# Maintainers Calls - 2025 (Sep - Dec)

<center>

[Next time](https://arewemeetingyet.com/Berlin/2022-10-20/19:00/b/BIDS%20Maintainers%20Meeting) | [Where (Zoom)](https://stanford.zoom.us/j/98245168832?pwd=dXpYSGhvTFFwRFpjMjM0dGpFYmNBdz09) | [GDrive](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qCx4Zopmz7IyLpi8KdrSqIdfpb-bELsV) | [Mattermost](https://mattermost.brainhack.org/brainhack/channels/bids_maintainers) | [GCalendar](https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/r?cid=[e-mail]) | [AllNotes](https://hackmd.io/@bids-standard/H1z2OgeYA) | [TimeZoneViewer](https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/?pl=1&lid=6077243,4671654,5746545,2618425,2147714&h=6077243&hf=1)
[GitHub BEP board](https://github.com/orgs/bids-standard/projects/19/views/1) | [BEP project status](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17vXDUEjDyaycbnbCgUZDf1fJlhyi7gaqmTP9KlxQdT4/edit?gid=0#gid=0)

</center>

> Next WEST meeting - Wednesday, November 26, 8pm EST
> Next EAST meeting - Thursday, December 8, 9am EST

## Meeting Template

<details><summary>Click to expand</summary>

## 2025 Month # EAST (9am EDT)

Lead:
Present:
Absent: 
Guests: 

### Steering requests & communications

### Focus

### Follow-ups

### Homework

### Maintainer Updates

- **Name**
    - Stuff

</details>

## 2025 December 18 EAST (9am EDT)

Lead: Yahya
Present: Yarik!, Christine, Eric, Ross, Taylor, Yahya
Absent: Chris, Julia, Boris
Guests:
Next meeting: jan 8?

### Steering requests & communications
Next meeting is 15 Jan and Eric is going
- (Christine) - Could steering please let us know about any BIDS GSOC projects planned?
- e.g. EBRAINS BIDS converter wasn't something we were super aware of.
- GSOC 26 is coming in Jan, are there any ideas
- Yarik suggested a migration utility function that fixes datasets across BIDS versions.
- BIDS AI Assistants
- Discuss on Mattermost
- (Eric) Camille said on Steering channel "For the first steering meeting of the year (15 Jan 2026), I'd like to suggest we get an overview of the state of the BEPs. Is this something maintainers would be happy to present? I think this could be based on the BEP overview at: https://github.com/orgs/bids-standard/projects/19/views/1"
- Maintainers next meet on Jan 8th

- [PR #2231](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-specification/pull/2231), [Issue #1771](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-specification/issues/1771): Take to steering

### Focus

- BEP Process working group (Eric)
- aims, short/medium/long-term goals
- [Working doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1csYaS62CXdXY6STOMfubXIuE3XdZRD_YCEyFED8c6C4/edit?usp=sharing)

### Follow-ups

### Homework

- Chore (Yahya): Check Maintiners Calendar, some are not seeing 2026 East meetings. (Done, it was a fluke with my persoanl cal. Re-adding BIDS Cal resolved it.)
- Respond to Eric message on Jan 6 to update BEP status and discuss at JAN 8 maintainers meeting.

- Everyone look at Zotero and Zenodo; join it

### Maintainer Updates

- **Christine**
- GSOC season is Jan. Any technical tasks worth getting a student on? e.g. Schema work, converters, BIDS 2.0, migrate/upgrade apps? Would depend heavily on Mentor time. RIP GSOD program (2019-2024).

- How outreach at EBRAINS/INCF went last week
- Need more community contribution - Should find a way to make a stronger statement, e.g. a talk somewhere
- for 2026: someone should propose a talk/symposium at: SFN,
- could group it with other standards in a panel
- Yarik's [SFN 2025 poster on all standards](https://www.oneukrainian.com/tmp/SfN-2025_Poster_Data-Standards.pdf)
- SFN: Yarik and Yahya
- COSYNE: Yahya
- USRSE: Yarik
- European conferences: ?
- ISEK, MOBI - Yahya
- IEEE Conferences - Yahya/Yarik?
- make sure comms are clear ahead of OHBM brainhack
- SFN should also be another opportunity
- A lot of people didn't know about Prov BEP028.
- A lot of posters weren't aware of what is in development
- [Spreadsheet: a lot of email followups to do](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MSy_Oe5ffSc7bJ2pdatQGXOymq-xnX9Ec7GhkywIB-8/edit?gid=0#gid=0).
- Christine will do 5 for now.
- Who can take on 1-2?
- topics include:
- my iEEG file format isn't supported, what should I do
- more global coordination needed on this.
- BIDS comms outreach role (possibly new maintainer). Eric has asked Camille to look into this.
- Make sure they get pointed back to this list above.

