Plone Foundation Board Minutes July 10, 2025

Call to Order

  • Meeting started at 20:03

Attendance

  • Present: Eric Brehault, Brian Davis, João Henrique Gouveia, Mikel Larreategi, Martin Peeters, Guido Stevens, and Steve Piercy (interim treasurer)
  • Excused: Rafahela Bazzanella

Approval of the minutes of

  • June 26, 2025: Eric motions to approve. Guido seconds. All in favor excepts Gouveia who abstains.

Action items

  • Martin contacted EricS re: Zope funds
  • Martin contacted Steve re: Budget Review
  • Martin contacted Jens re: Sprint Funding Request

Incoming Correspondence

  • 2 emails from Steve re: treasurer housekeeping

New Business

  • No new business

Continued Business

  • Interim Treasurer
    • Steve meeting with Beth
      • Beth walked Steve through several processes.
      • Shared all 22 logins. Steve transfered them into 1pw vault.
      • Steve needs to add 2FA. It may take time to go through each and every one.
    • Document review
      • Overall goal is to document all processes.
      • One process we're looking at is Sprint funding and reimbursement
        • Steve gave Board access to the document.
        • Astrid and Marketing Team are already collaborating.
        • Funding form does not currently email you any acknowledgment.
          • Should be a thank you receipt. or at least cc: the submitter with the included form responses.
          • Brian to investigate.
      • Beth suggested improvements on when-to-reimbuse. It wasn't always clear to her when payments were ready/approved to be sent.
    • Bookkeeper proposal
      • It's a lot of work. And the amount of administrative bookkeeping makes this an undesirable position. Especially as a volunteer.
      • Steve suggests hiring a bookkeeper to do the mundane day-to-day reconciling of accounts.
      • Alleviating this burden from the treasurer would make it a more desirable role in our search for a permanent treasurer.
      • Treasurer time could be better spent on tasks like financial analysis, are we spending our money well, preparing budget, preparing reports, etc.
    • Voting status
      • Steve brought up the question of should treasurer be a voting board member?
        • Paul explained historically the treasurer was filled by in-kind support and the treasurer was not a Plone Foundation member, so it made more sense at the time.
        • However, if the treasurer is a voting Board member, and if they can delegate duties to hired bookkeeper, it would be more appealing to treasurer candidates as volunteers.
      • Board discussion
        • Guido: Agreed, when I joined the Board I was surprised treasurer wasn't a voting member.
        • Eric: If so, treasurer should be elected.
        • Martin: At the next General meeting, Plone Foundation members would need to 1) vote on any change to the bylaws and 2) vote to elect a treasurer
        • Mikel: In current bylaws, I dont see any problems to have treasurer as voting member of board.
        • Guido: I also don't see anything in the current bylaws that prevent the treasurer from voting.
        • Mikel: Let's further review the bylaws then decide if any action is needed.
        • Brian: This change would bring us to 8 voting members. Having an even number could lead to possible tied votes.
        • Martin: We do have a tie-breaking clause. But we could also consider reducing the board by one member so that there are 6 + 1 treasurer = 7.
    • Other items to address
      • Steve is working on a chart of accounts. Needs direction on buckets. What would make it more clear for the board to make an informed decisions?
      • Please ammend the "needs help todos" on the document with any comments. Will probably create a spreadsheet to plan out the work.
      • Paypal invoices are automatic? Beth wasn't clear on this.
      • Need improved monitoring of the treasurer mailing list.
      • There are additional people who have access to the 1pw treasurer vault and maybe aren't active. Similar discussion as the GitHub accounts review.
      • Would like to get a better handle on where the fees are going.
      • Steve: Are there any urgent deadlines? I will be away on vacation soon.
        • Martin: No urgent matters. Next up are Salamina, Beethoven end-of-Aug/Sept.
  • Sponsorship management and levels
    • No news. We still have the proposal from last year. Please review again.
    • Who is going to head this up?
  • Github security overhaul
    • Mikel reported that Admin Team have started doing this not only for GitHub, but also plone.org and Google workspace accounts.
  • Provider listing on plone.org: what to do as a company in the community, self-grading
    • Brian reported that Marketing has been taking a look at improving the design of this page.
    • Shared some examples of other softwares' partner/provider listings.
    • Marketing will need help with continued development of the custom Provider content type.
  • Sprint funding requests
    • Alpine City Sprint: Board is looking to schedule a meeting.
  • Plone Trademark Renewal
    • Martin reported that this is completed. Includes EU/UK for 10 years. US will need to be addressed next year.
  • GSOC 2025
    • Eric: Still no travel information about the last GSOC student. Trying to contact mentor.
  • Plone Conference 2025
    • Sponsorship request to Python Foundation was sent this week.
    • Next meeting is postponed while people are on holiday.
    • All good. Everything is on track.
  • AI Policy
    • Mikel discussed this at Steering Circle. However, attendance was low. Hopefully more people see it from the Steering Circle notes.
  • Zope Foundation Funds
    • Martin replied to esteele.

Review Ongoing

  • Mikel: I opened two documents on Quaive (conference organizing requirements and sprint organizing requirements). Please review.
  • Brian: Marketing is starting to look at renewing the Plone store. Last available conference t-shirt is 2021. Could we get logos/designs/templates/etc to list more items?

Adjournment

  • Eric motions to adjourn. Mikel seconds. All in favor.
  • Adjourned at 21:13