Drupal Association Public Board Meeting ![rw-book-cover](https://img.youtube.com/vi/CqQM7BGUFrI/maxresdefault.jpg) ## Metadata - Author: [[YouTube]] - Full Title: Drupal Association Public Board Meeting - Category: #articles - Document Tags: [[business]] [[community]] [[governance]] - Summary: Drupal Association Public Board Meeting - URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqQM7BGUFrI All right, we're going to get started. Um, this is the uh meeting with the board of the Drupal Drupal of the Drupal Association, formerly known or typically known as a meet a board meeting of the Drupal Association. But since there were no voting items today, we decided to dispense with the uh with the pageantry of a formal board meeting and just have a meeting of the board. Um, so uh welcome everyone. Uh, as I said this morning, our vision at the Drupal Association is a web that's innovative, inclusive, and open. and our mission is to drive innovation and adoption of Drupal hand as a high impact digital public good hand in hand with our open source community. Um the board members typically would have a board meeting because at this time before uh November 1st when the new board term starts we'd have to get the the slate nominated. But what we did this year instead was we uh took nominations earlier and the board voted on the new slate and was announced uh in January. And that allowed board members, both old and incoming board members to participate in the retreat this past weekend, which I think helps people get kind of ground, new members get grounded uh quicker. Um you can you can ask our new members uh if they feel that way. Our new members are uh Dominic, new member. So uh Gwen and Maya Schaefer, who's not here today. She she couldn't make it to the to this event. the incoming um board members and then the um and Baty is the incoming um she was the immediate past uh president chair of the board and now she's the incoming chair of the board. Uh and so that term starts November 1st and run for one year um the the the board chair term. So, the board going forward. Well, before we go to the board going forward, we have to thank three board members that um have served um for the board over the last several years. Uh Ros Rosa, thank you. Uh Fay, Fay was the community elected at large position, which is a two-year term, and she ends her two years term. Um, and then Owen Lansbury, who was the outgoing the chair, and he's he's uh he's not here with us today. I mean, he's in Australia. He's fine. I mean, he's okay. He's just not physically here. So, um, and he was he's been on the board for six years, I believe, and so coming in as board chair. So, we're very grateful to I mean, I'm I would like to say at least I'm very grateful to the commitment that board members make. So, Rosa, Fay, Owen, uh, thank you for your time and your commitment to the board. The board meets twice a year in person. They meet four to five times electronically outside of that. Um, and if you're in the executive committee, you're meeting once a month. In addition to that, you're meeting in working groups. So, it's a tremendous commitment. >> Yeah. So, I feel the same way because we are actually we also saying goodbye to Lynn. >> Oh, jeez. >> Lynn, >> I totally forgot. Sorry. You know how we also keep like we don't you know when you know Thank you. >> Yes. I apologize. >> Yeah. Well, yeah, Lynn is is uh helping us as a special marketing advisor postboard term. So, I appreciate that. I apologize for for missing down the line and I I missed that. >> Um so, thank you all for that. And I think the only we wanted this is very informal. So we just have a short presentation by Stella on the um there was a working group that met um for about a year and a half almost two years on trying to decide what to do with Drupal Con and how to how to make some changes at Drupal Con, what's needed for Drupal Con. Uh Fay led that working group and then Stella uh took it over. Um and so I think we just want to have a short report out there and then we'll just open up to any questions you have about any topics that you want to just ask the board. >> Okay. So um yeah I'm going to keep this short to give more time for questions but we've been meeting you know the last well you were doing it before me so I'm not quite sure but like for more than a year two years um like what is who is Drupal for? What is makes Rupon a Drupal account? So um after all the discussions come about that Drupalon is for the community that its prime purpose is to support the community that supports the driven project and so if you just go to the next slide who are who makes up the community so we identified four different personas there's the careers so the long-term Drupal developers who many of us are in this room today um and what they need to get out of Drupal time is the ability to learn about adjacent technologies, gain recognition, awards and you know be able to spotlight um as emerging speakers and and topics they want to learn about and share about. Um then there's also people who are new to Drupal and there are always new Drupal account attendees each year. So we need to improve the onboarding process for them so they feel more welcome like we are a very welcoming community and we all love the hallway track as careers but that can