Global BIPOC Board Meeting #15 Minutes

June 10, 2023 7:54 PM

MetaFilter's Global BIPOC Board has made the decision to publish meeting minutes in the form of a MetaTalk to improve visibility and increase the speed at which minutes are shared publicly! Minutes will continue to be uploaded to the board landing page as well in the form of a PDF. Thanks for reading.

Global BIPOC Advisory Board
Meeting 15 Minutes
Apr 29, 2023
8AM PST - 10:00 AM (PST) 120 mins



Roll Call: aielen, majick, brainwane, hurdy gurdy girl, travelingthyme

1. Presentation of brainwane's new hair

a. https://www.harihareswara.net/posts/2023/dyeing-my-hair/ – board members are welcome and encouraged to post this as an FPP

2. Approval of Meeting 14 minutes

a. Postponed until the next meeting so minutes and recording can be reviewed concurrently, with suggestions made.
b. Action: Thyme to ensure recording for Meeting 14 is available, and that board members can make changes to minutes

3. Resolving honoraria blockers

a. Thyme spoke with Loup and is tasked with tallying up how many honoraria each member is owed. Waiting on Loup to get the money stuff sorted (still in the works). Is every member OK with PayPal?

b. Action: Board members will email/message Thyme with individual payment information.

1. Is it possible to get paid via Venmo?
   1. Action: Thyme to ask Loup whether Venmo could work


2. All but one BIPOC board members are fine with receiving stipend via PayPal; the other board member prefers Venmo


3. Back payment will probably come in a lump sum

c. Discussion of MeFi payment/finance logistics

4. Action items from past meetings

a. Posting meeting minutes for meeting #9: Thyme

1. Done. Minutes for Meeting #9 and Meeting #10 are posted.

b. Inviting Brandon Blatcher: Thyme

1. Done. Brandon Blatcher has politely declined.
2. (Board states that door is open in the future)

c. Share moderation onboarding documents with the BIPOC Board: Loup

1. Pending. Loup is absent; this item will be revisited next meeting.

d. Ask LobsterMitten to help with onboarding new mods: Loup

1. Pending. Loup is absent; this item will be revisited next meeting.

e. Report how moderation related actions can be quantitatively reported (per Meeting 11): Loup

1. Pending. Loup is absent; this item will be revisited next meeting.
2. Action: aielen, hurdy gurdy girl, majick, and brainwane will work asynchronously through the mailing list and Google Docs to finalize minutes for for meeting #11 and meeting #13, then inform thyme, who can then post them

f. Share what the finalized / official mod stance/agreement is for post deletion based on discrepancies brought to our attention by a user and an explanation (if possible) of these discrepancies: Loup, Thyme (after consultation with Taz and possibly the wider mod team)

1. Pending. Loup is absent; this item will be revisited next meeting.

g. Having a MeFi subsite for the BIPOC board to post resources, updates, etc.: Loup

1. Pending. Loup is absent; this item will be revisited next meeting.

5. Review of deleted thread

a. Review postponed to the next meeting given the need for key information from Loup who is absent.

6. Choosing meeting date for next meeting(s) given a member’s schedule change

a. Decided on every 4th Tuesday of the month, 7-9 AM Pacific time as a new meeting time.
b. Next meeting: Tuesday, May 23rd, 7-9 AM PST (pending Loup’s confirmation)
c. Action: Thyme to make calendar invitation for the May meeting, a recurring invitation for future meetings, and remove the old calendar item for Saturdays.
d. Action: Thyme to check with Loup about meeting times that will work for Loup on an ongoing basis; it is important that Loup can be at the next meeting.

7. Revamping meeting minutes process

a. Thyme suggests: get the minutes edited and completed way ahead of time, e.g., commit to getting them published 24 hrs or a week after the meeting itself.
b. Workflow discussion: It is recommended that the meeting recordings are made available as soon as possible. Thyme always shares the recordings as links + passcode in Slack. But Slack messages are ephemeral-ish/hidden. So, maybe a shared Google Drive would work? Or a shared Google Doc or Sheet?

c. Finalized workflow:

1. During the meeting: the board reuses the proposed agenda and all members collaboratively draft minutes by writing notes live in the Google Doc, as discussion is happening. Also, simultaneously, the Zoom call’s audio, video, and text chat are recorded.
2. Within 24 hours of the meeting’s conclusion: Thyme obtains the link to the Zoom recording and inserts it in the draft minutes in Google Docs, and then also posts a Slack message to the meeting channel notifying members that a recording link has been inserted. Thyme sets a Slack reminder to gather the finalized minutes 7 days later.
3. During 7-8 days following the meeting: members refine minutes and asynchronously (using Slack, email, and Google Docs) agree on the finalized version, approving for publication – if necessary, separating a board/private version of the minutes from a public version.
4. 8 days after meeting: Thyme checks approval status, removes Zoom recording link from public minutes, and delivers to Frimble for publication at https://www.metafilter.com/board-rc.mefi .

d. A user’s minutes suggestion: “why not post the BIPOC meeting minutes as a closed-for-discussion post on the Gray?” (as MetaTalk threads, instead of PDFs/standalone pages)

1. Some old minutes are pages https://www.metafilter.com/board-rc/minutes-2021-04-27.mefi but many are PDFs, not really integrated into site, can’t get to them via search
2. Posting minutes in text-form directly to the Gray would be less of a frimble bottleneck, but would invite more attention.
3. We could also have a banner telling people that new minutes are up
4. Changing something after the fact once text-form minutes are posted to MetaTalk may be a headache or bottleneck on the mods - but may still be less of a bottleneck, because editing a post is easier than changing a PDF file on the site.
5. Idea: make sure to have a table of contents on the BIPOC Board page that points to all the MeFi posts, and/or post BOTH a PDF on the Board page AND a MetaTalk thread
6. Discussion of things that we write that are designed for public understanding, like “what we do” post, and things like minutes that are more side-effects/byproducts of our work
7. Action: hurdy gurdy girl to write a response on behalf of the board to be sent out via the bipoc@nachomountain address to say thanks + we will be implementing the member's suggestions.

8. Prioritizing future board work

a. Possibilities include: User survey; review and analysis of past MetaTalks; themed posting initiatives; fundraising; gathering and analyzing existing data (how many posts on the blue are by BIPOC? actual trends of site membership, posting/commenting frequency); creating resources for future advisory boards (e,g,, trans or disabled); slur filter feedback/improvement; developing progress measures (how will we know if we’re achieving our goals?); advertising/recruiting new readers/members; hosting live events

1. To be revisited next meeting due to time constraints

9. Reopen discussion of soliciting/onboarding new members

a. To be revisited next meeting due to time constraints

10. Frimble’s progress on tool for viewing mod notes in threads

a. Note that in the Jun 25, 2022 meeting we were told we’d have this by the next meeting, and then told this again at the August meeting
b. Majick shared a link to an in-progress(?) tool for BIPOC board members to use in viewing some mod notes
c. Discussion to be revisited next meeting due to time constraints

11. Progress on flagging UX improvements

a. To be revisited next meeting due to time constraints

12. majick has Matomo access. Are there specific queries/data we want to pull?

a. To be revisited next meeting due to time constraints

13. brainwane informs the board that she is interested in leaving the board in the next few months to concentrate on hiking. Brainwane is looking for a replacement and wants to be out by September.

posted by travelingthyme (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 7:54 PM