1997 Annual General Meeting Report 
==================================
14 January 1997
Submitted by: Andre L. Ouellette (xx766), AGM Chairperson

1. Progress to Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Preparations are proceeding on schedule and there are no outstanding issues
at this time. The AGM menus have been activated and the team members
assembled (see list below). The required newsgroups are ready to be added as
necessary.

2. All Candidates Meeting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Auditorium of the Ottawa Public Library has been booked for Thursday
March 6, 1997. We are happy to continue to host this event here annually.
Richard Taylor has volunteered to co-ordinate this event as in years past
and will be announcing the details soon.

3. AGM Team Now Complete
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1997 AGM Team:

- Board Motions Preparer:   		        Richard Taylor
- Board Q & A Person:			        Yvonne Dionne
- Chair:                                        Andre Ouellette
- General AGM Q & A Person:		        Yvonne Dionne & Lisa Donnelly
- Menu Maintainer:			        Don McCallum             
- Proxies:                                      Rosaleen Dickson
- Returns Officer:                              Garth Graham & Andre Ouellette
- Vote Counting and Software:                   Roy Hooper

 
4. Public Relations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Public Relations Task Force will begin promoting the AGM during the
week of January 12 - 18. Richard Taylor will assist the PRTF by preparing
promotional materials for the All Candidates meeting. Jim Elder has also offered
to assist in on-line promotion of the AGM.

Additional off-line promotion of the AGM will be accomplished through
the use of Monitor and Ottawa Computes magazines. Both of these monthly's
have a contra arrangement with NCF, facilitated by the Funding group and 
the PRTF. We intend to make full use of these arrangements. The PRTF also
will issue a News Release to our list of media contacts and Information
Providers.

5. Annual Reports
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Requests for annual information have been sent to all Committee and Task Force
Chairs. Committees are asked to produce four to five screens for posting.
Task forces are asked to send a screen or two of information to the
Executive Director who will integrate it into the 1996 Executive Report.

6. Board Assistance for Creation of Candidate Template
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At this time, we would like to request the board's assistance in preparing
a template for all candidates.  The idea is to create a series of ten to 
twelve questions regarding key NCF issues that candidates can answer
briefly and insert in their menus. Please send suggestions to:
xx766 (Andre L. Ouellette) 1997 AGM Coordinator by January 13.

Below is a sample of the types of questions which might be included in the
template. (Thanks to Julie Chahal for her work on this.)

Possible AGM Candidate Questions:

-In what ways have you personally contributed to the success of NCF?
-What is your top priority for change in NCF?
-Do you support time limits?
-Do you support annual renewals of membership?
-Do you agree with the recent amendment to NCF's Mission Statement to add the
 words "accessible in both official  languages of Canada."?  What actions
 will you take to make NCF more bilingual?
-What is the role of NCF (as compared to Information Service Providers) in
 the on-line community?
                                
----------
Prepared by:

Andre L Ouellette (xx766)
Coordinator
1997 AGM
National Capital FreeNet