Board Meeting Minutes, June 2022
A meeting of the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) Board was held via video call on Wednesday 1st June 2022 from 18:30 - 20:10
Board members who dialled in: Helen Turvey (HT) (Vice Chair), Johnny West (JW), Tim Hubbard (TH), Ira Bolychevsky (IB)
Observers: Renata Avila (RA) (CEO), Cassandra Woolford (CW) (DOF)
Apologies: Vanessa Barnett (VEB) (Chair), Jarmo Eskelinen (JE)
Welcome & review of minutes & actions
Minutes for the previous meeting are delayed. To be circulated by email
Year End Accounts were circulated for review. An email chain will follow for approval of the Year-end Accounts.
CEO Update [RA]
RA confirmed that monthly reports will be circulated in between the quarterly meetings.
The reactivation of the network is ongoing, since the beginning of the year and with the F2F in Barcelona, OKF is working on designing different ways to engage, also to encourage new members to join the network. A platform will be created where all the network can communicate, organise and work together. To engage with individuals, OKF will ask that members will donate an hour of their time to share specific knowledge with the community.
During May, OKF staff attended meetings in Brussels, Barcelona and Valencia. The team had the opportunity to showcase our projects. In the coming months, RA will be more active in participating in events in Europe, RA will be testing the new narrative of the Strategy. Different team members will represent Open Knowledge in the future at different events. This was fully supported by board members having met the team in Barcelona and understanding the potential and ability of our team to be passionate about Open Knowledge.
RA gave an overview of the Strategy in its current state, in the final stages of completion and the next draft will be circulated shortly for feedback.
The second phase of the Strategy is to develop the metrics so we can measure impact and success. The board offered their support to help drive the framework for the metrics.
Plans for localised symposiums for comparative analysis of the past, present and future of Open Knowledge to understand where we are right now.
Targeted efforts are underway to revamp the Communications and the Business Strategy, including recruiting new team members for these roles.
RA provided further detail on the investment taking place during 2022, which is focused on two main areas, Frictionless Data and the Network. Part of the focus is to consolidate the communities and provide more overlap for collaboration. Long-term sustainability is in consideration and there is a need to autonomise processes in order that the network can continue.
Open Knowledge is contributing where possible to the support of Open Communities, staff and clients affected by the Ukraine war.
A discussion took place surrounding the relationship between OKFN and Datopian.
CKAN is the main link between the companies.
OKF own the copyright and trademark of CKAN, and the website is hosted by the co-stewards, Link Digital..
A proposal was put forward that an improved process for stewardship and governance needs to occur. The board approved this proposal.
Finance Update [CW]
CW provided an overview of the mid-way-year financials. Investment pieces are underway as per budget. Forecasted financials in line with expectations for the current year. More clarity expected towards the end of the year with current clients and potential funding.
Risk Register [CW]
No updates during Q2
Datopian [JE]
No meetings, actions or collaboration has taken place during Q2.