VANCOUVER REGIONAL FREENET ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS MINUTES OF MEETINGS January 24th, 1995 411 Dunsmuir Meeting Room Present: Brian Campbell, Phil Lyons, Vic Vaivads, George Lindholm, Margaret Coates, Ted Heatherington, Sharon Zaluski, Eric Yung, Eric Teachman Paul Ruiterman, Neil K. Guy Absent: Diana Guinn, Ann Doyle, Larry Kuehn, Tom Hansen. Guests: Lorne Gray, Michael Chan, Randy McKinnon 1.0 Agenda * added item 13.2 - UBC Contract Motion: (Phil/Vic) To accept the agenda with the above noted additions. PASSED 2.0 Minutes of January 3rd: * fixed typo of "mission" to "missing" person on the Web * in regards to the item of "Mailing-Lists" - Vic and Phil was under the impression that the motion was to adopt their proposal, not a blanket "ok" for mailing-lists in general. The text of the proposal follows: (from Vic and Phil) The VRFA shall have an "open" policy on mailing lists in order to add more sources for community-based information. This means that any member wishing to set up a mailing list will request that Community Content approve the creation of the list. Comm-content will forward approval to sys-admin for implementation. All mailing lists shall be listed in the Networking section of the VRFA main menu with two list-addresses and a short descriptive phrase. Any user may have their name added to any mailing list. Notes: List management is entirely up to the list-sponsors with VRFA providing only the mail list entries in a system file. The sponsor shall notify Community-Content of any deletions for abusive behaviour with reasons. Mail-list traffic would be negligible in comparison to the overall system mail traffic. * Motion in the previous set of minutes (January 3rd) is noted for removal until a new motion is made, or the former motion clarified. * Neil: There is no booth at the Women in View festival Motion: (Phil/Margaret) That the minutes, with the above noted corrections be accepted. PASSED. * At this point, a general introduction to George Lindholm (our HW/SW Chair) was made, as this was his first Board meeting due to illness. 2.1 Resignations: * Diana has resigned (via email letter to Brian) due to work pressures. Motion: (Ted/Vic) To accept Diana Guinn's resignation from the VRFA Board of Directors. PASSED. * Paul's status - he's moving on Feb. 14th. He intends to pass-on his role to another committee member and will forward a letter in email of his recommendation. 3.0 Policy Issues: 3.1 Mentoring: * all Board members should begin working with Sharon to cultivate "proteges" as stand-in/replacement/new Board members. 3.2 Mayworks/CoOp Radio: Larry absent, item tabled. 3.3 Human Resources: * we received $154,000 grant from Human Resources - requires a proposal to finalize (Brian and Margaret working on it). * this money is divided up as $20,000 for phone lines, and overhead. The rest is for 3 staff positions (52 weeks). - Positions are Executive Director, Unix System Administrator, and Marketing/Fundraiser. * we are obligated to get labour market information online for this, and between 20-30 public access sites. * Ted mentioned to Randy that there might be one potential site that only requires a modem. 3.4 Photocopy Machine: * A used photocopy machine is available from 411 Senior's Society and the office staff have asked for its purchase. Motion: (Eric T./Eric Y.) That we have Jack check on the quality of the machine, and purchase it for about $200. PASSED. Margaret abstained from the vote. 3.5 Expanded Office space: * Brian suggest we obtain one additional office space, directly across from our existing facilities, and that we obtain legal access to the basement for storage/workspace. Motion: (Phil/Ted) That we acquire one additional office space and legal access to the basement of 411 Senior's Centre. PASSED. Margaret abstained from the vote. 3.6 New Phone Lines: * a posting to van.general and bc.general should be made about our new phone numbers. * our new pool of modems is up and running * Vic: recommendation from HW/SW is that we cancel the 222-4662 phone line immediately, and keep 222-4723 phone lines for 4 weeks. * some discussion as to the length/number of lines to keep 222-4723. Motion: (Vic/Ted) That we revisit the phone situation of 222-4723 within two weeks. If the number of calls to the lines lower, then we will look to reduce the pool to four lines. PASSED. 