DRAFT Minutes of the National Capital FreeNet Board Meeting 19 November, 1996 - 7:00 PM Ottawa Public Library, St-Laurent Complex, 515 Cote St. The following board members were in attendance: Jeff Bossert, Treasurer, au025 Julie Chahal, 2nd Vice President, ab161 Jessica Cohen, aa724 Rosaleen Dickson, ac174 Yvonne Dionne, ao594 Jim Elder, aa456 Chris Hawley, ah654 Rebecca Last, as006 Natalie Munro, aa966 Andrew Patrick, 1st Vice President, aa118 Dave Sutherland, President, aa001 (Chair) Richard Taylor, Secretary, aa333 Andre Vellino, an386 Jean Wilmot, aa145 Absent: Nadia Diakun-Thibault, ab341 NCF Staff Present: Lisa Donnelly, Executive Director, xx412, Shiela Alder, Administrative Coordinator, xx001 Roy Hooper, Systems Administrator, ad016 NCF members and volunteers present: Jean-Yves Fortin, Andre Ouellette, Mike Mason, Slawek Chmiel 1. Introductions Nadia Diakun-Thibault sent her regrets for not being able to attend. Dave Sutherland announced that he would be interviewed on the CBO Morning radio show tomorrow morning at 6:20 am. 2. Approval of the minutes of the 17 September, 1996 meeting Approved as written. Moved by A. Patrick, seconded by J. Chahal FOR: AP, DS, JCo, JCh, RT, JE, RD, NM, JW, JB ABSTAINED: RL ABSENT: ND-T, CH, YD, AV 3. Review of the Agenda The presentation of the draft 1997 budget was moved up to item 4a immediately following the presentation of the financial report. 4. Financial Report (J. Bossert) See Oct. 31, 1996 financial statements on-line. Note that any questions from the public or media concerning NCF finances should be directed to J. Bossert, L. Donnelly or the Finance Committee. a) Presentation of draft I: 1997 budget (J. Bossert) See draft budget material on-line. The following points were the subject of discussion by the Board: The draft budget is based on conservative assumptions of revenue primarily through donations from members when joining or at their annual membership renewal. A small amount of revenue from line sponsorships, PFAs and corporate accounts is expected to continue. Only a small amount of equipment will be purchased. Any further increase or replacement of aging equipment is not planned, but may occur from donated equipment. Increase in public participation is planned only via volunteer support. The question of increased outreach to the francophone community was raised. Staff reported that a $5000 translation grant has been applied for, and some policy material has recently been translated but is not yet on-line. J-Y. Fortin reported a lack of awareness of NCF/Libertel amongst the francophone community and noted that the Francophone Committee plans to publish monthly articles in local French newspapers. See also item 6a below. The question of seasonal variations was raised. We have generally found seasonal variations in revenue and have had difficulty in reconciling this with a constant budget. The membership renewal program is expected to result in more revenue towards the beginning of the year than the end. However, it would be unwise to increase our expenditures at the beginning of the year if revenue is expected to be lower later. The Finance Committee will attempt to provide a more realistic revenue model. To help us understand the potential revenues, J. Elder reported on the 1996 donation statistics. His graphs showed donations from new users fairly constant and donations from existing members primarily during fundraising drives (they donate when asked). We expect that the membership renewal program will be an ongoing mechanism to ask existing members to donate. S. Alder reported on the actual results of the first week of the renewal program (started Nov. 7): $0: 21% $1-24: 39% $25-49: 33% $50-99: 5% $100+: 2% (PFAs) A total of $992 had been received from 57 people. Thank you notes are being sent to donors. At the moment, a French renewal letter is not being sent because we don't have a French version and we have no record of language preference. In a recent survey, only 3% of members were francophone. It was suggested that the first line of the renewal letter be a message in French stating that a French version could be requested. We need a volunteer to translate the renewal letter. The question of funding for public events was raised. M. Mason reported that most recent events have cost nothing since the necessary material has all been donated. In fact, the events have been a minor revenue source through cash donations. It was noted that although the draft budget uses "conservative" revenue estimates, the total estimated revenue is higher than the actual revenue for this year. This is based on the unknown effects of the membership renewal program. We should have another look at this in December when further information on the results of the renewal program are available. On the expenses side, it was noted that although the budget is based on the assumption of two system administrators, our current situation is that we have only one full-time system administrator, with the second available for part-time contracts as funds permit. This situation can be continued into 1997 to allow more financial flexibility. This draft budget gives a sustainable foundation for NCF. Directors will need to take a stronger role in encouraging the volunteer activities needed to make NCF grow and to meet our 1997 strategy. Basic access is still an issue. This draft budget does not allow for more connections. We should investigate other ways of increasing our connections. 5. Development Report (L. Donnelly) on-line 6. Old Business a) Language Policy (Y. Dionne) The Francophone Committee has not made any changes to the draft policy presented at a previous meeting. However they are still concerned about the lack of visibility of French information on NCF. MOTION That NCF is a community service that supports integral bilingualism. Moved by Y. Dionne, seconded by R. Dickson It is also proposed that a new Task Force be set up to coordinate the integration of French into all NCF activities and material. The following points were raised in the discussion: - the role of volunteers vs. the role of staff - staff time costs money, so corresponding revenue is needed - the financial costs of the proposal should be presented to the board - need a basic policy on bilingualism for Francophone committee to have a basis to work from and recruit more members/volunteers - task force vs committee - first task should be to identify potential donors - the existing translation task force has not been able to meet all of the translation needs - the National Capital region is a multicultural community - what about other languages? Since this motion first appeared at the meeting, and the proposal for a task force was not fully presented to the Board, there was a motion to defer until December: MOTION to defer: moved by A. Patrick, seconded J. Cohen FOR: AP, RL, JB, JCo, JCh, JE, CH, NM, YD, JW ABSTAIN: RD, DS, RT, AV ABSENT: ND-T 7. Reports a) Operations and FreePlan Update (L. Donnelly) on-line 8. New Business a) 1997 Annual General Meeting: motions (L. Donnelly) See material on-line. DS and JCo volunteered for the AGM Committee. DS suggested we think about reducing the number of Directors. b) Time Limits (N. Munro) N. Munro has noticed a number of comments and complaints about the time limits. There was a discussion of the intended benefits and resulting drawbacks. It may be possible to make adjustments to the "peak hours", but LD wants to see the effects of the new services before making any changes. We should try to make some measurements before and after any adjustments so we can get a better idea of the effects of time limits. We should also try to learn from the experience of other Freenets. There was a suggestion that the current complaints are related to the increased difficulty in maintaining fraudulent accounts now that we are asking for identification and annual membership renewal. 9. Next meeting is planned for 17 December, 1996 at RMOC Headquarters if possible. 10. Adjournment Moved by J. Elder, Seconded A. Patrick at 9:30 pm.