Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Capital FreeNet held on October 19, 1999 at 7:00 p.m. at the RMOC - Honeywell Room 111 Lisgar St. PRESENT: Jeff Bossert Treasurer au025 JB Sandy Campbell dt820 SC Jessica Cohen Secretary aa724 JC Miranda Gray ak717 MG Pippa Lawson au771 PL Michael Mason 1st Vice - President an956 MM Jim Wright ah311 JWr REGRETS: Natalie Munro 2nd Vice - President aa966 NM Andrew Nellis bs904 AN Dave Sutherland President aa001 DS Jean Wilmot aa145 JWi STAFF PRESENT: Christopher Cope Executive Director bz787 Sheila C. Alder Administrative Coordinator bw306 Andre Dalle System Administrator al178 GUESTS: Xiaoyun Zhang (Sherry) Mark Mielke al278 Minute - Taker: Joan Robertson cw055 1. INTRODUCTIONS: The meeting was called to order at 7:10 p.m., with Michael Mason acting as Chair, and Jessica Cohen as Secretary. 2. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES MOVED by Pippa Lawson, SECONDED by Sandy Campbell that the minutes of the previous meeting be approved. MOTION CARRIED. IN FAVOUR: SC PL MG ABSTAINED: MM JWr ABSENT: JB JC 3. REVIEW OF THE AGENDA 7c) Motion from Sandy was added. 7d) AGM was added 8b) Review of the Finance Committee was deferred until the next meeting. 7b) was done after 7c). 9a) was done before 8a). 4. PROGRESS REPORTS 4a) RECRUITMENT OF A VOLUNTEER FOR SENIORS TRAINING ACTION: Sheila will be meeting with Marilyn Wright tomorrow as a potential volunteer. 4b) PROPOSED NCF SURVEY Miranda read what she had drafted so far . ACTION: She will send a completed draft o the Board via email before it is implemented. The Board will have 7 days from when she sends it to comment on the survey, otherwise it will be assumed that it is fine as is. There was some discussion on whether to implement the survey as an email to all members, or as an interactive web page. Pros and cons to both methods. Implementation will be worked out as an operational issue after content is sent around, Chris may ask Pat Drummond to help implement if as a webpage. Intent is to run survey as soon as possible. 4c) SENIORS CAPITALFIND PAGE Miranda has completed one and sent it to Richard Bethell. 4d) SENIORS ADVERTISING A copy of the newspaper ad was passed around at the meeting. (Running in Today's Seniors). 5. OLD BUSINESS 5a) REVIEW OF COMMITTEES: Training Team & Individual Assignments (Chris Cope) Training Team: The speakers taskforce is currently dormant, there is one person providing training at St. Laurent, as well as the Seniors training. These volunteers are working individually. Individual Assignments: The Individual Assignments are: News Administrator, Postmaster, SIG Admin, IP Admin, and Public Relations. The current newsadmin, Paul Tomblin will be leaving at the end of December, recruitment for a replacement is currently underway. The postmaster is Jennifer Witham, the IP and SIG admin is Don McCallum, the public relations position is currently vacant, recruitment for replacement is underway. Miranda asked about how Volunteer Coordination is going. Michael, Sheila, and Chris still involved with this, Nicole still somewhat involved (was out of country, but she is back now). Alot of VC needs staff involvement. 6. REPORTS 6a) Executive Director's Report (Chris Cope) Chris went over the ED report briefly. For VolNet he mentioned that we will need 1 or 2 more installers soon to connect up organizations. Miranda asked about the auto-install software and the email for students. Dave and Andrew, whom had volunteered to take disks around to area computer stores have not done so yet. Email for students: will tie in well with webmail project. Chris keeping contact with Ottawa 2000. Miranda asked about any other projects being worked on to keep existing members, There are no specific projects for this, apart from maintaining and increasing system reliability. Miranda stated that we need to discuss what we are going to do to improve this. 6b) Update on Y2K readiness (Andre Dalle) Andre reported that Y2K readiness is moving along smoothly, and isn't going to be a problem. 7. NEW BUSINESS 7a) Review of Services (Jessica Cohen) Jessica handed out copies of an information item outlining what services NCF offers to its members. The Board thanked Jessica for her work writing this. Chris made a correction to one section; the maximum connection speed on the 520-9013 is 28.8 bps, not 33.6 bps. Jessica will make this correction in the online copy of this report. 