Interim Steering Committee Meeting: Dec 2, 2014

Attending

Apologies

Actions

All: draft literature for voters and candidates by start of January
All: proposal for next meeting on whether we want some balancing of gender/geography/discipline/career stage
All: discuss ways of forming Advisory Council at Dec 16 meeting
All: draw up contract for Executive Director - need to identify what levels of funds are required by NumFOCUS to be in SCF account before they are happy for this
GW: investigate online voting system used by Python Software Foundation
GW: check coordinators' hours Sept-Nov so that we can do predictions for 2015
GW: ask NumFOCUS if they can provide accounting support.
TT, JG: circulate on mailing list to ask for other members of finance committee.

Resolutions

Next meeting: Tuesday 16th December.
The Interim Board agrees to change its name to Interim Steering Committee, and to change the name of the Board of Directors to Steering Committee.
The Steering Committee agrees to hold elections in the week of Jan 26-30
- To be announced at Dec 4 lab meeting.
That the Software Carpentry Foundation pay the Executive Director a bonus in 2015 at least commensurate with his unpaid time in Nov/Dec 2014 once there is a three-month operating reserve.
That the next round of online instructor training be delayed until February so that the Executive Director can concentrate on fundraising and other organizational matters in January.

Discussion

Determine status of GW's salary
Will GW receive back pay for December (and November?) if and when funds become available?
Proposal: We start paying GW a salary in January (when we have money coming in) with the intention of paying him a "bonus" at least commensurate with his unpaid time contribution (after he left Mozilla through the beginning of his SCF funding as ED) once our financial reserves have reached an acceptable level (3 months operating reserves + amount for bonus). Based on this offer, GW can decide whether he would be prepared to continue working in December.
The members of Steering Committee do not think that there has been enough money received/expected to be received to enable salary for December.
Roles and responsibilities for Steering Committee (SC) members:
- KH has created a draft
- Still lots of questions:
  - Should there be a requirement that the Steering Committee (SC) have subcommittees on which SC members are required to serve? (e.g., each SC member must serve on at least one subcommittee, such as the financial subcommittee)?
  - How much volunteer time should we require in addition to the meetings? (currently 2 hours per week)
  - We drafted some responsibilities for the chair, so that wasn't added to this document.
Discuss setting up a finance sub-group of the SC.
Deferred: purchasing software licenses for Executive Director.