Highlights of NCF Board Meetings, 1995 ====================================== by Richard P. Taylor, aa333, Secretary This is a brief summary of some of the highlights of the eleven Board meetings held in 1995. Full minutes and many of the associated information items are available on-line (go minutes). For the full text of the policies mentioned, go policy. February -------- With our phone lines overwhelmed by our success in attracting users, the Board decided to implement a two hour per day time limit on logins during peak times, and to create an "express" modem service on a small number of lines. This decision caused a lot of controversy, but it did have the desired effect of making NCF more accessible. March ----- With the Executive Director taking more responsibility for the operation of NCF, and with the election of six new Board members, the role and composition of the Executive Committee was debated. In the end, the Board agreed that the Executive Committee should remain as being the Officers of the Corporation and the Executive Director. The Executive Committee remains responsible for implementing disciplinary actions as needed and on recommendation from the "Complaints" volunteers. April ----- At this meeting, the issue of exporting "ncf" newsgroups was brought to the Board. The Board agreed in principle with sharing of newsgroups and set up a Task Force to establish the parameters of doing so. A Board Planning Committee was also set up, chaired by Julie Chahal. It was tasked with organizing and presenting a coherent set of objectives and priorities to the Board that have basis in the existing Mission Statement, draft material from last year's Board workshops, the Annual Report and Committee plans. Given the two-hour time limit, it was agreed to remove the extra time restrictions on the chat (IRC) service, but the implementation was delayed until the effects of the two-hour limit could be evaluated. May --- The draft Public Relations Strategy Document was approved in principle. 24-hour-a-day IRC was agreed to be implemented immediately on a trial basis. June ---- A Statement of Values developed by the Planning Committee was brought to the Board and was approved after considerable debate. Lisa Donnelly announced the switch to a new, more user-friendly set of menus. Board members thanked the Menu Design Committee for their work. July ---- On the recommendation of the Board Planning Committee, the Board passed a motion to implement increasing access to, and visibility from, the World Wide Web. August ------ The Board decided to appoint Rebecca Last (as006) to fill the vacancy on the Board left by Marc Labelle's resignation. September --------- Throughout the year, a lot of work went into the development of an Acceptable Use Policy. Finally, at this meeting, a draft AUP written by Miranda Gray was debated, slightly modified and accepted by the Board. Lisa Donnelly presented her Report on the Proposed Structure and Procedures for the Complaints Committee. This report was adopted with minor modifications. October ------- Gordon Pearson recommended that personalized ID's be made available as part of NCF's Donor Recognition Program. This recommendation was accepted by the Board. November -------- The Task Force on Exporting Newsgroups (reorganized since April) came back to the Board for clarification of some basic decisions. The following motions were passed by the Board: 1) Be it resolved that the NCF export some, but not all, NCF newsgroups. 2) Be it resolved that the NCF place site restrictions on the export of its newsgroups. The Task Force was requested to make recommendations on how to select which newsgroups to export and what site restrictions should be put in place. December -------- The Board Planning Committee brought a Strategy document to the Board and recommended that it be adopted as the basis for operational and financial planning for 1996. After lengthy debate, the recommendation was accepted by the Board. A baseline budget for 1996 was accepted by the Board, but the portion of the budget to implement new initiatives was sent back to the Finance Committee for further refinement. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1996-02-02