By Philip Walton on 2025-06-26 09:22 in Board of Directors

Open Source Matters Semi-Annual Members Meeting Minutes

Date: June 26, 2025
Time: 17:00 UTC
Platform: Google Meet
Meeting Type: Full Session (following two earlier Q&A sessions)

1. Call to Order (17:09 UTC)

The meeting was called to order by Secretary Phil Walton at 17:09 UTC after waiting for all attendees to join.

2. Roll Call and Attendance

Board Members Present:

Maria Skampoura (President)
Emmanuel Lemor (Vice President)
Phil Walton (Secretary)
Nadja Lamisch (Treasurer)
Sigrid Gramlinger (Production Department Coordinator)
Carlos Cámara (Operations Department Coordinator)
Angelika Prox Dampha (Outreach Department Coordinator)

Members Present:

Laura Gordon, Richard Fath, Heiko Lübbe, Olivier Buisard, Harald Leithner, Martin Kopp, Tom van der Laan, Davide Messia, Christiane Maier-Stadtherr, Stefan Wendhausen, Jennifer Gress, Martina Scholz, Viviana Menzel, Anja de Crom, Szekely Denes Ervin, SD Williams, Robert Deutz, Llewellyn van der Merwe, Serge Billon, Allon Moritz, Giovanni Genovino

Total Attendance:

24 participants with full board representation

3. Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes

Motion: To approve the minutes from December 12, 2024 Semi-Annual Members Meeting
Note: As no formal minutes existed from 2024, the Secretary created minutes based on meeting notes
Decision: Motion passed with no objections or abstentions

4. President's Report - Maria Skampoura

State of the Organization:

Membership: 80 unique active members in official teams, 17 unique team leaders, 7 department coordinators and board members
Achievement: Full board for the first time in several years, enabling faster progress

Major Accomplishments Since December 2024:

Joomla 6 Release Progress - On track for October 2025 release with Phil Walton and Gary Barclay leading efforts
Capital Team Formation - Reformed after extended absence with 3 members (seeking additional volunteers)
Sponsor Re-engagement:
- Abion: Proposing workshops for people with disabilities using Joomla, focusing on intellectual property
- Google: Proposing to create a Google Ads extension for the JED, willing to pay an agency to develop it
  - Questions raised: Would Joomla maintain it? Would Joomla promote it?
- SiteGround: Continues hosting support commitment
UN Open Source Principles Endorsement - Joomla endorsed the United Nations Open Source Principles on June 10, 2025
Digital Public Good Application - Application submitted to make Joomla a recognized Digital Public Good, potentially enabling Sovereign Tech Fund eligibility
Free and Open Source Alliance Collaboration - Continued partnership with Typo3, Drupal, and WordPress (though WordPress participation currently paused)
- Created regulatory landscape baseline document
- Secured full membership in Eclipse Associates and General Assembly
- Guest status in Eclipse Foundation Open Regulatory Compliance Working Group

Challenges and Opportunities:

Joomla usage declining - need to focus on internal improvements rather than blaming external factors
Strategic question posed: Corporate sponsorship route vs. UN/Digital Public Good route for sustainability

Strategic Vision for 2025:

Unity and Cohesion - Zero tolerance for bullying and hate speech
Code of Conduct - Emanuel Lemor leading development of comprehensive code
Accessibility Leadership - Position Joomla as the leading accessible CMS
Security Focus - Emphasize uncompromised security as differentiator
Modern Product Development - Including AI initiatives (confirmed existing project)
Strategic Alliances - Continue building visibility through partnerships

Pending Items:

Scala Hosting sponsorship proposal to be shared with members for feedback
Google extension proposal details to be reviewed by members

5. Treasurer's Report - Nadja Lamisch

Financial Status (End of FY 2024-25):

Current Balance: ~$265,000 USD
Year-over-Year: $8,000 decrease (compared to $40,000 budgeted deficit)
Budget Variance: Significant underspend due to planned sprints not occurring