be a bit daunting for newcomers to the group community so you don't know anyone so um oops oops yeah you know there there's new things that are happening in terms of um there's a da tour this morning around the conference venue for first time group attendees. Um so there's encouraging that and giving them more opportunity to get actively included and actively involved in the community. Uh then there's of course there's agency owners and business owners. Um you know they want to expand on their learning about adjacent technologies. They want to meet with their peers. So we had the um the partner summit yesterday. I don't know if many of you tend to that but we want to encourage that so people can meet and collaborate but they also want to engage with end users and we can encourage that through the splash awards which leads into the enterprise science of course who want to gain recognition through splash awards and um we want to highlight the keynotes for them and encourage kids adopt Drupal or learn more about Drupal if they're on that end it enterprise science actually have also have intern in-house developers so they can also So they overlap. Um could you just do the next slide? >> Y >> so the recommendation coming out of the working group is that we should establish a global steering committee. So Europe has already had a steering committee for uh Drupalan Europe. So I should point out that Drupalcon is organized like generally by volunteers. Volunteers pick sessions. Um and yes there's pony and there's conference direct and like different organizing partners who help with the operational and logistics and on the ground and the financial budgets and that but it is a a communitydriven project and we're very involved in the direction of uh each Drupaton. So um Drupalon Europe has a steering committee that's now in each Drupalon has a steering committee and we want to establish a global steering committee which is to provide that crosspollination that cross learning between the dupacons as to what works what doesn't how we can learn from each other we tried this let's try um and it's going to be made up of two representatives from each local regional group uh steering committee one repres representative from core initiative leads one representative from the DA um and the idea is that they'll meet quarterly to just you know have discussions as needed and you know but we'll still be relying on the operational um the local events will still run the operational practical elements of each group last so further explanation areas uh for the global steering committee that they can what that's in what will they be doing? Um, continue to find ways and new ways to engage our four different personas. Um, also reviewing the sponsorship packages. Is there other ways that we can add value to our sponsors, many of whom are GCPs or Drupal certified partners? And there's been great work done by Megan and the DA in the last year for this in uh Chicago coming up. So new ways of adding value to our our sponsors including the option for no boots like we need to sponsor without taking out a boot at your truck. Um so it's up to each local or regional event as to what they can achieve and what do um that might go elsewhere. Um then coordination with local campus reports making sure that we don't collide with events clashing dates and so on. Um and then alignment with Drupal project initiatives and the Drupal project initiative leads leads so that we are co coordinated on the themes for the Drupalcon as in what's happening with the Drupal project and how we can support that through the session selection process. Um and then yeah there's been more improvements uh about the global session selection process. We've introduced new standardized consistency uh across the all the regional duplicons as to how sessions are selected and the process for that because it was a bit different in each one. And lastly, continue exploring cost saving measures that we can do to makeup more affordable for everyone. >> So that's the update. >> Awesome. Take questions. Any other questions about Drupal Con or questions about the working group for for Stella or comments? >> All right. Very good. Um, so at this point, I think we usually the the bulk of this session is just a chance for you um to ask any questions you have of the board um or bring up any issues or comments you want to make or questions you have about what what the DA is doing, the board's thought is on anything. So, just open up to the audience. >> Very shy audience. >> Like half of the audience is the DA staff. So, this is a good chance for you to >> That's right. Yes. Staff can ask questions, right? >> Yes. [Music] >> Uh, so hi, this is Ysef. Um yeah, I just wanted to share an experience I have frequently when attending Drupa. Um I like the people. I like the hallway. I like the sessions. Um what I struggle with is the attendee experience in terms of how like how I built my schedule like the the whole I don't know I I'm using this app and it's not synchronized to to the website. So if I don't know, I think it's more like a a European problem with how we work with Corn, but maybe it's also something we could join efforts um for all the Drupal attendees to to make the attendee experience more delightful and more modern. Yeah, >> just on