30 April 2025

Minutes of a Regular 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”).

April 30, 2025

Attending: Julie Hollek, Andy Terrel, Mridul Seth, Sanket Verma

Executive Director: Leah Silen, Jim Weiss

Not attending: Rosie Pongracz

Information:

• https://numfocus.medium.com/numfocus-community-update-interim-executive-director-announcement-2cca69c00b5e

Discussion Items:

• Meeting Minutes
• HR - A board resolution is required by our PEO to transfer management of our 401k plan from Leah to Nicole.
  • This needs to be entered into board minutes that this has been accepted
  • motion to sign document: Julie
    • Seconded by Andy
    • Vote: 4 / 0 / 1 (motion passes)
• NF EU
  • Running sponsorships through NF EU
  • We’re still in the same position. We have an accountant who charges based on the amount of work he does. Minimal charges bc we have very little in the account.
  • We can use it. Projects know that if there are grant opportunities who need an EU entity, they can use it
  • Only one grant has indicated they need it, but still in the proposal stage and we’re working with the accountant
  • Doesn’t help with VAT situation, but we’re working with a firm that has legal/accounting expertise to help navigate
    • In Denmark, you don’t pay VAT if you have a local entity
    • Apply for exemption
  • Right now, it’s an extension of the US entity to handle any kind of funding or financial transactions that are needed for grant opportunities for projects
  • In the past, we talked about multiple NF chapters globally.
  • Helps for PyData events and having a local transaction and sponsorships.
• [Next week] New Website
  • Programs: Educational initiatives, project support (fiscal sponsorships, SDG), DISC, Open Source Science
  • Open Source Science is listed as a program, but could also be a category for NF’s initiatives with research community
• PyCon Update
  • Message sent to projects
  • Call with PyData Pittsburgh on 4/30
• Action Item Follow Ups / Discussion
  • AmEx reinstated github funding. MK and Marc had meeting.
    • Meeting went well, they liked the new membership. Will include in budget for next year.
    • Trying to figure out if there’s an opportunity for anything this year.
  • Github Sponsorship
    • https://github.com/sponsors/numfocus
      • NumFOCUS representation needs to be updated
      • Project membership should also be updated
      • Prospectus is old
    • Feature in gh sponsors where you can send monthly emails. We haven’t used this yet.
    • Are we paying transaction fees to Stripe, who handles the payments?
    • Goals
      • Goal of 60 sponsors per month. Currently have 72 sponsors
      • We could increase the goal from 60 -> 100 and see where we are after 1-2 months
    • Tiers
      • No one-time tiers, but we could add some
      • Could also add higher-value monthly tiers - current tiers are $5, $10, $25

Action Items:

• Connect with MK on Github Sponsors
• sign 401 transfer document
• will reach out to projects to see who will be at PyCon
• AmEx reinstated github funding. MK has meeting
• update meeting invite
• to provide recommendations on github sponsorship levels and goals
• file a bug to update