19 May 2020

Minutes of a Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors of NumFOCUS. All votes are reported in the form “(Y/N/A)” (in favor-Y‚ opposed-N‚ abstentions-A; e.g. “4-1-2” means “4 in favor, 1 opposed, and 2 abstentions”).

May 19, 2020

Participating:

Board Members: Jane Herriman, Andy Terrel, Lorena Barba, James Powell, Katrina Riehl, Stéfan van der Walt, Sylvain Corlay (late arrival), James Powell (late arrival)

Executive Director: Leah Silen

Not attending: NA

Email/Github Voting: NA

Executive Director’s Report:

NF submitted our proposal to Sloan for Digital Learning Community Platform and we are still waiting to hear back.

Andy and Katrina met with financial team at NF to review issues and areas for improvement with Rocket. More automation is needed; a follow-up meeting will happen in two weeks.

NF EU update – We received revised bylaws from attorney. Leah will take the next steps to form the legal entity according to a resolution passed in 2018 that defines the entity’s place within NumFOCUS. (The existing NumFOCUS Board will hence be NumFOCUS Global.) Sylvain will invite preliminary members to the NF EU Board, with elections to occur concurrent with NF Global elections.

Discussion Items:

a. New Project Applications: Notifications are due to be sent on the 31st.

i.  Affiliated

    1.  Horos - (Jane) Reject 6-0-1.

        Reasons to reject: not clear how to contribute, no sign of open, 
        community development

    2.  Py Torch-Ignite - (Katrina) Approved 5-0-0.

    3.  Gonum - (Katrina) -- Approved 7-0-0.

        We should recommend they adopt either Go or NF CoC and also let them 
        know the CoC isn’t easily findable/accessible.

    4.  PyBamm -- online voting required.

ii. Sponsored

    1.  Bentos (Andy) -- tabled while waiting for more information.

        Governance is not well documented but project appears functional. Andy 
        will reach out for information.

    2.  OpenMBEE -- tabled while waiting for more information.

        We found their application confusing and would like more
        information:

            i.  We would like context. What are some concrete
                examples of where and how these tools are used?

            ii. Can this project be better explained in laymen’s
                terms? We are somewhat removed from the
                engineering world and would like a simplified
                explanation.

            iii. Leah will follow up with them.

b. Small Development Grants (COVID-19 Cycle): Notifications due on the 25th.

Leah will orchestrate this conversation over email so that we can approve 
SDG committee selections before the deadline.

c. Determination and approval of guidelines regarding applying NF admin fees to project grant budgets containing subcontracts. (TABLED)