Minutes of the National Capital FreeNet Board of Directors Meeting held on 11 February, 1993 in the CAUCUS Room, RMOC HEADQUARTERS Ottawa, Canada 1. Board members in attendance: David Sutherland Chairman Andrew Patrick First Vice President John Ferguson Second Vice President Dave Loan Robert Pless Stephen Toy Warren Thorngate Al Seaman Tony Smyth Jean Wilmot Treasurer Richard Taylor David Blackwood Jay Weston 2. Others in attendance: David Hughes Secretary John Morgan Peter MacDougall Garth Graham Jocelyn Ferguson 3. The meeting was called to order at 7:10 pm by Andrew Patrick First vice president. MINUTES OF THE PERVIOUS MEETING 4. Dave Loan moved that the minutes of the previous meeting be approved, this was seconded by John Ferguson and passed unanimously. TREASURERS REPORT 5. Jean Wilmot presented a written report summarizing the NCF financial status as of 11 February 1993. A copy of this report is attached as Annex A. DOC FUNDING 6. Andrew Patrick presented the project request that will go forward to the Department of Communications for funding. At that time John Ferguson moved that David Sutherland be granted authority to sign the project request on the board's behalf, it was seconded by Dave Loan and passed unanimously. COMMUNITY RELATIONS COMMITTEE 7. Dave Loan presented a written report on the Community Relations Committee. He added that the actual expenses shown were did not include GST and the display keyboard rental and therefor are $300 low. A copy of this report is included as Annex B. 8. Dave Loan asked for funding permission for the following items: a. NCF Letterhead and envelopes; b. Printing of registration forms; c. Media file; and d. Public terminal refurbishment. 9. In addition he stated that the Public Access Committee was no longer part of the CRC and in future would be making their own representations to the board. 10. The consensus of the board was to approve the funding of these items but not to give the CRC it's own budget at this time. Ways and Means Committee 9. John Morgan presented his report stating that the application for charitable status was in progress and that we should expect to hear from Revenue Canada in 3-4 months. He outlined his plan of attack and asked the Board for suggestions, specifically for names of persons that they would be willing to contact. He then asked for clarification on use of the logo and merchandising which sparked intense discussion resulting in the following motions. 12. Jean Wilmot moved that the FreeNet Logo be registered as a trademark and that anyone could use it with permission of the Board of Directors, and that persons or companies that donate in excess of $500 would be allowed to call themselves sponsors. It was seconded by John Ferguson and after much discussion passed with two opposed and one abstention. 13. On the matter of merchandising Al Seaman moved that sales of any promotional item bearing the NCF Logo be controlled by, and sold only through the FreeNet Corporation, Tony Smyth seconded and the motion passed with one abstention. 14. Garth Graham made a presentation called "Beyond the Blue Horizon" that dealt with some possible directions for the expansions of freenets. Based on the complexity of the subject the report was tabled with the Board agreeing to establish an area on FreeNet to continue the discussion with all FreeNet users. A copy of this report is attached. SYSTEM DESIGN AND RESEARCH 15. Andrew Patrick outlined several points for the Board to consider on technical matters, the major points were as follows: a. Gandalf has been unfairly blamed for modem problems that were caused on our end. b. Guests will be restricted from viewing usenet news except those highlighted in the current menus. c. UUCP mail will be allowed to pinetree and ocunix with no internet visibility allowed. 16. Warren Thorngate pointed out that their were some interesting sociological issues arising involving the menu hierarchy, such as which organization is higher in the menu tree. He also brought forward a request from Gail Stewart to establish areas where postings would be restricted to one individual author, so that persons interested in seeing postings from one author on a range of topics was possible. The Board opposed this idea stating it was against the basic tenant that all users are equal and pointed out that by using the authors name in the title such searches were already possible in the public discussion areas. SPENDING PRIORITIES 17. Dave Sutherland outlined the spending priorities as 15 additional phone lines, a new terminal server, salary for full time office staff, payment to Case Western for the software, and reimbursement for Tom Grundner's visit. The Board agreed with these priorities and through a motion by Dave Sutherland seconded by John Ferguson the additional phone lines were authorized. ALL CANDIDATES MEETING 18. Richard Taylor outlined his plan for actively enlisting local candidates in the upcoming federal election to participate in discussion on FreeNet. He agreed to head a sub committee on the matter and asked for volunteers. ADJOURNMENT 19. Dave Loan moved that the meeting be adjourned, it was seconded by Tony Smyth and the meeting was adjourned at 10:45.