Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Capital FreeNet held on November 17, 1998, 7:00 pm at the St. Laurent Branch, Ottawa Public Library 515 Cote Avenue, Ottawa PRESENT: Jessica Cohen Secretary aa724 JC Jim Elder aa456 JE Chris Hawley ah654 CH Miranda Gray ak717 MG Natalie Munro aa966 NM Andrew Nellis bs904 AN Dave Sutherland President aa001 DS Jean Wilmot aa145 JW REGRETS: Jeff Bossert 2nd Vice-President & Treasurer au025 JB Michael Mason 1st Vice-President an956 MM STAFF PRESENT: Chris Cope Executive Director bz787 Sheila Alder Administrative Coordinator bw306 Andre Dalle System Administrator al178 Minute-taker: Sheila Alder bw306 1. INTRODUCTIONS The meeting was called to order at 7:15 pm with Dave Sutherland as Chair, and Jessica Cohen as Secretary. 2. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING OF THE BOARD Two friendly amendments were made to the minutes. MOVED by Miranda Gray and SECONDED by Jim Elder, that minutes of the October 1998 meeting be approved as amended. Motion CARRIED. IN FAVOUR: JC JE MG AN DS JW ABSTAINED: CH NM 3. REVIEW OF THE AGENDA Item 4a) was divided up into 4a1) Advertising Taskforce Report (Andrew Nellis) 4a2) Background Report on Internet Advertising (Jim Elder) as Jim's report, while related in subject , was independent of the advertising taskforce. Items 5a) and 6a) were spoken to by Jean Wilmot. Item 5c) was spoken to in the Executive Director's report. Item 6c) Raising NCF's profile and membership: proposed method (Jim Elder) was added. Item 6d) How we build our agendas ( Miranda Gray) was added. Chris Cope introduced Andre Dalle, who started as System Administrator on November 9th. The Board members welcomed Andre to the staff. 4. OLD BUSINESS 4.a)1) Advertising Taskforce Report (Andrew Nellis) Andrew has only received 5 pieces of advertising from 3wmart in past month, so would like to evaluate the advertising for an additional month before presenting a report. 4.a)2) Background report on Internet advertising (Jim Elder) Jim presented a background report on how banner advertising works, and how it seems to have had a strong influence on the design of many popular websites and the evolution of internet content. The full report is available online with the minutes. Here are some points: -There are two main strategies for advertising, the "in your face" approach, (such as banner ads) , and more subtle influencing (such as content control of "news" sites). -Most revenue is earned through banner ads, either through impressions (frequency of exposure) or revenue-sharing (based on user activity). Advertisers pay much more for targeted advertising than untargeted advertising. -NCF has two main content formats: 1) Text (FreePort menus), and 2) webpages - NCF's text login screen gets 300,000 impressions per month -the traffic to NCF's main webpages requires more analysis but looks to be about 25000 hits per month. More traffic could be attracted if the main web page was redesigned as a 'portal' (such as Yahoo), and new web-based services such as webmail and/or news would also increase traffic to web pages. As it is, the highest traffic pages at NCF are now member and information provider pages, with the highest traffic page (a member's homepage) receiving 25177 hits between Nov. 7 and Nov. 13 (a rate of about 125000 hits per month) There was some discussion on the possibility of combining the portal/ banner ads with CapitalFind. Richard Bethell is in the process of leading the design of a portal-style webpage. Chris suggested that the Board look at http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~xx434 and send Richard comments on the portal. Dave suggested contacting a local advertising broker for more information about what would be interesting to them in the local market, and was intrigued by the revenue-sharing model, Chris to look into this. General opinion on having banner ads was favourable, Jim's research supports that it may be possible to generate revenue with banner ads. We already offer text-based impression ads, in the form of line sponsorships. Based on the research it appears that in fact our line sponsorships may be a good deal for the advertisers, and are quite competitive with similar ad prices. Dave suggested that 5 concrete proposals for advertising be prepared for the next meeting and we can decide on specific proposals at that time. 4.b) Proposal for updating NCF's policies (Miranda Gray) Miranda presented a six-part proposal for updating NCF's policies. There was some discussion on the need to examine the wording of the suggested "Available Services Policy" (which was part of the 1st part of the proposal). It was felt by several Board members that the suggested policy was both too wordy and too negatively phrased. Dave Sutherland offered to draft a rephrasing, and to bring it to the next Board meeting. It was asked that the reference to a webpage in part six be changed to remove the reference to a webpage. Neither Miranda nor Jessica accepted this as a friendly amendment. Miranda referred a previous discussion (originally presented by Jeff Bossert, Dec. 1998) in which we decided that new material written by NCF would be presented to support an HTML format. Jessica raised concerns with the survivability of FreePort, with issues such as y2k problems, hardware/software upgrade incompatibility, and observed that moving our information to a web-based