Samvera Board Call Notes 25th August 2023

Owned by Heather Greer Klein
Aug 25, 2023
4 min read

 

Attendees

@Karen Cariani

@Esmé Cowles

@Jeremy Friesen - regrets

@Jessica Hilt

@Kirsten Leonard

@Brian McBride

@Alicia M. Morris

@Robin Ruggaber

@david.schober

Ex-officio:

@Heather Greer Klein

@Carolyn Caizzi

Agenda

  1. Changes to the agenda

    1. Board meeting at Connect after Partners - 1:15 - 2:20pm, will order in lunch

  2. Welcome Karen!

  3. Formalizing our Board confidentiality policies

    1. We currently have no formal policy for Board meetings, and for what is confidential to the Board vs what is shared publicly. We have public and private versions of meeting notes.

      1. Background: Public note versions started to be posted in January 2019

    2. Example guidance:

      1. PLA statement

      2. Fact sheet on Board minutes

    3. Want to make sure we are being as transparent as possible. Agenda items are always listed in the notes with a summary. Not included are private are personal information, i.e. incident report details, staff performance discussions, information about donors, discussion of Partner financial information, awardees before official announcements. With regard to service providers, the Board works to avoid any conflict of interest.

    4. Heather will clean up the Board member orientation documents and add the above explanation of confidential information.

  4. Proposal for recognition of non-Partner contributors

    1. As this is not governance related, no need for bylaws change

    2. How do we acknowledge financially-supporting institutions who are not Partners?

      1. Proposal to call these financial sponsors, with a page on the website to list ALL the sponsorships each year: event, scholarship, general financial contributions, development fund/community sprint funding, with information about how to contribute.

    3. Board agrees to this approach, Heather will work with committee to add to the website

  5. Development fund/pledges

    1. Do we want to discuss these ideas further in a Partner call or meeting? Are there specific things we want to ask?

    2. To follow the DSpace model, we would need a defined roadmap.

      1. Samvera has the struggle of multiple gems, components and projects. Would need to scope and prioritize the funding.

      2. What if we had a fund and the Board set percentages across products and gem maintenance? Avalon gets more support one year, then Hyrax might need more the next, etc.

      3. A roadmap would be complex to develop, would be real work, but would be possible.

      4. How to make it attractive to fund, and how to manage it. Hard ask when in tension with institution needs. But could be attractive to focus on things a majority of implementers would find attractive.

      5. 3-5 priorities per year to fund? POs propose work, almost like a grant-making proposal? Community could vote? Could help move things faster that need the energy and funding.

      6. Don’t want to lose track of our identified need for a technical coordinator, but we don’t have the funds for that position. Still a longstanding problem. In the short term this could compete with our priority of funds for a dedicated staff person. But a more structured roadmap and consistent development could alleviate some of the issues with development.

      7. Some contribute more than the minimum for Partnership, could that seed a development fund pilot?

      8. An element of a business case in this approach vs another approach to meet this need, want to get some clarity it. Have had a lot of frustration that priorities would be identified but there would be no way to ensure they are resourced and accomplished.

      9. Would be another reason to join and be a partner to vote on these priorities. The project leaders would need to write the proposals. Looking to the pledge drive as a model for this approach.

      10. Want to bring to Partners for discussion from a concrete, documented proposal. Esme willing to start a draft and see if it will be ready to talk about it in September Partner call or October Partner meeting.

  6. Connect Event liability insurance policy selection

    1. Quotes for 1M and 2M in coverage, small price difference

    2. Board approved the 1M coverage for $430

  7. Connect scholarships

    1. Three applicants

      1. Two require $1,300 each for registration and hotel; Hyku for Consortia can sponsor one

      2. One is local and would need registration only ($499)

      3. Board voted to cover the two who are not covered by Hyku for Consortia.

  8. Community survey alongside Connect

    1. Something short with a focus on planning for the future

    2. Can use the data to ask for specific talks for Connect and Virtual Connect

    3. Heather can incorporate ideas with Jessica, and start drafting a survey for review at September meeting.

    4. Can have up as a flip chart at Connect to collect ideas

  9. Letter to new Tufts technical leadership

    1. For new director of library technology services

    2. Heather will work on a message, offer a meeting

  10. Other Updates

    1. Julie Allinson Awardee selected, announcement next week

    2. Samvera Twitter - can’t access via Tweet Deck anymore, may not want to use it anymore at all due to incompatibility with our values. Heather will take to the Outreach & Engagement group, might move to LinkedIn for sharing blog posts – there is good funder visibility there.

    3. Heather travel

      1. On vacation September 8th (Partner call, will need a facilitator)

      2. Samvera EU meeting September 11th, Fedora Showcase virtual presentation September 12th

      3. On vacation September 13-18

      4. back to work September 20th

    4. Samvera.org website work underway; reviewing Contentful headless CMS

    5. Roadmaps Alignment Group - Bulkrax is still in Labs but is widely used. Lightweight process to move out of Labs; Heather will find a leader for the process.

    6. Valkyrization Sprint updates

    7. Invoicing 2023 is in good shape

Date of next Board meeting: September 22nd