VCN will be closed on Friday, April 14, 2017 and Monday, April 17, 2017.
VCN will re-open on Tuesday, April 18, 2017 at 10am.
News
VCN Annual General Meeting Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 5:30pm (registration at 5pm)
Posted February 9, 2017 by .
Hello VCN members and guests!
This is your notice for VCN’s Annual General Meeting. Please join us!
When: at 5:30 pm (registration at 5:00) on Thursday, February 23, 2017
Where: the 5th floor, 111 West Hastings Street (Woodward’s Building) Vancouver BC V6B 1H4
Pizza and light refreshments will be provided.
Everyone is welcome to the meeting. As a reminder – only VCN members are permitted to vote.
If you have not already renewed your membership, please be ready to do so at the event.
The membership cost is $15.00 per year.
As always, if you pay $25 or more, we are able to issue a Charitable Tax receipt for $25.
An informal discussion after the business of the AGM is open for member’s information, feedback and direction.
To make the most of the time we have, please reply to this email to RSVP and respond with any VCN relevant discussion questions you have. While the board and staff will make it a priority to answer every question, we will only have time to fully discuss the top few questions sent or submitted at registration.
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Registration and Refreshments: 5:00 pm
Agenda
1. Call to order 5:30 pm
2. Approval of Agenda
3. Approval of Minutes of the previous AGM 2016
4. President’s Report
5. Staff Report on current programs
6. Presentation of the Financial Statements
7. Appointment of Accounting Firm to Perform the Annual Review Engagement
8. Volunteer Recognition
9. Nominations and Election of Directors
10. Other Business
11. Adjourn
Question and Answer Period – ending not later than 8:45 pm.
News
VCN closed on Monday, February 13, 2017
Posted February 6, 2017 by .
VCN will be closed on Monday, February 13, 2017. We will reopen on Tuesday, February 14, 2017 at 10am.
Blog News
Brian Campbell
Posted January 13, 2017 by .
BRIAN CAMPBELL
By Penny Goldsmith, former VCN president
In 1992, Brian Campbell got together a group of librarians and other community activists in the lower mainland of British Columbia who started meeting to talk about the internet and the importance of it being accessible to everyone. Brian recognized early on that a lot of people were going to be left out of this new online world unless there was a concerted and organized effort to make sure that that didn’t happen. In June of 1993, he chaired the founding meeting of the Vancouver Regional Freenet (now the Vancouver Community Network)
Brian was a leader in promoting free and equal access to information both inside and outside the library. He found a home for the Vancouver Freenet server at VPL. He made sure that there were public access computers devoted to the Freenet in the library and fought for them to stay there, even when they were being less and less used as people were starting to access their emails via commercial sites. He was instrumental in convincing libraries to make free public internet accessible across Canada.
Brian officially resigned from the Freenet board in 1995, but he never really left – he never left anything that mattered to him and that he believed in. He never stopped talking about universal public access to the internet and the ongoing danger of the digital divide, even after he retired from the library. In 2015 he was the recipient of the intellectual freedom award given out annually by the Canadian Library Association.
Brian Campbell died in December, 2016 in Vancouver, BC
News
Server issue resolved January 2, 2017 – January 3, 2017
Posted January 5, 2017 by .
On Monday, January 2, 2017 at 5am to 8pm the main email server was down due to a software issue. Some web sites were also affected. Web sites and incoming emails were restored on Monday, January 2, 2017 at 8pm. Emails would have been queued up on our backup email servers and would have been transferred to the main email server.
Between Monday, January 2, 2017 8pm to Tuesday, January 3, 2017 at 5pm there was an issue sending out emails for people using webmail and dial-up. That issue was resolved at 5pm and the emails queued up would have been sent out. You would receive a bounce message or error message if the email was not successfully sent.
News
A Brief Guide to “Phishing Scams”
Posted November 18, 2016 by .
What are Phishing scams and how to avoid them. Check out A Brief Guide to “Phishing Scams” at Youth ID.
News
Digital Inequality in Canada
Posted November 18, 2016 by .
“Humanity remains in the throws of digital infancy, however a stark difference remains between marginalized communities and those above them on the socioeconomic ladder in regards to internet access.” Read more about Digital Inequality at Youth ID.
News
Email server maintenance window on Thursday, September 29th 2016 between 3pm and 5pm
Posted September 28, 2016 by .
The email server maintenance will be postponed to Thursday, September 29th 2016 between 3pm and 5pm.
News
Email server maintenance window on Wednesday, September 28th 2016 between 3pm and 4pm
Posted September 21, 2016 by .
On Wednesday, September 28th 2016 between 3pm and 4pm, VCN’s email server will be under hardware maintenance. This maintenance will add redundant hardware to ensure services are active in case of a hardware failure. You may notice a short downtime during this maintenance window.
News
Spam causing email issue
Posted August 22, 2016 by .
During the weekend, VCN was overloaded by spam. VCN was unable to block the spam because it originated from a commonly used free email provider. Blocking the email provider would mean real emails would also be blocked. Emails were still processed but they were delayed. The spam attack stopped on Monday, August 22, 2016 and email service was restored.
In the future, VCN plans to setup additional spam filter servers.