7c) Motion from Sandy (Sandy Campbell) Sandy read aloud the following motion, which he had emailed on the Board alias earlier that afternoon, for consideration. Pippa seconded the motion. "That National Capital Freenet immediately develop a plan which will focus its energy and resources on making itself sufficiently attractive to its membership that they will be willing to provide the necessary money and volunteer talent ; THAT a plan for future growth and development of Freenet be ready for consideration at the November meeting of the Board which, if adopted, will become guidance for the organization for the next year; THAT the Executive Director work with Board members on developing the plan; THAT no major initiatives be undertaken before the plan is considered in November." There was some concern expressed by several Board members that the motion was too vague, and a more concrete plan was needed. Sandy replied that the gist of the motion was to start working on a concrete plan before undertaking any major initiatives, including thin client. Miranda commented that everything in the motion falls into budget discussion. Pippa commented that with membership and income falling, we need to get beyond vagueness into a concrete plan. Miranda commented that action plans did not usually come from Board meeting, groups can brainstorm ideas, but concrete plans of action are developed from individuals. Miranda also raised concerns about the motion keeping the ED from being able to work on anything else until a plan was formed, and questioned as to whether this was a constructive use of the ED's time and our money. Chris stated that the motion suggests we do something, but not how, it doesn't provide any map as to how we should go about doing it. Michael commented that we need to know how to address the bottom line, how to achieve goals, and that was too big to be produced in a short time. Sandy commented that we are watching membership trickle away, and we need to do something about it. Miranda suggested that as it didn't look like we were going to get closure on this tonight, and as it was often very difficult to brainstorm online, that we hold an extra Board meeting before the November meeting to discuss only membership issues. Jessica agreed with this idea, and suggested November 2 as a possible date. This was seen as a possible answer, but not desirable, it being difficult to find time for an extra meeting. Michael suggested up to 20 minutes to brainstorm on this issue (at which point Pippa would have to leave the Board meeting), and then he would call the vote. Pippa stated that we need to promote NCF, mentioning an email Jim Elder sent to the Board alias. Miranda observed that that our problem wasn't in coming up with good ideas, but in following them through to completion, citing the flyers and the auto-install software as examples of current membership initiatives that need active volunteers to complete. Sandy stated that it was not the role of the Board to hand out leaflets. Pippa stated that Sandy was saying our role is to direct, we need to figure out what our role is as a Board. At this point Michael said that we should either vote now or defer to another meeting. Michael suggested that we defer this motion to the November Board meeting, with hopefully more directors in attendance. Miranda suggested that Sandy flesh out a more concrete motion to present in November online, and withdraw this motion. Sandy did not want to withdraw this motion, so it was voted on. MOVED BY Sandy Campbell, SECONDED by Pippa Lawson : That National Capital Freenet immediately develop a plan which will focus its energy and resources on making itself sufficiently attractive to its membership that they will be willing to provide the necessary money and volunteer talent ; That a plan for future growth and development of Freenet be ready for consideration at the November meeting of the Board which, if adopted, will become guidance for the organization for the next year; That the Executive Director work with Board members on developing the plan; That no major initiatives be undertaken before the plan is considered in November." MOTION DEFEATED. IN FAVOUR: SC AGAINST: JC MG JWr ABSTAINED: PL MM ABSENT: JB Sandy can still draft and present a more detailed motion on this matter at the November Board meeting. 7b) Introduction of Potential Treasurer Recruits A candidate Jeff has recruited as a potential Treasurer, Sherry, introduced herself to the room, and passed out copies of her resume. She moved to Canada last summer, and has a degree in accounting. 