Key Financial Points:

CloudAccess resumed regular payments after temporary halt
WISE preferred for international reimbursements (lower fees than PayPal)
Tax compliance ongoing - government restructuring causing delays, accountant Danielle working on resolution

Recommendation:

Teams should plan sprints more realistically - only 1 of ~30 planned sprints executed

6. Department Reports

Production Department - Sigrid Gramlinger

Release Status:

Joomla 4.4.13: Security updates only until October 2025 (no extended LTS needed)
Joomla 3: Extended LTS ended February 2025
Joomla 5.3: Current stable version
Joomla 5.4.0: Will include auto-updates feature (TUF)
Joomla 6.0.0: Alpha 2 released, feature freeze August 2025

Team Updates:

Release managers for 6.1 (April 2026): Stefan and Harald
Seeking release managers for 6.2 (October 2026)
All teams stable with no leadership changes

Documentation Initiative:

Moving from MediaWiki to Joomla-based documentation system
Sandbox available for testing
Seeking volunteers for workflow improvements

Joomla 8 Sprint:

Planned for September 2025 in Germany
Application process open
Online participation options available

Operations Department - Carlos Cámara

Key Initiatives:

Community Sites: Upgrading all sites to Joomla 5 (on track)
Team Leadership: Seeking team leader for Community Websites team
JED 4: Development ongoing with Mark Fleeson leading
Service Provider Directory: On track with new team members
Joomla Showcase: Working to restore (credential access issues)

Goal: All sites on Joomla 5 with SSO integration by end of 2025

Outreach Department - Angelika Prox Dampha

20th Anniversary Plans:

Week-long celebration August 17-23, 2025
Dropped 24-hour event concept
Website and logo in development

Team Status:

Most teams are single-person operations
Urgently need team leads for Marketing and Social Media

Metrics:

Newsletter: ~5,000 recipients, 19-45% open rate
Social media engagement increasing with quality-focused strategy
906 Mattermost users (25% active)

Confirmed JoomlaDays 2025:

Netherlands, France, Spain, Germany

Confirmed JoomlaDays 2026:

Jday USA

Strategic Challenges:

Limited organic reach without paid advertising budget
Not eligible for Google for Nonprofits program for the moment
Market fragmentation affecting CMS market share

7. Questions from Earlier Sessions

Session Reviews:

1:00 UTC Session: Patrick attended, no questions raised
9:00 UTC Session: Several attendees, general discussion but no formal questions

Questions Addressed:

Q: Google Extension GPL Status and Maintenance? A: Must be GPL for JED inclusion. Google proposing to build via agency, questions remain about maintenance responsibility and promotion.

Q: 20th Anniversary Plans? (Anja de Crom) A: Week of events August 17-23, 2025, with various activities. Details on separate calendar and dedicated page.

Q: Board Meeting Publication Delays? (Robert Deutz) A: Secretary acknowledged 6-month backlog, committing to return to weekly publication schedule.

Q: World Conference Plans? (Benjamin) A: President suggested starting celebrations in August (USA), continuing monthly through different countries, culminating at JoomlaDACH in November as potential world conference.

8. Announcements

Next Board Meeting: July 10, 2025
Upcoming Elections: Group 1 positions (Vice President, Treasurer, Outreach DC) - Process begins July 10, 2025
Current Vice President and Outreach DC confirmed intent to run for re-election

9. Adjournment

Time: 18:18 UTC
Motion: To adjourn the meeting

Proposed by Phil Walton Seconded by Maria Skampoura
Motion passed after agreement to take group photo

Post-Meeting

Group photo taken with cameras enabled for those who wished to participate.

Minutes prepared by: Phil Walton, Secretary
Date prepared: June 29, 2025

Motions during the meeting:
2025/016 To approve the minutes from December 12, 2024 Semi-Annual Members Meeting. Passed unanimously
2025/017 The Secretary proposes to adjourn the meeting. Passed unanimously

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