SME Server Inc. January report
What a busy first few months! With the start-up of our new organization, the leadership team and Ruffdogs staff have discovered that there are quite a number of things to keep us busy! We have worked out an interim method of holding regular meetings (which is interesting given the time zone and schedule differences). We have held our first board meeting. The major results of our efforts so far include the following:
Community Topics
- The SME/Contribs email addresses and lists have been reorganized
- We have acquired and now control the use of contribs.org through the generosity of Jeff Coleman of Resource Strategies (rstrat.com)
- A 'Thanks & Sponsors' page has been added to the website to acknowledge those who have been major contributors to the community in the past
- Mitel has moved the master packages to SourceForge (previously they were at Mitel). SF and the new contribs.org bugzilla bug tracker will be the central point for all changes
- The domain names sme-smith and smesmith .org/.net/.com have been registered for potential future use
- It has been resolved that a new site will be created to replace contribs.org. The new site is necessary due to the potential legal issues surrounding who controls the content in the existing contribs site. The new site will resolve that issue. The old contribs site will be archived and available for research and troubleshooting.
- The need to establish our installed base has been made clear. A method of 'registering' SME installations has being developed so that we can anonomously track the number of installations. Optional additional registration info may also be collected for future purposes
- A team has been established to maintain and improve our website(s). Ronald McNew was asked to lead this team
- We are preparing for the release of version seven in a number of ways. We expect to do some marketing, provide press releases, etc. to support the release of the new version.
- We will be extending this general report by submitting reports for each area as appropriate.
SME Server Inc. Topics
- We have officially elected the five board members for SME Server Inc. The board members are Gordon, Greg, Paul, Garret and Vivian. The corporation will be the legal trust for SME Server related content and intellectual property
- The constitution has been ratified by the SME Server directors
- The election results were ratified
- We are establishing a small 'informational' site for the corporation that lists contact information, short SME descriptive info, and serves as the 'anchor' for the corporation. The site will basically refer the reader to the contribs site for detailed information about SME
- Policies have been established for authority and limits on spending. Spending limits were set at up to $100 w/o prior approval for the BA and Corp. Steward Liason, up to $500 with majority board approval, over $500 requires unanimous board approval, with the limitation that ANY money directed to any of the board of directors or their companies requires unanimous board approval. Little initial spending is expected other than domain registrations, minor office supplies and such
- The allocation of funds are to be reported to the board on a monthly basis. The method and mechanics of reporting finances to the community has not been resolved yet
- Vivian (Ruffdogs CFO) is in the process of filing for 503c status, but the process may take up to two years
There are a number of issues on the table for near future. We look forward to reporting additional progress in our next report! Look for the changes to begin appearing soon!
The Leadership Team