June 11, 2007
REDACTED 1/29/12
Meeting to Determine Board Members
Present: Naomi Novik, Francesca Coppa, Rebecca Tushnet.
Summary of Salient Points:
The meeting was called to order to discuss the final composition of the first board. As a result of previous conversations, several people had already been more or less decided upon: Novik as first president/tech consultant; Tushnet as chair of legal; Jo Wyrick as chair of development; Susan Gibel as Treasurer. Coppa’s willingness to serve as secretary was discussed and tentatively confirmed.
Previous discussions having defined an optimum board of seven, that left two open positions. Cathy Cupitt is both another academic and a non-US person; it was resolved to invite her to join the board. The list of those willing to serve was studied for other non-U.S. citizens.
[staff discussion redacted]
There being no additional foreign nationals with relevant expertise, Misha Tepper’s name was then suggested as someone with great project management experience. Her availability is limited to one year, but Tepper’s connections to project management, coders, web designers etc are useful in the early stages of the project.
Resolved: First Draft Of Board: President: Novik, Vice President: Wyrick; Secretary: Coppa, Treasurer: Gibel. Tushnet, Tepper, Cupitt.
Resolved: Invites to these seven members to be sent out by Novik immediately.
Resolved: Novik will ask members to forward best meeting times to Coppa,
Resolved: Coppa will construct and forward “Willing to Serve on Committee” statements to board members who accept the invitation.
Group discusses some definitions of the board. “making reasonable final tough decisions.” “the public face of the organization/ a PR element/ credibility.”
Brief discussion of using committee chairs and members to establish fannish buy-in.
[staff discussion redacted]
The question is raised: can someone be a member of the organization/ serve on a committee/ be on the board and hold certain opinions (e.g. fan works are not fair use etc) that are contrary to the aims of the org? Feeling is that: definitely not on the board, but there’s some debate over whether such a person can even be a member. Does joining the organization meaning signing onto this basic principle? Debate ensues.
Tabled: Is there a statement of principles vis a vis fair use that should be signed/attested to in order to be a “member in good standing?” Do we want members/committee members/ board members who don’t share the principle that fan fiction is fair use?
Other staff positions discussed.
Board outlines process for formal meetings: Coppa will take notes, distribute them for approval/emendations, revise and archive final copy.
Agenda for Next Meeting:
- meeting and saying hi
- deciding how we will communicate going forward (please check out http://37signals.com/ as one proposed set of communication tools)
- assign a point person for each of the rest of the agenda items. We will then briefly discuss each item (if you can collect your thoughts beforehand and even write some of them up, that will help keep the chat moving quick), and each point person will then draft an e-mail on the topic, sending it to everyone, so we can discuss via e-mail and at the next meeting.
- drafting a mission statement
- picking the name of the organization
- working out the list of committees
- picking committee chairs
- whether to assign other members to committees or let chairs make list
- working out a game plan for incorporation
- agenda for next meeting