- BIDS-Study; Looking for the latest

- **Yahya**
- [PR #2231](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-specification/pull/2231), [Issue #1771](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-specification/issues/1771) seems to be like a BEP, but does not have a BEP number and not in the process.
- audio/video capture of subject not related to the stimulus bep
- no objections from maintainers; Yahya to take it to Steering
- Docs say "[A Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) Extension Proposal (BEP) is a community-driven process to add a new modality or set of data types to the BIDS Specification.](https://bids.neuroimaging.io/extensions/index.html)". #2231 doesn't add a modality or data type. This may be why they didn't start this as a BEP.

- **Eric**
- BEP Process WG work
- Website PRs will be the mechanism for change proposals/review by community && maintainers/steering
- BEP036 getting picked back up this next week (THU DEC 18-TUE DEC 23, then off until JAN 5!)

- **Name**
- Stuff

## 2025 December 10 West (7pm EDT)

Lead: Ashley
Present: Anthony, Ashley
Absent:
Guests:

### Steering requests & communications

### Focus

### Follow-ups

### Homework

### Maintainer Updates

- **Ashley**
- PyBids still needed merging #1163
- Proposed working on ezBIDS integration in neurodesk
`

## 2025 December 4 EAST (9am EDT)

Lead: Ross
Present: Ross, Anthony, Boris, Julia, Christine, Chris, Taylor
Absent: Eric, ~~Yahya(Steering)~~
Guests: none

### Steering requests & communications

@c5OUE6EMTWyUDxLKqfGmAQ

Brainhack ideas - coordination. [BIDS page already here, by Yarik](https://github.com/bids-standard/ohbm-hackathon)

### Focus

### Follow-ups

[Mattermost (Robert/Yarik)](https://mattermost.brainhack.org/brainhack/pl/s6da154jf7ynigpgtdxmb3eqhh): who can log into the Youtube channel and get a better name?
~~Chris is on it.~~ Chris replied in Mattermost: Remi owns it?

also see forgotten followups from earlier this year
e.g.:
- older Maintainers to [complete the onboarding guide](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vxUglvS_mfqIpHOFUtxYAb79zQTYMYhajc7pQfSqSl0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.sicbsfhefo2w) where you see ✍️

### Homework

CR? maybe scroll down and compile forgotten followoups / requests for help?

### Maintainer Updates

- **Christine**
- (w Julia) help desk @ incf/ebrains next week [Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ol13cs07DW-29kRTsIQs5UdLEhRibW7uS_0Gc1dj7po/edit?slide=id.p#slide=id.p)
- Were there any West meeting notes from the last month?
- Who's in touch with Ashley? Anthony
- OHBM BrainHack: BIDS maintainer meeting w steering: 2 half days currently planned per [Camille's Oct.21 notes](https://mattermost.brainhack.org/brainhack/pl/swp5jy39z7de9jwhntmcrqgwzh)
- Should we explore adding +1 day Maintainers working time (like CPH)? e.g. ask for options
- (My $0.02) Helps with progress on PRs/WGs, since we are spread over timezones now +US disruptions.
- a few feel that maintainers meeting just isn't feasible during brainhack, valuable to focus on brainhack anyway

- **Yahya** (absent, not dicussed, moved to Dec 15)
- BEP Process working group:
- aims, short/medium/long-term goals.
- [PR #2231](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-specification/pull/2231) seems to be like a BEP, but does not have a BEP number and not in the process.

- **Anthony**
- Plugging away at BEP 023, will follow up w/ questions during schema hack
- needs to follow up with Ashley now that he's back
- Is anyone on this message about [BEP 037](https://mattermost.brainhack.org/brainhack/pl/kpehiy6ogiraxpxh7zp7x1xf3r)

- **Chris**
- [BEP38](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-specification/pull/1714) post-review call. No changes.
- [BEP42](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-specification/pull/1998) finished. Needs one last read-through and merge.
- [BEP20](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-specification/pull/1128) finished (?). Needs one last read-through and merge.
- [BEP36](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-specification/pull/2123) call w/ Eric, Seb and Yarik. IDEK.
- [BEP28](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-specification/pull/2099) call immediately following this
- Talking with Sylvain Takerkart (?) about schema

- **Julia**
- what's the co-authorship rules for maintainers and steering for BEP papers?
- will merge landing page now

## 2025 November 13 EAST (9am EDT)

Lead: Christine
Present: Eric, Julia, Boris, Ross, Chris, Taylor, Yahya
Absent: Nell
Guests: none

### Housekeeping / next meeting dates

- Next meeting **Dec. 4**, since in 2 weeks many are away for US Thanksgiving.
- then: Dec. 18,
- 2026: Jan.8 first meeting
- [x] Chris updated the BIDS events calendar (post-meeting)

