April 10, 2015, 1 PM EST

Attendees

Dean B. Krafft, Jon Corson-Rikert , Kristi Holmes, Melissa Haendel, Paul Albert, Mike Conlon, debra hanken kurtz, Jonathan Markow, Robert H. McDonald

= note taker

All attending

Dial-In Number:  (209) 647-1600, Participant code: 117433#

Agenda

Notes

Present: Mike, Jonathan, Debra, Dean, Robert, Jon, Kristi, Paul

I. Updates

Mike's updates: 

• Tech lead job position posted.  See http://vivoweb.org/blog/2015/04/were-hiring-vivo-technical-lead.  We already have applicants.  Position is open until filled.
• Task force on user stories is forming.  Julia is facilitating and writing a charter.
• Task force on inclusion of apps and tools in VIVO releases is forming.  Chris Barnes and Ted Lawless will facilitate and will write charter.
• Task force on VIVO assets met yesterday.  See charter and notes from meeting in Wiki. https://wiki.duraspace.org/x/DZsOB 
• Task force on Implementation documentation is forming.  Violeta is facilitating and writing charter.
• Upcoming meetings for Mike: ORCID/CASRAI, Barcelona May 18-19.  Open Repositories June 8-11, Indianapolis.  Researcher Profiles Australia, TBD.
• SURA Project update — very strong progress with all five pilot schools.  Further adoption in SURA expected.  They will have recommendations regarding improving experience for newcomers.
• Discussion between Jon, Melissa, myself, Alex, and Julia regarding the future of the management team.  Future agenda item for Steering.
• First "VIVO Updates" email to the listservs and archived in wiki.  See 2015-04-09 VIVO Updates
• Mike's last day at UF is May 13.  Party.  Everyone invited if you are in town. :-)

Jon's updates

• Expect a 2nd VIVO 1.8 release candidate very soon, and another round of testing

2. Budget update

• Mike circulated a snapshot of 2015 budget reviewed by Mike & DuraSpace
• DuraSpace runs on a calendar year budget, not a fiscal year budget – we're 3 months in
• Walkthrough of the rows ...
• Lost $6K last year – not sustainable
• Goal is to accumulate a cash reserve of 1/3 annual expenditures over two years
• Budget projections for this coming year, to help set membership targets appropriately
  • 3 mos. Layne, 7 mos. tech lead, 9 mos. Jim Blake (60% FTE) – $9K lower in aggregate than last year – and may be have less depending on when tech lead is hired
  • Some increases in other line items – should do more travel, and would expect that line item to rise more next year
• Differences from the budget presented to the leadership team in February
  • Approximately $100K of additional expenses not in summit presentation to Leadership
  • Showing a smaller net revenue by $15K
  • Showing higher revenue target to cover expenses including net revenue
  • More confidence in these numbers since has been reviewed line by line, with staff
• Then looking ahead beyond 2015 to how the project is supposed to run
  • Continued growth in membership and corporate sponsorship
  • Other sources of income – registered service provider fees, hosted services, training revenue, conference net revenue to project
    • Grants are a line item but no dollar amount anticipated
    • Grants might potentially offset some fraction of VIVO tech lead or project director salary
  • Anticipate having to pay a future project director
  • Increases in travel, marketing, and community meeting support
    

3. Membership Drive

• Duraspace starts the organization membership drive now; with other projects, have begun drafting the letters
  • Two tracks – renewals and new prospects
  • VIVO is different because we do renewals on a calendar year basis – most have already renewed
    • We're in a good position to focus on growth
      
  • Format – a personalized email with a direct dollar amount ask
    
    • Tell the story and the return on investment
    • Ask for the membership
  • Have compiled a list of potential contacts
  • Want to get the emails out around May 12
  • A brochure about DuraSpace and the membership form go out with the email
  • Will cycle back with Mike on renewals toward the end of the calendar year
• VIVO will take advantage of any personal contacts via steering, and vet language of the email here
• Highlight accomplishments from the past year and potential activities for the coming year contingent on support

4. Leadership group schedule

• Leadership meeting schedule.  They meet quarterly.  Met in March at Summit.  Will meet again at conference in August.
  • Next meet should be end of May or early June
• Time – 11 am ET accommodates European participants
• Agenda items
  • Options for steering group membership augmentation and rotation – could potentially circulate it before and have as an agenda item to discuss and vote.  Could then move on it before the Conference
  • Revised budget with time for questions
  • Membership drive
  • Followup from their meeting in March
  • Status of tech lead search, task forces, next release, etc.
  • Approaches to corporate sponsorship
  • Might need 90 minutes

4. Virtuoso support contract

• Weill is now using Virtuoso as it's production triple store for VIVO 1.7.  Has alleviated performance and stability concerns.
• Is there some mechanism for soliciting interest in jointly approaching triple store vendors regarding service contracts
• Opportunities for vendor support of conference and membership in the VIVO Project
• Vendors negotiate a price and offer the same price for community members for some time period
• Community interest in Virtuoso, Allegrograph, Stardog, MarkLogic. Release 1.8 provides additional simplicity regarding alternate triple stores
• Communicating the triple store work at Weill
  • Weill can create a wiki page – what was done, how was it done, what were the results
  • Then blog post, email to groups

5. Future topics

• VIVO partners
• Future conference venues
• Management team
• Items raised by the Leadership group in March
• Developing a training offering for the fall
• A possible summit on the ontology
• Developing VIVO search

Action Items

• Dean B. Krafft will email to leadership
  
• Jon Corson-Rikert will review and update leadership group mailing list and other assets based on current leadership group membership
  
• Paul Albert will create page regarding the use of Virtuoso. 
• Mike Conlon can turn wiki page into a blog post and other