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2024 09 19 steering group minutes

Participants

  • Ariel Rokem
  • Yaroslav Halchenko
  • Dora Hermes
  • Camille Maumet
  • Remi Gau
  • Guest: Chris Holdgraf

BIDS Governance working Group

Will amendments be ready for the elections for the next Steering Group Member?

Unfortunately not all. Code of conduct may be ready, but governance will not be ready.

BIDS Elections

  • 4 candidates, but lack of diversity

  • Should the election be delayed to encourage more diversity? Election date around early November.

    • yes we will delay 2 weeks

  • this is somewhat reflective of the BIDS community (unfortunately)

  • Possible Suggestions:

    • Adina Wagner
    • Lyuba Zehl

Meeting with Chris Holdgraf

Context

BIDS is growing and needs greater governance models and sustainability support. Why & How did 2i2c how about and move in the direction of a legal entity? Individuals and stakeholder entities needed more FTE time to support growth as opposed to supporting maintenance

2i2c is an "engine" that has full-time employees that can serve both the open-source community, as well as the research and education use-cases of jupyter. There was a clear value in staffing specific roles that was not allocated otherwise.

Q&A

Ariel: to move ahead with discussions we started about BIDS governance structure (that is around foundation, non-profit, 501(c)3...), I've asked Chris Holdgraf to come and chat with us at an upcoming meeting. Chris directs 2i2c, and has a unique perspective on these issues. He's also a BIDS contributor, having worked extensively on the iEEG BEP and related.

  • Q: What was the funding model that worked best for 2i2c?

  • A: Their funding comes froma small number of large scale contracts, they use jupyiter hub as a base unit for funding. University bureaucracy was not an ideal route for funding services or individuals "Fiscal sponsors": cost/benefit tradeoffs. On the expensive side, we might be looking at 15% overhead and would provide a high degree of "service" for this. Can expect contracts administered on time by these entities. There will still be a governance and execution problem unless they identify an 'executive office' (executive director) to make the decisions for BIDS, ensure progress and direction.

  • AR: membership fees could be a possibly source of funds, funds could also come from grants. There is a set of governing bodies (steering group and maintainers). What would be the labor to bootstrap/kickstart the engine to move any funding model (membership/ service/ grant) forward? What goes into creating a non-profit?

  • CH: 2i2c is a nonprofit but has a fiscal sponsor, this did not require them to go through the legal process. The fiscal sponsor is the 501c3 non-profit organization, and they provide the services to 2i2c. They set up a contract based service relationship outlining the expectations for the organizaiton and for the fiscal sponsor. Code for science and society (2i2c's fiscal sponsor).

  • Q: Who drew up the contracts? 2i2c likely used a standard fiscal sponsorship contract. This included stating the organization mission and intention. It comes down to if there are rules that need to exist that are dedicated to the BIDS community? Sometimes bringing financial relationships into the mix can hurt the larger community. This may or may not be true for BIDS, but something to consider.

  • AR: Project management is an important role BIDS needs to fill

  • CH: agreed, and product management could also be a valuable role or need for BIDS. Community management can also help facilitate the flow of information across people and groups. 2i2c has community guides/enablers, they are bridges between open source communities and engineers within 2i2c. Enabling roles like this can be really important to support end users.

    CH would be willing to share job descriptions.

ROpensci is also an interesting organization to look into / talk to.

2i2c is based in the US but it does not limit their ability to employ people in other countries. The operations will be location specific, so where to focus the 'home-base' should carefully considered.