### Steering requests & communications

#### Repasted notes from Oct 30 Steering Meeting:

- Yarik should join the BEP Process WG (@YQPx2xuzS-yqaCkzr3VWDQ to followup)
- BEP updates - Dora asks: next steering please bring update on:
- how is the review period / queue going?
- was email a good way to do those communications to the BEP leads/community?
- what should change for 2026?
- OHBM presence for BIDS (table/booth) idea from Cyril. Yarik supports. nobody will be sent just for the table/booth, staffed by ppl already there
- BIDS funds left: [<20k USD, 40% of prize fund left](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hmBpLID8vCyUj0dB7olsIbLH7E8YwqCzcS9vJp3fBIs/edit?gid=0#gid=0) in 2026, might look into fundraising in future years
- would govern selection of open source collective vs. INCF
- fiscal sponsor would need to manage contracts; INCF has non-profit status in the US too.
- Next steps towards INCF/EBRAINS help desk: Christine/Julia to [find a time with Yarik](https://bit.ly/reserve-yarik) because he has ideas on what to brush up for for the booth:
- e.g. microscopy (German)
- will need a display, keyboard and mouse (extra laptop or raspberry pi?)
- will need to be up to date on BEPs
- Steering requested more info on OpenCollective as a Fiscal host, specifically ability to support contracts

#### Updates to Repaste at Steering
##### Bep Process Updates for Steering:

- How the review period / queue going?
- 9 bep leads were reached out to by email (which month was this again?)
- 2 review periods from originally planned 3. (US shutdown, etc.)
- Are any ready now?
- Atlas review starts monday
- BEP028 e.g. status / delays?
- Boris: getting up to speed, large changes, prioritizing tasks/scope (e.g should validating provenance metadata be part of BEP028 ?)
- What would help?
- schema documentation, user feedback/testing for pain points, maybe get a bit more direct feedback soon (who/when?)
- [Anthony's PET bep->schema walkthrough](https://bidsschematools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/doc_to_schema.html) could be a useful model to share more
- Schema pre-review should be strongly recommended & communication (BEP Process WG)
- Start schema earlier.
- Keep communicating through the process, because BEP changes will also change assumptions/guidance on schema work needed
- Multiple points of community review, not just near the end, to help alleviate 1 lone reviewer blocking at the end.
- (Julia) Ask BEP leads to use public channels, like Neurostars, at these points
- (Julia) design it like a few iterative (agile) cycles, so that's clear for BEP leaders
- (Yahya) BEP leaders could regularly update the state to the community. If they stick to it, maintinaers should moderate blocking comments in the official review.

- Was email a good way to do those communications to the BEP leads/community?
- (Chris) worked well enough
- 9 beps offered, 6 beps said they were ready, 3 were actually ready/reviewed
- Good idea to go back and consult those BEPs that fell off to find out what would have helped (BEP Process WG please note for follow-up)
- (Julia/Chris) Eye-tracking - got stuck on a) not urgent until release b) deciding who/how/where to respond to Kay, this could be quasi-standardized. (e.g. does steering or all maintainers, or one maintainer respond?). Otherwise it's accepted and good to go.
- eye-tracking comms missing from Maintainers to BEP leads: Actually tell the BEP leaders review period is over and it is expected to be merged with the next update.
- what should change for 2026?
- Besides the above, we will definitely have more changes: will discussing && BEP process WG is only getting going now (Eric's back)

### Follow-ups

#### Chatbot discussion
- one exists: https://bids-assistant.vercel.app/chat
- inform steering about our BIDS Chatbot project, notes [here](https://hackmd.io/@mnJQvyboRfeHeOzygpc5Ow/S1-jdXqJWe/edit) and full transcript/video [here](https://drive.google.com/file/d/16lTTSPZwIkSnBoi1HMNlaEVSGLghW8Rf/view?usp=drive_link)
- next steps:
- Adding PRs/Issues, Community convo (NeuroStars). Requires DB and regular updates, Yahya is developing one option.
- prototype started
- everyone test it out, please give feedback
- issue on bids-specification repo - [link for issue](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-specification/issues/2256)
- should be clear what is/isn't resources consulted by the spec.
- ready to put it on the spec, if no feedback
- let Steering know for feedback via issue/ ross for feedback/ to tell Steering they will have 2 weeks to review at some point in future.
- followup work: neurostars and other resources would be good to integrate.
- database would be needed, api key etc.
- working example of bids-assistant with pr content

#### Bep Process
- Discussion above in notes to steering.
- Next steps: BEP process WG co-chair Yahya drafting the letter, Eric to review,
- (Ross) listing the WG on the Website and a way to reach / participate
- also to be included in the WG letter too

#### Going forward:
- preparing BEP updates for each steering meeting

### Homework

- Sign up for [steering attendance for 2026](https://hackmd.io/l_wJqwrTR_Go3bWd0My19g)

### Maintainer Updates

- **Eric**
- Revive the BEP Process WG
- BEP036 stuck on a validator issue
- Thanks, Julia, for taking the OCT 2 steering group meeting

- **Christine**
- website: consider merging https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-website/pull/741

