TEI Members Business Meeting, October 29, 2005: Minutes
TEI Consortium Members Business Meeting, October 29, 2005
Minutes taken by Chris Ruotolo
- Certification of Meeting
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The meeting was convened at 14:15 EEDT.
- Remuneration of officers
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The officers confirmed that they are not remunerated.
- Approval of the auditor's fee and appointment of auditor
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The current auditor, KPMG, was reappointed and the auditor's fee was approved.
- Chair's Report
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Julia Flanders provided a summary of previous year's activities:
- Nancy is the new host organization, stepping in for Bergen after they completed their four-year term. The administrative offices and management of membership has moved to Nancy; Veronika Lux is now the TEI Executive Director. The Chair thanked Nancy for all their work thus far. Daniel Pitti at Virginia is now TEI Treasurer.
- Progress on P5: each chapter of P4 has been reviewed, the ODD system has been revised, feature requests have been acted on, workgroups have been active, and Roma has been amplified.
- TEI now boasts a new member benefit: a 20% discount on the <oXygen/> editor for all members and subscribers. Interested parties need to get the discount code by sending email to membership@tei-c.org. Syncro Soft also provided generous sponsorship for the Members' Meeting.
- The TEI wiki has been launched, providing a place to share tools and information. The wiki is coordinated by James Cummings and Daniel O'Donnell, and members are encouraged to post their tools, stylesheets and widgets.
- Internationalization efforts have generated tremendous response, and dozens of volunteers have come forward. Sebastian Rahtz and Veronika Lux are in charge of this effort.
- The TEI logo and name have been registered with the US patent and trade office.
- TEI finances remain challenging. Members' budgets are tight, and some have cancelled membership or reduced support due to inability to pay. The Chair encouraged members to include TEI membership in grant proposals.
- 2006 promises the release of yet more stable versions of P5, greater internationalization of TEI, a new focus on documentation and training, and outreach activities including support for TEI among specific communities.
- Treasurer's Report
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Daniel Pitti, TEI Treasurer, gave a generally positive account of the TEI finances. The organization now has a modest surplus, which may increase if it continues to spend judiciously and gain members. Bottom line expenses for this year are projected to be $104K, while expected income (primarily from membership dues) is $120K, resulting in a $15K end-of-year surplus. Account reconciliation remains a challenge, as about $40K of this year's income had not been collected when the Treasurer's Report was prepared.
- Council Report
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Christian Wittern, Chair of the TEI Council, summarized the year's activities, which are detailed in the 2005 Council Report. The Council worked hard this year to iron out the details of P5; this work was likened to an ambitious reconstruction project that modifies a structure internally while leaving the exterior intact. In addition to conference calls every 2 months, the Council held one face-to-face meeting in Paris and one subgroup meeting, devoted to class structure, in Oxford. All P5 development has now been moved to CVS/Sourceforge. The workgroups on character encoding, metalanguage, manuscript description, and migration have each fulfilled their charge and been dismissed. Four workgroups are still active: stand-off markup, feature structures, internationalization, and physical bibliography
- Election of Officers
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Election ballots were distributed, and Veronika Lux, Tone Merete Bruvik, and John Walsh left to tally them.
The results of the election were:
The following people were elected to the TEI Council:- David Birnbaum
- Matthew Driscoll
- Dot Porter
- Conal Tuohy
- Laurent Romary
- Christian Wittern
The following people were elected to the TEI Board:- Daniel O'Donnell
- John Unsworth
- Special Interest Groups (SIGS)
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While the votes were being counted, the TEI Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that met that morning gave their reports. They were:
- Overlapping Markup - Dot Porter
- Presentation Tools - Paul Spence
- Ontologies - Oyvind Eide
Julia Flanders gave a quick overview of how the SIGs operate. Anyone can propose a SIG; if it passes the "common sense" criteria the TEI will provide web space, wiki space a mailing list, and opportunities to meet at the Members' Meeting. The goal is to provide an opportunity for people with similar interests to talk. No specific outcomes are expected.
- I18N
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Sebastian Rahtz gave a presentation about efforts to internationalize and localize the TEI.
- Planning for Next Year's Meeting
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The 2006 Members' Meeting will be held at the University of Victoria in Canada. Ray Siemens is the local organizer, and he has worked with Peter Liddell and Julia Flanders to draft a proposal for additional funding. Dates for the meeting will be announced shortly. The meeting's location should draw attendees from the western U.S. and Canada, as well as from Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
- Drawing for <oXygen/> Licenses
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A drawing was held for ten free <oXygen/> licenses, donated by Syncro Soft. The winners were announced by Sebastian Rahtz. They were:
- Veronika Lux-Pogodalla
- Sebastian Rahtz
- Dorothy Carr Porter
- Christian Wittern
- Matija Ogrin
- Roland Kamzelak
- Conal Tuohy
- Øyvind Eide
- Arianna Ciula
- Paul Vetch
- Adjournment
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The Chair thanked the local organizers, the speakers and poster presenters, and the attendees. The meeting adjourned at approximately 16:30 EEDT.