Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Capital FreeNet held on March 21, 2000, at 7:00 p.m. at the RMOC - Billings Room 111 Lisgar St. PRESENT: Jeff Bossert Treasurer au025 JB Sandy Campbell dt820 SC Jessica Cohen Secretary aa724 JC Miranda Gray ak717 MG Jean Wilmot aa145 JWi Jim Wright ah311 JWr REGRETS: Pippa Lawson au771 PL Michael Mason President an956 MM Natalie Munro Vice - President aa966 NM Andrew Nellis bs904 AN Dave Sutherland Chairman Emeritus aa001 DS STAFF PRESENT: Christopher Cope Executive Director bz787 Andre Dalle System Administrator al178 GUESTS: Mark Mielke al278 Minute Taker: Joan Robertson cw055 1. INTRODUCTIONS The meeting was called to order at 7:25 p.m., with Jean Wilmot acting as Chair, and Jessica Cohen as Secretary. 2. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES MOVED by Sandy Campbell, SECONDED by Miranda Gray to approve the minutes of the previous meeting as amended. MOTION CARRIED. IN FAVOUR: SC JC MG JWi ABSTAINED: JWr ABSENT: JB 3. REVIEW OF THE AGENDA Miranda asked whether we needed an agenda item to discuss Board members who had missed , or would have missed by the end of tonight's meeting, 3 Board meetings in a row. Jessica replied that this wasn't really necessary, as the only Board members who fell in this category would be ending their terms with the upcoming AGM anyways. 4. PROGRESS REPORTS 4a) Update on Flyer Status Chris reported that he attended the chief librarians meeting and distributed flyers and stands. Jessica asked if this was an Ottawa meeting or a regional meeting, Chris replied that it was regional. Fiona Hammond has signed on as a new volunteer coordinator. She is planning a flyer blitz, aiming to have 40-50 volunteers come in on a Saturday to distribute flyers in a specific area , followed by a pizza n' pop party. Registration results from this may be tracked by using a different colour flyer than current distributions, or by tracking postal codes. Area to be concentrated on has not been determined , location of core of volunteers may play role in determination. Jean suggested areas with large senior populations to complement other NCF outreach efforts. The timeline for this is planned for mid-Mayish. 4b) Survey Analysis Jean announced that Jim and Chris have prepared most of the detailed analysis of the survey results. She asked how much of the data did we want to post online, for example the comments that people had entered. Chris suggested that the survey be linked to the AGM area with the annual reports. Jean, Chris, and Jim will go over the excel spreadsheet of the results, and then send the URL to Jessica to add to the AGM page when it is ready. 4c) Terminal Server Previous to this Board meeting, Jean had sent around an online motion (as outlined above) to authorize the purchase of terminal servers. The Board voted in favour of this motion. The Board had in 1999 already budgeted for the purchase of a terminal server, and designated addressing system reliability needs to be a priority. The terminal equipment purchased is affordable, and we can absorb the cost of it. Jim stated that he was in favour of upgrading our telephone equipment, but felt that we should be getting 56k lines, not 33.6. There was some discussion on the technical specifics on whether we would be able to run digital lines on our voice grade lines, Andre and various technical volunteers, including Carleton technical staff, were of the shared opinion that this would not work on our current lines. Jim thought he knew an example of a company that had done so. Miranda observed that as the terminal server had already been approved , we didn't really need to discuss whether it was a good idea tonight. Jim observed that he felt the decision had been rushed, Jean replied that we had been talking about upgrading our telephone equipment for the past several months, and that at last months meeting we had set this meeting as the definite deadline for a new terminal server, whether donated or purchased. 5. OLD BUSINESS 5a) Doctoral Thesis Proposal (Chris Cope) Jessica asked whether Chris had heard anything more about this, Chris replied that the student who had originally mailed him the thesis proposal hadn't said anything more about it, or replied to him with any more information. It is possible that she has changed the scope of the focus of her study. As this was no longer an item of NCF business, the discussion was considered closed. 