that but just answer that first that there is a yeah that's the app that we're using in Drupal Europe and then in the US they use sessionize and I think the plan is session for >> confirm session to confirm or >> session >> I'm confirming that we're using session for the appro >> it won't be used for the app just >> just the sessions but we are exploring other ways that we can create a kind IAL that someone in the community made and Fran actually on our team is gonna speak to him to see if we can somehow make it in Drupal to make it sync up to your so it's a little easier. >> Did you have a question yet? >> I was just going to pile on that. >> All right. Thank you for the question. Breaking the ice. What other questions or comments do do we have? This is your chance. Hello there, George. Um, so over the last few days, um, in preparation for a session I'm going to be delivering on Thursday, I've been kind of going through some of the, uh, the last kind of 10 years or so of, um, publicly available, um, Drupal Association financial reporting. And so one of the things that I've noticed is that um you know for the last two years spending has uh exceeded revenues uh and um that we are you know and I also am aware that there have been significant cost cutting measures made at the association right >> um and uh I don't think any of us want any more of that if it can be avoided. Uh but I also note that revenues um are still, you know, over the last 5 years nowhere near what they were pre- pandemic. And so I guess I'm curious what the association strategy is, uh you know, for increasing revenue. Uh you know, there are many ways one can increase revenue. Um but I'm curious, uh you know, what what options the association is looking at in ways that are consistent with the values of our community. Sure. >> Just a little question. >> Yes, a little that could take the rest of the time. U so I will I will lead off on that and invite other board members to speak up if they wish. Um so you're right. So the kind of the long short history of uh Drupal Association funding is that between 2010 and 2019 um uh Drupalcon North America attracted not only 3,000 attendees plus or minus 200 regardless of the city that it was in Baltimore, Denver, Seattle, Nashville. Um but it also threw off such excess cash that it funded the operations of of the Drupal Association. We started to see a decline in 2019 and then COVID hit in 2020. Uh the association's finances were bolstered by the generosity of the community. A lot of folks contributed to keep it going and government loans in the US that were allowed to uh that prop up the finances. Um coming out of the pandemic, we came back to Portland and that was the first year 2022. Um, and it was clear, well, it's beginning to be clear that was a test case, but it was it was beginning to be clear and it's clear now that Drupal Con excess funding from Drupal Con wasn't there to fund the operations of the association. Um, and that's been the the the the primary drop has been that um the um uh over the last Yeah, last year there was a net loss. expenses exceeded uh revenue. Um and um over the past year, we've had to make some cuts because we continued to see projected um revenues not hitting goals, not not hitting where we wanted to be. So, there were some staff cuts. We've we've reduced staff costs um this this year um and made other cuts. Uh so, that's kind of where we are today and we're projecting through the end of the year. Uh there's really four areas that we're focusing on, have been focusing on for revenue generation. Um and they are uh first is our Drupal certified partner program. Um not going to the same Drupal certified partners but trying to expand that group. There's there's 218 as of end of last year there were 218 companies that on credit on the basis of credit qualified for the program. Um but we had at the beginning of this year about 103 were in the program. We've grown that a little bit, but um we're trying if we could grow that to to the 218 that have enough contribution credits to qualify that would, you know, that was kind of our goal is to get there and even expand it beyond that. Um so we have seen growth. The Drupal certified partner program has seen 19% growth year-over-year. Okay, that's good, but it's starting at a small basis and is not making up for the other shortfalls. Um we have that's one. two is we're reviewing our sponsorships and trying to reinvision our sponsorships. We had some major um website sponsorships with and we saw like like many end users we saw a decline in SEO traffic by 34% over the last year. Um and uh and at the same time um we saw and I mean related to that we saw declining sponsorship traffic. So, we've done a couple areas. We're looking at we rolled out a trial tried Drupal CMS trial experience with sponsorships associated with that. We are rolling out a a Drupal AI trial experience with sponsorships associated with that. And then last year and is paying off this year to some degree was our D7 end of life um programs. And what's unique about not unique but what's characteristic of all these programs is a 10% revenue share back to the Drupal Association for companies that participate in these programs. Um and that is kind of one of our strategies going forward to address um uh re to to to