Fundraising IRC meeting 15 October 2015
Koha Fundraising Committee
Meeting held via Google Hangouts on 15 October 2015 at 1900 UTC
Present: Franziska Wallner, Paul Poulain, Galen Charlton, Brendan Gallagher, Bob Birchall
Apologies: nil
Agenda
1. Election of a chairperson
2. Review the Terms of Reference
3. Agree on norms of committee practice e.g. frequency of meetings; meetings to be open to visitors; conflicts of interest to be declared at start of meeting; minutes to be posted to wiki and Koha list.
4. Declarations of Interest
5. Summary of any actions taken prior to this meeting.
6. Proposed new activities
7. Grants Process - draft rules for consideration by THT.
8. Other business
9. Next Meeting
Election of chairperson
- agreed to rotate the chair each meeting;
- BB agreed to chair this meeting.
Review the Terms of Reference (TOR)
- need for librarians on this committee (current group is mostly developers or support company representatives);
- need to develop rules for the Te Horowhenua Trust (THT) Grants Committee: with a release approaching this will not occur for 8 weeks or so; BB and GC to draft first version, then use a google doc to gather wider input; for ultimate approval by IRC meeting, then THT;
- TOR do not provide for termination of a member; noted that the IRC general meeting has this power; agreed to consider this further in context of the Grants Committee rules;
- noted that voting should be by majority, not unamimity; majority to mean a majority of committee members, not a majority of those present at a particular meeing; it was RESOLVED to request that the next General IRC Meeting amend the TOR accordingly;
- it was RESOLVED to note the TOR.
Norms of Committee Practice
- it was AGREED to meet at least every two months; additional meetings can be called with two weeks notice;
- it was AGREED to use Google Hangouts for future meetings; Koha community participants who are not members of the committee are welcome to attend meetings to the limit of numbers supported by Google Hangouts.
- it was AGREED to include Conflicts of Interest as a standing agenda item at the beginning of each meeting.
Declaration of Interests
- the chair asked committee members to declare any interest that may affect the impartiality of any decisions to be made by the committee; members declared as follows:
BG - Director and part owner of Bywater Solutions Inc.; provides funds to support Jonathan Druart's work for the Koha project; administers the grant received by Groupo Italiano from EBSCO; Bywater is an EBSCO partner.
PP - Director and part owner of Biblibre; Biblibre is an EBSCO partner and also provides funds to support Jonathan Druart's work.
GC - employee and minority shareholder in Equinox Software Inc. FW - librarian at the American University of Rome, one of the first users of Koha in Italy.
BB - Director and shareholder in Calyx Group PL, a Koha support provider in Australia and the Pacific.
Summary of any actions taken prior to this meeting
- noted that Bywater, Biblibre and PTFS Europe are funding the work of Jonathan Druart who is project lead on the signing off of patches and a member of the Koha QA team;
- a significant grant from EBSCO is funding Elastic Search and other development;
- a 'Donate' button has been added to the Koha community website;
- Jo Ranson (THT) has advised that the bank account is established and several small donations have been received.
Proposed new activities
- Groupo Italiano is planning to approach Mellon Foundation for a grant;
- need to inform Koha users and supporters of what they can expect that their donations will be funding: priority development; signing off of contributed patches etc;
- also proposed to identify people in the community who have experience in writing grant applications e.g. to Mellon;
- BG offerred to commence drafting some material: AGREED;
- also proposed is a global 'Donate to Koha Day; it was AGREED to discuss this further at a future meeting.
Grants Process - draft rules for consideration by THT
- noted that this is not urgent but is necessary;
- AGREED that GC and BB will commence drafting;
- this may not occur for 8 weeks or so, given the proximity of the 3.22 release and other commitments.
Other Business
- there was no other business.
Next Meeting
- AGREED that BB will email to committee members in one month proposing a meeting date.
End of Meeting.