7d) AGM (Miranda Gray) Miranda provided a brief update on AGM status. Mark Mielke (who was in attendance at the meeting) is working on the AGM software. Miranda asked whether as Chair she should set the dates for the AGM, Michael (who has chaired AGM's previously) answered yes, Miranda should set the dates, and bring them back to the Board. Miranda reminded all those (staff, certain volunteers) who have reports to make to get them in on time . Chris mentioned that we need to make it clearer how to use proxies, as several voters asked about them last year. Miranda reminded everyone to start recruiting candidates now, and try getting them out to a couple of Board meetings before the AGM. 9 & 8. REPORTS, BUDGET, and OLD BUSINESS 9a) Treasurer's Report (Jeff Bossert) Jeff distributed copies of and presented the Treasurer's Report. Donations are way down, at 6800 against a budget of 9500. VolNet income and expenses shown this month Depreciation, and deferred contributions shown this month. Jim asked about the Harvest Ride consultant (information from the ED report), this was fund raiser hired by NCF and CFSC for the Ride. Jeff went over the balance sheet, our cash position is better than budget , largely due to VolNet and urban cap contracts. 9b) Budget discussion (Jeff Bossert) Jeff distributed and presented copies of current renewal/donation forecasting. Forecasting is based on Jim Elder's renewal rate forecast, with an average donation of $24. At forecast numbers, membership and donations will fall below sustainable levels. There was some discussion on raising the requested donation. It was decided to try sending out the next crop of renewal letters to request $48 donations, for which members would also be able to request a PFA if they wished. Chris observed that this would also tie in well if we started offering webmail. Jeff asked that this be subject to review , it will be reviewed at the December board meeting MOVED by Sandy Campbell, SECONDED by Miranda Gray that we immediately start asking for $48 a year (or $4 a month) in the renewal letter, this will include a PFA. This action will be reviewed at the December board meeting. MOTION CARRIED. IN FAVOUR: JB SC JC MG MM JWr ABSENT: PL ACTIONS: - Jeff will present a refined forecast for next months meeting. - Staff to implement the new renewal letter as moved above. 8a) Thin Client Business Plan (Jeff Bossert) Only minor revisions have been made since the business plan was presented last month, and a french translation of the executive summary was added (an HRDC requirement). Commitments from partners has been good. Most partners approached have signed on board, discussion still ongoing with remainder approached, confident that they will sign up, but project is still workable regardless. Jim asked about the financial benefit for NCF, Jeff replied that the main benefit was in capital improvements. Jeff observed that Dave likes the plan, says so far it seems to be the best match to the program objectives. Sandy stated that he still had problems with this, citing pieces of email from Richard Bethell and Jim Elder that he shared with the board as his concerns. Michael stated that he had read the email it seemed to present both the pros and cons of the project, wasn't totally one-sided. Sandy said that he though this might be a mistake, since Richard and Jim E. were not sure that this is the direction for NCF. Michael observed that even if the project doesn't work, we will still have gained the improvements to our system. Sandy expressed concerns that NCF will serving another master rather than the members Michael and Jim expressed disagreement. Jeff observed that this is an opportunity to reclaim a leadership position in community networking, by providing something that the nobody else was doing yet. Sandy asked whether our submitting the business plan would imply a commitment to go ahead with it if approved. The answer was yes, there would be no point submitting a business plan we had no interest in carrying out. MOVED by Michael Mason, SECONDED by Jessica Cohen that we submit this business plan to the HRDC for approval. MOTION CARRIED. IN FAVOUR: JC MG MM JWr AGAINST: SC ABSTAINED: JB ABSENT: PL 10. ANNOUNCEMENTS On Sunday Dec. 5: Fiona Hammond will be running an NCF FUNraiser. Detailed announcements will appear in ncf.announce. 11. DATE OF NEXT MEETING November 16, 1999 Olde Forge Community Resource Centre 2730 Carling Ave. Jessica observed that this will be the last meeting held at the Olde Forge. Meetings for the 2000 year will be planned to be all held at the RMOC pending availability. 12. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 10:00 p.m., Moved by Michael Mason, Seconded by Jim Wright, all in favour.