6. REPORTS 6a) Treasurer's Report (Jeff Bossert) Jean informed us that Allison McCormack, the new accountant, had met with a very heavy workload at her job, and that this combined with the conducting the audit has delayed the January and February financial statements. Statements for January and February will be emailed to the Board, or looked at along with March statements at the April Board meeting. Jeff distributed copies of and went over the 1999 Audited Financial Statements. The balance sheet is healthy, largely due to VolNet. We've added assets to systems software and business equipment - improved our asset base. On the income statement revenue from member donations is down, network projects is up, fundraising is lower, as in 1998 we held a funding drive independently of asking for donations with registrations and renewals. On the expenses side expenses were similar to last year, except for the addition of an expense item for network projects. Our overall cash flow has seen an increase from last year. Jeff thanked Rudy Wytemburg for doing much of the work to prepare the audit. After the audited statements are approved, the original copy will be signed by Jeff Bossert and Michael Mason. MOVED by Jeff Bossert, SECONDED by Jessica Cohen to approve the 1999 Audited Financial Statements. MOTION CARRIED, unaminously. MOVED by Jeff Bossert, SECONDED by Miranda Gray that we thank Rudy Wytemburg, the outgoing accountant, for all his hard work over the years. MOTION CARRIED, unaminously. 6b) Executive Director's Report (Chris Cope) Chris distributed copies of and mentioned some highlights from the Executive Director's report. The format of the ED report has changed, with the text summary appearing in main report, and the charts and tables being appended at the end. Modems: There has been a slight improvement in behaviour of modems this month (34% failure last month to 27.9% this month). Andre has been talking to people at Cisco about the AS5200, they have been quite helpful. Andre is also working on the xylogic, a 24 port server which will allow for modems to be rebalanced. Thin Client: Jeff provided an update on the thin client project. He met with people from Rebel.Com today, they are quite supportive of the project. Their meeting discussed technical considerations of supporting setup of thin client server. Discussion included location of server, so that the tech guys who will be setting this up will have the time and availability to do so. Jeff also provided an update on some of the software/equipment donated for this project. Not all of this has been received, which may delay implementation of project, or change the scope of what software is being included. Sandy asked Jeff if this would be a serious snag, Jeff replied no, as we would already be using project money conservatively (ie waiting till we receive money from HRDC before spending it, and if a specific stage or bit of software/equipment is needed before the project can proceed, wait until after software/equipment is received to spend money on implementation involving same). AGM: Miranda reminded Chris that we would need at least 4 and possibly 5 copies of the Board manual for the next Board meeting, as there would be 4 or 5 new Board members . She also observed that the test ballot did not have an obvious "done" clue for less experienced web users. Andre will look at making this more explicit. 6c) AGM Report (Jessica Cohen) Jessica reported that the AGM software, which has been tested by various volunteers, seems to be working well with a few suggestions to improve the "look and feel" of the vote interface. The Annual reports that have been received so far are now on the AGM web page, the reports still outstanding will be added as soon as they are received. There are 7 candidates whom have been nominated for the 6 board positions. The candidates are: Michael Mason, Elisse Meshake, Seline Herz-Fischler, David Millman, Graeme Beckett, Sandy Campbell, and Mark Mielke. The names will be listed on the ballot in a random order. As Mark is now a candidate, any changes that need to be made to the AGM software will be done by Andre. Jeff asked about the titles appearing on the test ballot, Jessica replied that Mark had informed her that the ballot was customizable, and she would be able to leave out the fields that she didn't consider appropriate (such as the titles) field. A message from MOM will be sent out at the end of this week with some information about the candidates, which they will provide. This will also include a link to the AGM page, and information on when and where (online!) the AGM will be held. 7. New Business There was no new business this month. 8. Announcements Chris announced that the tech team would be meeting at Ian's round table on Monday at 7:00 p.m.. Jessica announced that at the next meeting she would be bringing information on the Board Retreat planned for May 7th. On the subject of location booking, Jessica asked whether a small fee ($50-$100) would be acceptable , as it would widen the scope of available locations. It was agreed that this would be reasonable. 9. Date of Next Meeting Tuesday, April 18th, 7:00 p.m. RMOC - Honeywell Room 111 Lisgar St. 10. Adjournment There being no further business to discuss, the meeting adjourned to an in-camera session with the Human Resources Committee to discuss personnel matters.