VANCOUVER REGIONAL FREENET ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS MINUTES OF MEETINGS March 7, 1995. 411 Dunsmuir Meeting Room Present: Brian Campbell, Phil Lyons, Eric Yung, Tom Hansen, George Lindholm, Eric Teachman, Claire Toynbee, Ted Heatherington. Absent: Margaret Coates, Vic Vaivads, Larry Kuehn, Neil K. Guy, Sharon Zaluski Guests: Stephen Gauer, Lorne Gray. 1.0 Agenda * added Computer Fest (3.6) 2.0 Minutes * Minutes deferred, as Board complained about not receiving them. 2.1 Paul Ruiterman's Resignation Motion: (Tom/Phil) To accept Paul Ruiterman's resignation from the Board of Directors. PASSED 2.2 Ann Doyle's resignation: Stephen introduced himself as Ann's elected replacement for the User Training coordinator. Motion: (Phil/Eric) To accept Ann Doyle's resignation from the Board of Directors. PASSED Motion: (George/Eric Y.) To accept Stephen Gauer as the new Chair of of User Training committee. PASSED 3.0 Policy Issues 3.1 Office Software: (handout of policy distributed) * concern that software in the VRFA office should be examined for site licenses and ensure that all software complies with software publishers' licenses. * concern raised about possible costs of shareware registrations, while there was a feeling that the larger corporations may be persuaded for site licenses/software donations. Motion: (Tom/Eric T.) That we adopt the VRFA software policy as outlined by Claire Toynbee. PASSED. 3.2 Long Term Sustainability: * some discussion of a renewal of the Freenet account on a yearly basis, so that people will be forced to contact us and hopefully financially support VRFA. * Howard Hunchak's discussion paper on financial possibilites was discussed. Some concerns that if this was a global discussion paper, that the bulk of the suggestions were towards membership goals, and lacking suggestions other than membership. * concerns about the status of the membership drive prior to this discussion. 3.3 BC FreeNet: * concern that Gary Sherman has not replied to Eric Y.'s email about calling an Annual General Meeting * Brian stated that Motion: (Eric Y./Phil) That Brian, as VP BBC Freenet and Pres. VRFA be directed to call a BC FreeNet AGM if no further word from Gary et al. by March 21st. PASSED. 3.4 UBC Contract: * Tom met with Dave Amos at UBC * discussion of differences between the draft (1.6) from UBC and the draft (1.4) approved thusfar by the VRFA Board. * concerns were raised about the fee structure proposed by UBC - that we are being charged on a cost-recovery basis, unlike the partnership and assistance from UBC as originally envisioned. * operator-assistance should be spelled out for 24-hour assistance based on a "standard" UCS support services. Motion: (Eric Y./Phil) That we renegotiate the draft proposal from UBC for more favourable terms and bring back a final version for Board approval at the next Board meeting. 3.5 Federal Government grant: * hopefully finalized this week - paperwork generated by Brian and Margaret and forwarded. 3.6 ComputerFest: * Vancouver PC User's Society has invited VRFA to join them in the table exhibit area - the exhibit area is free, but a phone line is $90. * exhibition is at the PNE forum from March 17-19 * interest was expressed by Eric T. on behalf of membership if sufficient volunteers could be found. * possible opportunity to participate in an Internet presentation over the 3 days. Motion: (Claire/Stephen) That VRFA officially participate in the User Group area of the ComputeFest in cooperation with Vancouver PC User's Group. PASSED. * Claire to work with Stephen to arrange an orientation session and materials. Eric T. and Lorne Gray to pull together volunteers for this event. * Eric Y. to work on a one-page handout for the event to raise the community profile of VRFA. * at this point, Brian warned that he's had some communications with BC Tel and that we should be prepared for increased phone line charges. 4.0 Committee Reports: 4.1 Public Relations: Neil absent 4.2 Community Content: * report was distributed. * the Board requested that the IP upload people prepare a list of new organizations online to report to the Board. * Lorne has requested that a "Whats New" area be added - discussion focussed around our current facilities and an "uninterruptable" facility Motion: (Phil/George) That a new menu option be added to the main menu to include "Whats New". PASSED. 4.3 Hardware/Software: * Tom to work with George to straighten out the financial paperwork around the new memory upgrade to the IPX. * concern raised about mail problems - George reported that we're having problems with the sendmail daemon. 4.4 System Design: * Vic absent, George updated us on the "computer break-in" from last week. 4.5 Fundraising: * $2000 in subscriptions in the last month * Ted to coordinate with Claire for software licenses * Ted to work on the mission statement for proposals (vis-a-vis Sun Micro Systems etc.) 5.0 Treasurer's Report: * we have $78,584.06 on deposit, but we have liabilities, bringing our surplus of only $39,895.60. Motion: (Ted/Phil) To accept the Treasurer's Report. PASSED. 6.0 Vice-President's Report: Margaret absent 7.0 Membership Coordinator's Report: * 4367 users, 1462 members, 230 are expired to the end of February. * also planning to target the 100 "most used" accounts. * priority of the coomittee is to target the expired accounts for new memberships. * Eric T. to put up a membership drive "posting" for inclusion in various menus online. 8.0 Volunteer Coordinator's Report: Sharon absent 9.0 Labour Liaison's Report: Larry absent 10.0 User Training Coordinator's Report: * 2 training sessions carried out, and we require new trainers/volunteers to expand the process. * Brian suggested that Eric Y. coordinate to ensure one Board member to each orientation session. 11.0 User Support Coordinator's Report: * Michael Chan is the key volunteer for the Help Desk, and Claire has met with him to discuss getting more people to help with the Help Desk. * concern that the microcomputer support has been carried out thus far by the hired staff, and this is being worked on. * further discussion required about the Microcomputer support role. Motion: (Claire/Ted) That the VRFA join the Association of Personal Computer Users' Groups, at the rate of $25US/annum. PASSED. 11.1 Request for software budget: * this item has been tabled for a future meeting. 12.0 Public Liaison's report: 13.0 Other Business: * Eric T. asked about clarification of the legal aspects. Meeting adjourned at 9:05pm.