Tri-Council Meetings

1) Community Council

• Dracine replaced Boaz as FOLIO Manager - a role required as part of FOLIO SMLLC

• FY22 ended (June 2022) with a $90k surplus which we agreed to use to start a reserve fund (this is about 3 month, extend to 6 when funds allow). Posted FY22 financial statement https://wiki.folio.org/display/CC/Finances

• FY23 finances good: $425k in membership pledges, $345k collected so far

• FOLIO resourcing group came up with several scenarios that we are now discussing

• Survey “Things that Could be Better About FOLIO” with feedback from 50-60 people. Terminology is something that came up at WOLFcon and here. Want to discuss other possible actions from the list of suggestions

• Discussed benefits of an ongoing documentation lead and fundraised to support Marcia Borensztajn centrally (currently at $15,800 or about 4 months)

• Celebrated Library of Congress decision to go with FOLIO, had a welcome meeting with them

• Discussion of Functional Criteria for Evaluation of FOLIO Modules https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VtQXj5EgWGFUusKDbaLQTX5dSBZgwv_XlffBXJTrBAI/edit — feedback from CC went back to PC

• Discussion of communications - created FOLIO-members and FOLIO-announce lists, agreed to shut down Trello, looking at Discuss platform

• Set up quarterly cross-council or tri-council meetings like this as a post WOLFCon action

2) Product Council

3) Tech Council

Conducted module reviews: mod-oa, mod-calendar, mod-gobi-settings. Controlling AWS hosting cost effort has been made with Kubecost; will continue to check in as this installation matures. The tech module review process is undergoing review after a few modules have gone through it. A subgroup on keeping 3rd party tools updated is wrapping up. Revising the TC charter: there are a few things that the TC would like to update. TC goals and objectives working group is wrapping up soon; it is another review of the technical blueprint and list of technical debt. A subgroup is looking at a process for what happens when a breaking change is needed; the RFC for this is about ready for review. The improvement and consolidation of decision logs in TC and TC subgroups is almost done. Several subgroups will be formed soon as other subgroups wrap up: distributed versus centralized configuration, architecture review (including identifying gaps and how to fix them), reviewing the first RFC. TC is also reviewing its communication channels, including removal of Discuss.

Background: There has been a lot of discussion over the past several months regarding the boundaries and definitions of "FOLIO". The term FOLIO is not precise, and many feel like the ambiguity negatively impacts efforts. What is the FOLIO Product? We have the flower releases, the somewhat separate efforts in China, talk of a "Core" FOLIO, debate on what can and can't be included in FOLIO distributions as examples that could benefit from clarity. There is a Community around FOLIO and a large mature open source software project. What exactly do we mean when we refer to "FOLIO"? This topic was discussed in Hamburg, without drawing any conclusions or concrete actions. This is problematic, if for no other reason than the Product Council needs clarity on what product it is responsible for.

Goal for today:

1. Gain some sense of shared understanding
2. Identify concrete actions going forward

Review this definitions document to facilitate the discussion.

There is confusion between those that use FOLIO for their library thinking that "FOLIO" means their library's automation system; for those actively in the project "FOLIO" means the project. "FOLIO" as a term is used in whatever context it is used in a particular moment...sometimes as a stand-in for the Project, sometimes for the Platform, and sometimes for a library's particular instance.  "FOLIO" is an adjective, not a noun. Our product is bigger than the code; the product also includes the community, and the councils each have a responsibility to support the community.

"FOLIO" is going to mean many things, so we should use it as an adjective, not a now. Defining "product" is difficult—there are multiple "products"—and means many different things to different people; should we try to eliminate the use of this word? "Product" is in the name of one of the councils; what should the focus of that council be in the absence of a common definition for "product"? There are some libraries that think of FOLIO as a tool they are using, not a "lifestyle" effort. The thing that does the work needs a name and the thing that supports the work being done needs a name.  The "flower releases" are a thing and that is what the Product Council is in charge of?

We need to understand what these words mean in order to have a shared understanding, and we are starting to wander into what each council does. To some extent, the words are artificial and we may find some words are too loaded. With an open source project, a council doesn't "own" something, but it guides and influences decisions as a group. "Flower release" doesn't feel like a good long-term name.

Simeon, Kristen, and Jen volunteered to consolidate this discussion and try to move it forward.

Review final three slides of this summary of the feedback to date - any consensus on areas to invest in?

Time ran out on the meeting before this agenda item was reached.