Discuss Board Meeting

Raw transcript:

Mark: Got it.

Mark: so

Mark: let's see.

Mark: I'm sorry I I got so carried away with all the chatter here I forgot to pull up my notes.

Mark: Cindy, you had something you wanted to discuss first, so why don't we start with that?

Cindy: Oh, sure! So I added in the cabal channel. a note. It looks like a holy mark is. Read it so far. so I was at an event locally a couple of nights ago, and met with

Cindy: Peter Meyer, who's the president of Book of Media, DC. Who, I think most of you probably have met at one time or another

Cindy: and apparently Wikipedia, DC. Got a grant from the foundation

Cindy: to investigate creating what they call a North American hub. and they've got an advisory board for that

Cindy: that they are looking for the additional members? and basically, it's just a

Eric-Jan: folks in North America who to advise

Cindy: for the idea of having a this North American group. that other that that Wikimedia affiliates.

Cindy: such as the Wik Media Stakeholder group, could join to get sort of economies of scale and benefit from each other's advice and stuff.

Cindy: So they are looking for somebody and of the people on that call this call. I guess that would be

Cindy: Mark Brian myself North American to participate in this advisory

Cindy: for.

Mark: hey? Yeah. Just noticing. This is half Europe and half half of North America. And if we had 2 other people here it would be majority Europe.

Cindy: Europe. Right? Yeah.

Mark: So anyway, there you go.

Mark: It is pretty cool.

Cindy: In this case it limits participation in this thing.

Mark: I I I think that that's a good idea that we should be a part of that I do do. Our

Mark: European colleagues have anything about that. Is this similar to Wikipedia, Europe.

Cindy: or

Cindy: I do not know. But I mentioned to Peter that I didn't even know what could be the Europe was a thing until I saw got mentioned on one of the mailing lists. I guess last week.

Cindy: So so I sort of asked the same question. But then we sort of went off in another direction. I actually got an answer.

Mark: So yeah, let's let's ask the other, the European half here. What do you all think about this?

Bernhard: I think this is which is great, and and as far as I know, Wiki Media, Europe is something quite new.

Cindy: is it? Okay? That is why I had.

Bernhard: But I don't really know much about it.

Eric-Jan: No.

Mark: maybe maybe the whole North America, we Media, North America or Wikipedia, America, whichever it is. And we can media Europe or a similar. You know, they're starting from a similar place then. So

Cindy: anyway.

Eric-Jan: so maybe they need a devicery group. And maybe they need somebody from the stakeholders.

Mark: Yeah. So I I I think it would be interesting to reach out to both of them. Actually so, especially if they're just if they're both new or just starting out.

Mark: Hey, Lex?

Lex: Good to see you. Sorry I was. I'm on my bike.

Lex: That's why.

Mark: all right.

Mark: yeah, how come we? I I'm disappointed. We didn't have any meetings with Adam sailing. That would have been

Eric-Jan: yes. Well, no, we should have we. He would have brought us all along.

Mark: yeah. The okay. So

Mark: I want to

Mark: briefly touch on these other things. But I think the main thing I need to talk about are the I want to get really nailed down is, I think we need to update our obligations that we have. And we need to, really, you know, have a discussion about those agreed to what those are. Oh, hey, Marcus.

Cindy: can I ask you one question before we do that? Did we ever resolve the previous topic like,

Cindy: the one about Wikimedia, North America. So yeah, I can tell Peter. Yes, we will participate.

Cindy: But we don't know who yet.

Mark: I I think it's good. What do you all think thumbs up. Oh, Marcus, just so, you know

Mark: Cindy was talking with.

Cindy: it's it's in the chat, the cabal chat. You can read it.

Cindy: Yeah. Okay.

Mark: yeah. So thumbs up thumbs down You can't see my phone.

Mark: My thumb is up.

Cindy: Okay, cool.

Cindy: And then I guess Mark Brian and I need to figure out, who's going to be the person?

Mark: Yeah.

Mark: okay. So yeah, that I I just assume that we all thought like I did, and just proceeded.

Mark: anyway. shouldn't think that way. But

Mark: I wanted to discuss these obligations. Since it's been a recurring thing. You know. What what are the obligations we have. We need to have these written down and agree to any changes. I think there should be changes.

