Oversight Board/Meeting Minutes-2021-04-28

SLOB Meeting -- April 14, 2021

Attending: Walter, Lionel, Ibiam, Perrie, Claudia, Mr.BIOS

From the community: Sumit

Topics

News

The new Sugar on a Stick (Fedora 34 version) has been released: https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/34/Spins/x86_64/iso/Fedora-SoaS-Live-x86_64-34-1.2.iso

A new version of Sugarizer (v1.5) was released. https://sugarizer.org

A new Music Blocks v3 release is on its way... hence forth we will focus on v4.

Finances

No transactions as of yet in 2021

Ombudsman

-

SFC

-

GSoC

We decided to ask for 9 slots maximum, 5 slots minimum (4/2 for Music Blocks; 3/2 for Sugarizer; and 2/1 for Sugar)

Ibiam Contract

Alex and Ibiam will meet and report back.

Next Meeting

12 May 2021

Meeting Log

walterbender: SLOB meeting in ~30 minutes

llaske_: Will be here

perrieee: I’ll be there

callaurrea: Hi everyone

llaske_: Hi Claudia

walterbender: Shall we begin?

callaurrea: Hello

walterbender: First, my apologies for not sending out the reminder last night. No new re finances or ombudsman. callaurrea: anything to report from SFC

callaurrea: Nothing about SFC. I was wondering if we have updates on the non-profit status?

walterbender: Nothing AFAIK. I have a couple of topics for today: GSoC and Ibiam's contract.

Sumit Srivastava: Hi all. Observer here

walterbender: re GSoC we need to decide on the number of slots to request. Hi sumit. I caucused with the Music Blocks mentors and we'd like between 2 (minimum) and 4 (maximum). lionel_: do you have a range for Sugarizer? Congrats on the new release BTW

llaske_: Regarding Sugarizer, I think it could be between 2 (minimum) and 3 (maximum)

walterbender: Also, SoaS Fedora was released yesterday.

Sumit Srivastava: Apologies for not being involved this year.

llaske_: Thanks

walterbender: Is Ibiam around? Any ideas re the Sugar proposals? Also, we should make sure to mark the proposals we are excited about with "want to mentor". I think Google factors that in. I cannot get the star mechanism to work, however.

llaske_: Okay will ask to Sugarizer mentors to mark "Want to mentor"

walterbender: perrieee: maybe you can check with Ibiam and then it sounds like we have a plan... 4 (+sugar) minimum to 7 (+sugar) maximum. I am going to try to get the "final" release of Music Blocks v3 out before GSoC begins. Then it is all in on v4.

callaurrea: congrats!

llaske_: Waoo

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: Hi Everyone, sorry I'm late.

walterbender: Chihurumnaya Ibiam: we are discussing GSoC. any idea how many Sugar proposals we want? minimum and maximum?

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: For Sugar, 1 minimum and 2 maximum.

walterbender: so we are 5-8 range in total.

llaske_: Okay. I can fill the Google form

walterbender: +1. Chihurumnaya Ibiam: Is James connecting with Alex re signing off on your work? And any progress with Alex on a new proposal?

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: Yeah or 5-9. I'd asked him to but I don't know if he has, I haven't asked Alex.

walterbender: You are right, 5-9 (My math brain is asleep today)

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: Last time we talked about it, he decided to let the board decide about moving forward as he had concerns with regards to our financials at the moment as we're yet to get our non-profit status and there might be some extra costs.

walterbender: Chihurumnaya Ibiam: maybe to save some cycles you can find a window where you, Alex and I can meet? (tricky with timezones). I am more concerned with defining the work and then we can sort out how to pay for it (or raise funds to do so)

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: Agreed, I'll send an email later tonight to discuss a suitable time.

callaurrea: I did some work re: fundraising

callaurrea: and would like to propose to invite someone to speak to us about it in our next meeting (video will be best)

walterbender: callaurrea: sounds good

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: Sounds good.

MrBIOS: Hey guys, apologies for my tardiness, been an insane couple of weeks for me.

llaske_: Hi Alex

callaurrea: welcome

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: Welcome Alex.

MrBIOS: I got my first dose of vaccine on Friday last week, still fighting extreme fatigue

Sumit Srivastava: Hi Alex. Stay safe.

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: Hopefully you find time to rest.

callaurrea: congrats on getting started with vaccine

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: MrBIOS: Has James reached out re work done?

MrBIOS: He has not. callaurrea: Have you gotten vaccinated?

callaurrea: Yes. Both

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: Great!

walterbender: me too 🙂

walterbender: MrBIOS: definitely plan on some down time when you get your second dose.

