Eating my own dogfood – and publishing the notes from our Trustee meeting in July 2011:

THE SHUTTLEWORTH FOUNDATION TRUST (the “Trust”)

MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE DIRECTORS OF ORBITAL ADMINISTRATION LIMITED (the “Company”) IN ITS CAPACITY AS TRUSTEE HELD AT ONE CIRCULAR ROAD, DOUGLAS, ISLE OF MAN ON 22 JULY 2011 AT 12.00hrs
____________________________________________

PRESENT:
L V Ferns – representing Standard Bank Trust Company (Isle of Man) Limited

S Lannigan – representing Standard Bank Trust Company (Isle of Man) Limited

R Prosser (by telephone)

IN ATTENDANCE:
H Turvey (by telephone)

K Gabriels (by telephone)

M Shuttleworth (by telephone)

S Kirkman (by telephone)

A Diesveld (by telephone)

CHAIRMAN:
Mr Ferns acted as Chairman of the meeting and Mrs Lannigan recorded the minutes.

QUORUM:
The Chairman noted that as a quorum of directors was present agreeing to accept short notice of the meeting and its purpose, the meeting be deemed to be duly convened and constituted.

FINANCES:
It was noted that each participant to the meeting had been provided with copies of the Financial Statements for the year ending 2010 along with the revised approved Budgets for 2011, copies of which are attached hereto and deemed to form part of these Minutes as if set out herein at length.

Ms Gabriels noted that the audit was now complete for 2010 and they had received signed Financial Statements for SF Advisors South Africa (Pty) Ltd and Village Telco Limited and that the Financial Statements for the Trust and SF Isle of Man Limited were almost ready for approval.

Ms Gabriels provided an overview of the financials for 2011 and noted the only changes in the last 3 months was the acquisition of a 30% share in Mark Horner’s company Siyavula thorough SF Isle of Man Limited and that current changes in South African companies legislation had caused some delay to this.

Ms Gabriels also confirmed that there would be two new Fellows with companies, one in Australia which was already established and another in South Africa, which SF Isle of Man Limited would also acquire shares using the same process.

Ms Gabriels further noted that on the Trust spreadsheet costs were mainly operational, whereas on the SF Isle of Man Limited and SF Advisors South Africa (Pty) Ltd costs were a mixture of operational and staff. She also noted that on the consolidated basis the group had currently spent 35% of the approved budget and that she estimated they would only spend a total of 91% of the total budget.

Ms Gabriels also noted that on comparison of costs between SF Isle of Man Limited and SF Advisors South Africa (Pty) Ltd, it should be noted that SF Advisors South Africa (Pty) Ltd was set up to maintain past employment structures and therefore it is noted the staff costs were higher.

Ms Gabriels reviewed the Fellows and their spending to date confirming that on average each Fellow cost $318,000 for this year in comparison to $309,000 for the previous year.

Following the comments in the meeting of 3 March 2011, Ms Gabriels had completed an analytical review of the spending per Fellow for the projects in the period September 2010 until June 2011. She had broken this down into three main sections:
1. Expertise
2. Props
3. Travel (excludes Fellows’ travel allowance)

Ms Gabriels reported that the majority of the monies had been spent on expertise, followed by travel, then props. She believed the reasons for this were that the Fellows, as Champions of an idea, and only having a short period of one year to execute the plan, needed to focus with the help of experts.

Ms Gabriels then gave a review of the following Fellows projects and the areas where monies had been spent, further details of each project can be located on the Shuttleworth Foundation website and Wiki:
Francois Grey
Rufus Pollock
Phillip Schmidt
Kabir Bavikatte
Kathi Fletcher
Mark Horner
Gavin Weale

Ms Gabriels said she would welcome any feedback on the analysed review and any comments of items that would be helpful to include for the future.

Mr Shuttleworth noted that he liked the way this analysed report was working.

Mrs Turvey added that now this report was in place it would provide a much better view at the end of the year and asked if there was anything different or any additions that should be considered for the future.

Mr Ferns, Mr Shuttleworth and Mr Prosser all agreed that they were happy with the current format of this report.