Mark: I'm not sure everyone agrees to that.

Mark: and I think we need to agree if those changes happen what they are.

Mark: and then we need to communicate those to

Mark: mute members.

Mark: Adam, just to bring you up to date a little. We have been discussing what our obligations are to people who pay

Mark: membership fees.

Mark: And and

Mark: yeah, you is it is that. The

Mark: I'm sorry there's chat going on, and I'm missing it.

Mark: yeah. So it it's

Mark: the

Mark: obligations we have. We talk about. You know. We'll give you so many hours, basically of consulting for

Mark: if you if you join, and what we've

Mark: up till now, there's kind of been an understood to be, you know, on a per

Mark: client basis. Sort of thing that you know. If

Mark: Wiki base donates $10,000 they get X amount of hours and targeted towards Wiki Base.

Mark: and what

Mark: I think we've been talking about where I've been trying to lead us. or you know not me. But I

Mark: where we've been trying to go, I think, is to say, Okay.

Mark: we're gonna change what we're doing. We're we're working on

Mark: promoting media Wiki.

Mark: and we're working on developing tools and media wiki that everyone can use. And they're not just targeted at a specific

Mark: person. I I think that summarizes the thinking of where I was thinking we were going.

Mark: what? What?

Mark: What do you think? I I know that wasn't necessarily what other people were thinking, but what?

Mark: Just open that up. What do you all think about?

Eric-Jan: Yeah. So there's there's applications from the past, I would say. and this application that we would that we would like to shape for the future right?

Eric-Jan: And we've been discussing

Eric-Jan: current application so and there are. Some of these have been

Eric-Jan: are now in the on the fabricator board

Eric-Jan: there for tests there.

Eric-Jan: And I would say they call for action right? They call for execution.

Eric-Jan: because this is our heritage from the past.

Eric-Jan: so we can discuss anything for the future. But

Eric-Jan: those 4 obligations have to do with promises to

Eric-Jan: current or even past sponsors.

Mark: So what you're talking about, though, is the things under the sponsor obligation.

Mark: And those things are

Mark: yeah, that that's something that I think continues. Anyway, you know, communicate with current users and current members.

Mark: Review status of members.

Mark: renew memberships.

Mark: specifying and create member management interface. That is.

Mark: that is not really the what I mean. Those are things we need to do. And I think those continue to be things we need to do, whether we change what our obligations are or not.

Eric-Jan: Yes, our

Mark: co-codified not change. I want to be clear here. I don't think we're changing it. I wouldn't. I want to frame it, as we're codifying exactly what the what the obligations are, but the the things they're listed here in sponsor obligations. That is not. Those are just operational things. Yes, and and they find that they they they come from. Let's say, 21 or 2020, 21 or 22. Right? These are

Eric-Jan: really application we have to look into. Yeah.

Eric-Jan: So so look into, I would say, we have to execute, not because we. So we we we should come to that. Come to, let's say, come to a decision and and and start executing it.

Mark: So for the things in the sponsor Obligations column there, I would say that those

Mark: are things that we just need to.

Mark: we just need to

Eric-Jan: delegate tasks basically. And

Mark: so

Mark: I I guess since yeah, that that's good, we need to focus on what our. you know, maintaining the organization. What Communicate with current members? Let's look at that one real quick

Mark: inform current members

Mark: selected test and tasks executed, related to granted funding.

Mark: So that's basically writing a report. it is, is, that is, am I right? That you know.

Eric-Jan: Yeah, if if if you can write a report on what we have done as far as promises. So coming from the the by, the the using and the bylaws what we have done. If if you could make a report that that would be great.

Eric-Jan: But this assumes that we exactly know what our current members have been over the over the last few years. So step one is to identify current and past members.

Mark: Okay, well, I was. I was, you're right. Ha! But I was going down the column there as I saw it so

Mark: the, I guess they were out of order in that sense.