grow revenues which is enter into into arrangements with Drupal certified partners where it's mutually profitable where the partner makes a commitment that some some percentage of the revenues get contributed back to um to the to the association. Um personally I think that's consistent with the values of open source but I'll be open to with people's our thinking on that. Um so that's the sponsorships. Um the last two areas we're um which are kind of speculative and growth areas that we don't have a lot of internal expertise on but we're trying to grow that is um uh our subscription service. So we have a a Drupal steward program that provides security um services on a sub subscription basis that's um like right now Pantheon and Aqua both subscribe to it and so their sites are protected from zeroday vulnerabilities that are reported into the security team um and um they they give them advanced notice so that they can make make sure that their systems are are prepared for zero day um and we're trying to grow that um and add other enduser centric services that we can provide. So this is a new area for us to try to explore that and we had a meeting with uh some of the Drupal certified partners a few weeks ago to talk about what services end users want that that that DCPs could help us sell that could then offset some of the DCP costs that that Drupal certified partners are paying. And then lastly is I think grants and we um that's been a um something that the association has been chasing for the last several years that we haven't been successful in in growing a a bonafide grant pro philanthropic program that provided substantive funding to keep us going. But we did win one grant in 2023. Um we've just won another grant from the from the um uh sovereign tech agency. Thank you. The German Sovereign Tech Agency. Thank you. Um and uh and so so I do see there's some hope there, but that's not right now hope for like sustainable long-term funding. But one of the reasons where there's an interest in um creating a not for-p profofit in Europe that is uh that is Drupal oriented um would be to access a lot of funding that's in Europe for digital sovereign so sovereignty, digital public infrastructure, etc. Um so that's when we hear about the international federation that's not the whole reason for doing it but that's one of the the primary reasons for interest in that. Again that's a little bit longer term but those are the you know I would say the sponsorships and the DCP we know how to do those things and we have a track record with those and it's about getting it right and growing it. Um we brought on Molly Shenburgger for the first time at least since I've been here we have a chief revenue officer Molly Shen. So very excited about having her on. Very excited about having her on. So we have two areas of of strategy that um I think are wellworn paths for us that we still need to work on and then two areas the services which are kind of a newish area certainly in terms of um putting it together and selling it and grants which are some success but not a real long-term sustainable success. We have to kind of build that that expertise. So, that's as a CEO, that's my perspective on what we're doing, but I'm open to um if there's comments by anyone on the board. Um Tiffany, our treasurer, >> George, you know that? >> Well, so I think there's two different areas. One, I'm excited about Molly being on board in particular because, you know, if you think about the sponsorships, we've often gone back to the well, the same well, the people who are contributing to Drupal and who are, you know, attending Drupal Con and who already are are Drupal certified partners. But you know, one of the areas of opportunity that we um we see ahead of us is to be able to move into those adjacent technologies and have them come back. They you know, Microsoft used to sponsor Drupal Con and you know I I can see a future in which we have Atlassian and Google and Microsoft being part of the exhibit hall, right? Especially as we double down on Drupal being for the community, right? A lot of the sponsors uh the current sponsors you we're agencies and we're looking for end users and and for new clients and a lot of the folks who are here already clients of someone who's in the room right so I think that moving to you know reach out to those for whom all of us are potential customers um I think is a a really exciting opportunity and then as as Tim talked about this morning you know Drupal the Drupal association is responsible for providing $10 in services every to every Drupal modern Drupal site right every time you use composer free to you not free to us right and so I think that there are particularly as we think about those end users uh there's a value to them in the risk management side of saying you know what actually this is really important we've built our business and or we've built a critical service on top of Drupal and we want to make sure that upstream it's secure and stable so I do see there's um you know opportunity for us to one raise awareness that that we do provide services to to those end users and they don't realize that they're not free. They've always had them and we've gladly expanded them as part of how we support the modern development process. But I think the more we talk about