PSF Meeting Minutes for April 12, 2005
The Python Software Foundation
Minutes of Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors
April 12, 2005
A regular meeting of the Python Software Foundation (the "PSF") Board of Directors was held over Internet Relay Chat at 17:00 GMT. Stephan Deibel presided at the meeting.
1. Attendance
The following members of the Board of Directors were present at the meeting: David Ascher, Stephan Deibel, Tim Peters, Andrew Kuchling, Jeremy Hylton, and Martin v. Löwis. Kurt Kaiser and David G. also attended the meeting. von Löwis took minutes.
2. Meeting minutes of past meetings
The March minutes were approved with a 5-0-1 vote. The minutes of the PyCon board meeting (on March 24) were approved with a 6-0-0 vote.
The December minutes were still missing. Goodger volunteered to help with creating them from the IRC log.
3. Dissolving Committees
Deibel moved that it isRESOLVED, that the Public Relations Committee is dissolved.The motion passed with a 6-0-0 vote.
Deibel then asked whether the conference committee should also be dissolved. Ascher said that it hasn't done much, but that it would be good to have such a committee. Kuchling asked what it is supposed to do. Hylton said it was there to make decisions, instead of the conference chair, but that Steve Holden did not like to operate that way. Deibel asked Kuchling whether he wanted a committee, Ascher said that this isn't a question that the conference chair should decide. Kuchling said that he would be happy with committee, for discussion that cannot be resolved in a larger group. von Löwis said he would prefer if the board made the decisions that the conference chair cannot make.
von Löwis proposed to dissolve the current committee, because he did not want that committee to have power over the conference.
Kuchling proposed to reform the committee with himself, Nick Bastin, Mark Hertel, and Steve Holden as the members. There was discussion as to whether committee members need to be PSF members; the bylaws say that this is a requirement.
The discussion concluded with an ACTION ITEM for Ascher to propose a motion to reform the committee.
5. Vacant Director's Position
Deibel asked whether the vacant slot (after Guido van Rossum resigned as a director) should be filled. He said that the plan was to find somebody non-US, possibly non-male. There was discussion, which concluded with no action at the moment. If somebody showed a strong interest, the issue should be reconsidered.6. Trademarks
Ascher asked what action is taken wrt. defending the corporation's trade marks, specifically, whether input from Google or MSFT lawyers was available. He said he volunteers to follow up with Jim Hugunin and Chris DiBono if nobody can propose a better strategy. He will educate himself about the subject and then bring a proposal to the board.7. Infrastructure
Kuchling reported that XS4ALL has offered two new machines to host python.org, and that Thomas Wouters has brought them online. He will talk within the infrastructure committee what the usage of these machines should be and how the current services can migrate to the new hardware. Several board members congratulated about this progress.von Löwis asked whether the Python CVS would move to these machines, and become Subversion in the process. Kuchling said that it was out of the scope of this committee. Hylton suggested that a Python development committee should be formed, which would decide such questions. There was discussion about this option, but no action was taken.