Add public minutes for 2021-08-27

Co-authored-by: Emerson Veenstra <github@emersonveenstra.net>

Author: swantzter

content/_minutes/2021-08-27-mgm-minutes.md

@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+---
+title: Monthly General Meeting, August 2021
+author: Swant
+excerpt: >
+  Approval of new members, preparations for chair elections, staff and
+  member activity, staff recruiting, bridging, nickname expiration, and
+  a follow up on transparency - real names on the website
+---
+
+## Propositions and motions
+
+### Approval of new members
+
+The meeting approved two new staff for membership.
+Current staff and members are listed on the [about page](/about).
+
+### Preparations for chair elections
+
+Discussions were started in preparation for future chair elections, there has
+been interest from some members to rotate this position on a regular basis,
+this option was discussed. Key qualities for potential chair candidates were
+identified and suggestions were made around how to mentor people into board
+and chair roles.
+
+## Other questions
+
+### Staff and member activity
+
+Discussions were held around an option to downgrade quorum members to ordinary
+members in cases of prolonged absence where the member may not have notified
+the organisation, similar discussions were held for completely absent staff
+members and potential options for the organisation to limit access that
+imposes security risks until they are in a better position to stay in
+the loop. Based on the learnings from this discussion working groups were
+spun off to work on proposals.
+
+### Staff recruiting
+
+There were discussions around the process of approaching and identifying
+potential candidates for staff, as well as the process for mentoring new
+staff members. Two potential candidates were brought to the meeting, the
+meeting agreed to extend invitations to them. A working group was spun off to
+work on one potential path for identifying further candidates.
+
+## Bridging
+
+Discussion around various means of double-bridging was held since it may
+cause channels to become too large for clients to handle, while it is also
+recognised as a valid need for several projects. The meeting landed on
+discussing these instances of excessive double-bridging with the channel
+operators on a case-by-case basis where alternatives for more efficient
+bridging can be presented. Some information around this was recently added
+to our [FAQ](/guides/faq#can-i-connect-with-matrix).
+
+### Nickname expiration
+
+Options for making it more clear when a nick has expired were explored,
+discussions on potential implications those options may have on the nick
+expiration time were started and slated for further discussion on an upcoming
+monthly general meeting.
+
+### Transparency - real names on the website
+
+Projects, communities, and sponsors had been consulted for opinions on
+removing realnames of members from our website per the
+[July MGM][jul-2021-mgm]. Feedback was positive or neutral. With this feedback
+realnames were made optional on the website, due to time constraints further
+discussions will be held at a later time around keeping it optional or not
+listing any realnames.
+
+[jul-2021-mgm]: /minutes/2021-07-27-mgm-minutes#transparency---real-names-on-the-website