MINUTES of the NATIONAL CAPITAL FREENET BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING held on 10 DECEMBER 1992 in the HONEYWELL ROOM, RMOC HEADQUARTERS OTTAWA, CANADA 1. Board members in attendance: David Sutherland Acting Chairman Dave Loan John Ferguson Robert Pless Stephen Toy Andrew Patrick Warren Thorngate Al Seaman Tony Smyth Jean Wilmot Richard Taylor David Blackwood 2. Others in attendance: John Morgan David Hughes 3. At 7:10 pm the meeting was called to order by the acting chairman David Sutherland, who at that time declared there to be a quorum in attendance. I . ELECTION OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: 4. The elections for members of the executive committee was conducted by the acting chairman. Their was only one nomination for each position and in all cases the nominee was elected with a majority vote. Results of the election are as follows: a. Chairman: David Sutherland was elected following nomination by Tony Smyth seconded by Dave Loan. b. Treasurer: Jean Wilmot was elected following nomination by Tony Smyth seconded by Andrew Patrick. c. Secretary: David Hughes was elected following nomination by Dave Loan seconded by Tony Smyth. d. President: David Sutherland was elected following nomination by John Ferguson seconded by Tony Smyth. e. First Vice President: Andrew Patrick was elected following nomination by himself seconded by Tony Smyth. f. Second Vice President: John Ferguson was elected following nomination by himself seconded by Warren Thorngate. II . AVAILABLE FUNDING: 5. David Sutherland stated that funding to date totaled $2120, which comprised $1000 dollars from community health,a further $1000 dollars from the Carleton School Board, 70 dollars cash on hand and a cheque for $ 50 from a private donor. This money is currently in his control but will be turned over to the treasurer as soon as an account is established. 6. Along with donations from the public future funding is expected from the Federal Department of Communications, the Catholic School Board, Carleton University and the Ontario Ministry of Culture and Communications, the Ministry has indicated that they would support an application for $120,000 over a three year period. Confirmation of this support is expected in mid January 1993. It is anticipated that the total funding from all sources for the first year of operation will be in the range of $250,000. III . SPENDING PRIORITIES: 7. After some discussion the following spending priorities were established: a. The first priority established was to meet the immediate needs of the Community Relations Committee in undertaking printing of the pamphlet and brochure by commercial means if volunteer services are unavailable and to prepare for the official opening of the National Capital FreeNet (NCF).This committee is to investigate costs and report to the board on its requirements. b. Second priority is the installation of more public access phone lines on the official dial in line, 780-FREE (780-3733),in order to supplement the four currently available. As many lines as practical should be installed prior to the official opening. Cost for each line is approximately $40 per month and takes five working days to install. c. Third priority is the purchase of a new terminal server, the current server belongs to Carleton University and is unreliable. A new server costs approximately $9000. Andrew Patrick is to investigate the purchase or donation of the terminal server. d. the last priority discussed was the purchase of office equipment to establish a more permanent environment for FreeNet operations. Detailed discussion as to requirements was suspended pending confirmation of funding. 8. From the discussion it was universally agreed that spending be limited to items or services that are not available through donations and that companies who make donations such as printers could indicate it on their product. Although FreeNet is not an advertising media placing a short list of benefactors in the introduction was discussed but no decision was made. IV . ACCOUNT APPLICATION PROCEDURE: 9. Andrew Patrick presented the latest revision of the Registration and User Agreement forms. In the discussion that followed reservations about the legality of the text and parental consent were voiced. In the end it was agreed that no legal text would be totally inclusive and that the current agreement was in the spirit of NCF. On the matter of parental consent it was decided that the intent was to inform parents that some offensive material was available without encouraging minors to look for it, and that restricting access to some areas of FreeNet was unacceptable. It was decided that parental consent remain on the form with minor wording changes and that a disclaimer screen be displayed prior to usenet news access. Community Relations is to develop the wording for the disclaimer screen. 10. The final decision was to distribute the amended forms after informal proofing by two or more members of the Board and review its impact in three months. 11. Distribution of the forms will be done in three ways, an online capture over NCF, pickup at public outlets such as libraries, and mailed to parties that provide a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope. Currently the completed registration forms will be forwarded to Warren Thorngate who will pass them to David Sutherland for creation of an NCF account. Persons that currently have an NCF account will be asked to fill out the new forms for up to date record keeping. V . NCF LOGO: 12. Jean Wilmot presented the latest version of the FreeNet logo created by the City's graphic artists. It was well received and the final decision and implementation was delegated to the Community Relations Committee. The correct spelling for FreeNet was confirmed at this time as " FreeNet ", with both the "F" and "N" capitalized. VI . FORMAL OPENING OF NCF: 13. Despite some concern that timing may be tight it was decided that the official launch for NCF would be at 11:00 am on 1 February 1993 to coincide with anticipated funding. The location will be the Rotunda of the Regional Building. The Community Relations Committee is to look after the arrangements including refreshments, invitations and a gesture to symbolize the official launch. David Sutherland will make available his list of contacts for invitations. 14. To facilitate information providers in getting their data bases established before the opening Warren Thorngate will be holding upload bees on the 9th and 24th of January. The workshop takes four hours and there are about 15 information providers in the stream. VII . OTHER BUSINESS: 15 . Warren Thorngate indicated that there were some problems with information providers data and that he did not have access to repair the problems. The decision was to give him access. Andrew Patrick to implement. 16. Dave Loan suggested that all correspondence originating a FreeNet for public use be vetted by the Community Relations Committee. This suggestion met with some opposition mainly based on the delay that would be involve in releasing timely information. The decision was that the board would review documents that required capital expense prior to printing and that locally produced documents primarily of a technical nature would only require proofing by the originator. 17. Andrew Patrick mentioned that some guests were using usenet news to cause some file transfer garbage on the system and recommended that guests be restricted from this service. It was pointed out that this restriction would also encourage guests to register on NCF. The decision was for Andrew to implement the restriction. 18. In order to facilitate information dispersal to board members Andrew Patrick is setting up a distribution list called "board" that will address all board members automatically on NCF. 19. It was pointed out that the system with some adjustment with support international characters which will allow for french and other language menus. Warren Thorngate is presently seeking volunteers to write menus in Spanish for inclusion on NCF, other languages are welcome. 20. John Morgan suggested that firms be approached to sponsor phone lines in exchange for mention on FreeNet. Decision on this matter was deferred to the Ways and Means Committee meeting 15 December 1992. VIII . ADJOURNMENT 21. The next general meeting of NCF is scheduled for 7pm,Tuesday, January 5th in the Ottawa public Library, 120 Metcalfe Street, Ottawa. 22. The next meeting of the NCF Board of Directors is scheduled for 7pm, Thursday, January 7th in the Honeywell, RMOC Headquarters. 23. The meeting was adjourned at 10:20 pm.