VANCOUVER COMMUNITYNET ASSOCIATION MINUTES OF THE 1995-96 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 411 Dunsmuir, Vancouver, B.C. October 9, 1996 The meeting began with guest speaker, Sid Shniad, Research Director for the Telecommunications Workers' Union. He spoke about access to technology in an era when social solidarity is being abandoned, creating a situation where being able to use the network is increasingly only for those who are better off in society. He described actions being taken by his union to awaken the public to the problems with this, and to pressure for government and CRTC policies which support universal, affordable access to high-end telecommunications and reject the wide-open market model. 1. The meeting was called to order by the president at 7:45 with a quorum. 2. M/S/C That the agenda be approved. 3. M/S/C That the minutes of the 1994-95 meeting be approved as read. 4. Financial report. The financial report was presented by the treasurer, Andrey Federoff. He reported that the financial report included a restructuring of the reporting of the previous year's revenue to reflect actual expenditure patterns. The expenditures over income actually received during the year were about $90,000, with the deficit covered by revenues carried over into 1995-96. The surplus going into the 1996-97 year is $21,000. The expenditures over income on an ongoing basis will present a serious problem for the organization if additional revenues are not soon achieved. M/S/C That the financial report be accepted. 5. President's report. The report of the president is attached at the end of these minutes. 6. Election of the board of directors. President Penny Goldsmith Vice-president Neil K. Guy Treasurer Secretary Larry Kuehn Past president Margaret Coates Community content Ann Travers Fundraising Jack Vickery Membership Greg Sturk Hardware/software Ryan Hung Public relations Susan Bryant Systems design Lorne Gray Member-at-large Carolyn Saunders Gil Evans Denise Bradshaw Two member-at-large positions remain vacant and can be filled by the board. 7. Staff report. Jason Currell and Peter Royce provided a written report on the major staff activities during the past year. 8. New president. Penny Goldsmith indicated that the VCN has a difficult position for the next year, but expressed confidence that the organization would succeed in maintaining service to the community. 9. Adjourn. The meeting was adjourned at 8:30. ******************************************************************* VANCOUVER COMMUNITY NETWORK ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT'S REPORT OCTOBER 9, 1996 The Vancouver Community Network Association, formerly FreeNet, has undergone some major changes, achieved significant milestones and encountered major challenges over the last year. For all the achievements I think that the last years board of directors, staff, volunteers and members should be proud. Among the accomplishments we have attained: 1) Achieved charitable tax status from the Supreme court of Canada through the continuing efforts of Brian Campbell, Bill Andrews and Jim Aldrich. While an appeal from the Federal government is possible, we are hopeful, this may not occur. 2) Moved from University of British Columbia to the Vancouver Public Library, with an increase in phone lines, increase in speed of system and decrease in some costs. Thanks to Vic Vaivads, George Lindholm, Brian Campbell and Jason Currell. 3) Organized volunteer office activities which has allowed staff time to be freed up to do more fundraising and other activities; 4) Obtained excellent staff Jason Currell and Peter Royce, to whom we owe many thanks, also thanks to our summer students and continuing volunteers, Chi Kiu Tsang and Makiko Suzuki. 5) Got our financial records in order with an outside accounting firm and tightened up internal financial controls. 6) Finished a number of projects, including a User Guide (see table for a copy), Help pages for IPs, new brochures, display boards for conventions, organized office space, built a training lab and so on; 7) Completed the Human Resources Development Project on schedule by completing several bench marks, including the job board which is now in English and French; 8) Restructured our menu system and moved to a lynx based system; 9) Upgraded our hardware and software systems; 10) Upgraded and integrated our management data base with the lynx system; 11) Put in a system for managing IP's with a volunteer base of support. 12) Upgraded and increased classes for first time users. We also attempted to build a secure and sustainable funding base and a firm organizational structure, especially at the board, committee, volunteer and staff level to manage the organization. But here, despite amazonian and herculean efforts, we were less successful. I believe our structural problems are due to board overload, inadequate support from the community, and some difficulty in managing volunteers needs and tasks. Over the last year we have tried to pull a fully functioning board together with varying degrees of success. At this time however, I wish to extend my thanks to board members who participated and met their commitments and obligations as members. Many thanks go to Penny Goldsmith, Neil Guy, Vic Vaivads, Andrey Federoff, Greg Sturk, Lorne Grey, newcomer Ann Travers and Larry Keuhn. In the next year we hope to do structural development through an Organization grant. This year we expected to result in a better functioning organization with clear goals and tasks for the next few years. Our Volunteer base is better organized and I believe happier as a result of the current staff's efforts. We expect this to continue. At this time I would like to thank all those people who have participated. Without you we could not have survived. Our biggest challenge last year and for next year is our ongoing funding difficulties. Most efforts at fundraising have been hampered by lack of support from volunteers, the provincial governments lack of support, and lack of a charitable tax status. While projects and most sources of funds have been tapped with varying success, initiatives to get support from the corporate sector and subscriber and sustainer support have not been successful. Membership drives have been hampered by lack of volunteer support and technical issues. Andrey Federoff may speak to this in the financial report. The present board of directors have been dealing with the hard realities of our funding base for months now, I wish all success to the new board in dealing with this issue. Finally, to echo one of the founding members of VCN and my predecessor, Brian Campbell, I believe that "community networks are as necessary as public libraries in achieving universal access to information and assuring that everyone has access to the possibilities of creating and sharing information and participating in the debates that take place online." Margaret Coates, President, VCN