Minutes of the National Capital FreeNet Board Meeting November 18, 1997 - 7:00 p.m. Held at the Olde Forge Community Resource Centre 2730 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario PRESENT: Colin Cantlie, ae866 CC Jim Elder, aa456 JE Natalie Munro, aa966 NM Dave Sutherland, President/Chairman, aa001 DS Andre Vellino, Vice-President, an386 AV Jean Wilmot, aa145 JW Michael Mason, Secretary, an956 MM Chris Hawley, ah654 CH Jeff Bossert, Treasurer, au025 JB Jessica Cohen, aa724 JC NCF Staff Present: Christopher Cope, Executive Director, bz787 Sheila Alder, Administrative Coordinator, xx001 Yannick Gravel, System Administrator, xx136 NCF Members Present: E. O'Driscoll, Minute Taker, af995 Jean-Yves Fortin, ai772 GUEST: Louise Huybrecht 1. INTRODUCTION Dave Sutherland took the chair and Michael Mason acted as secretary of the meeting. Directors being present and notice of the meeting having been duly given, the meeting was declared to be properly constituted for the conduct of business. 2. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING The Chairman tabled the draft minutes, amended, of the last meeting of the Board held in October, 1997 which, upon motion made by Jean Wilmot, seconded by Jim Elder (Jeff Bossert and Jessica Cohen abstained) and carried, were approved. 3. REVIEW OF THE AGENDA Various items were added to the meeting's agenda. 4. OLD BUSINESS a) 1998 Budget, Second Draft Jeff discussed the handout and noted that the budget is not that much different from last year. 4 Key Assumptions were made: i) Expect 30% will renew and will donate an average $32 per member. ii) The NCF will once again have 3 full time staff and no changes will be made to that. iii) No changes expected in the telecom facilities. The price of internet backbones is falling and there could be some opportunities to save some money. iv) No major plans to offer new costly services are planned. Factors to consider: i) Action Plan will be to retain current members, which is easier than recruiting new members. ii) The equipment must be monitored and replaced carefully so that the systems keep running without major problems. It was suggested that projections be broken down on a month to month basis so that the board can track the accuracy of the projections (ie: the auto debit option). It was generally agreed that this would be a good idea. A director asked about the membership figures. Chris Cope responded that the membership is about 20,000 and did not drop to the 18,000 level that was previously suggested. Sheila outlined the plans for coping with the upcoming mail strike. There will be a drop- off setup with one or two volunteers and a coop student may be able to receive the forms during off hours etc. Some discussion about how the renewal process works for people using VISA. Some discussion about the grants ensued. It was noted that funds from a Trillium grant are applied to the project and does not offset potential overhead costs. It was further noted that some grants, like the RMOC Challenge Grant received in the past, stipulate that no part of the funds can be applied to anything other than costs directly related to the project for which funds were obtained. Jeff Bossert moved to approve the 1998 budget as presented, seconded by Jean Wilmot. Carried unanimously. b) 1998 Strategic Plan, Approval A brief discussion related to the Strategic Plan ensued, and after it was noted that there were no changes from the 2nd draft which was presented in October, it was moved by Jim Elder that the 1998 Strategic Plan be approved as presented. Natalie Munro seconded. All directors present voted Yes, with the exception of Jessica Cohen and Jeff Bossert, who abstained. Carried. 5.REPORTS a) Treasurer's Report Jeff Bossert presented the highlights of the report: Cash position is reasonably close to projected levels in the budget. NCF is using the existing cash reserves as projected in the budget, but all the same it is a good indicator that there is a need to increase the income by new memberships or donations. b) Executive Director's Monthly Report Chris Cope presented his monthly report, outlining some highlights: membership seems to be levelling off at about 21,000 members. $1,600 in donations were made in the previous month with new registrations and approximately $1,500 associated with renewals. There was some discussion related to the Trillium grant. Jean Wilmot will contact Lisa Donnelly to clarify some points on the original agreement. New ways to donate now exist: monthly donations via Visa or post-dated cheques, as well as a new auto-debit method. The registration process through web is being worked on and will be available soon. A judge for the homepage competition has not yet been confirmed. Michael Mason and Chris Cope will report back on their progress. 