Minutes of the National Capital Freenet Board Meeting October 21, 1997 - 7:00pm Held at the Ottawa Public Library 515 Cote Street, 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 REGRETS: Jeff Bossert, Treasurer, au025 JB ABSENT: 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 Robert Blane (Volunteer of the Month) dk565 Rudy Wytenburg, NCF Accountant, ar909 1. INTRODUCTION Dave Sutherland took the chair and MM 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 September 16, 1997 which, upon motion made by Jim Elder, seconded by Andre Vellino (Michael Mason abstained) and carried, were approved. 3. REVIEW OF THE AGENDA Under Old Business, it was requested that the budget be inserted first before the Strategic Plan. Also, an information regarding PPP configuration was inserted under New Business. 4. OLD BUSINESS a) 1998 Budget Discussion Jean Wilmot distributed a handout of budget analysis for review by the board members. It was noted that the current budget model will not sustainable through the next year. Though the presented draft was based on the 1997 budget, it contained some modifications. Rudy described the various model options on the handout. Some discussion took place regarding the numbers in the model related to membership, renewals and other usage statistics. It was remarked that it might take a while to determine if renewals would increase and wondered what other expenses might be deferrable until the budget situation is clear. Rudy replied that there is not a lot of expenditures that could be reduced but options could be explored. Some discussion on risk assessment inherent in the budget analysis. It was remarked that it is more expensive to recruit new members than to act in such a way as to make sure current members renew. A suggestion was brought forward to ask members to donate more money upon renewal, resulting in a suggestion that a feedback mechanism to communicate the financial health of NCF to members be implemented. Dave recalled that a year ago, the budget scenario was bleak and that this year is completely different and that the past year's success should be included in any communication to members. A member asked about whether information regarding the percentage of resources consumed by what type of user existed. Jim offered some information from his stats: High end users are using e-mail & web surfing. Low end is IRC and newsgroups. There may not be a great advantage to targeting certain users for greater donation levels. Some discussion on previous suggested strategies for increasing donation levels. Consensus about the need to keep the service hassle-free in order to keep members happy. Further discussion on some of the assumptions in the budget analysis and the wording of the renewal letters of last year. It was remarked that $50 is a substantial amount for some people and that the possibility of donating on a monthly basis should be emphasized. A member asked about the automated debit option. Sheila replied that there is a fixed monthly cost associated with using automatic debit. It was suggested that FreeNet would need at least 4-5 people using this option to make it a viable option. Scenario D on the analysis sheet was the most popular option for the next budget. Further discussion on the projected 25% new members who are expected to renew and how to distinguish NCF services from ISP to encourage renewals. Based on the concensus that scenario D was the most desirable option, Jean announced that a draft budget will be prepared based on scenarios A and D. b) Strategic Plan, 2nd draft Chris Cope presented the highlights. A member asked about the people who access NCF via an ISP and if the NCF access should be modified to reflect the fact that they use less resources. It was suggested that the permanence of NCF e-mail address is an advantage that should be strongly marketed to users. Some discussion on item 14 c) of the Plan and other ideas such as a shared area for discussion chat area on a members' homepages and expansion of the mail services. Several suggestions regarding the wording of various clauses and that some words be added throughout were brought forward. Chris will take them into consideration when modifying the draft document. Chris continued highlighting some priority items: - possibility to open up all lines to PPP, subject to technical limitations, if any. - approach Carleton regarding their service - Mitel has confirmed that they are going to provide a gateway machine for this service. Colin Cantlie moved that Phases 1 and 2 be accepted and Natalie seconded. Discussion related to motion: Discussed the possibility of cascading the express lines to the 1135 lines; that was dismissed due to possible confusion. The T1 pipe from Carleton was discussed. Since Carleton's is already saturated, ours is as well, as ours is not a separate pipe. Various options regarding improving our Internet performance were discussed, no action can be immediately taken without further exploring of options. The motion that phases 1 and 2 be implemented is contingent that service levels are sustainable. It was approved unanimously. 5. Reports a) Executive Director's Report Christopher Cope, NCF's Executive Director, presented his monthly report. It was noted that an online web registration facility can be improvised to avoid problems with the projected implementation of FreeNet NextGeneration. This is to be implemented, which will result in the production of a similar result to that of the Freeport registration program. The 1997 National Capital FreeNet Auction will be launched on Saturday, November 15th. It was requested that any feedback regarding the auction be submitted before the beginning of November. Also, any suggestions for the celebrity judges for the webpage design contest was requested. As a part of the Executive Director report, Sheila gave a brief summary of her experience at the conference she attended over the weekend. Resulting from the weekend: 7 new members have signed up to NCF, some of whom donated. A new Information Provider was recruited, and a plug was given regarding to the need for continuous support for online communities. b) Treasurer's Report In the absence of Jeff Bossert, Jean Wilmot presented this month's financial statements. Highlights included: Revenues for the month were $1,500 under budget while expenses are fairly close to the budgeted amounts. Office Supplies are somewhat higher than budgeted, but that is mostly due to the billing schedule from Carleton. Also, cash in the bank is $62,000, once again, close to the predicted amount. 6. Date of Next Meeting The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 14th, 1997 at 7:00pm at the Olde Forge Community Resource Centre, located at 2730 Carling Avenue at the corner of Richmond Road. 7. Adjournment There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 9:25pm. -- Michael "BullDog" Mason - xx956@freenet.carleton.ca Secretary, NCF Board of Directors / NCF SIG Administrator Don't forget to visit NCF's 1997 Auction - ON NOW!!! "go auction"