Present: Pia Waugh, Phil Harper, Matt Oquist, Robert Schumann, John Michael Bitanga (arrived 1230 UTC)
Apologies: Joe Olutuase (stuck in traffic)
ACTIONS
- PIA to collate responses to her SFD-discuss email asking for comments/suggestions
- PIA to invite new members to join the board, potentially to attend the next meeting
- MATT to rewrite by-laws to change date of AGM, introduce SGMs for amending by-laws, and separate out the roles of secretary and treasurer - and email revised by-laws to the board
- MATT to check the AGM technicalities required by our by-laws
- JMC to send bio, photo and URL to Pia for inclusion on the SFI webpage
- PHIL to plan a logo competition
...plus actions from last meeting:
EVERYONE to look at the timeline and check for potential revisions and additions
EVERYONE to look at the potential sponsors list (and outstanding actions) on the actions page
- EVERYONE to add items to next meeting's agenda
- PIA to contact IOSN about UN funding and recognition
- PIA to ask contact at planetplanet.org for a planet for SFD
- ROBERT to summarise the team reports from SFD 2007 for the board, and make a start on compiling the annual report
Minutes
- Pia commented that there has been a strong response to her request (on the SFD-discuss mailing list) for comments and suggestions on how to improve SFD. She will collate responses for discussion at the next meeting.
- Pia officially welcomed John Michael Bitanga to the board, after his election at the last meeting.
- Pia asked John to send her his bio, photo and relevant URLs to be included on the board webpage.
- The committee discussed the nomination of new board members selected from last year's team leaders. A vote was held, and Pia will contact the proposed candidates to invite them to join the board
- New members will attend the next meeting if they have all confirmed their acceptance by that time, or the meeting after that if at least one has not confirmed
- Pia asked about our AGM, which is due to be held on 1 December each year at 1000 EST
- Matt and Robert pointed out that our current by-laws only require the attendance of the board, so our regular meetings come close to qualifying as potential AGMs
- Pia would like SFI to be more accountable, and was therefore interested in making sure the AGM was held and publicised
- Robert suggested that a community IRC meeting might be more effective for this, and Pia suggested we revisit this idea later
- Matt pointed out that board members are supposed to be re-elected each year
- It was decided that we would amend our by-laws to allow the AGM to be held at any time between 1 December and 31 March
- Currently such amendments are only required to be made with approval of the board; Matt will make these changes in the by-laws and circulate for voting at the next meeting
- We will then hold an AGM on 1 March, at which we will vote on re-election and election to the board
- Pia asked whether board members had preferences regarding the roles/responsibilities they would take on
- Pia invited Robert to become Vice President, which he accepted. This will be formalised at the AGM.
- Robert will also assume the responsibility of Secretary, as well as taking responsibility for logistics and budgeting
- Phil suggested that we run a logo competition (before SFD, and before registration) and volunteered to organise this competition
- Phil agreed to be responsible for "infrastructure" (website, mailing lists, and technical issues relating to these), with some assistance from Robert
- John volunteered to help with logistics.
- In addition, John will be responsible for the full SFD competition (rules, announcements, compiling entries) as well as artwork and resources (which we was involved with last year)
- Pia asked everyone to update the relevant sections of the website and email the relevant mailing lists with any new information related to their roles/responsibilities
- Any other business?
- Matt reported that he had received confirmation of receipt of our 501(c)(3) (tax exemption) from the IRS, and was hopeful that we might receive tax exempt status before our AGM