- BIDS Help Desk at INCF/EBRAINS
(time-sensitive) Engagement for stickers: gettign website feedback? scavenger hunt items (GSOD) on the BIDS site?
- expected focus on Microscopy
- side-meet with Yarik & Julia - next week?
- registration code should be good to go
- Asking those who did it last year: what worked, what didn't ?
- Engagement for stickers: getting website feedback? scavenger hunt items (GSOD) on the BIDS site?
- (Eric) Last year: super casual, not many other tables,
it was Eric, Anthony, James Kent
- suggests: tell us one piece of website feedback to get a sticker
- suggests: clean
- mailing that physical BIDS sign?
- Julian Cohen-Adad's group didn't review (were asked)
- colourful backdrop: BIDS 2.0, stats model poster
- Screen display: Remi's pasta presentation,
- get the names/email of the people -> signup sheet
- to enable followups, put ppls in touch with experts

- **Taylor**
- Been helping with Atlas BEP and diffusion derivatives BEP. Is there anything to keep dMRI BEP from using branch on bids-standard?
- Create new branch, create new group in org for BEP, give group write access to branch.

### post-meeting / Followups we missed

(Chris) Election (from mattermost) all done:
- Results published & announced on bids-discussion/neurostars
- JB and Martin have been invited to the steering call.
- OpaVote receipt for steering is in mattermost.
- Only thing left to do is maybe a post-mortem.

- Homework from Oct. 30: Read the [on-boarding doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vxUglvS_mfqIpHOFUtxYAb79zQTYMYhajc7pQfSqSl0/edit?tab=t.0) and complete text where you see the writing hand
- propose more emojis for "help requested" and "help/role filled"

## 2025 October 30 EAST (9am EDT)

Lead:
Present: Chris, Ross, Taylor
Absent: Christine (steering call), Julia
Guests:

### Steering requests & communications

### Focus

### Follow-ups

### Homework
- read the [on-boarding doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vxUglvS_mfqIpHOFUtxYAb79zQTYMYhajc7pQfSqSl0/edit?tab=t.0) and complete text where you see the writing hand
- propose more emojis for "help requested" and "help/role filled"

### Maintainer Updates

- **Name**
- Stuff
- **Chris**
- Election hit quorum... 63/307 votes, 16 rejected (bounce or opt-out)
- BEPs not ready for Nov 3, maybe Nov 10?
- Meeting with Atlases BEP ([Zoom](https://stanford.zoom.us/j/93752044010?pwd=mqID7jFRiqbbSKSNNEJmg2wdeJIbHy.1)) after this call.

- **Taylor**
- Nothing much.

- **Christine** (non-steering updates)
- Do we need a website/Calendly button that says "meet the maintainers" to book a 15 minute slot at an upcoming East or West meeting? (nobody knows when the meetings are)
- Camille's comment that Boris wasn't in the steer/maintain mattermost channel; ashley wasn't either. they've both been added since.

#### **Update FROM STEERING OCT.30**
(Christine typing this live as Steering & Maintainers are co-happening)
- Yarik should join the BEP Process WG
- BEP updates- Dora asks: next steering please bring update on:
- how the review period / queue going?
- was email a good way to do those communications to the BEP leads/community?
- what should change for 2026?
- OHBM presence for BIDS (table/booth) idea from Cyril. Yarik supports. nobody will be sent jsut for the table/booth, staffed by ppl already there
- funding: [<20k USD, 40% of prize fund left](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hmBpLID8vCyUj0dB7olsIbLH7E8YwqCzcS9vJp3fBIs/edit?gid=0#gid=0) in 2026, might look into fundraising in future years
- would govern selection of open source collective vs. incf
- fiscal sponsor would need to manage contracts; incf has non-profit status in the US too.
- next steps towards INCF/EBRAINS help desk:
Christiine/Julia to [find a time with Yarik](https://bit.ly/reserve-yarik) because he has ideas on what to brush up for for the booth:
- e.g. microscopy (German)
- will need a display, keyboard and mouse (laptop or raspberry pi)
- will need to be up to date on BEPs

## 2025 October 16 EAST (9am EDT)

Lead: Christine
Present: Ross, Chris, Taylor (leaving 10 mins early), Boris, Yahya, Christine, Julia
Absent: Eric, Anthony, Nell?
Guests:

### Steering requests & communications

**Notes from last steering meeting (October 2nd):**
- we have no gender diversity in the BIDS steering nominees, so next year we need to target this more. We do have diversity in seniority, geography, and modality
- Peer gave updates to connectivity BEPs
- are aiming for the second review period with the Atlas BEP
- need Atlas BEP first because other connectivity BEPs depend on it
- A 1 hr weekly working group was essential for making progress on BEPs and addressing issues --> discussion about how much maintainers need to be involved in BEP process
- Having a maintainer present in the meetings was crucial for bringing in broad BIDS knowledge that could be applicable to the BEP
- When there are different views it might be a good time to have this setup in which different people discuss weekly synchronously
- My reply: have maintainers involved in meetings is ideal but may not be possible. A possible solution could be for maintainers to target early meetings and then adjust frequency as needed.