it, the more we make it clear and the more that we then invite folks in to help make sure that our infrastructure is rock solid and stable, which it always has been. But that's through the amazing talents of our of our Google.org or technical team who who just do yman's work and punch above their weight every single day, right? J didn't even talk about the fact that on top of everything else that they already do, they get two DOSs a week that they have to manage, right? So, the fact that we've continued to invest and to innovate in in our infrastructure is a testament to just how amazing and talented and wonderful they are. So, buy them a beverage of their choice. [Applause] we need to talk about that and be really clear that that um that's not a strategy. That's a that's a that's that's above and beyond. So, >> next question. >> I have a question that's somewhat related to that. I'm Alex. I was a candidate for the at large uh board seat and one of the things I noticed in that period was that a lot of people around me who had been in the Drupal community for a long time actually weren't really aware of what the Drupal association was doing. But when I talked to people at the Drupal Association, there's a lot of communication that you're doing. But what I found is that a lot of the communication that you're doing is targeted at members because they have signed up. But to become a member, you need to donate, which for a lot of people is actually a hurdle because there's a little bit of a chick with not knowing about what the Drupal Association is providing to them >> and thus not having an incentive to sign up. Has the board considered maybe linking membership for example to having a Drupal.org account making membership free so that they come into the communication bubble of the Drupal association and only then uh being able to reach them to gather funding rather than having that hurdle at the start. >> So I'm coming back to my $10 and what you're talking about falls into that $2.50 that is unfunded, right? We would love to do that, right? And we have had that be the uh membership was that way um up until I think 20 I wasn't on the board then like in 2020 I think it changed. Um but yeah I mean there are a lot of things we could do right there we could we were just I was talking with someone this morning and you know um with Allan who's had his 20th anniversary. I think wouldn't it be cool if when you log in it's like damn man you had 20 years on Drupal.org. Like that's a communication. Those micro communications are the ones I think that are really essential. Um, but that's never going to take priority over a DOS attack, right? So, I think that there's so many things that we can do and so many things that we would like to do and right now we are ruthlessly prioritizing and um I think it's it's super key. It's super important. But >> yeah, >> and I do I do want to be clear just to make clarify one thing is that uh you don't need to donate in order to be a member. You can be a member without donating. We do present a donation page when you sign up for membership and we encourage that. Um but you don't need to be a member. pay. You can have zero. >> You don't need to donate to me. >> And we do have email lists just that are not we email people who are not members. >> Yeah. >> Can you like can you sign up without a human in the loop without paying because >> I that was I because that user journey was not clear for the people to >> I don't know. I haven't I've been on the user journey myself. So I don't I'm not going to say yet. I'm not going to say yes, but I will look in I will look into it. You can >> you can >> I mean all it takes is to contact us and then we can work it out. >> Well, that's human in the loop though. That's human in the loop. >> That's a big hurdle for a lot of I found them. They're like, "Okay, if I need to email someone, then if I can fill out a form and go, I'm fine. But no, that's that's good feedback." Yeah. So, that that's a human loop. So, that's and again, back to what Tiffany was saying, like that's the kind of thing that good feedback I hope we can act on it, but it's going to be, you know, lower priority. >> Drupal.org feature integration was not request. It's mostly like get people to become a member of the Drupal association to >> have them sense like that shared ownership that you say within the Drupal community like it's my Drupal association and then asking for money rather than that's good >> because then they're getting all your like all the information that you're sharing then they're actually getting >> Yeah. Yeah. And that's and that's part of how we can use drupal.org when they come to sign up for drupal.org. Um >> but most people have opted out of those right. So, we do have the ability to email everybody and we do email everybody, but they've opted out, right? So, that I think that I can't do anything. >> No, that's not Did F. Did you want to >> I saw you grab the microphone. I wasn't sure if you were going to speak on >> I was just preparing. >> Okay. I wasn't sure if you're going to speak on um >> Hey, so I'm Marin from the French Association. uh just to continue on this conversation because I think it's very interesting that we have so much contribution happening but why can't we contribute to DA stuff directly