Mark: But if we can return to this, communicate with current members. I think that the the report that Marcus wrote covers that

Mark: the yearly report

Markus: I would, I would agree to a certain extent at least

Markus: a certain extent. I I think it's a good start. Put it that way. Yeah, it it. It could be more detailed on what we actually did. in in particular, I think. What we do is we refer to extensions we maintain, which is mostly

Markus: are the extensions that are created in the

Markus: surroundings of MW. Sake or extensions we took over as a Maintainer. and we could, I mean that would be an an easy one to make that more explicit right to. I think it's it's about

Markus: 30 years so extension. So even more we could highlight them a little bit better. Currently, I just put a list to a category.

Mark: send me it. Look like you have something to say.

Cindy: Yeah. And I guess this sort of gets to the the other task the ones below it. And but

Cindy: in order to determine whether we are are satisfying sponsor obligations. We need to know

Cindy: which members joined

Cindy: with

Cindy: that category. You know the level of membership that they were owed some number of hours of work.

Cindy: We need to know.

Cindy: you know. Yeah. So which ones for each one, how many hours of work were they?

Cindy: Ode?

Cindy: And then we need to know, did we satisfy that obligation

Cindy: through the work that we.

Cindy: as a as a board and as a as a community, have done in.

Cindy: you know.

Cindy: in each of the subsequent years that they have become in in the periods of their membership.

Eric-Jan: and I think the things that we talked about that

Cindy: We discussed

Cindy: and we went back and forth. We. The conversation we had in the last board meeting was a little bit confusing, because we were talking about. Actually. you know, a specific work for a specific sponsor again. But what we had discussed at a previous meeting.

Cindy: the fact that we felt that the work that we did

Cindy: in organizing the Em. W. Kon and S. And W. Conferences, as well as the work that shows up.

Cindy: you know, working on extensions.

Cindy: that we feel that that satisfies the obligation. But we need that list. We need the list of of

Cindy: who this? Who the members who sponsoring organizations are, how much time each one was a, and whether we feel that we have satisfied that obligation or not. And then the next thing once we have done that, and you know we can submit to them whatever report

Cindy: documenting that

Cindy: But then I would encourage us to go back to our formulation of this plan and be more specific about what we are promising people.

Cindy: I've never felt

Cindy: completely comfortable with the promises that we are making there, and

Cindy: you know, so you know, we could go anywhere from

Cindy: saying we are no longer going to guarantee that if somebody joins at a particular level that we're going to do work for them. Or we need to be more specific about what satisfies that obligation. And we need to have better accounting practices about tracking the work.

Cindy: if we're going to continue doing it the way we want to, that we, if we're going to continue doing it the way that we've been doing. I think we absolutely need to remove that as a benefit folks get, because I I don't feel comfortable.

Mark: sure. So

Mark: so what I I think the first thing here, then, is, you know, figure out who we need to communicate with exactly.

Mark: I think

Mark: I think, Eric, you have access to the the

Mark: that information, Brian, you do as well. Is that right?

Eric-Jan: I I do not have. If you mean like bank in for bank information. I do not have access to our banking account.

Eric-Jan: Thank you for America.

Mark: No, that's why I mentioned Brian, because I know Brian has that access.

Mark: and I think.

Mark: if if nothing else, I can certainly look over the regular.

Mark: Who

Mark: who we've charged on authorized.net and get a report of that

Mark: and share that with you guys. Is that so? Do you think, Brian and Eric, do you think that you could come up with the since? That's the first thing is, who are we communicating with?

Eric-Jan: yeah. Author of that could be a source. I I would prefer to get, for example, a a list of transactions on our bank of America account.

Eric-Jan: Usually all payments. all receivables

Eric-Jan: end up on our bank account usually. So if you could make a an export of our transactions of the bank account.

Eric-Jan: I'd be most willing to to go through to go through all these transactions and come up with a list of past and current sponsors.

Mark: Okay, so that's that is sorry as it members, right as it members. Yes, right? Right?

Eric-Jan: But I don't know if the Bank of America, if if the banking system of Bank of America offers this

Eric-Jan: this feature to make an export of transactions, I don't know

Bryan: it does it just there's no way to really know what it is. So you have to.

Eric-Jan: You have to figure it out to authorize. Yeah, that will take some time. Right? Yeah.

Cindy: we'd have to go back to something like 2020, right? Yeah, or even yeah.

Eric-Jan: 2028, 1820, 1829.

Cindy: Yeah.

Mark: So. I guess I can work with Brian to do that to get that report together. And then Eric, if you could. Oh.