- Conflict of interest for BEP processes is noted by BEP process WG
- Brainhack BIDS/OHBM 2026/Maintainers meeting
- YH will follow up with OSSIG on availability clarification of space; separate room might not work for them
- BIDS might get 1-1.5 days; maybe separate day for BIDS maintainers(+steering) meeting; 1 open Brainhack BIDS day, 1 closed Brainhack BIDS day?
- poll in mattermost

### Focus

### Follow-ups

- From Steering (addressing Peer's comments) Oct.2
- potential Follow ups for BEP Process WG (CR) could map out ideal maintainer attention for each BEP vs. current capacity/ plan to try for now. (and estimate what ideal availability would take in terms of resourcing / active BEPs)
- (YS) maintainer help at the start is key for communicating what's involved in the journey, compatibility across BEPs and w spec, plus schema and rules
- starting now: 45 and 46 have Maintainer shepherds assigned
- e.g., 46 will be a great example to work through for the BEP WG - wasn't in [the spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17vXDUEjDyaycbnbCgUZDf1fJlhyi7gaqmTP9KlxQdT4/edit?gid=0#gid=0)
- [github board](https://github.com/orgs/bids-standard/projects/19/views/1)

### Homework
- Somebody needs to sign up for Nov 13 steering call.
Ross volunteers - Nov. 13
Dec.4 - Yahya
put your own name in starting in January

### Maintainer Updates

- **Chris**
- BEPs
- BEP 20 and 42 reviews finished. Positive votes. A few unresolved conversations.
- Chris is on top of 20
- Yahya will summarize open questions w 42, send to Chris.
- 36: Eric says it's ready
- Needs help with: writing announcements.
- Who can run the next review period?
- involves: post 3 issues, post to discussion list, remind ppl it's open, close it at the end
- Yahya will !
- Election
- Nominees should have edited their statements by today.
- Need to put together a voter pamphlet and voter list.
- Chris will (truncate) today, make the voter pamphlet
- voter list: what did remi do?
- bids contribs updated 2 weeks ago
- CM found a [contributors.tsv](https://github.com/bids-standard/contributors) in the repo - is it up to date?
- Election starts Monday. [Process doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pcUysEGPRb4R9b4MZCPKxI6ODJVUqeFVw-T7WtAal9g/edit)
- create one on OpaVote ($20).
- BlueSky/mastodon social post -- Yahya drafting
- Neurostars
- bids discussion mailing list
- Test election worked well.
- **Boris**
- Onboarding document - [Link here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vxUglvS_mfqIpHOFUtxYAb79zQTYMYhajc7pQfSqSl0/edit?tab=t.0)
- Reworked the doc so that it can be parsed by new maintainers as well as maintainers
- Ashley and Yahya said they will review it
- Still to do: Google Analytics, will do another quick pass
- Questions: some examples in the doc for other maintainers to answer
- ✍️ how are the roles in the bids-standard organization managed ?
✍️ how are the roles for each team managed ?
✍️ how are the roles inside each repository managed ?
✍️ what should be mentioned here about access to RTD / netlify / any of web tools / services ?
- Julia: would a wiki help organize this better?
- for high-level info; keep templates in gdocs
- searchability / structute would be a big plus
- gdrive is sprawling, so much nesting
- splitting docs might take more effort/maintenance
- permissions - gdoc
- Julia to make a mini-proposal

- BEP028 - Provenance / review starts on 20th of october
- still some work to do on the spec + examples
- would need some help on the schema side
- Ross will add suggestions re schema
- **Christine**
- Do we want a "Roles that need Help please" section
- would help across time zones
- would help visibility to Steering of why/where we need help, why things are moving slowly
- not to open a can of worms on who's doing what
- Yahya's suggestion: 💁 ; options: :pray: :sos:
- Going to Steering next Thursday Oct. 23 9am ET
- INCF/EBrains meeting Help Desk - Julia and Christine
Would be good to rehash what worked last INCF, what we want to do differently, what we want to come away with, with... Eric and Anthony? (stickers, any prep etc)
- **Name**
- Stuff

## 2025 October 15 West (8pm EDT)

Lead: Nell
Present: Nell
Absent: Everyone
Guests:

### Steering requests & communications

### Focus

### Follow-ups

### Homework

### Maintainer Updates

- **Name**
- Stuff

## 2025 October 2 EAST (9am EDT)

Lead: Chris
Present: Boris, Chris, Nell, Julia, Christine
Absent: Taylor, Eric, Anthony
Guests:

### Steering requests & communications
(no steering meeting since last time - items are same-ish as last notes)

* Need better conflict of interest procedure for the BEP process --> have a procedure and a statement that if BEP lead is a maintainer this person should not be involved in the conflict resolution during the review period --> put it in the BEP review process agenda
* Can we have Julia (also) go to EBRAINS Summit since she is close by? Maintainers think it will be extra helpful to have a second person for more BIDS "coverage" if we can afford it --Emailed by Christine to Steering, sept. 19
* Still waiting to hear re registrations from INCF
* Table: :white_check_mark:

### Focus

### Follow-ups

- need to train at least one more maintainer on BIDS schema/validator
- (done) Christine to ask about EBRAINS Summit scenarios / funding again in an email to steering (deadline for submissions is September 29th). Need clarification by September 25th.
- Has everyone looked at Chris' [BEP dashboard](https://github.com/orgs/bids-standard/projects/19/views/1)
- Julia: Should we still invite Ben Dichter to show us DANDI chatbot work?
- Eric: First BEP Process Working Group call scheduled? Yes- Oct.3
- Eric: Help with watching the [e-mail] inbox?
- Are your comments added on the 2025 maintainer's meeting format to [Copenhagen Reflections](https://hackmd.io/JLMh7W-hQPWeKE3lNsEhcw#Copenhagen-reflections)? What's next?

| What | Who | Status |
| -------- | ------- | -------- |
| Website stuff | Julia, Eric | in the making |
| New Cryptpad form to collect Maintainer info | Nell | |
| Onboarding process new maintainers doc | Yahya, Boris, Ashley | Needs doin' |
| Validator metadata warn | Chris, Ross, Schema hack discussion | |
| BEP process dashboard | Chris | |
| BEP 024 (CT) | Anthony, Hugo | |

### Homework

- Update onboarding from new maintainers (Yahya, Boris, Ashley)
- [Folder](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yx6VWptjdv1JOe0Ybpb48iMB0bCoG_Ae)
- [Existing doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vxUglvS_mfqIpHOFUtxYAb79zQTYMYhajc7pQfSqSl0/edit)
-

### Maintainer Updates

- **Name**
- Stuff

- **Julia**
- invite Ben Dichter and Jeremy Magland for chatbot talk: can't make Nov 13th and Nov 27th is US thanksgiving, need another date in November
- we can get a discounted booth at EBRAINS/INCF summit, free registration is still discussed

- **Christine**
Not sure if these got lost in the website re-org:
- BIDS Logo available where --> brain only [here](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-website/tree/main/docs/assets/favicon), full logo [here](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-website/blob/main/docs/assets/img/logos/logo_transparent-black_647x232.png)
- BIDS About(?) page: `How to Cite` ideally prominent.
- Maybe even a subpage/section w links to all the papers on BEPS? (which also means adding "add your paper to the bids website" to BEP process) --> please open an issue for this. (Remi might also know.)
- https://github.com/bids-standard/artworks

- Us furlough - who can cover what for now? Anthony and Eric
- election (Anthony)
- Chris + Julia
- comms/social (Anthony) - BlueSky, Mastodon.
- Looking for a volunteer. Christine will post the below on Maintainers channel:
- what's involved for now: log in
- get ready to post when election announcements are decided (for Monday)
- you can draft in gdocs, drop it in the mattermost for support/feedback/approval
- checking BIDS email (Eric)
- Chris (need a +1) (only Chris is checking it for now)
- BEP process nascent WG - meeting Oct.3 9am EDT (Christine)
- Eric will probably let [Camille] if this
- BEP036 (nope, on hold)
- what else are we missing ?

- **Chris**
- BEP reviews
- [Community Review: BEP020 - Eye Tracking #2218](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-specification/discussions/2218)
- [Community Review: BEP042 - Electromyography (EMG) #2219](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-specification/discussions/2219)
- Met with Eric about BEP36 (Phenotype). A few rules need thinking about, but Oct 20 seems plausible.
- Met with Peer about BEP38 (Atlas). Many people involved in the BEP seem to think it automatically includes their favorite derivatives, so examples are broken and need work. Maybe Nov 10, but I'll likely need to be involved.
- Anybody want to run the next period? Happy to shadow.
- what's involved: Making posts, declaring period open/closed, identifying arguments that need to be resolved before merging.
- next steps: Chris wants to share, will set it up. Yahya is a likely suspect.
- Elections
- USG shut down "non-essential" functions. Anthony off. Need to run these, but would like a partner.
- Datacite.yml: https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-specification/pull/2221 (draft)
- This is an OpenNeuro priority, so would be nice not to only get reviewed by ON affiliates. (and not in DANDI)
- Looking for an extra reviewer. Julia might

- **Boris**
- BEP28
- 1 spec PR
- 4 example PRs
- Chris will email Boris & Ross

## 2025 October 1 WEST (8pm EDT)

Lead: Julia
Present: Julia
Absent: everyone
Guests: none

### Steering requests & communications

### Focus

### Follow-ups

### Homework

### Maintainer Updates

- **Name**
- Stuff

## 2025 September 18 EAST (9am EDT)

Lead: Julia
Present: Chris, Christine, Taylor, Julia, Eric, Yahya
Absent: Anthony, Ross, Nell, Boris
Guests: None

### Steering requests & communications

* Need better conflict of interest procedure for the BEP process
* Can we have Julia go to EBRAINS Summit since she is close by? Maintainers think it will be extra helpful to have a second person for more BIDS "coverage" if we can afford it

