        + what discussing; seems to be consensus (Thorsten)
           + will propose something like an 'Attic'
           + where retired, no-longer-updated, unmaintained projects can be relegated to
           + and some pre-requisites to get them out of the Attic
           + so not there permanently - if renewed interest, a proposal on that, can get
             re-activated
           + talked to Guilhem on how best to do that
           + a separate R/O git repo - where it is reasonably easy to get it out
           + think it's fair not pushing forward without Emiliano.
        + proposal is confirm current status - keep as R/O ? (Paolo)
           + or allow people to play around see some bugs to fix ?
           + it's neither (Thorsten)
               + lets wait for the proposal

Public meeting ends at 13:21 Berlin time.

Private Part

4. Discuss & further steps: Follow up discussion on legal consultation with an attorney (Emiliano, all 15min)
    Rational: Discuss some of the indications out of consultation
    Reason why in private: discuss on legal matters regarding TDF

5. Status: CoI policy text (Legal Subgroup, all 15min)
    Rational: Discussion about Status of the CoI policy text version and further steps
    Reason why in private: Discussion of preliminary text version/alternative

6. Inform: Communications about contracts (Emiliano, all 10min)
    Rational: Discuss contractual regulations
    Reason why in private: contracting is by default confidential

Private meeting ends at 14:03 Berlin time.

Lothar Becker (Session chair)
Florian Effenberger (Keeper of the minutes)