March 2015 - Inkscape Board of Directors

Hackfest donation question
by Máirín Duffy 10 Mar '15

10 Mar '15

Hi folks, I had a quick question - do you have donation / sponsorship levels for corporate donations for the Inkscape Hackfest? If so, is there a link talking about this that I can refer to? (I looked at https://inkscape.org/en/support-us/hackfest/ but didn't see any listed) ~m

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My resignation
by J.B.C. Engelen (Johan) 05 Mar '15

05 Mar '15

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[REFERENDUM] LGM Sponsorship Amounts
by Bryce Harrington 04 Mar '15

04 Mar '15

Proposal: [ ] a. Cover travel and hotel expenses for Inkscape developers to participate in LGM 2015, maximum of $500 per developer, up to $5000 total. [ ] b. Cover travel and hotel expenses for Inkscape developers to participate in LGM 2015, maximum of $1000 per developer, up to $5000 total. [ ] c. Either a or b would be fine. [ ] d. The budgeted funds for LGM should be used some other way: ________________________________________________________ Background: LGM is an important meeting for the Libre graphics movement. We will be having a hackfest ahead of it, and should help hackfest attendees afford staying for LGM too. Having Inkscape developers get together is always a good thing. Having Inkscape developers talking with others in the Libre Graphics movement can even be better. We've budgeted $5000 for sponsoring LGM attendees. (Note this is in addition to $5000 + donations for hackfest attendees.) The question we need to decide in this vote is exactly how to split it up. Last year the board funded up to 5 developers, $500 each. For people attending the hackfest, $500 will likely sufficiently cover the additional hotel expense for the additional 4 days, depending on where they're staying. This would enable us to fund 10 developers. However, if we have some people attending LGM only, and not attending the hackfest, then they may have additional travel expenses and it may make sense to provide a higher allocation of $1000, but this may reduce the total number of developers we could sponsor. Last Year's Announcement: Interested in meeting up with fellow Inkscapers? Thanks to generous donations to the project, we are able to provide funds to reimburse five developers up to $500 each for attendance at the Libre Graphics Meeting in Leipzig in April. Anyone in the AUTHORS file as of Feb 19th, 2014 is eligible to apply. To register, please email Tavmjong Bah, our coordinator for the event, by March 6th to get on the list. He'll let you know what position you are in the list. Then, register for the conference, enjoy your time, and save your receipts. Afterwards email copies of the receipts to Tav, who will forward them along to SFC for reimbursement. A maximum of $500 US each will be reimbursed to five attendees for travel, hotel room, and food. Note that the LGM meeting may also give partial reimbursements, so if your total costs exceed $500 they may be able to help. In addition, the board is sponsoring Tavmjong Bah to attend both LGM as a speaker and as our event coordinator, and the co-located SVG Working Group Meeting. Tav will be representing Inkscape's interests at the SVG meeting, and will be working with them on features including mesh gradients, hatched fills, and auto-flowed text. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to Inkscape in the past. Your funding has made these sponsorships possible. We've found these face-to-face meetings invaluable both for sharing ideas and as general inspiration for advancement of the project. Last Year's Website Blurb: Thanks to generous donations from users, the Inkscape Project is pleased to pay for five developers to attend the Libre Graphics Meeting, to be held in Leipzig in April. Tavmjong Bah will be presenting and is sponsored to go as Inkscape's event coordinator; please contact him if you are an Inkscape developer and would like added to the sponsorship list. Tav will also be sponsored to attend the co-located SVG Working Group Meeting. Tav will be representing Inkscape's interests at the SVG meeting, and will be working with them on features including mesh gradients, hatched fills, and auto-flowed text.

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[REFERENDUM] Election Procedure (v.3)
by Bryce Harrington 02 Mar '15