### Steering summary (Chris)

* Approval to target 3 BEPs this fall
* Yarik proposed a conflict resolution procedure (1 steering, 1 maintainer, 1 BEP lead)
* Emails sent to 9 BEPs, maintainer and steering group emails CC'ed
* Camille should be reaching out to join the BEP process working group
* EBRAINS Summit (INCF Assembly substitute)
* Interest in having a staffed BIDS desk in addition to attendees.
* OHBM 2026
* Probably meet during BrainHack. Contacting OSSIG.
* Peer Herholz to join next steering meeting

### Focus

- BEP Review-a-thon

### Follow-ups

### Homework

- need to train at least one more maintainer on BIDS schema/validator
- Chris suggests to join BIDS schema meeting as well as meetings with BEPs to implement their changes in schema
- person needs to have some knowledge about the validator
- ideally not from the same lab, (less/no) conflict of interest
- JavaScript experience
- define a clear "job description" (hours, tasks, qualifications) so we can get this ask out to Steering and the community
- How to move [schema] onboarding to docs (less face-to-face) - Anthony helping, perhaps get new maintainer input, like Boris?

- Christine to ask about EBRAINS Summit scenarios / funding again in an email to steering (deadline for submissions is September 29th). Need clarification by September 25th.
- Christine is going, but would also submit a poster abstract if going with BIDS.
- maintainers think it would be really helpful to have 2 dedicated people. Not sure if Steering is up for being the 2nd person, or funding a 2nd person.
- Julia could go and would be happy to for BIDS helpdesk,
- Eric waiting to hear if he can go (travel approval/funding)
- Christine could go if funded by BIDS

- everyone look at Chris' BEP [dashboard](https://github.com/orgs/bids-standard/projects/19/views/1)
- we have "draft", "in progress", "under review": is that enough? "in progress" and "under review" are quite broad, do we need more distinctions?
- also: what are the requirements for getting e.g. "in progress"?
- maybe: see/update/annotate [Christine's messy CPH diagram (updates in progress)](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1q8chpPd71_rzgyHaRTVn2S8ij-H-xo-sHosxOu3TLmE/edit?usp=sharing) as point of departure / suggest more changes for discussion
- Chris: Temporarily using "In review" status to mean BEPs that have requested a review in the coming three months. Includes some that still require technical assistance.
- Yahya: There are some key points in a *Draft* BEP (assuming there is Google Doc, Issue, BEP number), that we can reward the BEP teams with achieving each by some recognition, including:
1. Google Doc is "matured" and a *Draft* PR is started
2. *Draft* bids-spec PR <u>Specifications</u> (including the HTML preview) are ready for outside (community) comments.
3. *Draft* bids-examples PR is created with at least one complete example
4. *Draft* bids-spec PR has a working schema and the *Draft* bids-examples PR passes the schema
5. BEP leads are happy with the specifications and examples (covering potential edge cases), both bids-spec PR and bids-examples PR can come out of *Draft* and request for Review
6. The BEP is in Review state, waiting for **Maintainer Review** and official **Community Review**

### Maintainer Updates

- **Julia**
- invite Ben Dichter to show us the DANDI chatbot?
- helps guide users through the data prep process
- does he have a recorded talk about this? To get a first impression
- Google Summer of Code maybe? Maintenance costs?
- Do we think people would use it?
- Yahya is also has some expertise
- BIDS website updates going slow, but going. Opening first PR about landing page by next week

- **Chris**
- Election: 1 nominee so far, Anthony drafting nomination period extension email.
- BEP review periods ([spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-ZX1mYLCp9AdH6Z_JctqgdjH31c_C3DaRipDIv5KMF0/edit?gid=0#gid=0))

- **Taylor**
- Would appreciate a review of https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-specification/pull/1927.

- **Eric**
- Worked to address Chris' feedback on BEP036
- Need to update spec examples and add one more example to bids-examples
- Going to try scheduling the first working group call

## 2025 Sept 17 West (8pm EDT)

Lead: Chris, Anthony, Ashley, Julia
Present: Chris, Anthony, Ashley, Julia
Absent: /
Guests: /

### Steering requests & communications

### Steering summary (Last steering attendee)

### Homework

- Request from East to take better notes (3 bullet points would be fine)

### Maintainer Updates

- **Ashley**
- Created PR for PyBids integration with bidsschematools, Anthony reviewed. Not passing CI yet. Ashley to look at how current BIDS validator is being called in PyBids to avoid doubling-up of logic.
- **Anthony**
- we only got one response in the BIDS steering nomination form (JB) and it closes next week...
- should ping current steering group about that (they have been pinged in mattermost)
- CT BEP: no news from Hugo, reaching out again.
- **Chris**
- BEP review-a-thon
- BEP042 is going next week
- everyone else wants to be included in the second round

- **Julia**
- will talk to BEP020 in our meeting on Tuesday if we can join first review round (I think so!)
- BIDS website updates going slow, but going
- BIDS study discussions becoming more serious (multiple PRs about that)

## 2025 Sept 4 EAST (9am EDT)

Lead: Chris
Present: Eric, Taylor, Anthony, Boris, Christine, Yahya, Chris
Absent: Ross, Julia, Nell
Guests:

### Steering requests & communications

* Begin "working with the community" to ensure sufficient nominations

### Steering summary (Anthony)

Anthony:

* Told them EMG is approved
* Asked steering to select BEPs for next review
* They punted, Yarik wants to automate
* Steering asked for maintainers on Mattermost to vote for next BIDS Maintainers meeting

### Focus

### Follow-ups

1. Soliciting nominations for steering ([Process doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pcUysEGPRb4R9b4MZCPKxI6ODJVUqeFVw-T7WtAal9g/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.wkzdvfyymx5y))
- Anthony will draft an email to extend the nomination period further.