because when we're talking about this communication bubble or stuff like having you know confettes on your anniversary on Drupal.org or >> can't we just have issues with the tag on this and people can help out? I mean, I feel like a lot of this could be contributed as well. So, I know that we don't have enough contribution on some areas, but maybe some of these stats that are not priority, but also might be less difficult for some people to get inside. >> Some communication can be a great way to start helping out even if you don't code. So, >> right, >> I feel like, yeah, I know there's some security issues for Drupal.org, but I feel like some of the communication marketing stuff can be addressed and can be actually a great getaway to get people from just Drupal users to community members. So, >> yeah, Tim, you want to answer that? >> That's Tim attempt. >> Yeah, I'm Tim London Hestet, CTO at the Drupal Association. And one thing I want to say right off is that we're doing that um now a lot more this particular year. So, for example, the AI initiative team just pumped out 17 industry related AI landing pages. We've given more people direct access to the marketing and promotion side of drupal.org to do that kind of side, the content editing. And we've had a couple super dedicated volunteers that I'm going to thank in our panel yesterday who've been working on the drupal.org >> panel tomorrow. >> Tomorrow, did I say panel yesterday? >> Yeah, I'm going I'm going to thank them yesterday. Well, time zones are the hardest thing in engineering. >> But no, yeah, we we'll be thanking them during the panel tomorrow. And anyway, and they've been doing a lot of the work related to the the new designs on.org and adjusting relative font sizes and all of those things. So, we we have had a history of some contributions, but there's certain areas of the site that are easier and harder and there's more that we can do. And the other thing that I would add is when we think about all the contribution that happens on Drupal itself, we also have a big team of release managers and subsystem maintainers and reviewers and our staff can do that but that then also takes up a lot of time. So it's not like just add it in. We also have to have the ability to review and mentor and comment and all those things. So we try and do it where we can and I agree we can probably expand it but uh that's where we are at the moment >> and maintain. and maintain building the feature is the easy part. >> Yeah. The cost is on the back side >> and plus there's a you know there's an overhead on man like managing hey these are the things we need who in the community can help out there's a skill set okay here and track and build it. So there's a you know it a great way and the board talked about applying at the um the contribution model to marketing right so a lot of people contribute code can we do this whole marketing and have the bulk of the marketing work done by marketers and designers at at agency levels and then the DA's role is a little bit of expertise but a lot of just coordination expertise in in people management and and volunteer management as opposed to expertise in marketing >> and that exists promote Drupal. >> Yeah. Exactly. So that doesn't >> Yeah. And and I think there's again ways we can re-emphasize it, ways we can make it visible, ways we can use it as an on-ramp. Absolutely. >> Maybe a tag on. >> Um yeah, Michelle. Um I was wondering what's the current marketing strategy for Drupal because I heard a brilliant keynote this morning. Well, this afternoon it was uh by D and he stated that basically Drupal outperforms uh other CS in terms of AI. Um, what's the current marketing strategy so the world gets to know the fact that Drupal is outperforming the other CMSs? >> You want to take a shot? >> Sure. >> Happy to. We we developed a marketing plan earlier in the year and it included a lot of marketing activity that just the DA had just never done before, the community hadn't done before. So, we spent a lot of time working on rebranding, spent a lot of time working on kind of uh updating D.0. So over the past quarter, for instance, uh Ryan, the product marketer on the DA staff, spent a ton of time around updating case studies and industry pages and just making sure that when someone comes to D.0 based on what they're looking for, they get what they want and not what they weren't looking for, right? Uh and that we also did some activity like to build awareness. So one thing is that we uh we actually had a PR person on staff for a couple months. We turned her off a little bit now so we can turn her back on just to stretch our budget to turn turn it back on when we when we do the launches. So when we have 2.0, when we have Canvas, um that PR person is also going to help us get out the great um AI study. Daddy, what's it called? The AI study. >> AI survey report. >> AI survey report to get that out as well. So we're we're going to do more press more press on analyst stuff. And then we're also trying to build more awareness like we we're doing some events with joint partners. So, we're asking all of our DCPs, do you want to go to a non-rupal show? The DA will will come and participate some and pay some of the cost, but can we get other partners in the booth with us and share that cost? So, we had like two really good examples of doing that and now we're going to kick into doing that again for 26. So, Web Summit was a good example of that. So, so activity across the board. Um, and I think we have an opportunity to do a lot more once we have the launch of 20 and uh canvas as well and and AI. No question. More AI activity. Did that answer your question? