PMC Meeting: June 14, 2021

Attending: Oliver Goldschmidt, Leila Gonzales, Chris Hallberg, Demian Katz, André Lahmann, Craig Murdoch, Mohan Pradhan, Hajo Seng

Apologies: Ere Maijala

• André/Demian/Mohan: Continue discussion of documentation management, etc. ONGOING
• Demian: Send out call to community for instances to be featured in WOLFcon presentation. DONE
• Hajo: Collect feedback on possible membership benefit ideas (newsletter / conference session). DONE
• All: Provide feedback on Mohan's sustainability document; share brief biographies for possible inclusion in the PMC page. ONGOING

Hajo spoke with some stakeholders who raised three points of interest:

1. They would like to get informed about what's going on within the project (broader view: future, etc.)
2. They would like to learn about the status of technical topics on the agenda/roadmap (e.g. theme redesign)
3. They would like a channel for bringing in ideas outside of a technical context (e.g. browsing features, LOD integration, etc.)

Some of these ideas could be of general value to the project, without the need to make them member-exclusive benefits. In some instances, it might make sense to have conversations with members in order to launch new community services (like non-technical, feature-specific subject matter expert groups). This does seem to support some member-oriented communication channels as discussed in the previous meeting.

Demian will incorporate some of these ideas into a new draft of the membership page, which can be discussed further at the next meeting.

André and Demian have been working with Hugo Agud on the VuFind book GitHub repository.

Mohan is planning to begin another round of training in early 2022.

Leila and Oliver provided feedback on Mohan's draft document. It was suggested that we should move this to Google Docs for easier collaboration.

There was discussion on the scope and purpose of the document; do we need to split this into two things: a strategic document (in broad/general terms) about how the PMC guides the sustainability of the project, and a more time-focused document (an annual roadmap/plan) that discusses particular activities for a fixed period of time?

We agreed to continue collecting feedback so that we can discuss this further on the next call. If there is a need to move to Google Docs, Mohan is willing to do so once all feedback has been collected.

In order to finalize VuFind's membership in the Open Library Foundation, we need to assign representatives to the remaining open roles of Secretary and Treasurer.

As a reminder, the responsibilities of the roles are:

• Treasurer - this person manages or is deeply familiar with the finances of the project. This person is designated to approve expenditures of the project, can wield a credit card and bank account ownership on behalf of the project, and is available to coordinate with the OLF Treasurer on reporting and annual bookkeeping.
• Secretary - this person manages the minutes of the project including any resolutions required to document business with the OLF. This person also manages and maintains all contracts brokered and executed through the VuFind SMLLC on behalf of the project, and supports the activities of the Primary Manager and the Treasurer.

Hajo has volunteered to serve as Treasurer.

Mohan has volunteered to serve as Secretary.

With summer nearly upon us, we should decide upon the format and host(s) of the 2021 VuFind Summit so that we can put out a call for presentations, etc.

André proposed another virtual Summit this year since travel remains challenging; no one objected. He will be meeting with Leander tomorrow. Will bring results to next call for further discussion.

Fixes have been accumulating on the release-7.1 branch, so we should schedule release 7.1.1. Demian proposes Monday, July 5, so its release can be announced at the next Community Call.

Historically, we have also been releasing major versions in mid-to-late July. Do we want to try to release 8.0 next month, or is too much work still outstanding? Known issues:

• Chris has work in progress to prepare for the new theme design/prototype.
• The Solr 8 upgrade is still pending due to the lack of a compatible official SolrMarc release. (At this point, Demian is strongly considering just building it himself and bundling a non-standard version of SolrMarc with the project in order to be able to move forward – but setting a specific 8.0 release date might help to motivate an official SolrMarc release).
• There are quite a few open tickets that still need time and attention. Many could probably be deferred to 9.0 without causing any harm, however.

Demian will share the open JIRA ticket list to support voting/discussion.

Possible dates for consideration: July 26, August 2.

• André/Demian/Mohan: Continue discussion of documentation management, etc.
• Demian: Further revise the Membership Levels and Benefits page for further discussion next time.
• All: Submit a brief biography for the PMC list, if you have not already.
• All: Offer feedback on sustainability issues/documentation strategy, if you have not already.
• Demian: Determine next steps for OLF membership, now that roles have been assigned.
• André/Leander: Begin initial discussions about Summit planning, and share suggestions with the PMC.
• Demian: Schedule the 7.1.1 release for July 5.
• Demian: Share a summary of outstanding 8.0 work with the PMC for discussion/prioritization.