View source for Minutes:Minutes:2018 March ConfCall

Original minutes posted [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UA1jW1_JtsvKBkGn-I_bBFuSTY4NExb2eqTOn59g82o/edit?usp=sharing here]

'''Attending:''' Hilmar Lapp, Nomi Harris, Karen Cranston, Peter Cock, Heather Wiencko, Chris Fields (existing board members), Bastian Greshake Tzovaras, Yo Yehudi (candidate board members) [8 in total]

'''Meeting called to order at 11.03am EDT, 15:03 UTC.'''

== Old business ==

* 2016 Oct ConfCall minutes approved unanimously
** https://www.open-bio.org/wiki/Minutes:2016_Oct_ConfCall
** https://www.open-bio.org/wiki/Minutes:2018_Mar_ConfCall

* Oct 2016 BoD meeting minutes
** Approved - Hilmar raised, Peter second, approved by unanimous consent

== New business ==

Hilmar welcomed B and Y and asked them to introduce themselves.

* Term expirations and Elections for the Board (electronic ballot)
* Introduction - Bastian Greshake Tzovaras, running for Board member at-large
** Many many different open-source/science projects (OpenSNP is only one)
** Mozilla!
** Would like to get the OBF name out there, be more 
* Introduction - Yo Yehudi, running for Board member at-large
** Intermine
** Open Science - increase open source in open science
** Also involved with Mozilla
** SSI fellow this year
** Outreachy - not just GSoC but WiS, increasing diversity
* We have quorum for voting
** 6/6 votes for Bastian and 6/6 votes for Yo!  Congrats to both!  
** Action on Hilmar to add them to the Board mailing list etc.
* Fiscal sponsor - experiences, lessons, possibilities
** Our fiscal sponsor is SPI (https://spi-inc.org).
*** Dissolved our own incorporation and became an SPI associated project in 2012 (https://news.open-bio.org/2012/10/12/obf-now-spi-associated/).
*** Having a fiscal sponsor allows us to receive tax-exempt donations (501(c)3 in the US), without having to spend the effort of obtaining and maintaining our own 501(c)3 non-profit status.
*** One of the reasons we chose SPI over others was the good cultural fit (SPI is relatively hands-off) and tie-in with Debian-based bioinformatics community efforts (DebianMed). 
** Encountered a number of pain points over the years
*** Financial reporting is behind and slow
*** Travel fellowships generally come from BOSC account - pretty quick
*** Other reimbursements from SPI generally take longer
*** Lack of financial reporting sometimes for extended periods of time, which makes it difficult to verify receipt of sponsorship commitments, for example.
*** Transferring some of our domain name assets to SPI did not go smoothly, many delays. Sysadmin side of SPI is too slow and unresponsive to be considered functional.
*** AWS billing on someone’s personal credit card (and reimbursing later) is a high risk for the individual.
** There are more alternatives now than there were back in 2012. This might be a good time to consider their pros and cons.
*** OpenCollective https://opencollective.com/
**** Application form
**** Yo came across OpenCollective for a project of her own. Very attractive, but need >100 stars. Several OBF Bio* projects would fit this.
*** NumFOCUS, Community Initiatives http://communityin.org/
**** The joint Carpentries just moved from NumFOCUS to Community Initiatives. See blog post: https://software-carpentry.org/blog/2018/01/fiscal-sponsor-transition.html
**** We probably don’t fit the annual budget and revenue size that CI is looking for in their fiscally sponsored projects.
**** NumFOCUS fiscally sponsors many projects that tie into our community and mission. Much of what motivated the Carpentries to move probably doesn’t apply to OBF.
** SPI community includes associated projects that are similar to us, and hence should still be a good fit. The challenges seem to be precipitated by SPI not having paid staff, hence little to no accountability for meeting service level standards.

== Any other business? == 

* H3ABionet interaction - promotion of open science and open source across Africa

'''Hilmar moves to adjourn meeting at 11.51am EDT, 15:51 UTC. Peter seconds, approved by unanimous consent.'''