Archive:Board meeting 2021-09-13
Present: Simon, Axel, Syds, Gertjan, Neal
Guests: Maurizio, Attilla, Luna, Bill, Doug
Excused: Gerald
Board briefly goes through open tickets, no developments at the moment
Foundation
Simon: Stagnation due to changes at SUSE, feedback from SUSE now seems to change to more positive
Advantage DE: possible keep governance / legal structure
Other options: US, BE
Axel mentions that the Board has agreed that it does not want to change the relationship with SUSE
Simon: This must come from community. To avoid it being seen as a way to avoid taxes from SUSE side. We're aiming for receiving money, from sponsors donations
Neal mentions Linux Foundation could possibly help. Also noted that LF helps with making American foundations, though they take a cut as part of that. We can certainly do it on our own, too
Axel mentions US Cloud Act being a potential issue. For this and the fact, that (open)SUSE has its roots in Germany, Axel proposes to keep the foundation in Europe
Neal noted meeting that the CLOUD Act of 2018 already applies to us due to SUSE using AWS and Azure and owning a DC in Provo, UT.
Simon: 2 ways to break a Foundation: GDPR, not doing proper accounting
SUSE providing part-time accounting, GDPR requests, Bill: a lawyer?
Simon: SUSE is willing to.. Trademarks owned by SUSE. If ™ owned by a Foundation , that Foundation has to defend them.
Neal also noted that we might want to consider an arrangement similar tohow Ziff Davis did for their trademarks and brand when the company split in two (Ziff Davis and Ziff Davis Enterprise), though that arrangement no longer exists with ZDE being gone now.
Doug: most of our sponsoring is wider community projects: smaller conferences etc. Doug brings up a possible Foundation on Curaçao
Gertjan asks Syds about possibilities in NL
AI Syds: find EN versions of NL Foundation docs