Cindy: you know, help us get the list of people. So that's the first I thought we had. We had solved the issue of making sure that our treasurer actually had access to our bank account.

Eric-Jan: We didn't. We didn't succeed in the. So it's this,

Eric-Jan: I have to to go. I have to go to the Us. Embassy

Eric-Jan: to to to register.

Eric-Jan: As the beginning of the process. That bank of America says, okay, we are going to grant access to this year. European European mail in the bank account of the Us.

Eric-Jan: The foundation.

Eric-Jan: So this is a let's say what we call a monster right

Eric-Jan: unless you live next door to the Embassy. It's a monster.

Mark: Yeah. you know, if you are Julian Assange, you would be living in the Embassy. Well, not the Us. One, anyway.

Mark: okay. So

Mark: the next. Okay. So the first part is getting that list. The second part is, you know, codifying this which is kind of where you ended up, Cindy, which is where I started is, you know.

Mark: laying out what our obligations are. and I I'm sorry. That's not the second part, then it's the third part. The second part, then, is writing this

Mark: report of what we've been doing

Mark: and we start with Marcus's

Mark: work. the the report that Marcus wrote So I I think that

Mark: to help produce a better report there, we need to.

Mark: you know. Look at the extensions and the other work that we have that is, that should be reported, and gather that together.

Mark: Who who should we put? Who who wants to gather that information

Mark: is that something that you can continue to do, Marcus? Or is there? Is that

Mark: something else we need to?

Mark: Okay. So

Mark: all right.

Mark: so Marcus, if if you could.

Mark: I I don't know if if

Mark: is there work that for example, Bernard is there work? I I I don't believe you're a developer, right? But if there's a if there's work on Wiki that you could share, or you have shared with others. That is, there. Is there things that you've done, for example, that we could put in this?

Bernhard: Yes, I mean co organizing the last 3.

Bernhard: Let's see how you comes.

Mark: I did that. I would argue I did that. as a

Bernhard: member of the of of of the Medieval Stakeholders board.

Mark: Yeah, that definitely definitely I and I would. I was talking more, you know, on Wiki technical, you know. I don't know templates and stuff like that that maybe you had shared out or something, and and we are reaching the end of the meeting, the the scheduled time for the meeting here. So I want to recognize that But

Mark: right now what we have the the things we have are. I'll work with

Mark: Brian to get together. A list of transactions will will. Well. I guess we'll give this big data dump to Eric, and

Mark: Eric's gonna do his financial genius stuff on it and sort it out

Mark: and then give us a list of

Mark: people, and as a result we'll work with Marcus and have the.

Mark: you know, a list of. I guess, deliverable

Mark: to make it simple is this is what we've been doing. And then after that, we'll we'll work on codifying it for the next part. So okay, does this sound? Does it sound like we have clear steps here for what we're gonna do?

Cindy: The only thing we don't have is a deadline.

Mark: I good. You're right. A deadline. Deadlines are great.

Mark: let's say a month.

Mark: because it is a month too much time. Or is it enough.

Mark: Eric? I'm specifically asking you if if you have a second here before you have to go

Cindy: 2 weeks after a section of the doc makes sense. Yes.

Mark: Okay.

Mark: So okay, so that's

Mark: all right. I think we have something something good. Oh, yeah. And I did want to cover the quickly the update about Sm, that was on the agenda. But I wanted to make sure we focused on this other stuff. So thank you.

Cindy: And is it going to be called smw, com?

Bernhard: Are we allowed to call it immediately. Come.

Cindy: not media wiki con because that would take extra But maybe we could do media Wiki community conference.

Cindy: so we can talk about.

Cindy: Maybe that's next time.

Bernhard: Yeah.

Eric-Jan: I have to go. Now. I'm sorry.

Lex: Yeah, I'll talk you all later on. Thanks a lot. It was good to see you at it next. Next we have a minute. And I have one. Yeah, exactly. That's why I can. Can. We stay on

Lex: coroner? And I,

Bernhard: yeah, it's it's going to go on. If I leave no problem.

Lex: Alright, I can make one of these.

Cindy: Yeah.

Lex: you don't have to go. No, but my main question.

Lex: okay. is M. Dot.