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> So, I got one comment on the marketing and I got a question later on. So, the comment on the marketing is like don't forget the local associations. We can help you send us the uh source files. So, make sure that we can access those source files and then translate them to our own local. Mhm. >> That's that's we had contact with Nate, but you know, someone's looking for a new contact person. Maybe that can be you. >> Uh it'll be Well, it can be. You can always write to me. Lind call me. Uh but Ryan is really the first. >> Yeah, Ryan. Yeah. So, yeah, Ryan um Woodcom from Australia is not here. He's our contact. And then there will be a board. There's uh Maya Schaefer has a marketing background. She'll be joining the board. She was evolving web. >> Nice. And then my other question is, can you elaborate a bit more on on the federation because we heard a lot about it in Atlanta? So where is it now and what are they going to do? >> Sure. Let me give you an update on just the the what the working group has been working on and I'll invite board members to weigh in on on their views on on this. So at the at TripleCon Atlanta the um the board we had a discussion we saw what was going on um in the US. we saw opportunities in Europe and so the discussion about do we you know we we should have a presence in Europe and then there were conversations at Nidita that we knew about I said that was seeking a better relationship with with the DA and with more coordination in Europe. So those three things um we saw opportunity there to combine and solve those three things. Uh created the working group um to explore with local associations an idea of a federation and a federation is specifically an international not forprofit uh probably um incorporated in Belgium um and then member associate or associations would be actually voting members of that federation. Um, so it's important to think like the DA would it would evolve away and the DA would just be a member of this larger federation as opposed to the DA having the same as now. But the responsibility of the DA would have to go to the federation for that to happen. Um so we we just um we pulled a bunch of local associations got a lot of demographics about what capacity they had, were they incorporated, their finances, how they stable, were they were they feel they were growing or or declining, what do they need? Um and then we put together um uh a proposal called a business model which would be an arrangement between the local association and this international not forprofit where we would administer joint programs to try to tie the to try um uh the group together. Um and it was around six areas like membership, like a certification program, um uh like events, that type of thing like what would be the roles of the international not forprofit and what would be the roles of the local association. Um, we put that out, got a lot of comments on that. Um, I spoke with several individ so we got general comments and I spoke with several individual association leaders. Um, and so the status now is we're re we're refining that based on the feedback we got and we'll be putting it out for round two of conversation and then I'm having the next step conversations with local associations specifically um one by one to say if this would if this were p you know if this is the way it's going to go forward could your association buy into this or not and try to get individual associations to say yeah we we we're ready to move forward or no we still have problems and we have concerns. So from a working group perspective, that's kind of the status of that of that work. That's that's kind of tactical. I know there's broader um um ideas about um the goals of a federation, the value of of a presence in Europe in terms of um getting for the EU um and being part of their efforts to um support open source public infrastructure and so forth. So that's kind of the stat of the working group. There was a robust discussion um at the board retreat um and the outcome of that was like we're going to continue to investigate work on this tactical before there's like a ready for a vote to like move forward in one direction or the other. So other folks want to just comment on anything about the international federation your views on it. >> I think one of the next steps you'll see right as we look to to move in this direction there's a little bit of chicken and a little bit of egg on this one. which one's going to come first. And so what's happened to date is kind of getting an agreement in principle around what could this look like? What might we do? Right? And then the next step once we have a general direction around that would be to start to create the things that are called memorandum of understanding orus which don't obligate anybody to do anything unless the next step happens. Right? That's how you have an agreement to do a thing if another