Minutes for CentOS Board of Directors 2019-11-13 meeting

Public minutes

On 2019-11-13 the CentOS Board of Directors held their first meeting following the release of CentOS Linux 8 and announcement of CentOS Stream.

As covered in this meeting, the CentOS Board are taking on an initiative to increase transparency of the working of the Board. This set of minutes for the community and wider public is the first instance of new, more transparent processes in action.

Topics covered in the meeting and via email are discussed below, and remain open on the Board’s rolling agenda for future conversation and actions:

1. Board membership:
   1. The Board has been considering for some time adjusting the membership of the Board, in particular by adding new Directors. Discussions with potential new Directors will begin.
   2. All Directors discussed the need for future leadership of the CentOS Project to continue being able to straddle the project’s traditional footing on one side, and help drive a vision for the future on the other side.
2. Transparency initiatives:
   1. All agree that the biggest need for transparency in the Project is at the Board level.
      1. Other groups e.g. SIGs are generally following good transparency practices
      2. Board Directors have been asked directly about this topic and the issue of the Board not releasing minutes from meetings.
      3. The Board’s infrequent meetings have not been configured to easily generate public topics, since most technical and day-to-day leadership happens in the SIGs especially the Core SIG and QA SIG.
   2. Next step -- improving Board meeting norms:
      1. AGREED: Publish (for next and future meetings) that there will be a meeting, and what the public portion of the agenda is, in advance of the meeting.
      2. AGREED: Publish a set of public minutes within 72 hours of the conclusion of a Board meeting
      3. AGREED: There will be a rolling element to the agenda so that items are not dropped between meetings but rather eventually addressed/resolved.
      4. ACTION: Karsten to write and publish this set of public meeting minutes
3. New branding work underway - Karsten briefed the Board on the community efforts to consider the CentOS brand, logo, and overall branding in light of the addition of CentOS Stream.
   1. https://git.centos.org/centos/Artwork/issue/1
   2. https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2019-November/018098.html
   3. AGREED: Board more actively drive approving/rejecting design ideas.
   4. AGREED: There will be a reasonable time for discussion around the potential brand changes, and the Board will ensure the discussion concludes in a timely manner.