Minutes of the National Capital FreeNet Board Meeting held on 16 May, 1995 Honeywell Room, RMOC Headquarters, 111 Lisgar St., Ottawa The following Board members were in attendance: Scott Catterill, aa355 Julie Chahal, 2nd Vice President, ab161 Jessica Cohen, aa724 Brett Delmage, aa693 Rosaleen Dickson, ac174 Yvonne Dionne, ao594 Chris Hawley, ah654 David Loan, aa112 Richard Mount, aa009 Andrew Patrick, 1st Vice President, aa118 Dave Sutherland, President, aa001 Richard Taylor, Secretary, aa333 Stephen Toy, aa102 Absent: David Blackwood, aa332 Marc Labelle, ac078 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Dave Sutherland at 7:10 p.m. 2. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF 18 APRIL 1995 On a motion by Scott Catterill, seconded by Rosaleen Dickson, the minutes of the meeting held 18 April 1995 were approved with the following change: Item 8, IRC Restrictions - paragraph 2 should read: "...Dionne, that implementation of the aforementioned IRC motion..." 3. REVIEW OF THE AGENDA As the Chair of the NCF Newsgroups Task Force was absent, it was agreed that this item would be deferred to the next meeting. 4. REVIEW OF TWO HOUR LIMIT This topic was brought forward for information and discussion. Ian Allen, as directed at the meeting of 18 April, noted that he has reviewed the user data over the last few weeks. Data indicates that the number of unique users has not changed; that the amount of time spent on-line is down; that the use of the "guest account" rose slightly after implementation but has since dropped; and that the modems are open a considerable amount of the time. Board members noted that: "it has been easier to get on-line - reduced time limits are a success", "the implementation of the time limit has met its goal of accessibility during normal hours", and "that by increasing access, NCF has avoided becoming irrelevant". It was also noted that there is the continued perception that it is too hard to get on-line and it was, therefore, suggested that the availability of open modems should be promoted via press release. It was requested that Ian Allen begin issuing a standard monthly report which verifies how many modems are regularly free, the number of new users, percentage of unique users over percentage of users, and average donations. It was agree that this item would be brought back for discussion in two meetings time. ACTION - R. Taylor - Post time limit policy on-line. ACTION - I. Allen - Monthly usage report. ACTION - M. Anderson - Press release announcing easier access. 5. PROPOSED PUBLIC RELATIONS STRATEGY Mike Anderson reviewed and briefly commented on his draft Public Relations Strategy Document which was attached to the agenda for the evening's meeting. Following a brief discussion, it was agreed MOTION by Andrew Patrick, seconded by Chris Hawley - that the document be approved in principle but that further debate be deferred to a future meeting. CARRIED ACTION - Board - Commentary/suggested changes to the draft strategy should be forwarded to Mike Anderson and/or discussed on-line. 6. EDUCATIONAL SESSIONS FOR BOARD MEMBERS Rosaleen Dickson expressed the opinion that Board members should endeavour to learn more about the technology and software in use on NCF and that perhaps a series of educational sessions would be of use. It was agreed that the educational session on World Wide Web which has been organized for 5 June will be held as scheduled and that subsequent sessions will be fit into future Board meetings when necessary. ACTION - Board + M. Gray - Educational session 95/06/05. 7. REPORTS a) BOARD PLANNING COMMITTEE Julie Chahal reported that the Board Planning Committee has met and received a number of applications from people interested in serving as non-Board representatives. Discussion on-line is on-going. The next meeting will be held on 24 May 1995. b) EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE There was a certain amount of discussion around Item 2 of the report - Role of the Executive Committee. It was agreed that this portion of the report be amended to reflect the basic discussion at the meeting and that Board members forward any changes prior to the next Board meeting. The updated/refined version of the report will be reviewed at the next Board meeting. ACTION - Executive Committee - Revise the document "Role of the Executive Committee". c) OPERATIONS UPDATE The Operations Update was circulated by Lisa Donnelly and is available on-line. Ms. Donnelly highlighted the fact that NCF needs to finalize the Official Acceptable Use Policy as soon as possible and noted that a draft NCF Hiring Policy would be brought forward to the June meeting for discussion. d) FUNDRAISING UPDATE Gordon Pearson noted that the fundraising report is on-line. There was considerable debate around Item 2 - the Microworks/OnLine Ventures pilot project. It was noted that the Board has no official policy on this type of business arrangement, although it has agreed in principle with this approach in the past. e) FINANCIAL REPORT Lisa Donnelly introduced Jeff Bossert, the new Treasurer. The Financial Statement was circulated and briefly reviewed. Lisa Donnelly noted that the document "Financial Roles and Responsibilities at the NCF" is on-line for inclusion in the Board manual. 8. IRC TIME LIMIT ADJUSTMENT MOTION from Chris Hawley, seconded by Richard Taylor, that 24-hour-a-day IRC be implemented immediately on a trial basis. CARRIED ACTION - Y. Dionne - Bring an impact report on the effects of 24-hour-a-day IRC for discussion at the next meeting. 9. CLARIFICATION OF GUEST ACCESS This item was deferred to the next meeting. In the meantime, there will be no cutbacks to guest access. 10. NEXT MEETING The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 20 June at 7:00 p.m. The National Public Telecommuting Network letter was tabled for discussion at the next meeting. 11. ADJOURNMENT On a motion by Andrew Patrick, seconded by Chris Hawley, the meeting was adjourned at 10:05 p.m. 12/06/95 /kam