- Inkscape Board of Directors

[REFERENDUM] Election procedure
by Bryce Harrington 24 Feb '15

24 Feb '15

A majority vote of the current board members is required for the following matter. Proposal: --------- Adopt the Election Procedure shown in Addendum as the Inkscape Board's official procedure for holding Board Elections. Diverging from this procedure is not allowed without board approval. [ ] a. Accept Election Procedure v.2 as official election procedure [ ] b. Accept Election Procedure, if the following changes are done: __________________________________________ __________________________________________ [ ] c. Do not accept Election Procedure Votes: ------ Bryce Harrington Tavmjong Bah Josh Andler Jon Cruz Ted Gould Johan Engelen 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. 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 + 1 week} (Midnight Pacific time) * Publication of Candidates & start of Candidate Q&A: ${date + 1 week} * Election Start: ${date + 1 week} * Election End: ${date + 1 week + 2 weeks} (Midnight Pacific time) * Results Posted: ${date + 1 week + 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 an online system to conduct the voting. To vote, you will need to register for an Enfranchised Account. 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 Board Members have resigned from their positions and need to be filled by new members: TBD 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 discussion list, inkscape-devel@...103... 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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Supporting the board - and Hello!
by Donna Benjamin 22 Feb '15

22 Feb '15

Howdy Inkscape Board List! I responded to Bryce's call for volunteers to support the board's work. So thought I'd pop in, say Hi, and introduce myself. I'm a long time fan and user of Inkscape, after being introduced to it by Andy Fitzsimon at linux.conf.au way back in 2006! I've been involved in various free and open source software groups of one kind of another for even longer. From software freedom day, to being president of my local linux user's group, to my current involvement with the Drupal project and Drupal association. I can't code, but I can help with administrivia, event organising and community communications. So, Hi, I'm Donna and I'm here to help ;) Bryce forwarded some docs, so I've just published some small changes to the english version of the Governance page. https://inkscape.org/en/about/governance/ Unfortunately, I'm not multi-lingual, so haven't attempted to update the French, German and Spanish pages. (is there a process for coordinating with people around this?) cheers Donna

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Needed: Hackfest Coordinator
by Bryce Harrington 21 Feb '15

21 Feb '15

We'll be having a hackfest for the 3 days prior to the Libre Graphics Meeting in Toronto. I'd like to put out a call for a volunteer to serve as event coordinator for this. Responsibilities will include coordinating expense reimbursements, liaising with the LGM coordinators, and handling other misc. tasks that come up. I'll be attending and will be available to help, but I'd like to focus more on technicals so would appreciate a dedicated events person. Contact me off list if interested and we'll sort out details. Bryce

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SVG Working Group - Sydney report
by Tavmjong Bah 20 Feb '15

20 Feb '15

Hi, I have posted a report from last weeks SVG face-to-face meeting in Sydney: http://tavmjong.free.fr/blog/?p=1226 It was a very successful meeting: * We worked through many of the remaining issues on auto-flowed text with the participation of the CSS working group. * My proposal for text-on-a-shape was approved. * My proposal for 'auto-closing' of curved paths was approved. * My proposal for 'auto-smoothing' of mesh gradients was approved. * A new "clipped' miter line-join was approved. (Instead of falling back to a bevel line join when the miter-limit is exceeded, the line-join is clipped at the limit.) * How the miter-limit effects the arc line-join was decided. * We resolved most of the important issues blocking moving the SVG 2 spec to the next stage of the specification process and targeted the next face-to-face meeting in June for making the transition. * None of the important features for Inkscape were removed from the core SVG 2 specification (except marker knockouts which still needs a lot of work). Tav

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[REFERENDUM] Budget for 2015
by Bryce Harrington 20 Feb '15

20 Feb '15

A majority vote of the current board members is required for approving this budget. Proposal: 1. Adoption of the Rev2 budget described below for use as guidance in financial voting for 2015. 2. Board chairman will document the budget on the Inkscape website, and follow up with subsequent votes on individual expenses as appropriate or as they come up. [ ] a. Yes, adopt budget as described in "Rev #2" (below) [ ] b. Revise budget with the following changes recommended: _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ [ ] c. Do not establish a budget for 2015 Background: We have $31,000 in savings presently. We typically get between $3,000 and $8,000 in yearly donations, with a trend averaging at $7,000 in the last few years. However, this year we are experimenting with allowing donors to earmark their donations to specific budget items (i.e. Hackfest). This is not intended to be a formal budget, but rather to serve as a planning aid and to inform decisionmaking. The board must still vote on each specific expense, and in particular they are not restricted from voting larger or smaller amounts than is budgeted here. Item Amount ------------- ------ SVG Working Group(*) $2,250 LGM 2015 2,500 [1] Hackfest 2015 2,500 (+ sponsorship) [2] SCALE(*) 250 Other events 500 [3] Funded Development 750 [4] Developer Education 500 [5] Grants (OSUOSL)($) 250 Contingency 500 ------ ------ Total $10,000 Reserve $21,000 Expected Income $ 5,000 [6] Notes ----- (*): Budget item already approved by board ($): Budget item already paid out [1]: With the hackfest co-located with LGM, we anticipate charging half of airfair costs against LGM, half against Hackfest. [2]: The plan for the hackfest is to pay for it 100% through sponsorship and earmarked fundraising. This budget item allocates $2,500 as contingency in case the hackfest fundraising does not raise its full amount. [3]: This budget item covers material costs (buttons, stickers, banners, etc.) as well as travel sponsorship, for events where Inkscape will have a presence (e.g. booth, presentation, development discussion, etc.) [4]: This is intended as seed money for three projects ($250 each), with earmarked fundraising used for further funding. [5]: This amount covers books, training courses, and other expenses that result in improvements to our community's skills, knowledge, and abilities for research, development, QA, producing, and marketing the Inkscape software. [6]: This budget item provides for donations to other non-profit organizations. [7]: This is just a guess for how much will be donated to Inkscape's General Fund. This assumes $2,000 less than 2014's ~$7,000 due to redirecting donors to the hackfest for the first few months of the year.

