Council

Welcome to the first-ever meeting of the newly elected in Council, a landmark event where our recently elected leaders convene to discuss strategic initiatives and make foundational decisions shaping the future of Mautic.

Council members have a unique platform at this meeting to bring forth and advocate for topics that matter most to our community, fostering innovation and growth. If you are a council member and there are specific topics that you wish to propose for consideration during the council meeting, we urge you to use the Proposals Component on our portal. Your ideas not only pave the way for meaningful dialogue but also form the bedrock of our collective decision-making process.

Meeting notes will be shared via the Etherpad and provided once the meeting is closed.

Attendees:

• Ruth Cheesley
• Prateek Jain
• Favour Chibueze
• Ekke Guembel
• Andy Towne
• Jan Linhart    

Apologies:

• Norman Pracht
• Dominique de Cooman

Useful resources:

• Governance model: https://contribute.mautic.org/governance/governance#5-council
• 5 year plan: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15ZI_7BQ2x3HfMCtxljaekAmYrFAxR59H5A9xL58kjtk/edit?usp=sharing 

Notes:

1. Discussion on governance model
2. Defining the nature of affiliations - perhaps we need a direct affiliation and other partnerships to be declared and have some guidance on how that impacts decision-making.
3. We should document this in the affiliation log and make it clear what the nature of the connection is between companies
4. This log should be public on the community portal.
5.  Andy suggested, we could have defined teams in the council: G&A (General & Administrative), Growth, Product, Services
6. Ekke suggested these match closely with the teams we already have. Does it make sense to assign responsibility at this level at this point?
7.  Favour: Could we just work closely with the leads of the teams and pull up their info from the team leads? Also, we can think about funding and finance at the council level - for example grants to support Mautic's growth/projects.
8. Ruth: Could we build on that and have someone who is on the council working directly with the specific team lead and getting feedback or a feedback/roundup report from the team lead?
9. Ekke: Also, they could take feedback from the Council down to the teams, e.g. strategy, focus. Also things like setting the budget.
10. Prateek asked if we have a central list of all teams and working groups; Ruth suggested checking https://community.mautic.org/assemblies. Andy pointed out that https://contribute.mautic.org has a list of the teams on the left-hand side, where we define each team.
11. Andy: Maybe we could have the team leads reporting to the Council rather than the Council having to go to them for a report?
12. Ekke: We need to ensure this is a positive thing that is designed to support the team and the community. Andy added that we should define the end goal of this - less about control and more about promoting awareness and transparency of what's happening in the community.
13. Prateek: Could we write this up as an expectation from both the team leads and the Council?
14. Ruth: Do we need a leadership structure in the Council? Andy / Prateek / Ekke - let's keep it simple for now and see how it goes.
15. Do we need to choose who is going to be supporting which team?
16. Ekke: I'm a team lead, do I need a point person to work with?
17. Andy: It probably adds more time so let's say no, if you're a team lead you should bring your own report. It should be clear what's needed and what should be discussed at the Council meetings. 
18. Provisional list, let's confirm in Slack
19. Favour: Education team
20. Andy: Legal & Finance [Dominque later expressed an interest in supporting this team also]
21. Prateek: Marketing
22. Norman: Product

Proposing honorary members

1. We have this in the governance model, Ruth would like to propose: 
2. DB Hurley 
3. Alan Hartless
4. Ekke: Would like to propose Dries Buytaert as an honorary member as well.
5. Prateek asked if there's a limit? Ruth explained it's based on the Fellows model from the Python Software Foundation: https://www.python.org/psf/fellows-roster/ who don't seem to have any limitation.
6. Maybe announce at MautiCon - to submit proposals via Decidim and associate with this meeting - we will vote on them.

Planning for future success

1. Reviewed the spreadsheet 
2. Ekke asked for clarity on the end of year 2022 balance: $11084.85 and start of year 2021 balance: $44542.36
3. Andy asked about whether there's any plan to increase the hourly rate we have for employees as the product monthly rate goes up each year but the salary isn't. Ruth: We had discussed salary calculators but it was too complex at the time, hence the flat rate. Maybe we can research this and come up with a proposal for the next council meeting.
4. Fundraising has to be a priority, what are the options?
5. Prateek brought up about the possibility of implementing a certification for Mautic - developers, marketers etc. It would need some upfront investment. Ekke: it's a lot of work to implement and might not be a strong revenue stream. Andy: Could be an opportunity, but Acquia's certification isn't very Mautic focused, and it isn't technical. Ekke: It's a huge amount of work to do this. A lot of the income goes to the providers and it isn't a big revenue stream. Prateek will do some research and share that with us.
6. Trials: Starting to make revenue from Q2
7. Online conference: Q2
8. Ekke: Could we consider the possibility of a LTS support tier? Perhaps we could think about a proposal for offering this? Something to discuss later
9. Andy: Have some expectations for the next meeting for each team.

Actions:

1.  Create a log of declared affiliations of Council members
2. Share with team leads about how we hope to support them via council
3. Write a doc to explain expectations on both sides.
4. Share the points in 4.2 on Slack in Council meeting
5. Ekke - make an honorary members badge
6. Ruth to make proposal for Alan and DB Hurley, Ekke will propose Dries.
7. Create proposals in advance of next meeting to be discussed / voted on.
8. Add a start of year balance to the financial spreadsheet
9. Start a discussion on the Portal for how we pay people with view to making a proposal for the next Council meeting.
10. Prateek will do some research on what open source projects are doing and what the potential revenue stream could be, and will share in Slack - discuss in the next meeting if it merits it.