6. NEW Business a) 1998 AGM Michael Mason put forward the tentative schedule: Nominations open February 6, 1998 and close on the 13th. Voting will commence on February 23 and will end on March 9th. Results could be released by 8:00 p.m. It was noted that these dates were subject to change. All candidates meeting will be tentatively scheduled for Thursday March 5, 1998. It was remarked that the dates were a bit tight last year. Some discussion about what is necessary once the nominations close (candidate verification etc.). Perhaps the verification period could be reduced because most people wait until the very end anyway. Michael Mason will come up with a more detailed timeline based on the documentation from last year. Some discussion on timing the board's opportunity to discuss the motions and the announcement of the AGM etc. Three directors' terms will end and a vacant seat will need to be filled. Volunteer positions to be filled were listed: board motions preparer, general AGM FAQ person (a board member who is not running) to answer questions, AGM chair, returning officer, menu maintainer, vote counting/software person and a proxy person. - Andre Vellino will be the AGM Chair - Michael Mason will be the Returning Officer - Jim Elder and Don McCallum will each maintain different AGM-related menus - Natalie Munro will do the general AGM FAQ and will fulfill the board FAQ duties - Jean Wilmot will work with proxies It was suggested that the NCF annual report be formalised in order to look more like a corporation. b) News Disk / Memory for Servers Michael Mason reported that the System Administrator noted that the disk drive for the news server was somewhat faulty and that the purchase of a new one in the event of failure be considered. Michael Mason suggested that buying a new hard drive would be a better idea. Chris Cope said that the cost may be around $1,600. It was agreed that this would be a good idea and the Board directed Chris to make the purchase. Chris Cope noted that there is a requirement for more memory on the news server. After some discussion, it was also agreed that Chris be directed to make the purchase. c) Carleton University Newsgroup Policy Internet news service is crowded. Carleton is reconsidering the groups it keeps on its server. Given that NCF receives some of its news feed from Carleton, NCF is subject to Carleton's internet policy. Carleton might just drop the newsgroups that carry binaries due to reasons beyond NCF's control. The alt.* hierarchy may be a candidate for removal and this hierarchy is read by NCF members. d) Volunteer of the Month Colin Cantlie asked if the process has been formalised. Michael Mason, former Volunteer Coordinator of Recruitment outlined what the routine was when he was involved. Andre Ouellette is now organising the VOM program, which is an integral tool used for volunteer recognition. In summary, the procedure is available online and Michael Mason welcomes suggestions. A suggestion was made by Chris Cope that a VOM be added to the list of people voting on subsequent VOM candidates. Jeff Bossert asked if a record is kept of what the various volunteers do, in order to help making a VOM selection. Michael Mason will followup at a future meeting. e) News Services Jim Elder noted that 15% of NCF connection time is spent IRC, therefore the PPP IRC service should be examined. It was suggested that a chat service (perhaps from Magma Communications) be considered (see www.hotelchat.com). Perhaps the service could be restricted to NCF members only. Another suggestion is to provide threaded "discussion groups" within members' homepages. These services will prevent NCF from becoming a low-cost ISP and e-mail address. Some discussion on the demographics of the people who use IRC now and who might use it in the future. IRC has been a source of volunteers. Chris Cope and Jim will follow-up. f) Francophone Committee Jean-Yves Fortin announced that he would like to resign from the chair of the Francophone Committee. He has not had the time in the past few months to be active on this. He is still willing to help out but cannot devote the time required to act as Chair. Chris Cope asked for suggestions for a successor. Michael Mason will act as Chair on an interim basis. Dave Sutherland thanked Jean-Yves for his work in this position and the Board echoed his sentiments. 7. DATE OF NEXT MEETING The next meeting will be held on, December 16th, 1997 at 7:00 p.m. at the RMOC Headquarters, 111 Lisgar Street. 8. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 10:10 p.m.