Public Board meeting minutes, 2023-12-19

minutes/2023-Dec.md

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+**Present**: Peter, Iddo, Caleb, Heather, Bastian, Hilmar, Nomi, Chris
+
+**Also attending**: Mikhail Dozmorov (Bioconductor)
+
+**Agenda**: Please see the [Blog Post](https://www.open-bio.org/2023/12/04/obf-public-board-meeting-2023-12-19/)
+
+# Minutes
+- Meeting was held by Zoom on 2023-12-19 at 16:00 UTC
+- Meeting called to order by Peter Cock at 16:05 UTC
+
+## Old business
+Approve minutes from previous Public Board Meeting
+- October 2022: [https://github.com/OBF/obf-docs/pull/106](https://github.com/OBF/obf-docs/pull/106)
+- Approved by unanimous consent (including prior approval of the PR by Hilya, the one Board member who was not able to attend this meeting). Merged.
+
+## Review and approve minor changes to bylaws
+- Pull Request: [https://github.com/OBF/obf-docs/pull/102](https://github.com/OBF/obf-docs/pull/102)
+  - Remove one instance of gendered language, replacing “her” with “their”
+  - Change title of “Secretary” of Board to “Vice President” (with duties unchanged beyond standing in for the President when necessary)
+- Approved by unanimous consent of the 8 Board members present. Merged.
+
+## Board elections
+- Hilmar says serving as a member of the OBF Board has been an honour, and hopes to continue, although not in a leadership position
+- Peter says it’s also been an honour to take up the President role, happy to continue with the board’s support,
+  and hoping he will have more time to contribute in the near future.
+  He would be happy to facilitate a transfer to a new post holder for an orderly transfer at the end of his next term if someone else wanted to run for the office and is elected.
+  Peter noted that all the current board members are eligible to run for President next time elections are held.
+- Heather: echoing what has been said, honoured to have served as board member at large and now as treasurer.
+- Voting
+  - The eight attending members of the current Board voted via (Helios)[https://vote.heliosvoting.org/] electronic ballot
+  - For some reason, Helios took a while to tally the results, but it eventually did so (after the meeting had ended).
+  - Tally: <https://vote.heliosvoting.org/helios/e/obf-2023>
+  - Tally to re-elect Peter Cock as president of the OBF Board of Directors: 7 votes for, 0 against, 1 abstain
+  - Tally to re-elect Hilmar Lapp as Director at-large: 7 votes for, 0 against, 1 abstain
+  - Tally to re-elect Heather Wiencko as Treasurer: 7 votes for, 0 against, 1 abstain
+
+## Adjournment
+Peter: motion to close the public board meeting; Heather seconded. No objections, motion carried with unanimous consent. Meeting adjourned at 16:40 UTC.
+
+**Note that this PR should be approved and merged at the next public Board meeting.**