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[accounting: $200 sent to OSU (was Re: [Re: OSUOSL contribution])]
by Bryce Harrington 14 Feb '15

14 Feb '15

----- Forwarded message from "Bradley M. Kuhn" <accounting@...41...> ----- Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2015 19:08:19 -0500 From: "Bradley M. Kuhn" <accounting@...41...> To: inkscape@...41... Subject: $200 sent to OSU (was Re: [bryce@...2...: Re: [Inkscape-board] OSUOSL contribution]) > On Mon, Jan 05, 2015 at 06:08:17PM -0800, Bryce Harrington wrote: >> Tony/Karen/Bradley, please cut a check in the amount of $200 from >> Inkscape to "OSU Foundation", and send to: Bryce Harrington wrote on 19 January: > Could someone let me know when this check has been sent, so we can > mention it on our website? I apologize for not replying to this email sooner. The check was sent during the week of 2015-02-02. -- Bradley M. Kuhn President & Distinguished Technologist of Software Freedom Conservancy |------> & also, de-facto Bookkeeper since we can't afford to hire one. Pls donate so we can increase staff: https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/ ----- End forwarded message -----

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Inkscape board resignation
by MenTaLguY 13 Feb '15

13 Feb '15

I'm stepping down from the Inkscape board, effective immediately. I haven't had a lot of time or energy to invest in Inkscape development or board activities for the past few years, and I think it's time I let someone else have a go. -mental (Tim)

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Re: [Inkscape-board] draft Inkscape FSA
by Bryce Harrington 12 Feb '15

12 Feb '15

On Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 07:07:45PM -0500, Tony Sebro wrote: > On 02/11/2015 06:57 PM, Bryce Harrington wrote: > > On Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 05:31:08PM -0500, Tony Sebro wrote: > >> Inkscape's PLC is already bound by Conservancy's conflict of interest > >> policy [1]. > > Fwiw, this is the first I've seen of that. > Hmm. I'm fairly certain we sent the policy around to the > project-reps@...41... address. If we didn't, I apologize. > Either way, we need to do a better job of making sure that projects are > aware of our organization's policy. I don't recall receiving anything to or from a 'project-reps@...41...' address. Perhaps I got excluded? http://lists.sfconservancy.org shows no such list name. > >> The goal here is to prevent a corporation from taking > >> control over the project by hiring PLC members and/or otherwise > >> dominating the PLC, so that they could exploit Conservancy's nonprofit > >> structure to handle activities that really should fall under their > >> for-profit structure. It's not my intent to make this section onerous; > >> we can discuss ways to make it fit Inkscape's community standards. > > For much of the life of the project, Ted, Tim, and I all worked for > > Canonical, and served on the board as the project founders. Canonical > > could have cared less about Inkscape and had zero influence on board > > matters. > > > > Presently Jon and I both work for Samsung, having both just recently > > joined there. Samsung cares even less about Inkscape than Canonical > > did. Yet if this provision goes into effect, one or the other of us > > will have to step down. > > > Understood. For what it's worth, I've never received anyone complain or > insinuate that Inkscape is controlled or influenced by any one > corporation. Still: if an issue were to come up in the future, the > Inkscape Committee may benefit from avoiding even the optics of influence. > > What if we moved from "more than one member employed" to "more than 1/3" > or "more than 40%"? Would that give the Committee enough wiggle room > going forward? Probably should speak in fractions of sevenths, otherwise rounding is ambiguous. A hard limit of 3/7th would avoid majority control by any one employer while being flexible with membership. Bryce

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Code of Conduct Vote
by Martin Owens 12 Feb '15

12 Feb '15

Dear Board, The website's code of conduct text needs redrafting and formally voting on. It should be a document reflecting the social norms we have and that these would be in force on the website with moderation and art submissions. This is what we have so far, it's a bit of a fragment paste bin at the moment: https://inkscape.org/en/community/coc/ We could do with the help from a friendly inkscape docs contributor to draft it into something usable as well as the inkscape board to ratify it with a vote. Thanks for all your help. Best Regards, Martin Owens

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Pre-approving projects for funding
by Bryce Harrington 11 Feb '15

11 Feb '15

One of the capabilities the new funded development policy[0] gives us is the ability to specify some projects as immediately fundable, without needing to wait the proscribed 6 months. I would like to propose we select a few projects to pre-approve, in order to prime the pump, and to serve for testing out the process. When we started this whole effort, KK suggested a number of good projects. These perhaps need a bit more elaboration but give something to select from. Would you guys please look through this list for 2-3 projects you think would make good initial fundable projects? Nominate ones that are well-contained and straightforward - things that would make appropriate GSoC projects for example. Please feel free to expound on the project definitions. http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Projects I'll collect everyone's nominations into a list, and we'll vote on them. Projects that get >50% vote will be made pre-approved. Bryce 0: See "Section 6: Process Exceptions" http://inkscape.org/en/contribute/funded-devel/

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