Board Meeting
On 1/11/2024 the NWChemEx board held their inaugural board meeting. In attendance were (alphabetical order by surname):
- Ajay Panyala
- Ryan Richard
- Hubertus Van Dam
- Jonathan Waldrop
- David Williams-Young
Below are the main topics and summaries of the discussions:
What are the board’s responsibilities?
Ultimately the board is charged with:
- Establishing the vision of the NWChemEx Community.
- Coordinating efforts towards the realization of the vision.
- Outreach.
In particular it was discussed that the members of the board, in their board capacities, should be focused on the “30K foot view of the NWChemEx Community” and not on the “nitty-gritty details” (although it was also acknowledged that outside of their board capacities, board members are also authors/contributors and in this capacity are involved in the finer-grained details). As an example, it was established that PRs should not require board member approval before being merged.
Ultimately it will take the entire NWChemEx Community to make the vision a reality; however, it was established that the board should take a prominent role in coordinating the efforts needed to realize the vision. This includes coordinating funding efforts (in particular it looks bad if the NWChemEx Community submits multiple conflicting proposals). While not viable at this point, it may make sense for the board to interact/negotiate with stakeholders on behalf of the community. This requires first building a rapport with the stakeholders and the community.
The board is also expected to be exemplars of the NWChemEx Community and thus are charged with participating in outreach activities.
How does the board convey information?
It is important to keep the NWChemEx Community apprised of discussions at
board meetings. Therefore, the board needs to make the information available
somehow. It was decided that the top-level NWChemEx Community website (which
resides in the NWChemEx.github.io repository) will be the primary means of
dissemination. In particular, Jekyll-based GitHub pages are designed for
blogging which makes it easy for maintainers to create posts and automatically
have those posts be promoted through RSS feeds and social media.
How does the board make decisions?
It was decided that the board is able to make decisions when a quorum is present (though the board did not define what constitutes a quorum). While the board presently has an odd number of members, it was acknowledged that situations may arise in which board voting results in a tie (e.g., if a member recuses themself). In the event of a tie, the advisors to the board will collectively be given one vote to break the tie.
When does the board meet?
The decision was made that board will meet quarterly. Roughly every three months a poll will be sent out to board members to find a time slot. In particular this means that meetings will not always occur on the same date or have a set number of days between them. With the NWChemEx Community just starting, it was also recognized that board meetings may be needed more often initially.
How does one join the board?
Adding a member to the board will be a board decision and will follow the same procedures used to make other board decisions. Nominations for new board members will come from existing board members.
Board structure?
The board size should be allowed to grow/shrink as needed. The overall goal of board membership should be to ensure that each stakeholder organization has representation.
What is the initial vision?
The initial vision is to have a 1.0 of NWChemEx by the end of January. A GitHub project board to track progress towards this goal has been created. Ryan has been charged with writing up a formal vision of what this 1.0 entails and adding it to the .github repo.
When is the next board meeting?
Priority is getting a 1.0 out. The next board meeting should occur after the 1.0 and will focus on the next phase of shaping the NWChemEx Community vision.