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: Okay, do you think you can take a look at the two PRs as he's made some comments on both.

MrBIOS: Will do. walterbender: yep I'm planning on being KO'd by the second dose. I didn't have any of the bad symptoms from my first, just needed LOTS of sleep

walterbender: callaurrea: maybe we can grab a coffee some time soon would be nice to have a visit

callaurrea: YES!!

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: Okay, thanks. Would you be available in a couple of hours?

MrBIOS: I should be, for a bit.

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: Okay, let me know when you are.

callaurrea: Let me know if I can say a few things about fundraising?

MrBIOS: go for it.

callaurrea: It would be best to have non-profit status

MrBIOS: Does anyone here know the date that we formally submitted the 1023 to the IRS?

walterbender: I will look at my email

walterbender: MrBIOS: late Nov 2020

MrBIOS: walterbender: okay, so it's been five-ish months. If we're lucky, by the sixth or seventh month, we might actually hear back :)

callaurrea: there are grants for operations... I found some information I need to review

callaurrea: it would be best to define projects (hopefully things that don't sound as new projects, but a continuation of something we have been doing and can report some impact)

callaurrea: It is best to have some information ready as opportunities usually open and are due within 1 month

MrBIOS: callaurrea: agreed, they shouldn't be new projects. out of curiosity, what's the source of these grants?

callaurrea: It is best to have some information ready as opportunities usually open and are due within 1 month

MrBIOS: Information specifically for projects or the org as a whole?

MrBIOS: I have zero familiarity with grant-writing

callaurrea: there are many places where those opportunities can be found

callaurrea: last point 5. grants should cover implementation... so if we think about software or curriculum development, it should be in context of a program we are planning to implement

walterbender: callaurrea: I have some MB-related materials we could riff off of quickly. But I think some ideas around workshops for teachers/curriculum around Sugar/Sugarizer/MB would be a good focus area.

callaurrea: It is harder to find grants for learners who are located in many countries, but we can think about doing something local in the US or a particular location. These are takeaways from a conversation with my niece. She does grant writing for Girl Scouts florida and volunteered to come talk to us, if we are interested

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: Definitely a good idea.

callaurrea: She has worked with non-profits for 7 years, worked at girl scouts with programs in the past... worked with me, and with Scratch team developing curriculum... and went to Harvard for grad school... she definitely understands the work

walterbender: (how is your brother doing?)

MrBIOS: whose?

callaurrea: mine.. (my brother is doing ok... not as bad as the previous discs, but having episodes of pain and others of decent time). thanks for asking. So... we can invite my niece anytime

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: Yeah, we should invite her.

MrBIOS: Lionel, how is the COVID situation in France? You too, Ibiam?

llaske_: Not too bad. It stop growing. Hopefully it will be better in few days.

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: They started vaccinating people here a while ago but at the moment we have some security issues around the country.

MrBIOS: I know things have gone to shit in India, in a bad way.

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: MrBIOS: I'll ping you in about 2 hours if you're available.

MrBIOS: Been seeing things but haven't really been following.

callaurrea: Colombia is not doing particularly well... please take care everywhere

walterbender: I have a lot of colleagues in India...it is really really bad

callaurrea: extremely bad

MrBIOS: I have a huge amount of colleagues in India as well. LinkedIn has an office in Bangalore

Sumit Srivastava: Yeah, I and my family and my locality got the symptoms. While me and my family is recovering now, I'd suggest to keep backup mentors for those in India.

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: There might be concerns for students too.

llaske_: Thanks for the advice. You're right.

walterbender: yes

MrBIOS: Agreed, the situation there may very well directly affect GSoC participation, that's a good point, Sumit

Sumit Srivastava: Also, after recovering a bit I created a website to find resources for COVID-19 in India. coveri.ga It has now become one of India's top websites for finding resources related to COVID-19. It's literally saving lives. I'm getting texts that it did. Traffic from all major and minor social media platforms.

MrBIOS: Awesome, we can all help a little.

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: That's great, hope you feel better soon.

Sumit Srivastava: Thanks

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: I have to go.

llaske_: Okay. May be we could close the meeting if nothing more is in the agenda

MrBIOS: +1

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: +1.

Sumit Srivastava: +1

callaurrea: +1. take care everyone

llaske_: Thanks. Bye all.

callaurrea: walterbender: let me know when you are ready for a coffee. bye everyone

walterbender: thanks... bye

Chihurumnaya Ibiam: Bye everyone.

Sumit Srivastava: Bye folks

MrBIOS: Take care, Sumit!