02 Mar '15

A majority vote of the current board members is required for the following matter. Proposal: --------- Adopt Election Procedure version 3, as shown in Addendum for the Inkscape Board's official procedure for holding Board Elections. Diverging from this procedure is not allowed without board approval. [ ] b. Accept Election Procedure v.3 (or later) as official election procedure [ ] c. Accept Election Procedure, if the following changes are done: __________________________________________ __________________________________________ [ ] d. Do not accept Election Procedure Votes: ------ Bryce Harrington Tavmjong Bah Josh Andler Jon Cruz Ted Gould Johan Engelen b. MentalGuy Resolution: ----------- Background: ----------- The procedure detailed in the addendum derives from directions given in past elections, and incorporates ideas from X.org's recent board elections. Notably, in the past we've elected single individuals, but this procedure covers electing several members at the same time. Change History -------------- v.1 RFC Draft v.2 Clarify voting through the website Note pseudonyms are ok, but legal names will be needed Allow nominations v.3 Increase Candidacy signup to 2 weeks Post to both inkscape-announce and inkscape-devel. Drop mention of 'Enfranchised Accounts'. Clarify bits that will be specified per-election. Addendum: election_procedure.txt --------- Inkscape is holding elections for ${NUM_SEATS} new Board Members. ${INTRODUCTION_TEXT} Typically the board votes on things such as project fund expenditures (travel, conferences, marketing materials for events, etc), trademark related issue, other legal issues that arise, etc. The board does not have responsibility currently for technical decisions for the project, and does not handle social/community issues where there are no financial or legal aspects to the problem. Board membership requires a commitment of time: At a minimum you will be expected to participate in votes on the mailing list, which typically occur with a frequency of about 0 to 3 per month. You are required to be on the board mailing list, which has a volume of about 30-50 emails per month; you're not required to participate in the discussions, but it is very strongly encouraged. We also solicit volunteers from the board to serve as as event managers, team leaders, fundraising coordinators, etc. - Again, not a requirement, but we value board members who can shoulder such duties for the project. As specified in Section 6 or our charter we maintain a committee of seven project members. Section 6 reads as follows: "6. Representation of the Project in the Conservancy. The Developers, each a signatory hereto, shall represent the Project in its official communication with the Conservancy. There shall be seven Developers (together, the "Committee"), elected by the community members of the Project listed in the Project's AUTHORS file (the "Community Members"). Each Developer shall continue to serve until he or she resigns from the position. The Developers may be removed from the position at any time by a majority vote of the Community Members. Upon the resignation or removal of a Developer, the Community Members shall elect a replacement Developer to serve on the Committee. The Committee will elect a single individual to communicate with the Conservancy (the "Representative") and shall notify the Conservancy promptly following the election of a new Representative. The Representative will have the authority to instruct the Conservancy on the Project's behalf on all matters. This section may be modified by a vote of at least 3/4 of the Community Members, with the consent of the Conservancy, such consent not to be unreasonably withheld." Election Schedule ================= * Kickoff Announcement: ${date} + Post to inkscape-announce@ + Publish news item to website * Candidacy period Start: ${date} * Candidacy period End: ${date + 2 weeks} (08:00 UTC) * Publication of Candidates & start of Candidate Q&A: ${date + 2 weeks} * Election Start: ${date + 2 weeks} * Election End: ${date + 2 weeks + 2 weeks} (08:00 UTC) * Results Posted: ${date + 2 weeks + 2 weeks + 2 days} Membership ========== Inkscape developers listed in the AUTHORS file as of ${AUTHORS_DATE} are considered Official Members for purposes of this election, as per our Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement with the Software Freedom Conservancy. Only Official Members may run for the board positions, and only Official Members may vote for them. In this election we will be using the Inkscape website for conducting the vote, so you'll need to register with the website to cast your vote. ${HOWTO_VOTE_DIRECTIONS} Election Proctor ================ The Inkscape Board elects by majority vote an Election Proctor who will run a given election and ensure it's successful completion. The Election Proctor has the responsibility for ensuring the voting is done according to procedure, assuring that the Vote is accurately tallied, and announcing the finalized result of the Vote. Once the vote has been finalized, the selected individual(s) immediately become Board Members. The Community may challenge the Election Proctor's tally within 30 days of the vote finalization, by gathering a number of signatures from Official Members exceeding 2/3rds of the total number of Votes cast declaring the vote to be inaccurate. Should this happen, the Vote is nullified, a new election must be arranged by the Board, with the Election Proctor barred from proctoring future Inkscape votes. Board Election ============== The following text can be used to draft an announcement about the election, which should be sent to inkscape's announcement and development mailing lists. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The following Board Members have resigned from their positions and need to be filled by new members: ${RETIREES} The election process starts with a Candidacy Period during which any Official Member may indicate interest in running for the positions. To register, please email ${ELECTIONS_ADDRESS}, giving your - Name [1] - Current professional affiliation - Statement of contribution to Inkscape or related technologies - A personal statement Alternatively, any Official Member may nominate another Official Member. At the end of the Candidacy Period, the applicants will be reviewed to verify eligibility. The list of candidates will then by published, and the community will have a chance to ask questions on the development mailing list. Finally, the election will be held using the Single Transferrable Vote (STV) voting system[2]. This is similar in mechanism to the Instant Runoff Vote (IRV) system we've used in the past[3], but for multi-seat results rather than the single-winner result of IRV. From a voter's perspective it's the same voting procedure: Rank candidates in order of choice with #1 being first choice, and so on. References ========== 1: Pseudonyms are acceptable for registration purposes, but please note that your legal name will need to be provided when officially joining the board as a member, and may be needed on various legal documents which will be publically disclosed for transparency purposes. 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote 3: Past elections: 2006 Election + http://inkscape.13.x6.nabble.com/Election-process-for-Inkscape-Board-tt2805… 2008 Election + http://t48889.graphics-inkscape-development.graphictalk.us/opening-inkscape… 2012 Election + http://inkscape.13.x6.nabble.com/Inkscape-Board-Election-voting-time-tt4965… + http://inkscape.13.x6.nabble.com/Inkscape-Board-Committee-Nominations-tc496…

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[REFERENDUM] Funding pre-approved jobs
by Bryce Harrington 01 Mar '15

01 Mar '15

A majority vote of the current board members is required for the following matter. Proposal: Allocate $750 total from Inkscape's 2015 Budget for three Pre-Approved Jobs. [ ] a. Yes, allocate money from budget to jobs [ ] b. No, do not allocate from budget Background: Inkscape has set up a funded development process[1], and following that process has pre-approved[2] three projects from a list of suggestions. In the recent budget vote[3], we've budgeted $750 to spend in 2015 on funded work. This vote is to formally allocate $250 to each project's funds. I envision we'll need to do some fundraising on top of this to make the jobs more attractive, but this will give us a starting point. 1: https://inkscape.org/en/support-us/funded-development/, http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.board/+junk/board-docs/view/head:/res… 2: https://www.mail-archive.com/inkscape-board@lists.sourceforge.net/msg00212.… 3: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.board/+junk/board-docs/view/head:/res…

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