system would have to happen gradually . MOVED BY Miranda Gray, and SECONDED BY Jessica Cohen that the Board adopt the proposal for updating the NCF policies as presented , and amended to remove the clause "make a motion to adopt 'available services policy'" from part one of the proposal. MOTION CARRIED. IN FAVOUR: JC JE MG NM AN AGAINST: JW ABSTAINED: DS ABSENT: CH 4.c) Strategic discussion on increasing member participation (Chris Cope) Chris made a proposal (previously discussed at the September board meeting) that we start suggesting a minimum donation of $2 a month ($24 a year), or alternatively a volunteer contribution, in the renewal letters. The renewal letters will be phrased to clearly encourage those who can to donate more, to help NCF improve and help those in our community who are less able to contribute financially. At this point the planned strategy is ready go be implemented, and Chris asked to Board to authorize proceeding with the planned proposal. Options for volunteering will include "physical-location independent" options, including signing up new NCF members, and maintaining pages on CapitalFind. There was some discussion on member's perception of NCF, and whether those who are already donating more than the minimum requested amount would continue to do so. It was generally felt that those already donating to NCF are supportive of, and understand the need to continue being supportive of the community. It was observed that the people who donate without needing to be nagged already demonstrate a firm belief in the freenet concept. Jessica asked if this plan will be mandatory-or-you're-out, if somebody was unable to make the slightest monetary or voluntary contribution. The answer was that we would probably not be cutting people off. However, it was acknowledged that the volunteering option includes a wide array of commitment levels, and that everybody should be able to at a minimum , sign up a new member. Miranda stated that she was opposed to the proposal, and had some concerns as to whether it would work, and how members would interpret the new renewal letter. Natalie stated that she thought it was an idea past overdue, and that we should go further and make the contribution aspect mandatory. Jessica asked that Chris notify key volunteers about the change of policy before any renewal letters are sent out , as a courtesy. There was some discussion about trying the new renewal letter for short trial (e.g. the month of December) , and about sending out a MOM message about the change. MOVED by Andrew Nellis, and SECONDED by Jean Wilmot that the new renewal letter start December 1st, subject to review by the board. MOTION CARRIED. IN FAVOUR: JE CH NM AN DS JW OPPOSED: MG ABSTAINED: JC 5. REPORTS 5.a) Treasurer's Report (Jeff Bossert) Jean Wilmot spoke for Jeff Bossert, who was unable to attend the meeting. - reviewed Oct/98 revenue: registration revenue down ($3294 versus a budget projection of $4454), renewal revenue up ($5571 versus a budjet projection of $4233). - the funding drive did quite well - Harvest Ride revenue and expenses reflected in statement, included expense of CFSC in statement. 5.b) Executive Director's Monthly Report (Chris Cope) -The donation drive went well, caused an increase in renewal donations. -Jean, Jeff, and Ken McKinlay are working together on possible government grant proposals. -Chris has initiated dialogue with Volunteer Centre of Ottawa-Carleton re working together for VolNet Scotia Bank: An arrangement has been finalized with Scotia Bank. Donations to NCF can now be dropped off at any Scotia Bank in the region. Members will put their donations in an envelope and address it to: Bank of Nova Scotia, Carleton University, transit number 00406, ATTENTION: FreeNet. Scotia Bank in turn will inform us that a package is waiting, and we will be able to pick it up and process it in the usual fashion. FreeNews: There was some discussion held on the new FreeNews and the reaction to the content (only 3 negative comments were received, 1 about the joke). Readership increased with this edition of FreeNews. There was some discussion on the image portrayed by the newsletter, and whether or not it is an "official" publication. Chris to work on the masthead and editing with John. Auction: At the writing of the report , over $2000 in bids have been made. There may be some leftover software, suggestion made that it could be sold out computer garage sales. CapitalFind: CapitalFind will be an index to businesses and organizations in the National Capital Region, (much like the yellow pages). Listings will include both organizations with and without homepages. Those who have homepages will have them referenced on the category index pages. A prototype is viewable at http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/CapitalFind/. 6. NEW BUSINESS 6.a) Draft Budget (Jeff Bossert) Jean Wilmot spoke for Jeff Bossert. The draft budget is based on the old model of renewals, and not the new contribution policy. Registration numbers and phone line numbers are based on the past year's history. To be discussed further at the next meeting. 8. Adjournment. As the time had reached 10:00, and the meeting room was closing, the Board meeting was adjourned with the remaining agenda items being deferred until the next Board meeting, to be held on December 15, 1998, 7:00 pm, at the Regional Headquarters, RMOC, 111 Lisgar St.