Notes from August 2025-I Governing Board meeting

For the month of August, the Governing Board (GB) has decided to hold two smaller calls with the intention of wrapping up a few essential tasks. Below is a concise recap of the first leg of this month’s meeting, which happened on August 19. In attendance were GB members - Shree, Bowrna, Nemo, as well as FU Staff members - Rahul, Vishal, and Ashlesh. Bodhish was unable to join as he was traveling and Swastik was unable to join as well.

Governing Board Charter

1. A working draft of the Charter was circulated.
2. The GB members are expected to add inputs through the week of August 18, while Rahul will refine and wrap up the remaining sections in the week of August 25.
3. The GB is scheduled to meet on September 1, 2025, to discuss the draft and plan to release it to the community before IndiaFOSS.

IndiaFOSS Engagement

1. The board explored strategies and ways for meaningful engagement with IndiaFOSS attendees.
2. Shree suggested holding a “Meet the GB” session on Day 1 of IndiaFOSS. Nemo added that we can host a “GB meet” during the Maintainers Summit as well.
3. This was followed by a longer discussion about IndiaFOSS interactions. Some ideas include:
4. Set up “Looking for Contributors” and “Looking to Contribute” boards, similar to a Job Board
5. A possible booth to enlist volunteers for the FOSS United community, with the necessary information on what sorts of volunteering help we need
6. Include a photo booth for attendee interaction.
7. Design interactive installations featuring demographic questions, a “Pledge to Contribute”, and interactive question booths (inspired by VizChitra’s DFI installation, as discussed with Rahul or Nemo).
   

Requests to the Governing Board

Partnership Proposal

1. Rahul set the context for the request from Code4GovTech for FOSS United to become one of their partners, and what has changed with them so far. The GB members will review the details and take a call in the next meeting.

FLOSS/fund request from Ansh

1. For the FLOSS/fund, Ansh floated the idea of establishing a public selection committee from the FOSS ecosystem with a community voting process for applications, asking the GB their thoughts.
2. Shree pointed out that a Working Group could be formed for this purpose.
3. The GB discussed that the funding ticket sizes of FLOSS/fund are typically much larger than the grants given by FOSS United. Nemo added that the Working Groups can be briefed accordingly.
4. The GB discussed that it would be good to have some FLOSS/fund presence at the Maintainers Summit, as they are one of the target audiences. It would also give us a better chance of getting volunteers for the FLOSS/Fund and understanding their needs.
5. Rahul emphasised the need for a diverse and vibrant cohort of volunteers to ensure meaningful evaluation of grant applications.
   

Action Items & Next Steps

1. GB members to consolidate their inputs into the draft Charter / Week of August 18
2. Rahul to clean it up and finalise the draft Charter / Week of August 25
3. GB meeting to discuss the draft Charter and the release plan / September 01
4. GB members to assess the Code4GovTech partnership proposal