Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors held on June 20, 2000 , at 7:00 p.m. at the RMOC - Billings Room 111 Lisgar St. PRESENT: Graeme Beckett President aw958 GB Sandy Campbell dt820 SC Jessica Cohen Secretary - Treasurer aa724 JC Miranda Gray ak717 MG Seline Herz-Fischler 2nd Vice - President as370 SH Mark Mielke al278 MM David Millman aa342 DM Jim Wright ah311 JW STAFF PRESENT: Christopher Cope Executive Director bz787 Andre Dalle System Administrator al178 GUESTS: Jeff Bossert au025 Marissa Bovey bh590 Patrick Campbell az579 Jamie Durie ag181 Mike Kenzie ba600 Terrie Meehan eb684 Scott McBride en064 Kim Montagner ej681 Tony Morris eb728 Michael Philip Sinclair dz696 Jean Wilmot aa145 Minute Taker: Joan Robertson cw055 1. INTRODUCTIONS The meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m. with Graeme Beckett as Chair, and Jessica Cohen as Secretary. 2. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES Jessica read out an addendum to the minutes, an online motion on an addition to the HR committee that had been carried out on the mailing list, which will be placed at the end of the minutes to the May meeting. MOVED by Seline Herz-Fischler, SECONDED by Miranda Gray that the minutes of the May Board meeting be approved as amended. MOTION CARRIED, all in favour except Jim who abstained. 3. REVIEW OF THE AGENDA Michael Sinclair asked that an agenda item on the Amalgation of Municipal Libraries be added. This was added as item 6c) , but the meeting ran out of time before it could be spoken to, and Michael withdrew the item. Item 6a) Information about Board candidates was moved to item 3b), as the potential candidates were all present. Item 6b) Information Standards (Jessica Cohen) was withdrawn by Jessica, who said she would bring it forward at a later date with a lighter agenda. Items 4b) Thin Client/Smart Communities Discussion and 5a) Treasurer's Report were both spoken to by Jeff Bossert, who spoke to them in the reverse order. 3b) Board Vacancies: Potential Candidates Introduction (Graeme Beckett) Graeme listed the candidates who volunteered their names for consideration: Patrick Campbell, Jamie Durie, Mike Kenzie, and Terrie Meehan. Another candidate mentioned previously online, Stephen Toy, had to withdraw his name, due to personal time commitments. Each of the four candidates introduced themselves, and provided the opportunity for Board members to ask them questions. 4. OLD BUSINESS 4a) Majordomo policy draft (Miranda Gray) This item was deferred , as the group working on this had not yet had the opportunity to meet. 5a) Treasurer's Report (Jeff Bossert) Jeff distributed financial packages including 5-month statements (for January thru May) , and an overview of the 2000 budget around the Board, Jessica distributed copies of each months individual statements around to the Board. Jeff explained why the statements were appearing for 5 months at once, due to the lack of statements in previous months. Rudy Wytemburg, the former accountant, who is now continuing to serve NCF in this capacity until a suitable replacement is found, had to rework the statements completely from the January statements , but was able to do so in time for the June meeting. Jeff went over the explanation of what the statements are, and what the represent while going over the statements, looking particularly at the May figures. One of the changes to the statements this year, is Rudy has added an item separating out the revenue and expenses for the Community Network projects, to keep track of them as well as overall operating expenses. Revenue for May was $14034, slightly over budget, expenses for May was $20922, slightly over budget. Our expenses, mostly phone lines and staff salaries, are stable at approx $20000 per month. Miranda asked about the category "other fundraising activities" and what it represented and why is what different from the budget. This item represents items such as org. accounts, the auction, the harvest ride. The forecast for this item is an estimate, based on previous years revenue from this category. Jeff also went over the balance sheet, and the statement of changes, outlining what different line items represent, and particularly going over the May statements. Jeff then went briefly over the budget overview. Our renewal request cycle runs from September - May, and we run an excess of revenue over expenses in the winter, which then depletes through the summer and fall, until the renewal cycle starts up again. Deficit is made up to some extent with the community network projects. Budget provides a forecast, even when expenses or revenue changes, budget does not get altered, however a revised cash flow forecast can be made. 4b) Thin Client / Smart Communities Presentation (Jeff Bossert) Thin Client: Jeff explained what the thin client project is, and explained the system of matching donations. Thin Client was scheduled to begin in April, and we have received $54000 from HRDC for this, a key software donation is outstanding, so project money has not been spent yet. Smart Capital: Smart Capital is another matching-funding program, being funded by Industry Canada, our Smart Capital project is part of a larger partnership spearheaded by OCRI, including NCF, RMOC, and the Ottawa Public Library, as well as other organizations). NCF's part of the project proposes to receive $700000 in funds if can find matching funding. This would be a 3-year program, with NCF working to implement webmail, extended access II , and thin client service expansion. Extended Access II is a project we have already been working on with the RMOC, to allow us to use some of their lines after hours, in a similar fashion to extended access I at Mitel. Why Undertake: 1. To provide new services to NCF members that we would not otherwise have the money to develop 2. To improve the current financial position of NCF 3. To improve long term sustainability The projects can provide funding for things we want to do anyways, that we cannot afford to do from basic operating expenses. While the projects cannot directly profit NCF, they can strengthen our infrastructure, and boost profile in the community. Smart Communities Statement of Work: Jeff distributed copies of this to the Board, and went over it. OCRI has asked that this be submitted for a deadline for June 30th. As this is the first time the Board is seeing this, we will review it, and if no other questions arise, send out a motion online to approve submitting it in a week, otherwise will put on agenda for approval at July meeting. ACTION: as mentioned above. Mike Kenzie asked what happened if we don't receive $700000 in funding to match 700000$ from IC. Jeff replied that Ic will match whatever we raise. $700000 is the upward ceiling. If less is matched, will just mean less of projects carried out. 5b) Executive Director's Report (Christopher Cope) Chris distributed and provided updates on the ED report. At the request of the HR committee, Chris has moved the ED and SA priorities to the top of the ED report. Chris outlined the priorities. 3com: is now working except for maintaining connections, is some sort of configuration problem, Andre is working with their tech support to sort this out. bandwidth: still looking for lowcost bandwidth solutions flyer: 9 volunteers turned out, plus Andre and Chris. 7 zones remain to be completed. picnic: picnic planning is underway, at Brewer Park, fee is $35 for permit. Miranda asked about Y2k issues, specifically Sheila's tools. These are now fixed. Only significant migration item left is french character filtering. Jim asked if we had seen any impact from the flyers, Chris replied that none had come in yet from that flyer (coloured differently than other flyers) Miranda requested that some type of key indicator for volunteers be added, recognizing that this is difficult to reflect in a report, as the Board needs to talk about volunteer strategies. Chris will be including information about volunteers on his presentation in July. 6. New Business With the changes to the agenda, and the lateness of the hour, there was no new business to discuss. Michael Sinclair will email Chris to talk about the library item. 7. Announcements The NCF Picnic will be held on July 29th from 10 till 4, at Brewer's Park. 8. Date of Next Meeting July 18, 2000 at 7:00 p.m. RMOC - Billings Room 111 Lisgar St. 9. Adjournment The meeting adjourned to an in-camera session to discuss HR issues, and Board vacancies, at 9:15 p.m. -- Zero freezes. Absolute zero freezes absolutely.