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06 February 2025

Minutes of a Special Meeting of the Admin 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”).

February 6, 2025

Attending: Sanket Verma, Mridul Seth, Julie Hollek, Andy Terrel, Rosie Pongracz
Executive Director: Leah Silen
Observer:
Not attending: Logan Kilpatrick

Information:

Hiring Committee Update
- HC is meeting weekly. Michael Z has been added. Currently asking member of TSC to join
- Charter has content. Just needs clean up.
- RFC for recruiting firms should be finalized next week
- Currently working through a list of recruiting firms
- Between recruiting firm cost + ED salary, asking for budget, to be determined.
- Drafting a blogpost to be shared with the community about the hiring process.

Discussion Items:

Can submit reimbursement for NASA grants.
Officer Elections Ratification
- Motion to make officers voted on Jan 8 the official set of officer
  - Chair - Julie
  - President - Rosie
  - Secretary - Andy
  - Treasurer - Mridul
- Motion by Julie, Second by Mridul
- Vote: (5 / 0 / 1)
Officer Composition
- Officers who aren’t attending meetings or participating should probably be asked to leave the board.
- No bylaw that officially removal of the board member after a set number of meetings
- President to communicate with missing officer and vote on removal next session.
Budget
- Steps to ratify budget
  - Leah needs TSC input, reaching out to get special session scheduled
  - Admin board could vote to approve conditional on TSC approval, but might be better to have TSC approve first
  - Recommend sending budget to TSC before meeting
- Budget is missing items
  - New ED salary
  - Recruiting firm fees for hiring
  - Total request -> $105K max
- Other elements to budget
  - Shut down https://www.meetup.com/pro/pydata/? Could potentially save $40k annually
  - Staff Salary
- Budget scenarios
  - Fundraising
  - Budget get well plan
- Board requests the missing items before ratification
Joint Board Retreat/Strategic Planning Session(s)
- No budget
- Everyone is trying to figure out what we’re doing
- Push later in the year and have a high cadence of this meeting
Project Tracker board in the meeting notes
- Thing at the top of the notes. What are we supposed to do with it?
- This was on last year’s notes. Never really used
- Secretary to reformat and update based on minutes
Huawei sponsorship
- Previous sponsorship wasn’t accepted due to concerns from Board / Advisory Council due to US sanctions in 2021
- Sponsorship team moved forward on a $50K donation, expected to close quickly
- Adding for awareness to the board in case there are any concerns.
DEI
- Strategy doc or internal position
- DISC Committee doing a lot of things
  - Creates an annual report
- The NumFOCUS Code of Conduct (The Short Version)
  - Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down others. Behave professionally. Remember that harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary jokes are not appropriate for NumFOCUS.
  - All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate.
  - NumFOCUS is dedicated to providing a harassment-free community for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of community members in any form.
  - Thank you for helping make this a welcoming, friendly community for all.
Meeting cadence
- Keeping weekly or bi-weekly is a good idea
- Meet next week. Julie to send crabfit

**Resolutions: **

Ratification of Officers
- Officers
  - Chair - Julie
  - President - Rosie
  - Secretary - Andy
  - Treasurer - Mridul
- Motion by Julie, Second by Mridul
- Vote: (5 / 0 / 1)