DRAFT MINUTES OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL FREENET BOARD MEETING 27 August 1996 held at the St. Laurent Public Library The following board members were in attendance: Julie Chahal, 2nd Vice President, ab161 Jessica Cohen, aa724 Rosaleen Dickson, ac174 Jim Elder, aa456 Rebecca Last, as006 Andrew Patrick, 1st Vice President, aa118 Dave Sutherland, President, aa001 (Chair) Richard Taylor, Secretary, aa333 Jean Wilmot, aa145 Absent: Jeff Bossert, au025 Nadia Diakun-Thibault, ab341 Yvonne Dionne, ao594 Chris Hawley, ah654 Natalie Munro, aa966 Andre Vellino, an386 NCF Staff Present: Lisa Donnelly, Executive Director, xx412, Angela Lukach, Development Officer, ag544 Sheila Currie-Alder, Admininstrative Coordinator, xx001 Roy Hooper, Systems Administrator, xx016 NCF volunteers/members present: Andre Oulette, Jean-Yves Fortin, Mike Mason, John Stewart Dave Sutherland called the meeting to order shortly after 7:10 p.m. 1. Introductions Nadia Diakun-Thibault, Jeff Bossert, Chris Hawley and Andre Vellino sent their regrets at not being able to attend the meeting. (Yvonne was on her honeymoon - congratulations!!) 2. Approval of the minutes of the 16 July, 1996 meeting Moved A. Patrick, seconded J. Elder PASSED without change. For: Julie Chahal, Jessica Cohen, Rosaleen Dickson, Jim Elder, Rebecca Last, Andrew Patrick, Dave Sutherland, Richard Taylor, Abstain: Jean Wilmot, Absent: Jeff Bossert, Nadia Diakun-Thibault, Yvonne Dionne, Chris Hawley, Natalie Munro, Andre Vellino, an386 3. Review of the Agenda No changes. 4. Financial Report (J. Wilmot) Urgent need to increase revenue. Discussion of immediate actions to solicit donations and to renew line sponsorships. A campaign has already started to ask regular members for donations. 9000 e-mail letters have been sent to members. To increase immediate revenue, Board members volunteered to approach specific former line sponsors. A. Lukach will send out a sample letter and names of contacts to use to approach sponsors. Board members will report back at next Board meeting. Brief discussion of improvements to login screen to increase prominence of line sponsorship. R. Hooper is tasked to make the improvements. 5. Fundraising update. (A. Lukach) Combined with previous item. 6. New Business a) Review of suggested Committee mandates 1) Development committee (R. Last) See proposed mandate on-line. Looking for a new chair for the committee. Suggestion that Lisa take the role of chair temporarily. Staff meeting tomorrow will reassign staff priorities. MOTION: That the Development Committee be given the mandate as proposed. Moved R.Taylor, seconded R. Last PASSED For: Julie Chahal, Jessica Cohen, Rosaleen Dickson, Jim Elder, Rebecca Last, Andrew Patrick, Dave Sutherland, Richard Taylor, Jean Wilmot, Absent: Jeff Bossert, Nadia Diakun-Thibault, Yvonne Dionne, Chris Hawley, Natalie Munro, Andre Vellino, an386 2) Executive committee mandate (J. Cohen) See proposed mandate on-line. MOTION: That the proposed mandate be adopted for the executive committee. Moved by J. Cohen, seconded by R. Last Discussion of items 3 and 6 of areas of responsibility. Are other aspects falling between the cracks? Relationship with Planning Committee is not well defined. MOTION TO DEFER: Moved by A. Patrick seconded J. Cohen PASSED unanimously For: Julie Chahal, Jessica Cohen, Rosaleen Dickson, Jim Elder, Rebecca Last, Andrew Patrick, Dave Sutherland, Richard Taylor, Jean Wilmot, Absent: Jeff Bossert, Nadia Diakun-Thibault, Yvonne Dionne, Chris Hawley, Natalie Munro, Andre Vellino, an386 b) Review of NCF Development strategy (committee of the whole) Open discussion including members present. Ideas for immediate actions were suggested and briefly discussed. L. Donnelly will summarize and produce list of tasks to be done. These will be brought to the Development Committee at the meeting next Tuesday (1996-09-05) 7:00 pm at RMOC Headquarters - all Board members are strongly encouraged to attend. Need to rebuild this committee. 7. Reports a) Operations Update (L. Donnelly) Will e-mail later. No other urgent items. b) FreePlan Update (Donnelly/Allen) Brief discussion of status. Board members agreed that FreePlan initiatives should be visibly implemented as soon as possible. c) Project Coordinator's Report (J. Wilkinson) 8. Next meeting Tuesday, 17 September, 1996, OPL St. Laurent 9. In camera session Discussion of OPL partnership. L. Donnelly asked Board members for a date for the final Board development Workshop. An agenda is also needed - Board members were asked for a list of agenda items. Aim for Board meeting in November. 10. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 10:15 pm. *** My notes for Board member information - will not be included with posted minutes *** Ideas for immediate fund raising: - Board members to solicit corporate donors. - ask for annual membership renewal with ID - eg personal cheque also has advantage of cleaning up membership records tie to start of FreeMail - ask members which they would prefer: send money or close down NCF (last resort) - challenge between SIGs (suggested previously, but poor response) - "survey" with answers tied to monetary levels - link to outreach programme - some parts of the community are still unaware of NCF especially francophone community - remind ISPs that NCF provides them with potential customers - explore cooperation with one or more commercial ISPs - "webbing" exercise - identify more potential donors - make users more aware of how much they cost NCF - report on their cost vs their donation level - information is available - pursue getting charitable status - public is aware this is possible - there is an impact on office administration - very careful accounting - need legal advice - need Board member to volunteer - improve receivables - donations promised but not received - improve signs around public access terminals asking for more donations - on-line auction this Fall - need more volunteers - fundraising gala - telethon - include demos of FreePlan on TV - or demos of how to use NCF on TV - push automatic debit option of donating small amounts regularly - make visible progress in improving our system - what can we turn on tomorrow? - show results of previous fundraising - increase pressure on active users to donate - change registration and appeal letters to say "you should donate" - call members on the telephone - most active users? - follow up to existing letter-writing campaign - press release/press conference on FreePlan - follow on from ONIP programme - DS will attend intro meeting