Vancouver Regional Freenet Minutes of Board Meeting November 21, 1995 Present: Margaret Coates (chair), Ross Penner, Godwin Chan, Vic Vaivads, Penny Goldsmith, Nicholas Fong, Neil K. Guy, Stephanie Fletcher, George Lindholm, Larry Kuehn (secretary). Staff: Kathy Fournier Regrets: Mark Moran, Jennifer Higgins-Ingham, Lorne Gray. 1. The meeting was called to order at 7:05. 2. M/S/C That the agenda be adopted. 3. M/S/C That the minutes of the October 24, 1995, with corrections (correct spelling of Kuehn; amount of payment from Langara Student Society should be $6400, not $64,000). 4. Business arising: 4.1 Langara Student Society signed up about 200 student users. The Student Society is seeking to set up public access terminals on campus. 4.2 A meeting with VanCity will be held next week regarding access to the Freenet through their online system. 4.3 UBC contract. M/S/C That the Freenet pay UBC $7500 as provided in the contract for the network connection. 4.4 Staffing update. Jason Currell has been appointed as system administrator and Herbert Tsang has been appointed to fill the community upload position. 5. Treasurer's report. The Treasurer is out of town on work assignment. Maintaining the financial records is being contracted with a bookkeeping service. 6. New business: 6.1 Site relocation. A committee has been appointed to bring recommendations to the board on site relocation. The committee is Vic, George, Neil, Nicholas. 6.2 Staffing. A committee has been appointed to bring recommendations to the board on staffing when the current grants run out. The committee is Jennifer, Margaret, Lorne, Nicholas. 6.3 Freenet Future. A report proposing a future direction of the Freenet, prepared by Neil Guy, was discussed and debated. The report proposed ten actions, all based on a strategy of focusing on a Freenet presence on the WEB. The following recommendations were adopted by the board: 1) Consolidate our two Web page directories. 2) Enhance community content by making it our prime focus. 3) Encourage SIGs immediately. 4) Target high-profile IPs. 5) Streamline page update procedures. 6) Improve public access sites. Discussion of the remaining four recommendations will take place at the December board meeting. These recommendations for the December agenda are: 1) Institute personal Web pages for users. 2) Define the parameters for personal pages. 3) Use personal Web pages as a source of revenue. 4) Provide a directory of commercial sites. 6.4 Goals for the Freenet for 1995/96 (in no particular order): >From last year (not completed): * raise public profile * co-ordinate with other freenets * fundraising (budget) * effective use of communications services (e-mail, etc) New from this year's meeting: * establish a committee to deal with staff issues (including job descriptions, policy and procedures manual) * establish a functioning volunteer co-ordinating committee * move towards a policy and decision making board rather than a working board * a structural review of roles, responsibilities and accountability of Freenet committees * establish a committee to report to the December 1995 board meeting regarding site locations * set up a mechanism of evaluating various disclaimers re: FreeNet's responsibility regarding SIGs and other FreeNet sites * establish a means of keeping an eye on the legal implications of FreeNet's responsibility if there are libel suits because of information on line * establish a privacy policy * publicize our already existing acceptable use policy more widely (the newsletter, brochure, etc.) * create a user manual * create a new IP kit 6.5 Date of December board meeting. NOTE THAT THIS IS A CHANGE OF DATE: The December board meeting will be held on Monday, December 18, at 411 Dunsmuir at 7 p.m.