Archive:Board meeting 2022-03-28

Board Meeting Minutes 2022-03-28, 1330 CEST

Attendees: Gertjan, Syds, Mau, Axel, Attila, Emily, Doug, Neal, Gerald, Bill
Excused:
Minutes: Axel

General Topics

Starting time

As we regularly need more than an hour for our call, and Axel has a hard stop at 1430h, the start time of the meeting should be moved back to 1300 CE(S)T (Which is 1100UTC during summer time period)

All Board members are OK in moving the start time back to 1300 CE(S)T (Neal considers moving to a different timezone)
AI: Axel to change invitation mail

Vote on OpenLetter

The Board intents to co-sign a letter to DPO in Europe (see https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/project@lists.opensuse.org/thread/YFK4JWMJDRDHUFVOGDNDA45IZ6SMVUAK/)
If this should happen 'on behalf of the project', a poll is required according to discussion in the ML. Q: Do we go that way (which is time consuming), do we sign as board or do we sign individually?

Gertjan, Neal: Go with whatever is faster
Mau: for me signing as board is the same as on behalf of the project
Gerald: It's a task of every member, including board, to promote openSUSE. Once u are in a specific role, one needs to be a bit more careful

Agreement that we sign this as individuals. Each community member who want to sign this as well should drop a mail by Fri 08 Apr to board@l.o.o

Role of the Board

In the context of the above thread, the role of the board as such was discussed, as 'signing a letter' is not listed in the wiki as part of the role. 'Advocating openSUSE Linux' neither

Gerald: Current 'setup' does not allow to respond to inquiries / actions in less than 4 weeks
Bill: If I vote for the Board, do I not trust the board in that way?

Board understanding is that Board actions are by default not limited to the points listed in the wiki. That would limit the board more than a normal community member.

Neal: Fedora could make it to Laptops because Fedora council was able to pick this up. If oS needs a poll for everything, it will fail
Neal: Need to rephrase the board duties and give this to community approval

Fedora Council equivalent: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/council/

Syds: the election rule states:
Members of the openSUSE board shall act on behalf of all openSUSE contributors in the best interest of the openSUSE project. Although board members may be affiliated with companies or organizations that have an interest in the success of openSUSE, they will not be considered representatives of the companies or organizations with which they are affiliated.

Emily: Board scope comes from guiding principles, so we would need to change the guiding principles https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Guiding_principles (needs some update, as very old)
Current situation is bad for the community as a whole, as we are somehow in a deadlock

Participants agreed to change this, as this would improve community Proposal: Workshop during oSC22 for this (volunteer to submit workshop needed!)

This list was found at https://old-en.opensuse.org/Board_election/2009 on role of the board with link http://zonker.opensuse.org/2009/11/18/what-does-the-opensuse-board-do/ available via https://web.archive.org/web/20091124235937/http://zonker.opensuse.org/2009/11/18/what-does-the-opensuse-board-do/

Code of Conduct

The Code of Conduct was reviewed with a few edits submitted and agreed apon by Gerald. A submission to the project mailing list will be made during the next community meeting.

Neal updated the Code of Conduct.