[OpenID board] May 19, 2010 OpenID Board Meeting Minutes

Mike Jones Michael.Jones at microsoft.com
Fri May 28 17:17:57 UTC 2010


May 19, 2010 OpenID Board Meeting Minutes

Present in Person:
Don Thibeau, Executive Director
Mike Jones
John Bradley
Brian Kissel
Andrew Nash
David Recordon
Joseph Smarr
Nat Sakimura
Pamela Dingle
Dick Hardt
Eric Sachs
Raj Mata
Allen Tom
Mike Ozburn
David Turner (representing Tony Nadalin)
Chris Messina

Present on the Phone:
Rob Harles
Daniel Jacobson
Luke Shepard

Absent:
Joseph Smarr (proxy to Dick Hardt)
Nico Popp (proxy to Brian Kissel)
Tony Nadalin (represented by David Turner)
Marc Frons
Dermot O'Mahony
Nataraj (Raj) Nagaratnam

Visitors:
Scott David, K&L Gates
Deepak Kamlani, Global Inventures CEO
John Ehrig, Global Inventures
Kick Willemse


1.       Legal Counsel
Scott David, our new legal counsel introduced himself.  Among other things, he is chair of the ID-Legal group at Identity Commons and has been a regular participant at IIWs.


2.       Board Survey and Resulting Proposed Resolutions
We discussed issues of governance, value to members, numbers of board members, and prices of membership classes.  With respect to the proposed resolutions, Dick asked that we consider what problems we're trying to solve with respect to governance.

The board discussed the three proposed resolutions below:
2.  The "community" board representation will always be 1/3 of N (where N= # of sustaining board members).  One challenge to this resolution is to properly define "community" members which will be discussed.
3.  Employees (or contractors) of sustaining members are not eligible to serve as community board representatives.
4.  The Executive Committee will have at least one elected community board representative and at least one sustaining board representative.

We decided that these were not necessarily the best solutions to the possible problems, and did not vote on these possible resolutions.  An alternative remedy discussed was enacting a bylaws amendment that would state that if more than one employee or contractor of a company were on the board, that for some classes of votes, the representatives of the company would have at most one vote.  John Bradley said that that limitation might be appropriate for votes about finances, bylaws, and IPR procedures, for instance.

Our legal counsel, Scott David, recommended that we investigate the potential conflict of interest in the issue of having multiple people from the same company on the board.  The board decided to have Don and Scott investigate this issue and report back to us with actionable resolutions, possibly based on the discussed alternative remedy.

[Chris Messina joined the meeting at this point]

Another of the previously proposed resolutions was adopted.  Specifically, John Bradley moved that "All directors must be members of or employed by members the OIDF."  Pam seconded.  The resolution was unanimously adopted.


3.       Discussion of Designated Funds Proposals
The board discussed the merits of and possible mechanisms for allowing sustaining members to designate that a portion of their membership dues be directed towards specific projects.  This could increase the perceived value of sustaining members' memberships by letting them take credit for funding specific OpenID projects that are of particular value to them.  It would let them "vote with their money".

Several on the board expressed that it would be important to cover the basic costs of running the organization before allowing funds to be designated.  For instance, for staff costs, legal costs, membership services, and web site costs would likely be in this class.

Another important consideration discussed was what the approval process would be for projects to which funds could be designated.  Both "approved by default" and "explicit board approval required" models were discussed.  Dick proposed that projects should be approved by default after notifying the board, but giving the board the opportunity to vote to reject a proposed project should it determine that the project was contrary to the foundation's mission or damaging to the foundation.

Scott suggested that we consider distinguishing between program decisions and funding decisions.  He wants it to be clear what actions have been approved by the board.  Deepak suggested that we ensure that projects fit within the organization's strategy.  Dick suggested that we defer specific wording to Scott.

Dick moved that we have Don and Scott work to create a resolution or resolutions to accomplish the intent of this draft resolution:
Each sustaining member can direct up to 50% (subject to the requirement that fixed operating costs of the foundation are covered) of their annual membership dues towards projects they select.  Each sustaining member can decide when and where the directed funds are spent.  Any discretionary funds that have not been directed by the end of the year are transferred to the general fund.  Eligible projects are any project presented to the board for funding and require advance full board simple majority approval.
 Andrew seconded the motion.  It passed unanimously.

Dick proposed that we vote electronically on the motion to be produced before the end of June.  Don agreed to this.


4.       Vertical Focus Areas
Raj Mata proposed that we discuss creating some formal vertical focus groups within OpenID.  Examples he mentioned were Consumer, Enterprise, Government, Mobile, and Retail.  Raj agreed to come back with a proposal on this topic to the board at a later time.


5.       Making Progress in v.Next
Andrew Nash led a discussion on the need to expeditiously accomplish creating and adopting OpenID v.Next specifications, per the board's conclusions from the previous meeting and recent summits that one of the most important issues facing OpenID is to improve the product we have to offer.  Andrew stated that it is important to conclude quickly with success.

A discussion ensued about whether there should be one v.Next technology spanning a range of use cases or different technologies for specific use cases.  Points were made both about simplicity of implementation and enabling users to have a simple, consistent view of their online identities, and the possible application of profiles of a common technology suite.

Andrew Nash moved that we allocate some money towards having Dick Hardt write a v.Next draft specification.  John Bradley seconded the motion.

During discussion, a director asked whether Dick would have to resign from the board to be employed as a contractor to the OIDF.  Scott David, our legal counsel, responded that according to our conflict of interest policy, provided the potential conflict is identified in advance and the board decides it is fair to the organization or approved by the board as provided under the bylaws, that the transaction is permitted by the bylaws. He said that therefore, per the bylaws, Dick need not necessarily resign to work as a contractor under these circumstances, but that the specific terms should undergo review by the executive director and counsel once they are decided.

During the discussion, the board decided that we would use up to $30,000 of the $40,000 previously allocated to the technical committee (none of which has been spent), for this purpose.

Andrew accepted a modification of the resolution to have the executive director and counsel produce term sheet by the end of May for up to $30,000 with input from the technical committee for Dick to begin v.Next specification work as a contractor to the OIDF and that the executive director and counsel then produce an actual contract reflecting those terms.  John again seconded.

The motion carried with all but two members voting in favor.  Chris Messina opposed.  Dick Hardt abstained.


6.       Adjournment
Nat moved to adjourn the meeting; Brian seconded.

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