VANCOUVER REGIONAL FREENET ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS MINUTES OF MEETINGS June 7, 1994 Vancouver Public Library Present: Margaret Coates, Phil Lyons, Sharon Zaluski, Brian Campbell, Guy Thomas, Ann Doyle, Tom Hansen, Steven Chan, Boodie Arnott, Eric Yung Absent: Fritz Radandt, Jacqueline Van Dyk, Susan Pendakur Guest: Vic Vaivads. Margaret Chairs this meeting. 1.0 Agenda * Agenda was accepted with the following additions: - response to BC General - volunteers for CLA - Board positions - Treasurer's Report - Online Registration - Guest user access - organizing agreement Motion to accept the agenda with the above additions was moved, seconded and passed. 2.0 Minutes of May 10 & May 24th: * Minutes of both May 10th and May 24th was moved, seconded and passed. 3.0 Policy Issues: 3.1 Marketing Plan response: Margaret/Brian * Marketing plan from Victoria FreeNet was circulated. It may be a basis for formation of a BC Freenet. Fundraising from a BC Freenet would reduce the capacity of VRFA to fundraise. * Brian: what role do we want to play? * Ann: is this viewed as a community effort? * Brian: we (BC Freenet) would be the interface to the government for the community. * Brian: it would be good to have a strong provincial organization. Motion: (Brian/Tom) We direct Brain to inform BC FreeNet at its next meeting the interest of VRFA to build a strong BC FreeNet with a minimal of bureaucracy and a maximum local representation and participation. PASSED. 3.2 Volunteer Manual: Sharon * Sharon was missing some comments (not substantial) from Brian Motion: (Phil/Guy) Direct Sharon to move on with the volunteer manual as presented. PASSED. 3.3 Menu Design Guide: Steven * Eric: are multiline descriptions ok? * multi-line descriptions are ok as long as they are only in the IP's own menu structure, not the FreeNet menus. Motion: (Guy/Steven) That we accept the Menu Design Guide in principle. PASSED 3.4 Freenet Education Society: Brian * an organization to provide funds to VRFA with a tax number Motion: (Brian/Guy) That the VRFA Board approve the constitution of the Vancouver Regional FreeNet Education Society unless any issues are raised by the Board members by June 9th at 4pm. * Tom: clarify membership of VRF Education Society - Board members only vs. all of FreeNet membership. * Brian: only Board for purely pragmatic reasons. * a detailed operational/financial report to all should be made. * discussion amended the above motion to include "...and the tax receipts question must be resolved". Motion was passed unanimously. 3.5 Disk Storage Limitations: Vic * we are currently -600MB storage, since we are "borrowing" an additional HD from UBC. * the 4GB of HD space we have is not installable right now due to space (footprint) and power considerations. Motion: (Brian/Guy) That members be restricted to 500kb for messages and files and that Board members be allowed twice that. PASSED. 3.6 Opening: Brian * some discussion about "soft" openings, and possible dates. Motion: (Brian/Boodie) That we have the public opening on June 28th by opening the guest user account/registration process and that the "official" opening of the FreeNet be on September 16th. This motion was amended from "on September 16th" to "in the middle of September". * some discussion of the AGM on the same night. Motion was passed with one member of the Board opposed. 3.7 Operating Agreement with UBC: Brian * Steven, Margaret and Brian met with Mike * VRFA opposes the 2 months warning on software/hardware changes - Mike understood this. * additional charges - tariff schedules requested from UBC * only routine backups of the machine are for free. * we want to only respect the BC Net AUP not the UBC AUP. * $5,000 installation fee - to purchase connection and router - can this be amortized over years? * additional yearly fee to be determined was not acceptable to VRFA. * Dennis to provide detailed backup report to the Board. * cost summary: not including phone lines of $8,000/year + services bought from UBC - we'd like this billed per month? * Mike to email Brian about details * Brian: we're looking at setting up a modem pool at SFU Harbour Centre to hook into Ubiquity line to UBC * no charges from UBC to us for jobs thus far - official notification of charges will be made if needed. 3.8 Office Space: Brian Motion: (Brian/Tom) Official agreement with SFU to rent office space at Harbour Centre for $200/month and add a telephone line in for $29/month. PASSED. 3.9 Online Registration: Vic * do we need paper copies? * Eric: some legal opinion may be needed due to some recent crackdowns by the government on amateur BBS systems * Guy: legal opinion on removing "paper trial"? * Brian: "hit" users for membership during mailout - helps to keep paper trail Motion: (Tom/Guy) To defer the removal of the "paper trail" until legal opinion obtained. 