2025-12-11 Partner Call

Facilitator: @Heather Greer Klein

Note Taker: @Kate Lynch

Attendees

• @Margaret Mellinger

• @Nick Steinwachs

• @Chris Awre

• @Eleni Castro

• @Alicia Morris

• @Esmé Cowles

• @Annamarie Klose

• David Moles

Agenda & Notes

1. Additions to the agenda?
   None

2. Welcome new Board members!

   1. Christine Peterson, Annamarie Klose, Julie Hardesty are new members, welcome!

   2. Still down two board members in 2026; 1-year and a 2-year position. Special election will be held in the new year, orchestrated by Heather.

   3. Follow up with Heather if there are any questions about this.
      
      

3. Financial overview: 2025 projected revenue and expeditures, 2026 budget

   1. Finance Subcommittee Update_SamveraBoard_20251211.pptxPreview

   2. Congratulations to Alicia on retirement!

   3. More finalized numbers will be coming in January; they may change a bit from what’s here, but not dramatically.

   4. Technical coordinator role in 2026 will be working with Rob Kaufman

   5. 2026 forecast is assuming we are with Oasis the whole year, however they are prorating their fee now because they are helping us look for a new fiscal sponsor

   6. Additional expense forecast in 2026 relates to work in kind spread out over a few years.

   7. Many public universities face challenges making unrestricted donations to something; it is often easier for the donation to go toward something specific.

      1. Example: On being a good open source citizen: supporting a healthy ecosystem through directed and foundational contributions | 2i2c

      2. Memberships are a good example of something that works

      3. Paying a vendor to implement a set of features that meet certain requirements for a project is another good example of what works, though this is not how we often work for Open Source work.

      4. With the existing partnership model, we are able to promise more influence over community development direction and roadmapping.

      5. Another possibility, “adopt a feature” – an institution can put money toward a feature that is desired in the community because they want it as well, with the understanding that the feature is being developed for the community.

   8. Features for Hyku and Hyrax

      1. Conversation led by Nick from Notch8

      2. Want to learn more from institutions that have diverged. Why? And are institutions that have moved away the target audience? Is there a way to build a cohort of institutions like this in 2026 and 2027

      3. Notch8 is looking to focus on creating value in repository software, specifically Hyku, based on institutions' shared needs

         1. Many institutions have, in the past, built their own repository. Is there a way to create a generalized “world’s best” bulk-ingestion repository tool?

         2. Bulkrax in Hyku is one of the highest-value features and one of the first features that users test when evaluating Hyku. The user experience of using it now is clunky and unintuitive. A strategic area of investment in 2026 is enhancing the user experience of Bulkrax.

            1. A meaningful import preview would be useful

            2. The import process in general should improve – it is not intuitively obvious to set up an importer, for instance, before starting an import

            3. Customizing Bulkrax for institutional needs are also complicated

            4. Tech debt; “let’s just try all the failed jobs again” doesn’t make the most sense in execution. There should be more validation up front.

         3. Spinning up new tenants is currently clunky as well; understanding the full configuration of a tenant is scattered throughout codebases now. Users should be able to select predefined customizations, for instance “I want my tenant to look like that institution’s tenant/use this specific functionality configuration”

            1. What if you could export a tenant’s full configuration, and then import it into a new tenant, or an existing tenant with its own configuration?

            2. This would also help in troubleshooting weird behavior seen in a specific tenant. You should be able to reproduce bugs/odd behavior in a test environment.

            3. This could also expose other areas for improvement in the code bases overall, and help move business logic where it needs to go.

         4. More features here - Proposed Features and NeedsPreview

      4. It is a very deep dive to get into this community in-depth. How can we make this easier?

         1. Are there examples of Open Source communities that don’t have this issue, or have good techniques for addressing this?

      5. Other needs that are seen as more high-value than the above-defined features? Notch8 is interested in insights.

         1. Objects with public metadata but private files; in the system currently, it can look like there are no files, or that the viewer is visible but not working. This is a big pain point for UX.

            1. This is for all types of content, not just AV.

            2. Example: https://library.osu.edu/dc/concern/generic_works/gq67k550p ← only the metadata is public, the file is not.

            3. Example of restricted audio (player appears but does not function): https://library.osu.edu/dc/concern/generic_works/b8516339d

         2. All insights are welcome in the “Features and Needs” document, so that we can develop a shared understanding of the need before it becomes a set of GitHub issues.

      6. How should we continue the conversation about feature needs?

         1. Rob in the technical coordinator role next year will also likely be able to help figure out how best to collect and centralize feedback before it turns into tickets/feature development.
            
            

4. Next steps for a 2026 Partnership Review Working Group

   1. Draft charter linked above, please review

   2. Feedback was received from the board yesterday

   3. Want to see if we can increase the number of institutions contributing to Samvera financially as well as staff time, etc

   4. In terms of grants such as Sustaining Hyku, we also need to determine a strategy for collecting funds related to staff time for these

   5. This group will likely launch in February (March at latest), after the Sustaining Hyku work is complete

   6. Partners will be voting on whatever recommendations come from this group. Anything voted in would change our bylaws. No changes will likely be enacted based on recommendations before 2027.
      
      

5. Latest on fiscal sponsor review process: Apereo, Open Source Collective

   1. Copy of Fiscal Sponsorship services comparison 2026Preview

   2. Apereo project portfolio Software Projects | Apereo Foundation

   3. Shared from Apereo -Educause strategy jam slides

   4. Apereo overview slides

   5. Samvera Board meeting with Apereo in January

   6. Apereo’s ongoing global conversation about higher eduction is exciting for this community.

   7. This is great to consider now. Do we know why we did not consider Apereo last time?

      1. Not sure. Heather will dig back through the process notes from last time.

      2. There was concern in 2021 about being a standalone organization as opposed to a series LLC. We have learned from our experiences to understand the pluses and deltas of being standalone vs. series.
         
         

6. Other Updates: 

   1. Notetaker for January 8th

   2. Please consider a demo or discussion at a 2026 Partner call

   3. Anything for the Samvera Board? (Standing item) 
      
      

Date of next call: January 8th, 2026. Will include initial planning for a CNI OSS sustainability conversation or panel

Notetaker: Nick Steinwachs