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The Apache Software Foundation
Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
13 July 1999
1. Call to order
The meeting was called to order at 10:15am PDT -0700. A quorum was
recognized by the Chairman. Due to the previously notified absence
of the Secretary, Brian Behlendorf volunteered to take notes.
2. Roll Call
Board members in attendance:
Brian Behlendorf
Ken Coar
Roy T. Fielding
Ben Laurie
Randy Terbush
Ben Hyde (at 10:40am)
Board members not in attendance:
Jim Jagielski
Sameer Parekh
Dirk-Willem van Gulik
Guests:
Rasmus Lerdorf (PHP project)
3. Minutes
Due to a procedural error, the minutes from the 22 June 1999 meeting
were not approved. This item is postponed until the next meeting.
4. Officer Reports
A. President [Brian]
Brian reported that the ASF announcement appeared to go very well.
B. Treasurer [Randy]
Randy reported that the ASF's current balance stood at $81.77.
Randy is investigating whether we can support Diner's Club
contributions. He thinks we can, though it may involve an
annual fee.
C. Secretary [Jim]
No report was presented since Jim was not available.
Previous to the meeting Jim had reported that the ASF had
been ordered and received.
5. Committee Reports
[Apache Conferences Committee]
Ken reported that the committee had selected Camelot/SIGS as the
leading candidate for ApacheCon. The next step is to set up a
meeting, perhaps at RTP, perhaps with some assistance to help
some other concom members attend. It had not been decided whether
a flat fee or a royalty would be pursued, but Ken is leaning towards
royalty. Ken suggested we announce the selection of Camelot to the
community, but Brian felt that this would be premature.
6. Special Orders
A. PR post-mortem from June 30 announcement of The ASF
1) press experiences [Roy/Brian/Ben]
Roy was extremely happy with the way it was handled. Randy
commented that he felt the press's attention was more evenly
balanced over the whole of the ASF rather than on specific
individuals this time, which he saw as a good thing.
Brian suggested that we try and draft more members to participate
in press activities, to make their names available, so we can
distribute those opportunities even more.
2) contract with ZOT Group
Roy expressed happiness at the way Sally from ZOT Group conducted
the ASF announcement. This began a discussion of the process by
which the ZOT Group was hired, which was by Roy directly without
a formal board action. By general consent, the board approved of
Roy's actions and the contract with ZOT Group.
A discussion began on the topic of officer actions with or without
board pre-approvals. A consensus seemed to be reached that officer
actions should at least require a straw poll of the board, but
no parameters were set on that, so the discussion ended without
resolution.
B. Status on setting up projects
1) Jakarta
Brian reported that he was still waiting for a contract
back from Sun for the code, and was not comfortable
proposing the formal creation of the project until that
was in hand. He also commented that the project had been
partially created, to the extent that there is a web site
and mailing lists for it which are very active. Roy
suggested formally creating the project anyways, with or
without Sun's code. Action was postponed until a formal
resolution could be drafted with candidates for the PMC.
2) Java-Apache
Brian reported that this project would most likely be
transitioned to Jakarta once Jakarta built up some steam,
and that proposing it as a separate project may thus not
be necessary.
3) mod_php
Rasmus started to talk about PHP. He noted that the license
concerns are being wrapped up in all but one situation, for which
he asked for some assistance in convincing the developers of a
crucial part of the new PHP code to allow their code under the ASF.
Brian and BenL volunteered to help Rasmus with that issue.
It was generally agreed that we need to do a better job of
articulating why being an ASF project is a desirable thing for
something like the PHP developers.
4) mod_perl
Doug had not been talked with recently. Randy volunteered to
speak with him.
5) ASF as an open source incubator
Brian expressed an interest in supporting projects that are a
good match for our existing direction, that are either currently
productive projects or have a good chance (in our view) of
becoming one. Brian also suggested we not try and "hoover" a lot
of smaller projects. Randy likened the potential to something
like a business incubator, and suggested we focus on smaller
projects more than large existing ones. Roy said he preferred
helping smaller projects as well. Consensus seemed to be around
finding small, promising projects.
Ben Hyde suggested we need to do a better job of managing what
we've got on our plate today before taking new projects.
C. Handling funds marked for use by specific projects
1) Policy for accepting general and project-specific funds
2) Policy for storing project-specific funds
3) Policy for accessing project-specific funds
4) Communication between accountant and projects
These discussion points got rolled together into a sizable
discussion about fundraising. The first point made by Randy
was that very few people have contributed so far. Brian opined
that without a solid set of documents describing what funds would
be used for, soliciting donations is more difficult. Ken
volunteered to write a document for the web site that would
summarize our thoughts and needs, both short-term (incorporation
expenses, etc.) and long-term (sysadmin, machines, etc.).
Brian asked if it might be wise to have tiers of contributions,
Ken suggested we bring it to the board list for discussion.
As for contributions to specific projects, there was heated
discussion. Randy expressed that it would be beyond his current
capabilities to keep track of project-specific donations.
Rasmus expressed a strong desire to be able to have the PHP
community support PHP-specific development, without having to go
through the ASF asking for apportions from the general fund.
Others, however, expressed concern that the focus would turn away
from the ASF, and that the precedent this was establishing would
be dangerous. Roy felt that it was inevitable that we'd have to
eventually offer this. No vote was taken and no consensus
established.
D. Licensing issues regarding projects
1) How do we decide what licenses are acceptable?
2) How do we update the Apache license?
3) GPL/LGPL discussion
Tabled due to time (it was past noon PDT by now).
E. Finishing up the corporate loose ends
1) Apache Group assignment of license/rights to The ASF
2) Members ballot for adding new members
3) Preparing a budget
4) Planning for quarterly/yearly reports
Tabled due to time.
7. Unfinished Business
None.
8. New Business
A licenses committee was proposed by Brian, one whose charter would be
to come up with a strategy for the ASF with respect to licenses we would
use and we would allow ASF projects to use. This committee would endeavor
to seek input on its ideas from the community at large, beyond ASF
membership. By general consent, the Board established a licenses
committee with Brian Behlendorf as chairperson. Brian was tasked to
put together a list of other people to include on this board committee.
9. Announcements
10. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 12:20pm PDT -0700. The time and date
of the next meeting was to be discussed and arranged via the
mailing list.
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