VANCOUVER REGIONAL FREENET ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS MINUTES OF MEETINGS FEBRUARY 16, 1994 Vancouver Public Library Present: Margaret Coates, Steven Chan, Susan Pendakur, Jacqueline Van Dyk, Guy Thomas, Brian Campbell, Phil Lyons, Fritz Radandt, Eric Yung. Missing: Tom Hansen, Boodie Arnett, Greg Buss. Guest: Janet Askin Meeting was called to order at 7:10pm. 1.0 Acceptance of the Agenda. * agenda addition of Fundraising and User Support/Training Motion: Jacqueline/Margaret: To add Fundraising and User Support/Training to the agenda. PASSED. 2.0 Minutes * access to poplar is currently not available to all board members. * Fritz to get Mindlink account changed to telnet account * Minutes to be dealt with at the next meeting. 3.0 Opening date: April 15 * 2 months (either the 11 or the 15 of April) * Fritz: under PR, will port on opening day activites. * discussion of Freenets across Canada participating * Info Rights week kickoff @ noon across the country with a simultaneous press conference at provincial capitols. The time is not yet established. * A saturday night event with presentations was discussed. * Brian: Monday - invite the press and dignitaries. The importance of this item is to stress that the opening date is 2 months from tonight's meeting. 4.0 Policy Issues: 4.1 Ombudsman - Margaret did not bring the revised terms of references. 4.2 Industry Canada - (Brian) * Gary Sherman has been approached for a $25,000 study of Freenets with a goal for being self-sustaining. This money is to be spent by the 31st of March. Brian was informed of this yesterday (Wed. Feb 15th). * Brian: There is a BC Freenet phone conference at 4pm tomorrow (Thur. Feb. 17) to discuss this. * Guy: What does Brian want? * Brian: viability of freenet financially from paper. * Phil: does self-sustaining include government monies? * Guy: what's the scope of this study? Brian replies that it's within BC. * Steven: can the Terms of Reference be changed? Where is the money targeted? * Mike: seems like this is a "white" paper to be shelved. * Margaret: funding from where? Does it include commercial sources? Charges for information? Self-sustaining should not be via charge/use. * Margaret/Fritz: dont't want to be cut out of the loop as the report may be helpful. * Guy: How wide was the announcement and who else knows about this? Motion: Fritz/Eric: To participate in the study and have it deal with our concerns with self-sustainability. * Margaret: More specific - "...that it looks at all sources aside from fee for service..." Unanimous vote. PASSED. * Fritz to help Brian with telephone conference tomorrow. 4.3 Canarie Proposal: (Margaret and Steven) * A handout was passed around. * Brian: why approaching non-endorsers? * Steven: necessary due to speed of acting - requirements are detailed in handout. * Brian: What do we get out of this? * Guy: do we have resources for quality display on VRFA? * Mike: good proposal - we need to hide backend system in proposals like this. Could the overheads be bumped up? * Phil: in long run we need to "bother" with this. * Jacqueline: libraries are not just IPs but are general access. * Mike: salient line item - BC Net costs need to be built-in. Motion: Guy/Phil: To proceed to Canarie with proposal. PASSED unanimously. 4.4 Advisory Board - Brian * Fundraising feels we need an advisory board with community clout. * some discussion on this was carried out. Motion: Phil/Susan: To setup an Advisory board with a high community profile, that supports the goals of VRFA and work towards these goals with their links to the community. PASSED unanimously * Brian: really help with Fundraising efforts. * Fritz: should this involve business people? 4.5 Board recruitment: * Janet Asking introduces herself and gives a brief overview of her credentials Motion: Jacqueline/Susan: To accept Janet as a Member-At-Large of the Board of Directors of VRFA. PASSED unanimously. * letter from Greg (Buss) stating his resignation from VRFA's Board. Motion: Jacqueline/Eric: To accept Greg's resignation. PASSED unanimously. 5.0 Treasurer's Report: * Tom is out of town and no report was given. 6.0 Endorsement Coordinator: Phil * 67 endorsers thus far, with 60 listed in the list passed around. Motion: Phil/Guy: To accept the Endorsement Coordinator's report. PASSED 7.0 Membership: Susan * 230 total members with 5 new members this last two weeks. Motion: Susan/Mike: To accept the Membership Coordinator's report. PASSED 8.0 Taskforce for Equal Access: Margaret * this was dealt with under the Canarie proposals and no new work to date. 9.0 Committee reports: 9.1 Hardware/Software: Mike * phone lines ordered * domain name "ordered" * Sun 4 from Motorola worked on * IPX - is shipping - probably run Solaris 2.1 and will run Freeport using the SunOS emulation stuff * Brian: poplar connections? * Mike to setup an account for Phil. Guy to handle logins for Margaret and Janet. Fritz via outside source. * 24 9600-baud modems next week from Cardinal. * Brian: we need an operating agreement with UBC and one with BCNet. Motion: Mike/Fritz: To accept the Hardware/Software Chair's report. PASSED. 9.2 Systeem Design: Steven * no new information * Need user registration and gopher for the next Board meeting 9.3 Community Content: Guy * SET-BC meeting with IPs not well attended by IPs. * training space needed - SFU Harbour Centre? * Mike: approach Mark Gendron at BCIT? * can we get some folders? (suggestions: Legal Services Society? Embossed?) * Gladys or other sources for document updates? * current list of IPs handed out. * Fritz: government info? * how do we stimulate the IPs? * Eric: more information like stats etc. need to get to IPs to "excite" them about VRFA. Motion: Guy/Margaret: To accept the Community Content Chair's report. PASSED. 9.4 PR Community: Fritz * opening ceremonies April 11-15th (Info Rights week). * Steven: we have two events: 1) a very focussed political event and 2) a community event. * Brian: CityPlan from Vancouver * discussion about a political event during the week * Mike: we're waiting on the machine * newsletter - for members - rough draft for next meeting * PR for disenfranchised my duplicate efforts of Equal Access and thus may require a member of the Equal Access task force. Margaret expressed interest in helping. * a letter to city councils should go out. Motion: Fritz/Margaret: To accept the PR Chair's report. PASSED. 9.5 Fundraising: Brian * new member to deal with service clubs. * meetings every second Tuesday (1hour) from 6:30pm room 312 at VPL * Cardinal modems mentioned. * Teresa - corporations widened. * Tom is dealing with BC 21 and the telephone company. * Steven expressed an interest in helping with the BC 21 stuff. * Phil: Sandy Mayo may want to be part of Fundraising * copy of VanCity proposal at next meeting. 9.6 User Support/Training * Phil - need to start now * organize meeting for next week (Feb 22nd). Meeting was adjourned by unanimous consent at 9:35pm.