Last week we held our first board meeting of the new year. We were really pleased to share a new staff report format featuring the KPIs and other metrics that we will be tracking in 2014 to document the impact of our work. Because board meetings are held in the middle of the month, our method going forward will be to report numbers against the plan for the month prior. So, at the February board meeting, we will report all metrics as of Jan 31, 2014. For now, we’ve updated what we can to show you where we’re heading, but these will be more clearly reported over time.
Here are some highlights from the meeting:
Staffing
We have lots of new staffing coming on board in 2014 in our pursuit of a better Drupal.org. Rudy Grigar joined us to work in DevOps, and we are very close to making an offer to a Developer to join Drumm. We also recently hired a writer for Drupal.org , Leigh Carver. She will be focused on preparing the materials we need to support a Drupal 8 launch, as well as case studies and other critical areas of the site. Our CTO hiring has picked up steam in a very positive way as well. Lastly, we also recently added Lauren Shey to our team, who will be focused on the helping our amazing community achieve even greater things.
European Office
In Prague, we announced that we are opening a branch of the Association in London. We are currently wrapping up paperwork on that and expect to have things wrapped up within the next month. As it turns out, there is quite a bit of paperwork involved! Once complete, we will be able to formalize a camp fiscal sponsorship program, among other things.
Drupal.org
There’s always more to do on Drupal.org than our staff can currently handle, but we’ve made a couple of big strides in the last few weeks. First, the text search issue which has slowed everyone down is now much more improved (though still not closed). We are also much closer to having the ability to set up development environments more quickly. And, we are close to make a version of the BlueCheese theme publicly available. These last two items are key to our strategy of helping the community make the changes they want to see on Drupal.org. There is more work to be done, but the team here at the Association is working long hours to address the issues.
Marketing Committee
With many thanks to Ben Finklea for his leadership, we announced at the beginning of January that the Marketing Committee was in need of a new chair. At the board meeting, the board approved Betsy Ensley as the new chair. We are really excited to work with her at this critical time in Drupal marketing.
Fourth Quarter 2013 Financials
In executive session, the board voted to approve the financials for October, November, and December 2013. If you’re diving into these docs (you have a cup of coffee right?), there are a couple of things to note:
- December financials represent the year end, but these are UNAUDITED numbers. So, when we publish our annual financials and file our 990, it’s likely that the numbers won’t match.
- Our auditor is getting started in February, so we should have audited financials for review in the May/June time frame depending on when we can schedule board review and approval.
- You may also note that we performed well ahead of budget in 2013. That’s great news, but it was also a very large change of events. As we mature as an organization, we should also be delivering results that are much closer to budget. So, hooray for extra money for now, but we’ll try to dial this in a little more closely in the future.
That’s the gist of things for the January board meeting. As usual, you can read the notes, check out the files, or catch the recording. And if you have any other questions, let me know. Otherwise, we’ll see you for the next board meeting on 12 February, 2014.
