October 8, 2002.

A regular regular meeting of the Python Software Foundation (the "PSF") Board of Directors was held over Internet Relay Chat at 1:05 pm EST. Guido van Rossum, president of the Foundation and chairman of the Board, presided at the meeting.

1. Attendance

The following members of the Board of Directors were present at the meeting: Jeremy Hylton, Tim Peters, Guido van Rossum, Martin von Loewis, Thomas Wouters, Marc-Andre Lemburg. A quorum was present. David Ascher arrived half-way through the meeting.

2. Meeting minutes of past IRC meetings

Guido moves to approve the meeting minutes of July 16th. Motion passes with five ayes and one abstention. Guido moves to approve the meeting minutes of September 10th. Motion passes with four ayes and two abstentions.

3. Spending discretion for Officers

Guido proposes to allow the Chair and Secretary to spend up to a small amount without prior board approval, to give more flexibility in dealing with minor issues. A short discussion follows about whether it should be a small amount per occurance or a running total that needs to be ratified by the board, and how ratification or notification is handled. In the end, the board votes on the following motion:

RESOLVED, that until further notice, the Officers of the Board can spend up to USD 500 per expense without prior board approval, but subject to prompt reporting to the Board.

The motion is approved unanimously.

4. Public Support Committee

Marc-Andre reports on the progress of the PSC. A number of issues have come up that require board discussion:

• Whether or not the requirement for fundraising institutions to register themselves in all of the United States applies to the PSF. The registration itself costs in excess of USD 10.000 intially and yearly, much more than the fundraising hopes to collect. The concensus is that we can not worry about this at this time, the requirement for registration certainly can't apply to small-time fundraising like the PSF, and to let a tax lawyer look at it when the time comes.
• Which payment methods to consider. The PSC is currently looking at payment via checks by mail, third-party credit-card payment methods like PayPal and ShareIT, setting up a separate credit-card site and handling the payment via Yet Another Society. The latter has some legal implications, and setting up a separate credit-card site is too much work. The PSC is still discussing the other options internally.
• The lawyer review of the contribution and rights-assignment documents. Marc-Andre has posted some comments on the initial review by Chris Rourk. Thomas also has some comments he will send in. Marc-Andre will assemble the comments and take them up with Chris Rourk.

5. Conference status

Guido has met with Steven Holden and suggests him as the Chair for the conference. Adam Turoff declined the offers of having the PSF taking the financial responsibility of the conference instead of YAS, and of the PSF taking over the contract with GWU. Adam will contact Guido later today for a status update. Guido remarks that there is only five and a half months left until the conference, so it is time to start moving. Martin asks when cancelling the conference should be considered; Guido will start doing that when there is less than four months left.

A short discussion follows about adding a sponsor fee of about $15 to the conference ticket, to jump-start the public support building. Thomas and David are of the opinion that it can't be considered a sponsor fee if it's mandatory. Guido will take it up with Adam Turoff.

6. Adjournment

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:05 PM EST.