Matrix Governing Board report, November 2026

The Matrix Foundation Governing Board recently met for our bi-annual meeting, so it's a good time to give an update on what's been going on, and what we talked about.

🔗Changes to the Board

This was our first Board meeting since the elections earlier this year. As a reminder, half the Board is re-elected each year, so in June we said goodbye to a number of previous members and welcomed a clutch of new ones.

Greg also stood down as chair after two years; particular thanks are due to him for his work and leadership which were essential in getting the Board set up. The Board elected Kim Brose, our previous vice-chair, as chair in his stead, and myself (Rich vdH) as the new vice-chair.

Since the elections, we have been joined by Reid Anderson as an Individual Member representative. Max, who had won this seat in the election, was unable to take up his seat due to other commitments. Reid received second place in the election and was therefore appointed to the seat by Amandine, as Managing Director, in consultation with the Governance Committee. Welcome Reid.

🔗Working Groups

It's been exciting to see the number of Working Groups continue to grow: we now have a total of eight fully-established Working Groups, with more under discussion.

Working Groups are where much of the work of the Governing Board gets done; the scope of their work varies widely, and they are generally open to everybody. They are a great way to get involved with the direction of Matrix; if you are interested in getting involved, just join the group's Matrix chat and see what's going on!

🔗Governing Board Meeting Minutes, November 2026

Following the tradition set down by Greg, I include a lightly-edited copy of the minutes from last week's Governing Board meeting.

• Introductions & admin
  • Opening reminder of approach and timeliness
• Committee reports
  • Governance
    • Working as a committee rather than a WG, as topics need a lot of shared context, though WGs may spin out later
    • Focus on the server maturity rubric and website integration. Discussion in progress.
    • Ecosystem Interoperability topic: stemmed from an invite incompatibility between Synapse and Continuwuity. Proposing a process to resolve similar future cases.
    • More contributions to the Complement test suite would be good, but are stalled on maintainer bandwidth. Interest exists on the Element side if others can help.
  • Trust & Safety
    • Room Directory WG: finished preparation work and is now picking up the community space. A moderation bot is ready, but currently waiting on approval from the Foundation.
    • Research and Documentation WG: found a mode of operation, with room moderation guide about to be published
  • Community
    • Events WG:
      • Organised The Matrix Conference
      • Sponsorship clarification discussion came too late for this conference, so a process is being set up for next year
      • Planning for the next conference is progressing
    • Related: Committee is gathering feedback on how the Board and Foundation present ourselves at conferences
    • Website & Content WG:
      • Waiting on the server maturity project which is part of the Governance Committee but is now moving forward
      • GB discussed options for handling LLM-generated projects in TWIM and on ecosystem pages
    • Public Sector WG is gaining traction
    • Homeserver Decentralisation WG is working on a technical solution clients can present during the user registration flow. Check out their Conference talk!
    • Widget WG has just started and welcomes members. Check out their Conference talk!
  • Finance and Fundraising
    • Three meetings since April, with discussion of cash flow and the Element loan
    • Feedback given on the profitability plan, membership discounts and loan agreement, some of it incorporated
    • The generic Fundraising WG did not progress
    • Certification WG proposal is coming
      • Interest in certifying experts and organisations, and in building a registry of Matrix service providers
      • Ideas to tie certification to membership, with a caution that this could affect those who can't become Foundation members for procurement reasons
    • 2027 plan to be reviewed in the coming weeks
• Foundation report
  • External environment
    • Tailwinds from policy, regulation and growing public sector adoption
    • A document on an open letter about the KIDS Act and the Foundation's position will go to the Board for information and potential feedback
    • Risk of fragmentation around MLS implementation and MIMI
      • The Foundation and Board can do more to help people improve Matrix together rather than build their own solutions
      • More SCT bandwidth may be needed here
  • Ways of working
    • Collaboration between the Foundation, Board and WGs has improved, though there is room for more
    • No immediate impact on revenue, but the non-financial impact is positive
  • FY26 year to date
    • Slightly under on revenue and slightly over on costs
    • Cash is healthy because of the Automattic Gold membership payment, which reflects the point in the cash flow cycle rather than overall health
    • Revenue shortfall is mainly memberships that haven't landed, including no new large Silver member
    • Conference expected to be roughly break even but numbers review is in progress
    • The Element loan is playing its role and cash flow is managed the best we can
  • Grants
    • FLOSS/fund has landed, and others are expected to target specific work (e.g. certification, privacy-preserving age verification)
    • Useful as a stop-gap, but something more sustainable is needed
    • Lack of dedicated Foundation developers makes pursuing grants difficult
  • Revenue and costs
    • Events should at least break even, ideally profit, without turning the Foundation into a pure events company
    • Looking at having Element's in-kind support only continue half of 2027, after which Element becomes a paid member
    • Number of membership is flat compared to last year, with 5 companies in the pipeline (including two Gold candidates)
    • matrix.org premium accounts are growing steadily, but more slowly than hoped
      • Break-even is the goal
      • Needs to be deployed to existing users
      • Blockers are process, client UX and capacity to handle the expected spike in support requests
  • New revenue initiatives
    • Direct fundraising, focused on companies and organisations that use Matrix
      • Wikipedia was cited as a comparison, with a caution that US non-profits face different public-funding requirements
    • Certification at several levels, via a new WG
    • SCT consulting, to be developed with the SCT
  • 2027 budget
    • To be adjusted for conference inputs and 2026 results, then reviewed with the Finance Committee and the full Board
• SCT report
  • Focus is on "Matrix 2.0", with no firm date, and at minimum Synapse and ideally other major clients than Element using it
  • Ongoing work on Trust & Safety and Project Hydra (a more watertight room DAG)
  • Feedback requested on more specifics in future reports and transparency on how priorities are set
    • The what of the SCT is clear but the why is less so
    • Community MSCs can sit in one status for a long time with no clear route forward
    • Discussion to continue in a Discourse thread
• Process discussions
  • Reminders of the process for onboarding new committee members
  • We hope to write better documentation for WG creation and management.
  • Suggestion for the Governance Committee to put together a list of items needed to ensure The Matrix Foundation is truly independent.
• Closing remarks

🔗Finally

The Governing Board is continuing to gather pace in its work, in both Committees and Working Groups. There's no shortage of work to be done, so do come and get involved with the Working Groups if you see something that excites you – or maybe even consider setting one up if you're excited about something that isn't yet covered!

If you'd like to talk to us, remember you can always come and find us in the Office of the Governing Board room.