3.10 Guest User Access: Vic * modified form of guest user access will be used to test this. Motion: (Guy/Eric) The approval of a temporary arrangement, if necessary, of bringing up guest users for read-only access to local-only information to the system. PASSED. 3.11 Organizing Agreement: Brian * we were contacted by NTPN and asked about our status. Paperwork will be to/from Brian about this. 4.0 Treasurer's Report: Tom * $13,111.93 in assets, including equipment donated in-kind. * "main platform" item on report only indicates Motorola donations * funds to Fritz for buttons & T-shirts - Steven has some in a box. * $10,000 donated from VanCity not included in report. Motion: (Tom/Brian) That we accept the Treasurer's report. PASSED. * Phil: should we add more phone lines? * Brian: according to Dennis, no more lines can be added at UBC until UBC moves some equipment. Motion: (Boodie/Guy) That a new budget be worked up. PASSED. * Tom wants the budget to be based on committees reporting back on projected expenses etc. 5.0 Board Positions: Brian Motion: (Brian/Tom) That we accept Fritz's verbal resignation from the Board PASSED. Motion: (Brian/Phil) That Vic Vaivads and Dennis Breckenridge be accepted as co-chairs of the Hardware/Software committee and that Vic be appointed the Board member with Dennis as the designated alternative representative in case Vic cannot attend. PASSED * Guy: are we working at recognizing UBC's contribution with this? 6.0 Committee Reports: 6.1 Hardware/Software: Vic * modems: we need an "intelligent" modem bank to alleviate current modem problems. * disk space - recommend we buy an additional disk drive Motion: (Brian/Vic) That we allocate about $2,000 to the purchase of a 2GB HD by the end of June if a donor cannot be found. PASSED. * guest user stuff covered. * menus - need to be revisited and double-checked. * partial news feed and news reader is working * voting needs to be tested - not a high priority. Motion: (Vic/Boodie) That we accept the Hardware/Software coordinator's report. PASSED. 6.2 System Design: Steven * we've covered all the points from Saturday's meeting by now * list of tasks were given to people, and stuff is in progress. 6.3 Fundraising: Brian * we got our first $10,000 from VanCity + other possibilities * turned down by Real Estate Board * Law Foundation, Legal Services grants are outstanding. * BC 21 has called Brian for more information * Darleen Mazari - agreeed to put VRFA on the agenda for the Vancouver MLAs meeting * BC Tel says they've spent their money already this year - we're following up. * Eric continuing to pursue HK Bank. Motion: (Brian/Boodie) To accept the fundraising report. PASSED. 6.4 Public Relations: Margaret * 4 people met with Margaret last week * Marion Goriak may be possible new chair for committee. * Jurgen will take care of the newsletter (electronically) and be the liaison for the PR committee. * Eddie can deal with the T-shirts * next meeting is on Thursday June 16th Motion: (Phil/Tom) To accept the Public Relations report. PASSED. 6.5 Community Content: Guy * Meeting on June 16th * liaisons to divide subject area up for personal responsibilities * liaison training and getting IP stuff is a priority and being worked on. * Brian: we need to contact Bill Andrews about the West Coast Environmental Law stuff. * Phil: offered to phone IPs who are endorsers to follow up - who to pass this to? Guy: To me right now. Motion: (Guy/Vic) To accept the Community Content Coordinator's report. PASSED 7.0 Membership Report: Tom (for Susan) * We have 50 new members for a total of 399. * Susan added 42 new accounts to the system for 242 total. Motion: (Tom/Brian) That we accept the membership report. PASSED. 8.0 Endorsement Coordinator: Phil * 92 organizations endorsed - 51 to be checked for contributions, 11 uncertain about IP status, 40 are clearly IPs * Eric mentioned that list of endorsers is now in About FreeNet area. Motion: (Phil/Tom) To accept the Endorsement Coordinator's report. PASSED 9.0 Volunteer Coordinator: Sharon * 2 hour volunteer orientations every 2 weeks so far. * going well - weekly meetings so far logistically not possible. Motion: (Sharon/Ann) To accept the Volunteer Coordinator's report. PASSED 10.0 User Training/Support Coordinator: Ann * interLINK libraries contact? Jacqueline ill and absent. Brian mentioned Carol Alder. * Silvia Crooks - offered apprentice program from UBC - some student time for FreeNet. Motion: (Ann/Brian) That we accept the User Training/Support Coordinator's report. PASSED. 11.0 Library Liaison: Brian (for Jacqueline) * attended opening of interLINK * some libraries offering opening lines on both ends for FreeNet 12.0 Other Business: 12.1 BC General * messages to be forwarded to Brian for "official" reply. 12.2 Board reorganization * Margaret and Brian will be doing more "overseeing" of the various committees in FreeNet, and have divided the entire organization in half for followups by them. 12.3 Volunteers for CLA: * BCLA and CLA will have a FreeNet table at CLA conference (at Canada Place) - we need volunteers. Meeting was adjourned at 9:55pm.