Minutes of May 17th, 2012

Meeting of the Board of Directors

(meeting starts at 22:03 CET)

Housekeeping

• attendance:
  present: Sjoerd, Maurizio, Érico,  Paul, Carol,  Matt.
  absent: Geir (it's Norway Day)
• approval of the Minutes of May 3rd, 2012:
  Maurizio moves to approve, Sjoerd seconds, unanimous approval.

New Business

• Contributor agreement update
  There are suggestions to update and clarify the text of the document. Comments have also been added by Elizabeth Leddy (thanks!).
  We should keep on doing this, and then have it translated to valid legalese and double-checked.
  The email address to send scanned copies of the current agreement is agreements@plone.org
  
  The process for adding new contributors is a bit convoluted, since it involves both plone.org and github, and the two usernames are not always the same. This should be documented clearer to make it easier for future boards.
  A nicer way of representing the worldwide spread of contributors (hello mapping!) could also be worthwile.
• Treasurer's Report:
  Our balance has dropped slightly, but our financial situation is still sound. Some items do need to be picked up, though:
  - in the AGM in San Francisco there was talk about upgrading the materials on why sponsorship is important.
  - The estimated value of Plone's codebase has stayed the same over several years. Does it need re-evaluating? This is not urgent, but should be thought about.
  Paul moves to approve the Treasurer's report, Érico seconds. Unanimous approval.
• Plone Accessibility:
  We have a guest caller for this item, Matt Barkau from WebLion.
  Matt Barkau explains the current situation, and some of the work that has already been done. There is code that will get us a very long way towards WCAG 2.0 compliance (level AA). There will be sprints on the topic of a11y (accesssibility) after Plone Symposium East.
  
  The current goal is to get WCAG 2.0 compliant for visitors of Plone sites; the compliance for the editing environment is a longer term goal.
  
  Matt Hamilton tells there was also interest in Sorrento from Italian people working closely with local governments. In the meantime, the Dutch 'guidelines' have been updated to become basically a translation of WCAG 2.0, and it seems likely the entire EU will follow this path.
  
  Matt Barkau tells there is work being done with automated tests; however the current tools used are proprietary and therefore cannot be integrated easily. There is talk of opensourcing them. The tests for a11y will not be able to fully run automated, though. The WCAG 2.0 specifically mentions that a lot of the guiding Principles can only be fully judged by humans.
  
  A place to set up discussion for an a11y team is necessary. Relevant portions should also be made aware to the plone-dev list, but a separate list will make it easier to involve 'outside' experts who don't want to follow that high-traffic list.
  
  A future goal will be to get certified by for instance webaim.org. The Board agrees with this, and would be willing to help in any way necessary.

Old Business

• Plone Conference Update:
  Three new sponsors have signed up. The first trainings have been announced, and submissions for talks are now open.
• Europython presence:
  The organizers have offered a table, we will have more than enough people to man/woman it. Armin, Matt and Maurizio are working on various marketing ideas.
• Domain disputes:
  .br : still in bureaucratic transfer. The site could temporarily be pointed to plone.org.br, which will also be officially transferred to the foundation.
  .cat: legal work is being done
  .be: work is being done.
• Plone.com:
  The efforts to lead this team need more time than Mark Corum can offer in this campaigning season. Matt is volunteering to engage new people.

Carol moves to adjourn the meeting, Érico seconds. Unanimous approval.

(meeting ends at 23:19 cet)