Difference between revisions of "Board Reports/2009-07"

Summary of CC Board Meeting 11-12 July 2009

Operations will be consolidated in San Francisco to increase efficiency and reduce costs. International license porting and adoption will be merged into the General Counsel's office. The CEO is working to internationalize all aspects of the corporation and hopes to collaborate with legal affiliates in regional and thematic teams.

Edward K. Rose was appointed as Controller and Jennifer Yip as Treasurer.

Various agreements executed on behalf of CC International were ratified.

The CEO reported on the recent development audit and expressed his desire to form a small board committee to oversee fundraising.

The board heard a request to take the lobbying election under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(h).

The board approved a revised Audit Committee Charter, ratified the Audit Committee's approval of the 2008 tax return and audit statements, and appointed MaryBeth Tobin as an advisor to the Committee.

The board discussed the need to reconsider mission priorities and whether to present itself as a neutral standards organization or as a representative of the open culture movement. The CEO was asked to develop a specific priority list of goals as well as a set of activities to avoid.

The board voted to retain the Science Commons and ccLearn advisory committees but to direct their advisories to the CEO and Chairman, rather than to the staff.

The Directors agreed to undertake assignments between board meetings as requested by the CEO to assist him in overseeing the organization.

The board expressed its appreciation to Prof. James Boyle for his contributions as a founding Director and Chairman and to Dr. Catharina Maracke for her accomplishments as the Director of Creative Commons International. The Directors expressed gratitude to Richard Stallman, Free Software Foundation, Jimmy Wales, Wikimedia Foundation, Hal Abelson and Lawrence Lessig for enabling the migration to Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 as the primary content license for Wikimedia sites.

Tribute to Jamie Boyle

WHEREAS, Jamie Boyle is a founding member of the Board of Directors of Creative Com-mons, having provided strategic guidance in the shaping of the Corporation’s public mission and vision; and

WHEREAS, throughout his esteemed tenure on the Board of Directors, Mr. Boyle made ex-ceptional contributions to the Corporation and its core projects, including Science Commons and ccLearn, where his involvement and dedication have been profound and instrumental to the success of those projects; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Boyle provided inspirational leadership during a crucial period in the Corpo-ration’s existence, serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors from April 1, 2008 to April 1, 2009.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT

13. RESOLVED, that the Board of Directors expresses its deepest appreciation and grati-tude to Jamie Boyle for his outstanding contributions and dedicated service as a Founder, Director and Chairman of Creative Commons, and for his steadfast devotion to the Corporation’s public purposes and guiding principles.

Appreciation for Wikimedia license migration

WHEREAS, for much of the histories of Creative Commons, Wikipedia, and the movement they each support, license compatibility enabling unfettered sharing among the exemplar of free culture and the mass of free cultural works has been sought, and finally achieved in June 2009, upon completion of the migration to Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 as the primary content license for Wikimedia sites; and

WHEREAS, Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation evinced the wisdom to cooperate in the long-term interest of freedom, enabling the migration in version 1.3 of the Free Document License; and

WHEREAS, Jimmy Wales and the Wikimedia Foundation, through exceptional foresight and dedication, made possible and led the migration from beginning to end; and

WHEREAS, Hal Abelson and Lawrence Lessig played instrumental roles in articulating the value of compatible licensing infrastructure and in bringing the parties together.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT

14. RESOLVED, that the Board of Directors expresses its profound appreciation and thanks for the contributions of Richard Stallman, Free Software Foundation, Jimmy Wales, Wikimedia Foundation, Hal Abelson and Lawrence Lessig for their crucial contributions toward this landmark achievement.

Appreciation for work of Catharina Maracke

WHEREAS, Catharina Maracke has served as the Director of Creative Commons Interna-tional (CCi) since 2006 whereby she has coordinated the translation and porting work of CC’s affiliates around the world, and

WHEREAS, during Dr. Maracke’s tenure at CCi, CC licenses have been ported to over 14 ad-ditional jurisdictions and attendance at Law Day events have continued to grow measurably, and

WHEREAS, Dr. Maracke’s stewardship of the Berlin office has been crucial to the adoption of CC licenses on a global basis,

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT

15. RESOLVED that the Board of Directors expresses its appreciation to Catharina Ma-racke for her years of dedicated service to the corporation.