openSUSE board meeting minutes February 28

[ First of all, my apologies for sending these with such a delay. ]

= Minutes of openSUSE Board meeting 2022-02-28 =

Present: Axel, Gerald, Gertjan, Maurizio, Neal, Syds
 Guests: Ariez, bittin, Doug, Emily, Sasi

== Minutes of recent meetings ==

 * Syds just done
 * Gentle reminder to Neal

== openSUSE social media accounts (and openSUSE as a project) and events like the war in Ukraine
==

 * Doug liked a couple of posts from the openSUSE Twitter account that 
   referred to Ukrainian leaders.
 * Another community member approach him and asked to remain neutral.
 * Doug notes "there are things we as a community should stand for."
 * Gertjan, Syds,...: "openSUSE should be about inclusion; we do not 
   want to exclude people."
 * Maurizio: "As a board we should represent everybody."
 * A number of board members indicate they struggle how to best handle 
   this situation.
 * Sasi suggests to take a stance for both Ukrainians and Russians;
   it's quite important to differentiate between political identities 
   of a country and the people living there.
 * Gerald references on a "A note on principles ..." mail last year
   which got mixed responses.
 * Mau is in favor of a message of solidarity
 * "So, shall we send a public message?"
 * ...long discussion...
 * Agreement to primarily issue a statement when events like these
   encrouch on our project/community.
 * Agreement that there's a difference between personal opinion and 
   actions vs those of projects.
 * Rough consensus to not send a generic statement at this point
   while definitely keeping an eye on the situation.
 
== Online Communities ==

 * How to go about groups using the openSUSE name but not following
   our guiding principles?
 * Example: In 2020 a Polish Telegram group was created
 ** Sasi was very excited originally.
 ** The groupd quickly died down due to disagreement.
 ** One person got banned for sexual orientation, others stigmatized.
 ** Just one admin.
 * Agreement: There should be no group under/using the openSUSE flag
   not complying with our guiding principles.
 * Challenge: Guiding Principles are not very specific ...
 * Gerald believes we can enforce trademarks to expell/shutdown/... groups
 * AI: Gerald will check with SUSE Legal
 * Next steps? 
 ** Start working on a  Code of Conduct with help of the community. 
 ** We do not need to change the Guiding Principles to implement a 
    Code of Conduct.
 ** But we can consider adjusting the Guiding Principles to be 
    explicit about being open and welcoming versus discrimination.
 ** AI: Mau and Gertjan to have a look.