FELLOWS:
Mrs Turvey confirmed that Ms Gabriels had provided an overview of the Fellows and their work to date, and that full details of which can be located on the Shuttleworth Foundation website and Wiki, with certain information on the public site and the Fellows personal blogs.

Mrs Turvey also reminded the meeting that for every Dollar provided by the Fellow the Shuttleworth Foundation would provide Ten Dollars (or Fifteen, depending on the total amount committed), however if they collaborated with each other on a project this could be increased up to Twenty Dollars.

Mrs Turvey further noted that the re-applications process of Fellows had been reviewed and considered.

Mr Shuttleworth added that a more stringent and selective policy was being applied to ensure that all re-applications were considered fairly.

Mrs Turvey noted that they had considered a re-application from Mr Francois Grey and had rejected this.

Mrs Turvey further noted that there were two new Fellow applications in progress with offer letters and due to start in September, and that they had not yet reached the required ten Fellows.

Mr Prosser noted that he had read the Fellows blogs and information on the Shuttleworth Foundation website and Wiki and found them extremely interesting and helpful. He noted that it was good to hear what the Fellows had to say personally about their projects.

Mrs Turvey noted that with regards to Mark Horner’s project it had been intended to get one of his text books on the official approved educational text book list in South Africa by the end of the year, however she had just found out in the last week that the first application had been rejected.

She noted that the feedback provided by the local government was confusing and unclear, and as the book had been written by various teachers this was quite disappointing for everyone involved.

Mrs Turvey noted that Mr Horner intended to talk openly to the communities and teachers to gain more feedback and he will continue to make further submissions in due course.

Mr Prosser asked if a lot of local investigation work had been carried out with the government for this project.

Mrs Turvey confirmed that there had been and that it was very disappointing as the feedback was not helpful, however Mr Horner was keeping open channels and dialogue with the government and community of teachers.

Mr Ferns asked about Mr Grey’s project which had been rejected for re-application and how much help was needed to move his project forward.

Mrs Turvey said that the rejection of the re-application was not based on his performance over the last year and that the work he was doing was very important but she they felt that he was not the right person/right strategy to move this project to the next level.

Mr Shuttleworth also noted that consideration to the suitability of each Fellow for each project had to be considered. He also noted that many of previous Fellows had now provided an excellent track record of moving into important roles and top jobs and he thanked Helen and team for their hard work.

MINI-GRANT TRAIL:
Mrs Turvey noted that a new Mini- Grant trial, which will be available to individuals in other work, for one year, to try to encourage potential new fellows and offer a “leg up” to new ideas.

She noted that the first of these was being considered in September and October and she would provide an update on this at the next meeting.

Mr Ferns asked if the fellows will mange this Mini-Grant themselves.

Mrs Turvey confirmed that the fellows would mange this themselves and they would provide details in a blog and basic information of how they spend the money.

HARMONY PROJECT:
Mrs Turvey confirmed that for the first time the Foundation was actively seeking a Fellow for a particular project to work with Canonical regarding licenses and that it was hoped to have someone appointed in the near future.

PRINCIPE:
Mrs Turvey noted that following Mr Shuttleworth’s involvement with the Island of Principe, and following a meeting yesterday, they wanted the Trustee to consider in the future some non-commercial aspects and work to benefit the Island as a whole.

She noted that nothing had been agreed as of yet and once a plan had been considered and agreed that the purpose of the Trust may need to be reviewed, however further work was still required for this project.

Mr Prosser noted that he was aware of the issues in Principe and that it would be good if the Trustee could provide funds and resources to help the local people of the Island.

Mr Shuttleworth also noted that although it was good to focus on the commercial aspects in this Island, encouragement and support was also required to help the local communities and he noted the Island currently had 3000 adults and 6000 children.

Mrs Turvey also confirmed that it would be a very satisfying and a compelling story to be able to help an entire country in this way.

Mr Prosser agreed and said that this was a very interesting project and noted how a relatively small input here could make a big difference to so many people.

It was agreed that Mrs Turvey would discuss this project further with Mr Ferns.

ANY OTHER
BUSINESS:
There being no further business, the Chairman declared the meeting closed.

_________________________ _____________
CHAIRMAN DATE

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