TEI Board Telecon held 21 July 2005

Present
• Veronika, Sebastian, Julia, Syd, John L, Lou, Daniel, Matt Z, Matt G, John U.

Members meeting

• Matt Z reported on the tentative schedule for the two day event. There would be four speakers, one “Ten Minutes of Fame” session, probably a report from the executive director, a single session for SIG meetings, and a session for posters and tools demos. The Board approved these proposals and noted that speakers and the final programme should be agreed as soon as possible. The meeting would follow a separate conference/workshop being organized by Anissava which might perhaps provide some speakers. It was noted that council member Matthew Driscoll would also be on the spot and should be invited to join the organizing committee. Matt Z to contact Matt D and invite him to join the organizing committee. The Board discussed possible speakers: specific suggestions included a Francophone contribution to be organized by Veronika and Jean-Luc; Fabio Ciotto; someone from a major European funding agency. Lou agreed to approach Tony McEnery, the newly appointed head of research at the UK’s AHRC. The Board agreed that the 4k budget for speaskers should be allocated as necessary to cover travel expenses. and that Matt Z would continue to handle administrative details for the members 1.5 day event. Preparations for the Business Meeting should be initiated asap: Julia, Veronika, Daniel to consult on necessary preparation for Business Meeting. Turning to possible commercial sponsorship of the event,. Syd reported that Syncrosoft would probably sponsor a drinks reception on the first evening. Board members were asked to consider other possibilities, e.g. Apex. John U to approach Apex for possible sponsorship

Budget

• Daniel reported that he had installed a piece of software called Quicken to help with the accounts and that he was waiting for the Nancy team to bring the membership database up to date. There was some discussion about the current status of the membership database. Veronika confirmed that all available data had been loaded and brought up to date, and that the functions requested in the initial spec were now all implemented on the server, which would shortly be moving from Loria to INIST. Daniel gave a brief uypdate on the current financial position (see further below); a preliminary budget for the year would be available shortly. Daniel to circulate preliminary budget early Augiust

Membership Management

• As noted, a redesigned mySQL database was now available and carrying live data imported from Bergen and Virginisa. Development of the interfac e at Loria was ongoing; the move to INIST would provide additional security. The Board requested that the existing link on the website at http://www.tei-c.org/membership.php should be updated to point to the current database as soon as possible Daniel and Veronika to provide live current membership link on the website.

TEI Tight

• Matt G reported that the DLF was sponsoring an initiative to aggregate the various TEI-P4 -based DTDs in use amongst their members to define a single “tight” dtd for data capture, which leading data vendors might offer to TEI members at a discount. There seemed to be an opportunity to define a member benefit here. Lou asked for clarification as to the extent to which this was a TEI activity, for example whether its output would be ratified by the TEI council. Matt G said that the effort was effectively a new incarnation of the TEI in Libraries SIG, and that its recommendations would indeed by submitted to the Council. Sebastian noted that it should be possible to map the “tight” specification to either P4 or P5 schemas. The Board welcomed this initiative and asked for further details. Matt D to provide Board with further details about the TEI Tight initiative

Internationalization project

• Sebastian reported that he and Veronika were preparing a funding bid to the ALLC, who have indicated that £10000 might be available fopr I18N work. The money would be used as follows: 20% to fund necessary tool development to provide a translators interface and changes to Roma to make use of the translations; 80% towards commissioning 5 language translations. Although this would not pay for professional translation, it would make significant contribution to existing translation activities such as that currently underway within AFNOR. The work would consist of translating the element and attribute names, and the associated desc and gloss. The activity would be coordinated by VL and SR, and the money disbursed by Nancy. Sebastian also reported that the W3C i18n ITS Working Group had agreed to let him join the group as invited expert on behalf of the TEI. Julia suggested that a session at the members meeting about I18N activities would be useful.

Other Business

• An appeal was made for nominations to the Board. John U suggested Robin Cover.

After the meeting, Daniel supplied the following brief financial statement: