VANCOUVER REGIONAL FREENET ASSOCIATION STEERING COMMITTEE MINUTES
OF MEETING April 20, 1993 Vancouver Public Library

*Present Brian Campbell (chair), Steven Chan, Stuart Herzog, Jacqueline
van Dyk, Phil Lyons, Sandy Mayo, Larry Kuehn, Mike Hrybyk, Derek
Dowden, Whitney Burgess, Gwenda Ellwood, Bill Andrews

*Agenda The agenda was adopted.

*Minutes

The minutes of the April 6, 1993, Steering Committee meeting were
adopted. The minutes of the April 15, 1993, general meeting will be
considered at the next Steering Committee meeting.

*Finances

-Forms are being sent for a MasterCard or VISA merchant account.

*Evaluation of general meeting.

-It was suggested that Michael Scott, the Vancouver Sun columnist for
community computing, might be interested in following the VRFA
developments.

-A UTV reporter, Michael Norris, contacted Jacqueline. She referred him
to the publicity committee.

-A media release will be sent out to announce the founding meeting (set
on the timeline as June 10).

-Attendance at the general meeting was about ten less than the first
meeting. About one third were new attendees.

*Strategic and policy issues

-Following a lengthy discussion, it was moved, seconded and carried that
membership will be restricted to individuals, not organizations. It was
noted that sponsorship rates should be flexible to allow the maximum
number of non-profit organizations to participate.

-It was moved, seconded and carried that the question of sponsorship
rates be referred to the Fundraising Committee.

-There was a discussion of large sponsors, providers of large amounts
ofinformation, and the FreeNet's relationship with commercial providers
of information. Larry and Mike were assigned to explore the issues.

-The name of the organization was considered. It was noted that the
formal name of the organization can be different than a trade mark or a
nickname commonly used. A question was raised as to whether changing
the name of the organization would affect the agreement between VRFA
and the National Public Telecomputing Network. It was decided not to
change the VRFA's name and that Bill would seek the agreement of the
GVRD not to oppose our use of this name.

-There was a discussion of whether there is a need for a separate
advisory committee for database providers, or whether the Community
Content Committee can fill this role. It was agreed to defer the
discussion until after the Committees receive approval of mandates by
the Steering Committee.

-It was agreed that each of the Standing Committees will prepare
proposed terms of reference, objectives and timelines for approval by
the Steering Committee at the May 11 meeting.

*Timeline

-There was a discussion of Brian's memo of April 6
setting out a proposed timeline. It was approved in principle.

*Constitution

-There was a section by section discussion of the draft constitution and
bylaws. Amendments were made to the first half of the draft
constitution. These are reflected in the revised draft attached. The
rest of the draft will be considered at the next Steering Committee
meeting.

*Committee reports
Each committee reported briefly.

*Other business
None.

*Next Meeting The next meeting of the Steering Committee will be
on Tuesday, April 27, at 7:30 p.m., at the Vancouver Public
Library. After that, the next meeting will be on Tuesday, May
11. The meeting was adjourned.