thing happens. But that we're all on the same page. So I think that as there's actually quite a number of those in addition to one with each of the local associations that would have to um would be coming on board as they come on board there are ones that would have to happen from the DA perspective right um and then there's some that probably have to happen with Drees and then there's lots of different parties that have to have agreements with each other right so I think and then all of that has to actually be vetted so that we don't compromise our 501c3 status so that we actually are compliant with the AISBL status So there's there's like a really technical component I think that's going to come up next. But the work that that the group has done in terms of getting a sense of what the shape of it is um I think has been really it's been amazing work and I've been so encouraged and appreciative of everyone who's um been involved in those conversations and open um and candid around those. I think it's been really helpful. So there's a there's like a technical thing very legal that has to happen to be able to coordinate all these pieces and I think that's coming up on time. >> We've got a couple of minutes left. I think there's a question all the way. >> Good lir from Australia. Uh I have a few kind of notices and question about reaching out outside of Drupal community because still listening to Drupal association comments it still feels like we're trying to preach to the crowd you know >> and just a few notices um newsletter Drupal association newsletter I don't feel like it's actually getting out anywhere or consistently >> uh just the press I read for example New York Times has thing called dealbook book which I really like because it's a daily newsletter. It goes out and you don't have to read the whole thing. You don't have to dwell into the articles if you don't want to. At the same time, they concentrated on core things >> and try to deliver one big article, a couple of small ones and summaries of the day. uh something that I think you would want to forward to a friend which I never felt like lots of technical community that are involved to include WordPress and Git GitLab kind of achieved but at the same time talking about WordPress and GitLab the newsletter can also include things like beginner of the month even if we'll start with months beginner of the month highlighting someone who contributed their first commit or uh give love has MVP um person who actually committed specific feature or group of people who committed specific feature that's where the partners can come in >> and also uh kind of check in and decide if this feature is paid or not. That's what gitlab does go to open source >> and last three years I've been also involved with the community radio which I find are much better into reaching out and getting the new crowd in because they always want to get new people in. So what they do is they actually produce a weekly newsletter with like best songs, new artist highlights, things like that, but they're also trying to reach out get the sponsors and what I heard from people from also like two sensation membership feedback. They're saying like there's nothing tangible to pay for. Some people really want this piece of something. That's why community radios actually come up with like a tote bag and a t-shirt for $150. So for two two for $500 you get an extra community is actually reaching out rather than reaching out for the big companies they can pay reaching out for individuals and giving them something tangible and including it there. So yeah just >> those are good ideas. Thank you. just uh yeah so we we administratively support the weekly drop that goes out weekly but it's actually produced by someone else but then we have our newsletter and those are great that goes out once a month and >> that's recently redesigned >> and that was recently redesigned but those are good ideas about um how to make it more actionable so I appreciate that thank you for having me do we have time for one more question or >> yeah quick one >> quick thing uh >> oh can you ask a quick question >> I just wanted to say there's one thing we haven't mentioned True. >> Yeah, Matias from the type of three association. Um, one thing we very often forget is the micro communication. What you're hearing here is something you can repeat to others. What you hear in uh sessions here at Drupal comp is things you can repeat to others. And that kind of communication is the most trusted communication that you can give out and it's very very impactful. >> Good comment. Um and uh Matias long long long-term friend of the Drupal association. Um just so folks are aware that typo 3 uh Drupal Jumla and WordPress have created the open website alliance two years ago to address uh European law the cyber resiliency act. We're still meeting in fact we just had a workshop this past Friday that Matias organized. Thank you. Um to see how we can help open source not just Drupal but all open source in Europe implement the cyber resiliency act. So, thank you for your efforts on that. [Applause] All right, with that, I think that's it. Thank you all for attending and for asking questions. Enjoy your rest of your dupan., Drupal Association Public Board Meeting, YouTube, 01k9yvbh6xk3c1wj7mhkta2x9b.