Vancouver Community Network Board Meeting Minutes - February 29, 2000 Minutes of the regular Meeting of the Vancouver Community Network, Board of Directors, held on Tuesday, February 29, 2000 at 6:30 P.M. in the Boardroom, 411 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver, BC. Present: Alison Curtis, SteveForrest, Penny Goldsmith, Lyle Gardiner, Michael Gurstein, Sujay Nazareth, Jonn Olldym, Sadia Ramirez, Richard Songhurst, Tom Hanson Staff: Jason Currell, Carolyn nantais Absent: Greg Sturk, Suzanne Klinga, Richard Smith Chair: Alison Curtis Secretary: Sujay Nazareth 1. Adoption of the agenda M/S/C 2. Motion to accept Tom Hanson as VCN's Treasurer (M/S/C) 3. Minutes of the January 22,2000 meeting accepted, with corrections noted and made, M/S/C 4. a) It is estimated that Peter will return to work around the 15th of May. b) Lisa Shabira has been hired for 20 hours a week as an Admin. Assistant. Volnet interviews are being conducted as Terry has decided not to renew her contract. A motion was brought to the Board to officially thank Terry for all her hard work on the Volnet Project (M/S/C). c) Industry Canada is offering money to hire youths for the Volnet Project. A proposal has been sent for 3 positions. 1 for an outreach/admin person, 1 for technical support & helping maintain our system and the last position is to develop our Help Pages and FAQ sheets. The total amount available for each youth is $4,160 per youth plus admin fees. Another proposal has been submitted to HRDC's Job Creation program for funding to hire a Volunteer Coordinator for 30 hours per week. Another proposal is being developed to InvolveBC to hire facilitators/trainers. There is about $75,000 available in funding from InvolveBC. d) BCNet has donated an Ascend Max 4000 unit. The office computers have been upgraded. Jason had to rewrite the Langara software, as there were problems with Sybase. New group lines have been ordered and they should be installed by mid-March. The tax receipts for 1999 have been printed and mailed out. 5. VCN has approximately $160,000 in cash. Over the past 5 months VCN has a surplus of $35,000. Based on the financial statements it was decided that there is money to hire an additional staff member. Tom is set to meet with the bookkeeper to reorganize the format of the financial statements so it's easier to read and understand. Motion to hire a Volunteer Coordinator. 6. a) The first year of the Volnet Project has come to an end. A proposal has been sent to Volnet to renew and sign up another 200 groups. Volnet remains satisfied with all VCN's efforts on the Volnet project. b) Steven is ptting in a proposal to UBC for partnering with VCN for lab use. There was a lot of enthusiasm at the community meetings. c) The deadline for the second part of Urban CAP is May 4th. Steven suggested that we apply for Urban CAP. Motion that VCN submit a proposal to Industry Canada for the second round of Urban CAP (M/S/C). d) We have been asked & included in the proposal to the Tri-Cities. There are some errors about VCN's role in the project. Motion to send a letter noting the errors in the application and correcting our position (M/S/C). 7. Sujay, Lyle and Michael were at the meeting of the S.F. Computer Commons. Nothing concrete was decided. Ideas were discussed on how VCN can be connected to the group. 8. a) $2,000 was spent on purchasing new modem cards from the $9,000 approved at the January meeting. There is a need for some skilled technical volunteers to backup Jason. b) There will be a web design/content meeting on the 13th of March. The website needs to be updated. c) A proposal has been sent to Industry Canada by the Francophone Federation. VCN has been asked to partner for technical services. Carolyn will present the board with a report about approaching other community colleges for Internet services such as Langara's. 9. There is a need for other ways to validate PPP accounts as people are finding it difficult to come in to the office. Jason will come to the next board meeting with a basic proposal on how to deal with this issue. 10. Steven wishes to go to the BCCNA conference. Jason will also represent VCN as will Michael. Motion for VCN to have a visible presence at both the BCCNA and the BCIA conferences (M/S/C). 11. The deadline for the Stockholm Challenge has been extended to 14th March. Michael thinks VCN should apply and has a chance to win. Michael and Penny have agreed to work on it.