Minutes of the National Capital Freenet Board Meeting January 20, 1998 - 7:00 p.m. Held at the RMOC Headquarters 111 Lisgar Street - Richmond Room Ottawa, Ontario PRESENT: Jim Elder, aa456 JE Michael Mason, Secretary, an956 MM Colin Cantlie, ae866 CC Natalie Munro, aa966 NM Andre Vellino, Vice President, an386 AV Jean Wilmot, aa145 JW Jessica Cohen, aa724 JC REGRETS: Dave Sutherland, President/Chairman, aa001 DS Jeff Bossert, Treasurer, au025 JB ABSENT: Chris Hawley, ah654 CH NCF Staff Present: Christopher Cope, Executive Director, bz787 Sheila Alder, Administrative Coordinator, xx001 Yannick Gravel, System Administrator, xx136 NCF Members Present: E. O'Driscoll, Minute Taker, af995 Miranda Gray, ak717 Andre Ouellette, bf766 Robert Blane, dk565 1. INTRODUCTIONS Andre Vellino took the chair and Michael Mason acted as secretary of the meeting. Directors being present and notice of the meeting having been duly given, the meeting was declared to be properly constituted for the conduct of business. 2. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING The Chairman tabled the draft minutes, amended, of the last meeting of the Board held in December, 1997 which, upon motion made by Michael Mason, seconded by Natalie Munro, and carried, were approved. 3. REVIEW OF THE AGENDA FOR THIS MEETING An item was added under New Business: 'An Opportunity for FreeNets'. 4. OLD BUSINESS: a) 1998 Annual General Meeting Michael Mason reported that everything regarding the 1998 Annual General Meeting is going as planned and on schedule. The necessary newsgroups have been created and have been placed in the appropriate NCF menus. The deadline to submit motions from the floor is Monday, January 26, 1998. Final date to withdraw a motion is Tuesday, February 10, 1998. Director nominations commence on Friday, February 6, 1998 and close on Friday, February 13, 1998 at 20:00. There was some discussion regarding dates put forward for the Draft Motion discussion group closure dates. The newsgroup in question will remain open until late February 17, 1998, the date of the February meeting of the Board of Directors. At that time it will be archived and a new discussion group will be opened once the Board decides which motions from the floor, if any, will be placed on the AGM voting ballot. It was asked if a web interface will be available for use during the 1998 AGM. Michael Mason responded that the software is not available and NCF will make use of the current programming that it has used over the years. 5. REPORTS a) Treasurer's Report Jean Wilmot noted that the audit is underway and considerable work is being done to gather all the required documentation and information. Jean presented the highlights of the treasurer's report. The new wave of renewals are arriving in the office, however donations included with renewal forms are roughly 25% lower than the amount budgeted. Reduced mail service due to the ice storm could be one of many possible reasons for this. Donations associated with new registrants were significantly below budget as well. Year to date donations are lower than expected as fewer people donated than anticipated and donations dropped off one month earlier than planned. Under fundraising, auction monies that have been received and deposited are included in the December statement, with further deposits expected in January. Many thanks to all who organised and participated in the 1997 NCF Auction. The volunteer coordination expense line looks high for December, however this is due to the fact that parking vouchers for volunteers are purchased in bulk and billed by Carleton University in a single lump sum when in fact the vouchers with be used throughout the upcoming months. Note there will be some changes in the depreciation figures for the final annual report due to the recognition of hardware and software donations that have not yet been recorded. It was asked if NCF would soon run out of cash. Jean answered not at this time, though it depends on pulling in budgeted revenues in January, February and March. Mail strikes and ice storm may have had an effect and could have a reverse effect when delayed mail arrives. It was noted that we are not reducing the cash balance at this point, thus the cash reserves are holding. Chris Cope noted that e-mail renewals will soon be possible when made with a VISA donation. b) Executive Director's Monthly Report Chris Cope summarised the report: New member registrations continue to lag behind forecast. While the average donation increased to $21.90 in December, the average donation from new registrants is $20.82, representing a $6.90 overall donation per new member. The revenue from renewal donations is close to forecasted numbers. It was suggested that the report contain what was forecasted as an average renewal and the actual figure, which would make interpretation of the report easier. 193 new members signed up in December, which was slightly lower than expected. The prototype CD-ROM for both MAC and PC was presented by Chris. It will cost approximately $300 to buy the blank CD-ROMs that will be lent out by the Ottawa Public Library. Andre Vellino will work with Richard Bethell, ensuring the info going onto the CD-ROM is accurate and up-to- date. The Trillium grant has been turned down and we continue to wait on a proposal sent to the RMOC. Extended access program: There are ongoing discussions with Bell. The telephone number for the 32 lines from Mitel will be different from those NCF currently has. These lines will have a Kanata exchange which means that members who are long-distance to Kanata will have to dial long-distance if they chose to call the new lines. 1998 Birthday Party: Arrangements are going on nicely. Andre Ouellette has been doing a lot of work on the project. Chris Cope to meet with John Wildegust this week to help with the marketing aspects. Miranda Gray asked who is working on IP issues and what is in the works in terms of development. Some discussion on the Information Managers who were archived and Andre Ouellette stated that most IP's either renewed or set up a new IM. Sheila Alder added that Don McCallum and Donna Shaw are also involved, although Don has been greatly affected by the ice-storm. Per Andre Ouellette the next issue of "Info" will contain information for the Information Providers, all of whom are subscribed to the newsletter. Home Page Contest - Judging is ongoing, winner to be announced at the birthday party. 6. NEW BUSINESS: a) 1998 Birthday Party Expenses: Catering/security/cleanup/liquor costs- RMOC has been asked to help out with the costs. It was noted that the best plan would be to have the Board allow funds to be released for the expenses in advance and work out the details with RMOC later. It was agreed that Chris should go ahead with the paying expenses. Three laptops will be at the birthday party, to allow for demos, online registration and other miscellaneous reasons. b) "An Opportunity for FreeNets" As of upcoming federal budget in February 1998 it is expected that Industry Canada will start to focus on getting larger communities 'wired'. NCF should jump in with its expertise and take advantage of the exposure and whatever funds might result. Chris suggested making a presentation to Industry Canada. Some discussion about what the barriers are to getting everyone online - how many homes without a PC and how many PCs without modems or the software to connect; education, computer literacy, awareness are issues. Miranda Gray noted that connections in libraries will miss that part of the population who don't frequent the library. Some discussion on the concept of storefronts and how to educate people about NCF in particular and going online in general. Andre Ouellette suggested that a kiosk in shopping centres (with someone available to help out) would provide great exposure. 8. DATE OF NEXT MEETING: The date of the next meeting is February 17, 1998 at the St.Laurent Branch of the Ottawa Public Library. 9. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, the meeting was adjouned at 8:55pm.