Steering Committee 20220809 Minutes
Yan asked if anyone would be willing to take notes for today's meeting. Tim volunteered.
Andy confirmed that the PHP update is going well. He is wrapping up some outstanding issues but optimistic that it will be completed soon. Some problems occurred in testing, especially in the usage statistics module, but those appeared to be localized issues with the testing environment.
So far the following elements are confirmed for the November release:
- PHP Update
- JQuery Update
- Some Bugfixes
Yan asked if the steering committee had any other priorities - no additional suggestions at present. The plan is to get the changes merged into the Development branch within the next few weeks and begin testing.
Yan's developers have already committed to testing the November release. Rebecca confirmed that her lead developer would be willing to help with testing as well. Yan asked if Rebecca's lead would help with future releases or just the November - Rebecca stated that she could confirm the lead developer was committed to the November release, but also believed that as long as they had time and didn't have pressing commitments, they should be able to assist with future releases. Andy suggested that Equinox developers merge the PHP update into their JQuery updates for advanced testing.
Yan spoke with Texas A&M and confirmed that they are willing to continue hosting the CORAL demo instance. Texas A&M are also hiring an ERL who may join the steering committee.
Yan spoke with her department head, who is checking with their supervisor regarding paying for the Vimeo subscription costs. If necessary, Rebecca stated that her administration may be willing to assist with the costs. The steering committee reiterated its intention to move forward with Vimeo rather than Youtube due to differences in how ads are handled.
Yan suggested that the steering committee should look into long-term sustainable solutions for some of the financial needs the committee faces. There was a consensus from the committee that this was a good idea. Historically, universities that use CORAL have offered to handle costs as they come up.
Yan suggested alternative models such as splitting the costs among CORAL institutions or changing which institution pays a cost each year. Yan also suggested investigating 501(c)(3) status to allow the CORAL Steering Committee to accrue its own funds and handle costs. Tim brought up that 501(c)(3) status can bring along additional benefits such as free, shared hosting from Dreamhost or Google for Nonprofits.
Yan checked in with the steering committee to confirm that the Google Shared Drive folder would be enough. Rebecca and Tim believed that it would be.
Jon asked about the release documentation and whether it needed to be updated. Yan confirmed that most of it should be okay, though any references to the web team (which no longer exists) needed to be updated. It was asked whether we should restart the web team; there were presently no volunteers but it was reiterated that all of the updates to the website and documentation would need to be completed for the November release. Jon and Tim volunteered to look over the technical documentation and update it as necessary.