3.7 User Time Limits: * Vic: with out new reliable modems, we should revisit the time limit that users have, and it is suggested that we increase the time limit to 1 hour. * Eric Y: One possible membership perk be that they have increased time online as most other FreeNets offer? * Phil: no priviledges should be granted for paid membership. Suggestion that we make more "download" of information features. * Margaret: 45 minutes online instead of 1 hour? * Brian: some peak-time vs. time limit scheme? Motion: (Vic/Ted) That User time online be increased to one hour and that a proportional increase be made for working volunteer and staff accounts. PASSED. * Eric T: If there is no increase, then more users are able to get online and less "busy" signal complaints. * Lorne: We get about 25 applications/day in the office * Michael: the number of lines that we "inactive" in the previous pool affects the order of magnitude of our new lines. 4.0 Committee Reports: 4.1 Hardware/Software * routers and the new lines are working now * wiring office is going ahead, and being explored * we need a new machine for additional capacity * George: memory upgrade? We have 32Mb, but possibly 64Mb needed - George delegated to investigate and report to Operations Committee. * we require a finance committee meeting to see what our financial state is and whether we can afford to outright buy the hardware we need. * Phil: Telephone Pioneers group to help with wiring office Motion: (Eric Y./Phil) That the three library lines be set aside on off-hours for the use of the Information Upload people. PASSED. 4.2 System Design: (report posted via email) * offline reader is under work 4.3 Fundraising: * 70 letters sent out, 2 letters received so far. ($100 from United Way) * Buy 'N Sell has approached us for: 1) sponsoring a line (both ways) and 2) section of Freenet for free classifieds. * Science World wants a public access terminal * after some discussion, Ted was told to proceed in investigating both Science World and Buy 'N Sell for their committment to us, and for more details. * Public access terminals: Who's responsible? - staff? Decision was that we will make it the work of a staff person until the Strategic Planning Session. * A note that Margaret has not resigned as the Equal Access chair. 4.4 Public Relations: * our new brochure was shown * our Computer Paper ad was displayed - possibility of an Article for next issue with our new phone numbers. * info@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca needed to be created. Some discussion about who is to monitor this, but no clear resolution. * help pages (with new address), membership cards, etc. displayed * WWW update * Women in View online (on both FreePort and WWW pages). 4.5 Community Content: (report distributed) * meeting on Thursday, Jan. 26th at 411 Senior's. * use of library lines already clarified. 5.0 Volunteer Coordinator's Report: * meeting last Saturday * update to volunteer descriptions needed. 6.0 Labour Liaisons: (report posted via email) * Larry absent, but table discussion indicated that Larry should proceed and pursue all items in report. 7.0 User Training: Ann absent 8.0 User Support: * Paul and Michael are condensing the Help Desk mail to Public Relations for the creation of a FAQ. 9.0 Library Liaison: Diana absent 10.0 Treasurer's Report: Tom absent, no financial statement. 11.0 Membership Report: * we have 2 new volunteers for the membership drive (meeting on Thursday) * Jack to get a filedump of user database from Vic * 3396 users, 1265 members to date. * 225 memberships expired by end of January - first a letter then a phone call. 12.0 Vice-President's Report: * we've hired two new Section 25 people starting today (hired Saturday) * Legal Services - workshop needed, planning in progress * Presentation to Labour Career Market group * public site at 411 Senior's Centre being explored * there will be a meeting with all hired staff at 4:30pm on Mondays for Brian and Margaret. * Operations Meeting this evening: deal with resignations and staff hired to date. 13.0 Other Business: 13.1 Strategic Planning Session: * tentative date Feb. 25th 10am. A place to be decided/announced. 13.2 UBC Contract: * UBC contract is now with Brian and a synopsis will be sent to the Board via email. * letterhead: Brian thinks our new letterhead needs more work, and some possibilities should be take to the Operations Meeting on Monday. Meeting was adjourned at 9:30pm.