Annual in-person Council meeting

Attendees

• Ruth Cheesley
• John Linhart
• Favour Chibueze
• Ekke Guembel
• Dominique De Cooman
• Norman Pracht (remotely)

Agenda

1. Vacant seat on Council - how to address it as we didn't factor it into the governance model (also whether terms could be renewed)
2. Suggestion from Norman: Maybe we should have something in the governance model which is a general rule that says what we do - we think that perhaps we should have a minimum number of votes (Favour was elected with 11 votes) --> eg: 10 votes. Then we could reorganise a intermediate vote session and whatever the amount of applicants, (eg: 2 for 2 seats) you need to have a minimum of keen interest
3. We had 3 people who were not elected last time, perhaps we can have it so that people who didn't get elected could be standby in case someone steps out
4. Some discussions on how we:
5. Take whoever was next on the list for the nominations (but this has some risks, perhaps people wouldn't be the people who are supported by the Council
6. Vote on whether to proceed with either: Take the people from the last election, do a new voting process or leave it empty. 1 vote for taking last candidates and 5 votes in favour of new election process to fill the seat
7. DECISION: New election process for filling the remaining seat. ACTION: Ruth to create new process for electing remaining seat and publicise.
8. After Mauticon we will put out the chance to vote for the new seat. 
9. We need better marketing for the voting.
10. Financial deficit: Best guess, $50k, may be a bit less if members renew on a higher tier and/or current pipeline convert. How are we going to address it this year to date, and what changes do we need to make to next year's budget based on our outcomes this year?
11. 12 month plan/cash flow/budget: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-TdZI3HtxbSCIpqQwDGOSqnZgewSUZZuhZwO4Z3Ah3Q/edit?usp=sharing
12. How does the financial plan of 2025 look?
13. Issues
14. 50k deficit atm > could still improve
15. How many new yearly sponsors possible? 
16. Potential sponsors: Open 5-10k , Webmecanik: 3k extra, see hubspot: 10k could be closed
17. Acquia dropping to 10k from 15k
18. TOTAL: Extra 15k net but still 35K missing if we get the pipeline converted
19. Membership list with renewal dates: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E3X7SSBnmFl0icFJZky6wTevi1yL7qO1AwOGL4qbRqM/edit?usp=sharing
20. Monthly sponsors?
21. We projected 9k but have 18k
22. In the next 6 months: 5k
23. Free trial deal amount > Dominique finds out: it will be 6.5k for the next 6 months, if renewed another 6.5k coming in 2025
24. Appeal at mauticon: 2k raised with 
25. ELTS > will bring money > 3x3k > 9k from Ekke already, value of entire program? 
26. 3k for enterprise is reasonable
27. Total value? 30k > 10 customers >> introduce discounts to members
28. We follow Ekke?
29. Open Startup Metrics sheets: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UE1R762hsHIqYUd1kJRyuEp_6DQ5kriwIKaHB7kSh9Y/edit?usp=sharing
30. When exactly will we run out of money?
31. Probably may or June 2025 with cashflow issues from december and onwards
32. Cashflow: 
33. Suggestion: Dropsolid likes to extend the free trials further (see below)
34. Another idea: If we need to bridge a short-term gap, loans from partners may be an option.
35. What about the Costs?
36. Employment? > Not really an option
37. Infra? > optimise costs: only a couple of k? so not worth our time
38. Travel? > Norman suggests that we don't, and we just work remote
39. Ruth checks with Open Collective what happens at cashflow issues?
40. Who is responsible? Who does what?
41. Project lead role should: 
42. Focus on website > will bring more leads for sponsors and free trial conversions
43. Do at least 20% of business development
44. Council will:  
45. Help the project lead
    
    
46. Programmes launching next year 
47. ELTS: Price point, how we staff it, how we market it m
48. Certification: Where are we with this, what is needed to get up and running, how are we going to run it (eg under an RFP or not? The notes from the last meeting suggest Prateek taking on to draft the proposal and share with the council.
49. Who should lead the certification proposal? Prateek might face a conflict of interest
50. Should a certain membership level be part of the RFP?
51. ACTION: Dominique and Ekke to come up with the proposal, and then we decide from there who should own the process
52. Training academy: Are we still going to do this, if so who is going to lead on it, how are we going to deploy it, what are the price points to use
53. Some discussions on whether this is something that we want to provide as a project or if it's something we allow everyone to provide. It was budgeted in our 2025 budget. It was felt it should be something that we aren't doing ourselves. DECISION: We currently do nothing about training. Everybody can offer training towards the certifications
54. Other possible revenue streams
55. Discussions on advertising and ways to open up other funding channels, like paying to be able to sponsor specific pages on the website or similar - to serve orgs in the community who for example have products or services that they want to advertise to our market - it could be an opportunity however we have to consider the cost to develop that.
56. Affiliate marketing / accounts: Currently earning income from Mailfloss and plans to expand out to other providers. Who will lead on this as a revenue stream and how will we do it (eg. via self install page, ads on forums etc?) - nobody offered so Ruth will have to pick this up.
    
    
57. Free Trials
58. Clarification: Dropsolid's 36-month started with go-live, not with date of contract.
59. Dominique suggests that we start thinking about what will happen after the 36 months. Dropsolid would like to extend (right now), offers a loan in return. Discussion: Will we want multiple Trial providers at that point? -> we're taking that discussion to the futures (Dominique recuses himself from that) ACTION: Ruth to set up a call to discuss further
    
    
60. Grant funding opportunities - what else can we find like NLNet to apply to, and what projects do we prioritise? Are there any grants we can apply to for "keep the lights on" support? All to look out for such.
    
    
61. Update on website project and progress/launch plans for product-led marketing strategy (review progress in sprint as to whether there's something to propose/discuss in Council)
    
    
62. Marketing & product strategy
63. Community sprint Lisbon > https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fs7xTHeCMk84tnsrhqSth-jagjaU970mpAf19Y5PyNg/edit?usp=sharing
64. Connected with the website project
65. Norman: The who - nowhere is defined what is the position of the target, is it the marketer, is it the business person, the technical people?
66. Ruth: What we're talking about is basically focusing on the product-led channel and developing how we actually position Mautic. The council doesn't really need to be involved in the nitty gritty of how that happens, but more to be aware of the fact that we're changing how we're going to be positioning Mautic.
67. Ekke shared work on the local landing page where they grouped the audience into the mautic users, agencies and the IT technicians
68. Discussions in depth about our thoughts on the focus on product-specific focus. it's mostly about marketing but also about how we think about the product.
    
    
69. Future Council voting rule changes
70. Do we introduce quota to support more diversity?
71. Do we need ways to protect from toxic members becoming members by fact of there not being enough nominations?
    
    
72. Process for returning unused budget from projects that did not use it
73. Funding for marketing: Acadium v freelancer v volunteers
74. Discussion on the hiring rates that we have and how we clarify it in job postings going forward
75. Ruth explained she wants to see us having some 'formula' which takes into account where someone lives, the role they do and the the level of seniority. Agreed to base this on the average salary for the location and the position, with a seniority bonus to be negotiated where relevant. Proposal needs drafting to take to vote.

Actions from this meeting:

ACTION: Ruth to create new process for electing remaining Council seat and publicise

ACTION: Dominique and Ekke to come up with the certification project proposal, and then we decide from there who should own the process

ACTION: Ruth to set up a call to discuss further the trials contract