Plone Foundation Board Minutes June 26, 2025

Call to Order

  • Meeting started at 20:03

Attendance

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

Interim Treasurer Welcome

  • First, a huge thank you to Steve for taking on this effort.
  • Steve thanked the Board for this opportunity. Key word being "Interim" Treasuer, aka. limited term for one year. Hope this will give the board more time to find a permanent treasuer.
  • Steve and Beth have started meeting about the transition.
  • Steve's main goal is documenting the processes, so that anyone new can step in.
  • Steve shared a document with the Board about Treasurer role, first steps, and ideas/goals:
    • Virtual mailbox?
      • Yes, the board likes the idea. Does anyone have experience with this? Looking for a good service.
    • Alternatives to international wire transfers and the associated fees?
      • Steve and Martin both recommend Wise.
      • Mikel: How bout a bank that allows you to keep multiple currencies?
      • Yes, Wise is same thing
    • Reviewing/reconciling budget
      • Guido: Thank you Steve. I think it's great what you're planning to do. I also think we should examine the budget and match categorizations vs cost itemized in reports. We need to reconcile budget and realized money flows and make adjustments to our process, because spending declarations are too vague.
      • Steve: Agreed, I'd like promote clarity and transparency and try to come up with some budget categories that make sense. Too broad of categories like "conference" leads to too vague of costs.
      • Guido: All of these should fit in buckets in Quickbooks. And if they don't, then we need to think about the buckets. In general, I'd like to see focus on improved budget categorizations.
  • Future Board Meetings - Should Steve attend?
    • Not a voting member, so not required and why traditionally treasurer has not attended.
    • However, we would like to get our budget in order and many recent topics are treasuer-related.
    • Steve: Traditionally in non-profit work, I've found that a treasury report is best done quarterly.
    • Guido makes a motion to extend invitation for next 6 board meetings, and if there any sensitive topics can be saved until end of the meeting. Martin seconds. All in favor.

Approval of the minutes of

  • June 12, 2025: Brian motions to approve. Mikel seconds. All in favor.

Action items

  • Mikel has put AI policy on agenda for the July 10th Steering Circle.

Incoming Correspondence

  • Tagung funding request
  • Alpine City funding request
  • Linked-in change
  • pypi emails
  • cloud19 not listed on providers (TKim to address)

New Business

  • None

Continued Business

  • Sponsorship management and levels
    • Should we go ahead with proposal from Erico we got last year?
    • Hoping to have word from TKim/Erico soon. Let's wait until next meeting to review.
    • Mikel: Can we have a meeting with TKim?
    • Martin: Yes, I will invite him to the next Board Meeting to discuss sponsorship program and other relevant topics.
  • Github security overhaul
    • No new news.
  • Provider listing on plone.org: what to do as a company in the community, self-grading
    • No new news.
  • Linked to the Tenders: what to do as a company in the community, self-grading
    • No new news.
  • Sprint funding requests
    • Tagung
      • Brian: This can come out of Marketing budget. No Marketing budget increase needed at this time.
      • Funding request is ready to be processed by treasurer. Making Steve aware.
    • Alpine City
      • Martin and EricB will schedule a call to discuss.
    • Funding request process improvements
      • Treasurer should use treasurer@plone rather than personal email address, so that Board has all the same info.
      • Are our processes documented?
        • Brian: General guidelines are on plone.org, but could/should include more details. Examples:
          • Have we published the Board's definition on what makes a sprint strategic?
            • See March 6 Board notes "Sprint funding further communcation" re: PLIPS/community-building
          • Are there documented instructions on what to do if sprint organizers need a budget increase?
      • Do people even know where to look?
        • Brian: How about an email template saying, "Congratulations! You have been approved for a strategic sprint. Here are the finer details of what is expected."
      • Steve will investigate and look to improve documentation on anything funding related.
        • Steve found a broken link on https://plone.org/foundation/event-sponsorship/marketingeventsponsorshipdetails
        • Brian to fix.
  • Plone Trademark Renewal
    • No new news. Martin says it is handled/taken-care-of but will send another email.
  • GSOC 2025 (Eric)
    • Asked for 2 invitiation letters to ease visa requests for students. Not sure yet if the 3rd student is attending.
    • Other than that, all good.
  • Plone Conference 2025 (Mikel)
    • Sent 2 invitation letters to GSOC students.
    • Reviewing talk proposals, contacting people.
    • Pursuing trainers, answering question.
  • AI Policy
    • To be discussed at Steering Circle. Has anyone reviewed? Please comment on Quaive.
  • Zope Foundation Funds
    • esteele contacted, but not much info. Was asking if we have details on the issuer's bank?

Review Ongoing

  • Martin: Github README PR looks good with the recommended changes. Marketing can review/approve further content.
  • Brian: Axolote Sprint this week is going well. Very happy with the plone.org progress! Thank you DavidG/FredVD!
  • Brian: Reminder, next Steering circle is July 10th, not the 3rd.

Adjournment

  • Guido motions to adjourn. Eric seconds. All in favor.
  • Adjourned at 21:29.