MINUTES of the NATIONAL CAPITAL FREENET BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING held on 7 JANUARY 1993 in the HONEYWELL ROOM, RMOC HEADQUARTERS OTTAWA, CANADA 1. Board members in attendance: David Sutherland Chairman Warren Thorngate Jean Wilmot Treasurer David Blackwood John Ferguson Second Vice President Dave Loan Richard Taylor Stephen Toy Jay Weston Robert Pless 2. Others in attendance: David Hughes Secretary John Morgan Cheryl McJannet Eric Dormer Peter MacDougall 3. At 7:15 pm the meeting was called to order by the chairman David Sutherland, who at that time declared there to be a quorum in attendance. I. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING 4. A draft copy of the minutes from the 10 December 1992 meeting was distributed to all members present. Dave Loan moved that the minutes be approved, as distributed with Richard Taylor seconding. There was no discussion and the motion was carried. II. TREASURERS REPORT 5. Jean Wilmot reviewed the financial statement as of 31 December 1992, it included the equipment donation of the Sun Sparcstation valued at $54,900, 14 modems donated by Gandalf valued collectively at $4,900 and cash donations of $2,837. This resulted in assets totalling $57,737 , with an outstanding accounts payable of $200. 6. The treasurer went on to state that the NCF bank account had been established at the Canada Trust Branch on the corner of Bank and Heron roads and that checks would not be available for several weeks. The signing authorities for the account were established as Dave Sutherland, Warren Thorngate and Jean Wilmot of which any two would be required to authorize expenditures. 7. Dave Sutherland indicated that the bill for the first four phone lines of $500 had been received requiring timely payment and that CASE Western had requested $850 for the Freeport software and that they would wait until the NCF cash on hand had stabilized. III. SPENDING AUTHORITY 8. It was moved by Dave Sutherland and seconded by John Ferguson that the executive committee be granted the authority to make expenditures of $500 on behalf of the Board. The discussion that followed clarified that such expenditures would have to be of a one time nature and not represent recurring financial commitments. The motion was carried. IV. COMMITTEE REPORTS 9. Community Relations Committee: Dave Loan reported that the CRC had already sent out 20 national media kits, for the official launch and that the 40 local kits would be delivered in the following week. He further said that the 1000 pamphlets already printed were being well received and that arrangements for the printing of more was already underway. 10. Jean Wilmot outlined the preparations for the official launch of NCF. The invited speakers included both the Federal and Provincial Communications Ministers along with Peter Clark and Robin Farquhar, the later two were confirmed. Following a suggestion from Dave Sutherland, Dave Loan moved to invite Mr. Tom Grundner as a guest speaker at the corporation's expense, Jean Wilmot seconded the motion and it was passed. 11. Discussion surrounding the format of the launch concluded with the decision that Dave Sutherland would function as host and speaker and that David Hughes would assume the duties of overall co-coordinator with the CRC remaining responsible for format. 12. Jean Wilmot presented the CRC budget for the launch as follows: Catering for launch $600 FreeNet banner $300 Printing $1,200 Media kits $60 TOTAL $2,160 John Ferguson moved that the budget be approve as presented, the motion was seconded by Richard Taylor and carried by vote. 13. David Sutherland recommended that the NCF commit to four new phone lines in order to support the anticipated demand at launch time. In the discussion that followed he pointed out the corporation was receiving around $250 dollars a week in private donations which would more than support four lines. John Ferguson concerned that four new lines would still be insufficient, suggested a commitment of six new lines. Dave Sutherland moved that six new lines be installed, it was seconded by John Ferguson and passed by majority vote. 14. Ways and Means Committee: John Morgan outlined a plan to approach small businesses with a package containing pamphlets, stickers and certificates to solicit donations for telephone line sponsorship. Warren Thorngate moved that an expenditure of $1000 be approved for preparation of the packages, it was seconded by Jay Weston and passed. 15. Warren Thorngate summarized his efforts soliciting funding from The Eastern Ontario Economic Council by saying that in was likely that they would offer $20,000 dollars in funding plus expenses in exchange for training their officers in computer literacy. 16. Dave Sutherland pointed out that at this time no government funding had been approved although the Ministry of Culture and Communications had indicated that $60,000 in funding for this year would be likely but would not be in place prior to the end of February. A further $10,000 in funding is currently awaiting approval from the Federal Minister of Communications and Canada Post has approached him with a plan that would see $5000 dollars in funding to put the postal code directory online. 17. System Design Committee: Warren Thorngate said that the office was receiving between 150 and 200 calls a week and although it is only manned 4 hours a day the work studies students answer every message left on the machine. V. POLICY ISSUES 18. Vanity Registrations: All members agreed that vanity registrations would be a good way to raise funds but in the discussion that followed there was concerned raised that the problems administering system may negate any financial gain. John Ferguson offered to investigate the success of Cleveland FreeNet's vanity registration program and Dave Sutherland pointed out that there were some programming changes that Andrew Patrick would have to research prior to implementation. 19. Usenet News: Dave Sutherland passed around examples of News Groups whose material might be considered inappropriate for NCF. All members agreed that the material was in bad taste but the consensus reached was that censorship of the material was not appropriate and that NCF users should have access to all News Groups available through Carleton's Internet link. VI. OTHER BUSINESS 20. Robert Pless said that the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Medicine is interested in providing services to the FreeNet and asked what sort of information would be useful. It was pointed out that the Civic Hospital had already done some research in this area and he offered to contact them. 21. Stephen Toy indicated the public library access had been very well accepted and that he expected to be approached by Nepean in the future. 22. Dave Sutherland said that board member Tambrae Knapp had indicated that she was withdrawing as a member of the board. Two individuals present John Morgan and Eric Dormer said that they would be interested in filling the vacancy, since the resignation was not yet official the board decided to defer any decision until the beginning of the next meeting. VIII . ADJOURNMENT 23. The next meeting of the NCF Board of Directors is scheduled for 7pm, Thursday February 11th in the Honeywell, RMOC Headquarters. 24. The meeting was adjourned at 9:50 pm.