Minutes of the National Capital FreeNet Board Meeting 15 October, 1996 - 7:00 PM Honeywell Room, RMOC Headquarters, 111 Lisgar The following board members were in attendance: Jeff Bossert, au025 Julie Chahal, 2nd Vice President, ab161 Jessica Cohen, aa724 Rosaleen Dickson, ac174 Yvonne Dionne, ao594 Jim Elder, aa456 Chris Hawley, ah654 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 Rebecca Last, as006 NCF Staff Present: Lisa Donnelly, Executive Director, xx412, Angela Lukach, Development Officer, xx544 Roy Hooper, Systems Administrator, ad016 NCF members and volunteers present: Jean-Yves Fortin, Howard Campbell 1. Introductions Nadia Diakun-Thibault sent her regrets for not being able to attend. 2. Approval of the minutes of the 17 September, 1996 meeting Approved as written. FOR: YD, JE, JCh, AV, CH, AP, JB, JW, JCo, NM, DS ABSTAINED: NM ABSENT: ND-T, RD, RL, RT 3. Review of the Agenda Budget discussed in camera since it concerns staff salaries. 4. Financial Report (J. Bossert) JB handed out the September financial statements (now on-line) Explanations of September statements: - deferred contributions is an accounting practice for in-kind donations; subtract out for actual donations this month - Ian Allen missed billing last month - invoice was late, therefore not yet paid as of these accounts - cash position is actually about $9000 less than last month - on balance sheet there is a large amount of accounts payable - see note 6 - ONIP grant still hasn't arrived, but is expected this month - Board members would like to see how much of "donations" are from members and how much from corporations - note "increase" in cash was negative $3,270 - financial picture is turning around - things are looking a bit better 5 Development Report - see report on-line - a few new line sponsorships - US Robotics Challenge very successful - grants look promising in the long term (next year) - up to end of Sept, 26% of this year's active users had donated - membership renewals will be done in 8000 member blocks per month rather than anniversary of membership - subsequently will be annual - averaging 30 per day new members 6 Old Business a) Language Policy Deferred to the November meeting. b) Strategic Objectives for 1997 MOTION Moved JCh Seconded NM - see motion posted on-line. Discussion: LD distributed some recommendations for a streamlined strategy. Fewer primary objectives to match smaller expected revenue. LD's recommendations can be seen as priorities amongst the strategic objectives. Main difference is thet the 1997 strategy has an emphasis on growth, whereas LD's recommendation has an emphasis on sustainability. There was a suggestion that the Board set priorities from amongst the strategic objectives, but there was insufficient agreement for a rapid decision. Suggest we not do this tonight. Are priorities needed for budget? Not necessarily - these objectives can be used as guidelines for volunteers rather than expenditure. Amendment: RT requested removing the words "such as annual membership fees" at the end of the section on "ORGANIZATION". This was accepted as a friendly amendment by JCh. The motion PASSED as amended. FOR: YD, JE, JCh, AV, CH, AP, JW, JCo, NM, DS, RD, RT AGAINST: JB ABSENT: RL, ND-T 7 FreePlan status This was presented by LD and other staff as a verbal report but has subsequently been posted on-line. Some delays due to hardware. Now plan downtime for next Tuesday. Method of implementing corporate accounts requires no change to policy. 9600 baud modems are not working very well - we may switch back to the 2400 baud modems. 8 New Business a) Funding Models RT presented a discussion paper on funding models. The on-line version of this paper has been amended to reflect the discussion. 9 Next meeting Tues. 19 Nov. at RMOC 10 In camera discussion of draft budget for 1997. 11 Adjourned - Moved AV, Seconded CH.