[OpenID board] September 10, 2020 Executive Committee Call Minutes

[Mike Jones]

September 10, 2020 Executive Committee Call Minutes

Present:
Don Thibeau - Executive Director
Mike Jones
Nat Sakimura
Bjorn Hjelm
John Bradley
George Fletcher

Absent:
(none)

Visitors:
James Bryce Clark - OASIS
Mike Leszcz - OpenID Foundation
Tom Smedinghoff - Locke Lord LLP

[The meeting entered executive session]


1.       OASIS Executive Director Recruitment Experience
Jamie spoke to us about OASIS' recruitment experience.  What he told us is confidential.  OASIS has had about 4-5 EDs over the last 20 years.  Two of the transitions were long, which were difficult.  The board chairs took over during these periods and had to work harder than anticipated.  It was awful for them.  Jamie encouraged us to find an interim ED if we encounter a similar situation.

OASIS has a well-connected board of eleven directors.  They considered going to a head-hunter but eventually decided to do it themselves.  Jamie thinks that was the right decision.  It took the board way too long.  It was hard to get quorum and go through resumes.  That slowed them down.  He would have wanted to finish a lot faster, if possible.  People should commit to a process where they put in concentrated time.

They decided to put the posting out in public.  This is important for diversity.  They got a lot of weird applicants that weren't qualified.  They did get some surprising good candidates.  They did not wait only for things to come in.  They whittled it down to seven candidates and did meet in person, slightly pre-COVID.  The search committee split into teams of three, met with the candidates, and recorded their interviews.  Then others could view the interviews.  They actively sought some candidates.  They were pleased with the response that they got.  The narrowed it down from seven to three after the interview round.

We had to keep the identities and travel in strict confidence.  We brought the three candidates to a board meeting in San Francisco in February 2020.  We asked them to do a presentation about their perceptions of OASIS.  That worked very well.  You find out how good they are at presenting and dealing with boards.

They did two rounds of interviews.  They likely lost one or two candidates while they were taking their time.  Being agile is important.

They had to increase compensation significantly to get the quality of candidates that they wanted.  This assumes that the board wants to increase the size and scope of the organization.  Laurent was making under $200,000 in 2019.  One candidate was offered a lot more money by someone else.  They ended up in the $200,000s.

OASIS is happily sitting on a business of technical committees and specifications.  It has a substantial opportunity of growing.  They wanted to be ready for a growth curve.

A very senior staff member made some targeted background check phone calls.  Their staff are employees of Insperity.  There were some constraints from that.  They checked for criminal activity.  They did factual verifications of credentials.  They spoke with people who had worked with the candidates.

They posted the position on their Web site.  They sent an announcement to their members.  They made some calls and e-mails to colleagues at other organizations.  They may have listed the position in a technical journal.  Candidates have to know what you do to understand what the position is.

OASIS didn't have a formal job description.  They had a bullet list of things they were interested in seeing in the candidates.  None of the seven finalists had dealt with OASIS before but they understood standards, open source, and membership organizations.  You want somebody who really wants to do the job.  You want them to have a sense of mission.

Mike Jones asked how OASIS makes money.  Jamie responded that pretty much everybody who has tried to make a cash cow out certification has failed.  Certification is a wonderful way of generating business interest.  He thinks we are doing certification right.  OASIS annually invoices dues to member organizations.  They can join at different levels.  The dues are posted on the OASIS Web site.  OASIS has a pay-per-organization model, with open board elections.

Jamie suggested looking at Linux Foundation and others with different models.  They create a separate balance sheet for each major endeavor.  There may be more entrepreneurial pricing opportunities.

For diversity, they burned up the phone lines.  They wanted a diverse slate of candidates at each selection level.  They have public statements about Diversity and Inclusion.  They didn't take any additional formal steps.  But they consciously sought a diverse pool of candidates.

The board and search committee developed broad brainstorming lists, over several iterations.  They called many potential candidates even though they might not be available.

One sentence of advice:  Trust Your Network!   Jamie believes we'll come up with lots of good candidates.  He can't say enough about the power of calling someone.  "I'm sure you're doing great, but would you consider coming to work for us?"  It's very flattering.

Don asked Jamie if he could supply any potential candidates to Bjorn.  He said he would think about it and do so within the next week.  Jamie asked if he thought that 2024 would be a lot like 2020 for the OpenID Foundation.  Mike Jones said that it might be quite bigger if Open Banking takes off.  Jamie replied that then fintech standards people might be part of the candidate pool.

[We left executive session at this point]


2.       Updated Transition Plan
Mike Leszcz shared an updated transition plan with additional meeting dates.  It also includes drafts of the member communications.  People should review those.  There will be a board meeting next Thursday, September 17th.  Mike Leszcz will share the corporate communications draft with Dale Olds.


3.       Jamie's Final Words to Us
Tell your board that you want their involvement throughout the process.  But you need a small agile group to focus on the hiring process.

The board unanimously thanked Jamie.

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