Vancouver Community Network
Board Meeting Minutes - September 25, 2000

Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Vancouver Community Network, Board
of Directors, held on Tuesday, September, 25, 2000 at 6:30 P.M. in the
Boardroom, 411 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver, BC.

Present:  Jason Currell, Alison Curtis, Lyle Gardiner, Penny Goldsmith,
Sujay    Nazareth, Jonn Olldym, Sadia Ramirez, Richard Songhurst, Richard
Smith,  Greg Sturk
Staff:  Steven Chan, Peter Royce
Absent:  Michael Gurstein, Suzanne Klinga
Chair:  Alison Curtis Secretary: Greg Sturk

1) Motion to accept the agenda, M/S/C.

2) Minutes of July 25, 2000 accepted with amendments.

3) Financial report/budget discussion deferred
Peter noted we are presently working on the budget, on the staffing
required and basing the budget on moneys assured rather than projected.
The VCN will be audited this year, and the auditor wants the books done
before the AGM.

4) Staff reports Coordinator's Board Report, and Volunteer Coordination -
Activities, given and received. Peter noted some highlights: Morgan has
been hired for one month, starting September 8. Motion to extend hiring
for another month for the VolNet project, M/S/C. The VolNet project is
speeding up with 112 groups and anticipating another 59 more. A lot of
time is being spent on Involve BC which will require a full time technical
volunteer. The Cap project is unlikely to fly. The efforts to sign-up
students at Langara have been slow, we have low numbers and the feeling is
that most students are pre-occupied with courses and already have internet
access at home. A nice piece of news is that the recent issue of the
Georgia Straight labeled the VCN as: "Best example of information-highway
Robin Hoods". Steven has made some changes to improve both the eyes and
the ears of the VCN. The "ears" are the web-based bulletin board which has
been set-up to collaborate together policy, discussions and staff activity
reports and provide a gateway to the Request Tracking System. It is
expected that it will be an all encompassing device for staff to keep a
history of the organization. It is possible to build in different levels
of access with password protection for different groups. The Request
Tracking System now receives all email and puts it into a database with a
date-stamp and serial number. It records who resolved the issue and keeps
a record of how soon. Mail previously intended for sys-admin, web-admin,
volunteers, help messages and also internal lab maintenance are all in the
system. This is an Open Source web based toll for Web administration and
has its own web server just for staff. Steven is developing instruction
sheets. It is possible with the system that we could do "root access"
things like change passwords and mail lists. Currently there is a team of
6 volunteers working on 3 separate projects: CAP, an office network and
integrating the user database.

5) Committee reports
i)Personnel Committee Report
Penny noted that the personnel committee has made changes to the staff
manual effective September 2000, clarified the issue of overtime and
revised
the amount for staff development.
Motion to accept the staff manual changes, M/S/C.

ii)Web Committee Report
In a web committee meeting we decided that the VCN help pages were a
priority. Steven created a directory on-line so volunteers can post web
pages for review and we currently have several volunteers working on the
help page content. In the future we would like to see a more dynamic front
page and web pages based on a bulletin board system. The Request Tracking
System should help with emails. 

iii)Nomination Committee Report 
The committee is actively canvassing candidates with 6 potential
candidates in review. There are two current Board members that may not be
returning. The committee will meet shortly to discuss candidates.

6) Board of Directors liability insurance
Motion to acquire insurance, M/S/C.

7) Group Services
i) Charges - tabled until the next Board meeting
ii) Group email services - tabled until the next Board meeting
iii) Buying extra group phone lines
There have been concerns raised about the busy phone lines for the group
communication-line pool. Comments were that: we meter the time being used,
look at an ADSL solution for the heavy users, that we not cut the time or
monitor group use because the contract says unlimited time, and that we
educate users as to practical solutions. Motion, to install a further
modem pool and T1 communication line, costs would be $1229 / month +
installation about $2000, M/S/C.

8) VCN application to become a .ca domain name registrar The VCN has 24
groups with the designation CA that have to be registered before November
1, 2000. We are trying to be a registrar; there are time lines and fees
involved. The VCN would be a non-profit alternative. Comments were that it
might be cheaper for non-profits to go with a larger commercial carrier.
It was suggested that companies are dropping their prices if it includes
web hosting. Noted that it would be a surprise if our registration service
does not grow. Noted that the technical process is easy and economically
feasible, and without the service, groups may feel obliged to go
elsewhere. Motion that the VCN apply for Registrar status with the CIRA,
M/S/C, with 2 abstentions. Motion that the VCN continue to register, setup
and/or transfer, and take on the role of technical contact for any
non-profit community group that wishes to have or has a domain name, in
the .ca, .org, .com domains, M/S/C. The service costs the VCN will charge,
tabled for further discussion.

9) The Annual General Meeting of the VCN is to be held November 21, 2000.
The next meeting of the Board is to be October 24 so as not to conflict
with Halloween.

10) No other business