2. Should [hcp2bids](https://github.com/suyashdb/hcp2bids) be forked into bids-standard ? The main benefits would be for us to:
- maintain the code along with BIDS updates ;
- provide a proper python package on PyPI ;
- improve documentation and testing.
- Need to understand scope of the tool (just HCP-YA? Just raw data?), but the original developer has moved on and would be fine with us taking over. Taylor can dedicate some time to working on a tool to reorganize HCP preprocessing derivatives to BIDS format. This may be a good use-case for the mapping tool(s).

3. Communication on BEP integration for BIDS v1.11.0 action items:
- possible BEPs should be messaged about timeline and being released together
- Community should be warned that multiple BEP reviews are coming and please be ready
- Chris and Ross may work together to support BEPs in the validator prior to integration, as a sort of "testing phase."
- Would like to set out a schedule for BEP reviews and timelines

4. EBRAINS/INCF Summit: Discuss Yarik's [Brainhack Mattermost request](https://mattermost.brainhack.org/brainhack/pl/ybgs4ogw7pyrbccdg54wjhowoh) about BIDS representation
- Abstracts Sept 29
- Event: Dec 8-11
- See if Yarik can sync up with Cyril/Franco
- point him ~July 31 [prior chatter from mattermost](https://mattermost.brainhack.org/brainhack/pl/qfpirk9roj86idunzaih3hn7ge)
- If it's a go, Christine will contact INCF, once we hear back from Steering
- iff it's a go, Eric to fwd Ariel's INCF2024 nego emails

5. [Copenhagen meeting follow-ups/to-dos](https://hackmd.io/JLMh7W-hQPWeKE3lNsEhcw?both#Action-items-from-Copenhagen-meeting)

| What | Who | Status |
| -------- | ------- | -------- |
| Datatype discussion / conflict resolution process | Chris, Yarik, Yahya | Merged into BEP process group (below) |
| Website stuff | Julia, Eric | Julia posted a new frontpage for BIDS progress |
| New Cryptpad form to collect Maintainer info | Nell | |
| Onboarding process new maintainers doc | Julia starts doc, then others add stuff | Could use input from Boris and Yahya |
| Validator metadata warn | Chris, Ross, Schema hack discussion | |
| Validator wishes from community | Chris made issues | Done (feel free to critiqueValidator metadata warn Chris, Ross, Schema hack discussion) |
| BEP process working group | Eric | Going to start a working group with Oscar, Yahya, and Christine (and anyone else interested) |
| BEP process dashboard | Chris | started a [dashboard](https://github.com/orgs/bids-standard/projects/19/views/1) |
| BIDS study idea | Yarik & JB & Julia | released in v1.10.1 |
| BEP 024 (CT) | Anthony, Hugo | Hugo not responding, can maybe push without Hugo |

### Homework

1. Add your comments on 2025 maintainer's meeting format to [Copenhagen Reflections](https://hackmd.io/JLMh7W-hQPWeKE3lNsEhcw#Copenhagen-reflections)

2. Respond in Mattermost to the question about OHBM and the BIDS Maintainers Meeting

### Maintainer Updates

**Please do only 1 or 2 small/important updates this week, if any at all**

- **Name**
- Stuff

- **Christine** (in and out this month)
- Synthetic data, how to flag. It's coming.
- GeneratedBy or new Synthetic flag?
- Provenance (and "GeneratedBy")... what's up with that? lots of activity from yarik and satra and Boris
- How's the meeting split going? And the note-taking?
- What would help West take notes on decisions and actions
- Synthesizing East updates for West folks?
- AI ain't it so far

- **Eric**
- Started email conversation about BEP process working group

- **Anthony**
- Election Nomination things are out, retweet, forward, etc
- Steering wants to automate BEP heartbeats/reminders, see Yarik's issues/PR's here:
- [BIDS Website Issue #695](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-website/issues/695)
- [BIDS Website Issue #694](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-website/issues/694)
- github notifications (like stale issues get notifications would be great to harness if we do BEP status tracking in GitHub). Isn't this for the BEP process working group? <- Yes, but in theory we could start now with automations and later be more deliberate with process following the working group.

- **Chris**
- BIDS v1.10.1 released
- BIDS Validator 2.1.0 released

## 2025 Sept 3 WEST (??? EDT)

Present: Chris, Anthony, Ashley

* Steering election mailing was done live.
* Ashley will be opening a PyBids PR to schematize it