Board Attendance

  •  Dries Buytaert 
  •  Angela Byron 
  • Tiffany Farriss 
  •  Larry Garfield 
  •  Cary Gordon 
  •  Kieran Lal 
  •  Jacob Redding 

Absent: Gerhard Killesreiter, who was on vacation. Quorum was met and all board decisions were valid.

Motions

The only agenda item is a vote on the Drupalcon Copenhagen 2010 proposal, recommended by the European Organizing Team. The original proposal, European Organizing Team scorecard, and estimates spreadsheet are attached below. VOTE: will we organize the next European DrupalCon in Copenhagen, Denmark in August 2010, managed through Cary? (ACCEPTED5 yes, 2 no, 0 abstain)

Meeting Summary

Cary Gordon was given the floor. The motion is, the Drupal Association will produce a DrupalCon in Copenhagen, Denmark in August, 2010. Dates will be either August 2-5 or August 23-26, at our option. The earlier date gets us about an 11k venue cost reduction. The EU organizing group has been working on this since Paris. Blue Projects went to Copenhagen and did a site survey, following up with a straw-man budget and some negotiations, more of which will follow if the proposal is approved today.

Dries stated that he was not 100% comfortable with the budget. In order to grow Drupalcon form 1K to 3K to 5K, we need to start making signficant profits to de-risk future investments. If our goal is to have one or two full-time staff in the Drupal Association; e.g. a full-time event coordinator, we also need to start making more money. Currently we have 150k in the bank or so, and we're taking on another 600k project which might yield a 50k return. We're currently in danger of going bankrupt if one conference blows up. Other significant revenue streams are unlikely at this point, so it's important that conferences be self-sustaining and de-risking themselves.

Cary pointed out that budget is somewhat malleable, but we are at a point where the expenses and risk are growing. The downside of not committing to CPH now greatly exceeds the benefit, and that the lead time it gives us is invaluable. Kieran asked for a straw vote, to get a sense of who feels we need to proceed with the plan as-is, and who feels that the practical and structural issues of execution are significant enough that we pause to correct them while keeping the CPH team warm.

In the straw poll of both board members and general assembly members, the total was 6 yes, 2 no, 1 abstain.

Following the straw poll, an official vote was held:

VOTE: will we organize the next European DrupalCon in Copenhagen, Denmark in August 2010, managed through Cary? (ACCEPTED 5 yes, 2 no, 0 abstain)

Larry asked about a publishing plan. It was said that a soft announcement was okay, but an official announcement should wait until vendor contracts were in place.

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