January 2023 virtual winter meeting SB notes

Owned by Heather Greer Klein
Last updated: Feb 06, 2023
8 min read

Attendees

@Esmé Cowles

@Jeremy Friesen

@Harriett Green

@Jessica Hilt

@Kirsten Leonard

@Brian McBride

@Rosalyn Metz

@Alicia Morris

@david.schober

Ex-officio:

@Heather Greer Klein

@Carolyn Caizzi January 26th

Agenda 

Day 1 - Thursday, January 26th, 3PM - 5PM ET

Item

Presenter/Facilitator

Item

Presenter/Facilitator

Welcome, notetaker volunteers (notes are below agendas)

Board business:

  • Welcome new members

  • Vice Chair selection

  • Budget Committee members for 2023 - need one additional member for 2023; currently meet first Friday of every month at 11 AM ET for 30 min.

  • rescheduling meeting date for Nov/Dec 2023 – one meeting in early December worked well for 2022

    • Friday, December 1st

 

@Esmé Cowles

@Heather Greer Klein

Connect 2023 - Concentra statement of work and estimate of cost

  • Assuming 150 max attendees, discussed aiming for around $400 per registration

  • Should we also pursue sponsors?

@Heather Greer Klein

Building the Spring Partner meeting preliminary agenda (unordered agenda items to share with Partners)

  • Asking for RSVP by February 24th

  • Request for preliminary agenda

    • What kinds of activities will make this valuable to Partners?

@Heather Greer Klein

General Community updates, wrap-up

@Heather Greer Klein

 

Day 2 - Friday, January 27th, 11AM - 12:30PM ET

Item

Presenter/Facilitator

Item

Presenter/Facilitator

Tech Lead reimbursement:

financial impact of continuing for another year

  • 2023 budget includes reimbursement for all 12 months ($33,960)

  • This causes a projected deficit of $17,615

  • Our projected cash in reserves at the end of 2023: $418,970

  • OASIS recommends a minimum of 6 months expenses ($113,933)

do we want to continue this approach & how to sustain it

@Jeremy Friesen

ITAV activities outcomes refresher and next steps

 

Wrap up
Items for the February agenda

@Heather Greer Klein

Notes

Day 1

Day 2

  • Tech lead discussion

    • We’re well above what is required for funds in reserve

    • Having someone in the role is critical and Daniel has done well; it has been worth funding

    • Question that has come up about funding is about the gender equity of reimbursing Hyrax tech lead vs product owner role. Want to make sure we value non-developers in the community.

    • We hired the community manager instead of a community tech lead.

    • We were looking for and pursuing a community level tech lead, but Hyrax was the urgent need. We’re intending to do a Samvera tech lead, but this was what was deemed the most needed.

    • This is a discussion point for how we sustain the community going forward: what is our budget, what are our priorities, what do we have for volunteers.

    • Get feedback from the product owners as well.

    • A bigger conversation for partners to say what it looks like for a product owner as well. Equity for the labor for this.

    • How we framed the discussion for the community: “The intention of this Partner dues-funded role is a proof of concept that funding technical leadership will generally have a positive impact on the community’s sustainability. If this proof of concept is successful, then Partners will decide how to proceed raising funds to sustain technical leadership in the community and what type of leadership is needed, whether a broader technical leadership role or ones that are specific to certain Samvera components.”

    • If we want things to move forward we need to fund positions. It has become clear over the last few years that we had heroic volunteers burning out. How do we grow the community so that we can find those positions.

    • Comment: I don’t see a Samvera tech lead as a feasible role. I can see someone being a Director of Products, to find some ways for the products to work together.

    • can we break roles down to ask for 10% of time instead of 25-33%

    • maybe a white paper of all the models of contributions, where it is being contributed, what is the need going forward and what has the potential to move the community forward. Amount of time that is volunteer viable versus core functionality that needs dedicated staff

    • This comes back to how do we raise money. To hire as part of samvera to hire a product director or tech lead, we don’t have a way to make that happen in 5-7 years and no ideas on how to increase the $$ we bring in

    • Amount of time that is volunteer viable versus core functionality that needs dedicated staff

    • in our Hyku watercooler we are exploring jointly hiring a position to move the project forward. jointly hiring to meet shared needs of a group. part of our concern is about core - kind of boring work - that doesn't necessary attract volunteers since it isn't a portfolio grower

    • A short lived working group could be helpful, analyzing what time is needed and what we need to fund to be sustainable product development

    • works well with goal of being a framework that helps other things happen that not all the partners use

    • also gives a natural life cycle to products

    • This group affirmed that we’re unique in the ecosystem in that we can provide a home for smaller infrastructure projects and grow in that was as well

    • Want to ask Daniel for a present at virtual connect about managing the work

    • All on board to make an arrangement for another year (to July 2024) with Daniel if he and IU are interested. This gives time for the working group around sustainability of the model, changes to the model. What are we missing? What’s working? What should we change.

    • january conversation deadline for the board next year to decide for the following year.

    • Want to charter a six month working group with connect presentation as the goal

    • Who will lead the working group charter writing? Then we need a few Partners to join, then that group selects a chair. Can also target individuals to work on things with a chair in mind. Kirsten wants to participate, volunteered to help write the charge. Heather will follow up next week.

  • Goals and list of dreams

    • Review of Does the Shoe Still fit, 3 Goals outlined in State of Samvera 2022.

      • Hyrax Technical Analysis Goal: Working Group? Technical Lead needs to be involved. So does Product Owner. SoftServ has interest here. No Working Group necessarily. Daniel to do this as part of his time, and does the synthesis of the opinions and decides about the direction. If he wants to charter a WG, that is fine, we want report by end of his term (if possible, prioritize this after Valkyrization. Heather to talk to Daniel about this Board request for his time.

      • Implementer institutions, not contributing, asking about why. And interviewing some people who left community. David and Heather to work together to brainstorm who to reach out to, and design the interview questions and have discussions.

      • Needs for Tech documentation and End User Guides. Some of this being done by Developer OnBoarding working group. Starting with Hyrax (developer facing documentation). End User may be the biggest question here, b/c so much of Samvera is customized. Goal more about about Templates for End User Guides. How to streamline docs updating when there are changes in the code. Best Practices for Documentation is another way to look at this. What does Community want for end user documentation? Is it Hyku, is it not needed for Hyrax? What about other products, like Avalon? Jessica is happy to take this work on, will get charter going for End User documentation. Idea: Technical/Content Editor for a large repository could be a good resume builder for faculty? Bring in an assessment piece and is there Communication/Marketing WG connection?

      • List of Dreams Activity: 4 Dreams--Partners, these are dreams, help us think forward.

        • Cloud deployment Working Group

        • Finding someone to investigate performance side

        • IIIF components moved out of Labs to Samvera Core. Ensure the right people are talking like SoftServ and IIIF manifest gem PO. IIIF is going to be huge part of Surfliner. Carolyn on IIIF Exec Comm now, can help bridge conversations between 2 communities ( CC to look for Jenny from British Library). IIIF manifest generation is one to promote widely, is the best in class. Samvera can test the edges for IIIF.

        • Roadmaps Alignment group has capacity for next 2 dreams (Tech Strategy and Easy Upgrades). Updated White Paper once valkyrization is done maybe be a vehicle. Roadmaps Alignment and Daniel’s work for Hyrax needs to be in communication.

        • Connect all of the committees and task forces to this list - help to guide their work. Also could be used by Communications committee to share as outreach on the direction of Samvera with current and potential Partners. Do a blog post featuring it?