By megansanicki on

After board meetings, I publish a blog post to provide an overview of the meeting along with the board packet, meeting minutes, and a video of the meeting. Since we just had a board meeting at DrupalCon Baltimore, I want to share details about that meeting as well as pull the lens back to give the community more insight into board meetings and our 2017 schedule. I hope this additional information gives better insight into the Drupal Association’s board activities.

Drupal Association Board Meetings

The Drupal Association board has two different meeting types: Executive Session and Board Meeting. They take place throughout the year to create The Drupal Association’s strategic direction, ensure financial health, engage with the community, and more. This post goes into more details about each meeting type.  

Executive Session

The executive session is usually a two-day meeting that includes board members and the executive director. At times, it can also be a shorter virtual meeting. Topics typically include an Executive and Financial update, financial approvals, committee work, and strategic planning for the Association.

There are four executive sessions a year. All meetings are private to create a safe space for brainstorming strategic direction and discussing confidential matters such as the executive director’s performance and compensation. For this reason, meeting minutes are not shared publicly. However, we will let the community know when we are meeting and what is on the agenda.

The 2017 executive session schedule is: 23 & 24 February, 22 & 23 April, 26 June,  23 & 24 September, and 29 November. The February, April, and September sessions are two day meetings while June and November are two hour virtual meetings. As needed, the board may schedule additional executive sessions to handle business that is time sensitive and best done via a meeting.

The 23 & 24 February executive session agenda covered the following:

  • Executive and Financial Update

  • Getting grounded in DrupalCon Europe survey data (Michael Schmid was present since he was part of the task force)

  • Discuss the future of DrupalCon Europe focusing on sustainability and delivering meaningful value

  • Thank you and goodbye to community-elected board member, Addison Berry.

The 23 & 24 April executive session agenda included the following items:

  • Executive and Financial Update

  • Approve Q3 2016 financial statements

  • Welcome Ryan Szrama - new community-elected board member

  • Understanding community governance needs and identifying community governance gaps

  • Meet and greet with Drupal Association staff / Congratulations on upcoming DrupalCon

Board Meetings

The Drupal Association holds four board meetings each year so the community can observe the board proceedings and participate in a Question and Answer session. Typically, board meetings include operational updates from staff, committee updates, and question and answer time for both the board and the community.

On 26 April, 2017, the Drupal Association held its first board meeting of the year. The board materials and meeting minutes can be found here. All board members were in attendance except Annie Miller, Steve Francia, and Donna Benjamin. Also in attendance were myself, Drupal Association Staff, and about 30 community members.

Dries Buytaert kicked off the board meeting and I reviewed the board packet, which included the meeting’s agenda as well as a scorecard for the key operational projects that staff work on. Next, staff gave operational updates. Tim Lehnen, Director of Engineering, gave an update on Project Application Process, Contribution Credits, and the Drupal.org Infrastructure RFP. Next, Carrie Lacina, Director of Revenue, shared an update on the Drupal.org industry pages. This was followed by Rebecca Pilcher, Marketing & Communications Manager, who gave insight into the new DrupalCon branding.

Lastly, I gave an update related to recent community challenges. I explained that a key way to understand the community’s needs and help them talk about a new community governance model is by hosting mediated Community Discussions. Whitney Hess, the mediator, introduced herself to the board and gave a brief update of the themes she heard in the recent Community Discussions onsite at DrupalCon.

The Board had 10 minutes to ask questions which covered topics such as branding and the Drupal.org infrastructure RFP. While the community had 10 minutes to ask questions, the meeting was extended, giving the community 30 minutes to ask questions. Their questions touched on DrupalCon branding and Project Application Process. There were also several questions related to the learnings gained by the recent community challenges.

You can watch the video of the board meeting here as well as read the meeting minutes and board packet. All materials are found here. The next board meeting will take place on 26 June, 2017 at 12:00 EDT/17:00 BST. It will be a virtual meeting via Zoom. You can go here for login information.