The meeting was called to order at 7.05 p.m. with Chris Cope
as Chair and Seline Herz-Fischler as acting Secretary
-
INTRODUCTIONS
Board members present:
David Millman (aa342), Treasurer
Graeme Beckett (aw958)
Christopher Cope (bz787), President/chair
Gary Eikenberry (aa353)
Miranda Gray (ak717)
Seline Herz-Fischler (as370), 1st Vice-President
Catherine Wenuk (ep584), 2nd Vice-President
John Wenuk (ep585)
Mark Mielke (al278)
Regrets:
Sandy Campbell (dt820), Secretary
John Peterson (af186)
NCF Staff/Management present:
Ian MacEachern (bi207), Executive Director
Sheila Alder (bw306), Office Manager
Andre Dalle (al178), System Administrator
NCF members present:
Richard Webb (dw413)
Guests:
None
-
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
(see minutes of prior
month)
Motion: That minutes be approved.
Moved by: Seline Herz-Fischler
Seconded by: Gary Eikenberry
VOTE: All in favor
-
REVIEW OF THE AGENDA
(see draft
agenda)
Additions:
Added Item 5a) NY/World Situation
Deletions:
none
MOTION: That agenda be approved as amended
Moved by: David Millman
Seconded by: Seline Herz-Fischler
VOTE: All in favour
- OLD BUSINESS
-
Bylaw Review Committee
- minor changes suggested by Kathleen Priestman,
PIAC
- committee met a couple of times, John Peterson was to
review for content, but couldn’t as his wife is
ill
- changes are housekeeping in nature, not major
- Graeme said Graham Ginsberg some time ago expressed
interest, Ian will contact him
- Discussion was held of possible future changes if fees
are required
Motion: The the Bylaw committee be removed from the agenda
until needed
Moved by: David Millman
Seconded by: John Wenuk
VOTE: All in favor except Miranda Gray
-
REPORTS
-
NY/World Situation
Ian expressed everyone’s shock at what happened,
and thanked Office Manager Sheila Alder for adding the
Canadian Red Cross appeal to NCF’s main web
pages
Motion: The NCF offers its deepest sympathy and its
support for all individuals and groups directly touched
by the recent terrorist activities in the United
States.
Moved by: Gary Eikenberry
Seconded by: Seline Herz-Fischler
VOTE: All in favor
-
Treasurer's Report (David Millman)
(see accompanying
report and financial
statements for prior month)
David reported that we don’t have numbers
(copies to be published on the website), but there is
good news: Members contributed $1,700 more than expected
in month of August. Other items to note-- $1,000 had been
budgeted from fundraising auction; and considerable
economies were realized by being able to charge staff
time to projects, e.g about $1,500 for Sysadmin.
The Executive Director will report later about Bell
contract: We are currently paying our old rate for
Centrex lines but may have to later pay Bell a higher
rate
Operating loss at the end of August was $3,500 less
than expected.
Motion: That the Treasurer’s report be adopted
as presented.
Moved by: Cathy Wenuk
Seconded by: Graeme Beckett
VOTE: All in favor
-
Executive Director's Report (Ian MacEachern)
(see accompanying
report)
- ED Ian MacEachern summarized his monthly report and
responded to Directors' question on various points. In
essence, he made clear it was a busy time for NCF and
complex negotiations are going on on several fronts
simultaneously. It is encouraging that donations have
been above budget in last two months, with analysis
showing that those donating monthly are donating about
$75 per year so it makes sense to encourage monthly
contributions. )
- Major priorities projects are HRDC Webmail: HRDC
very keen on the expansion of Webmail; Thin Client:
finally have agreement in place with Icon Office
Solutions (instead of Rebel.com); hope to get it up by
about Nov. 15. li>Extended access: Ian to make
presentation in early October to to senior managers.
(Alcatel has donated the equipment we need.)
- System reliability has been moved up the list of
priorities for the Sysadmin. Legal advice being sought
on NCF's recourse in regard to malfunctioning
equipment.
- Bell situation: In May, our contract for 170
dial-in lines expired and jumped from $4,300 to $7,300
per month without our being aware of it. Carleton
University negotiated a five-year contract with Bell
seven years ago, and two years ago renewed it for two
years. Ian will negotiate hard to get the best result
for NCF.
- Ian will continue discussions with the Executive
Committe on the development of the planning process,
calendar for budget, planning, and operations.
Motion: That ED’s report be accepted as
presented.
Moved by: David Millman
Seconded by: Mark Mielke
VOTE: All in favor
-
Executive Committee Report (Chris Cope)
(see accompanying
report)
- Held three meetings; Chris missed third meeting;
first meetings were to provide Ian with people to talk
to, act as sounding board, very informal,
unstructured.
- At June 26 meeting talked about picnic, poetry
contest, Bylaw Review Committee, strategic direction,
tasked Ian with preparation of plan, got project
updates at each meeting
- July 13th meeting, talked about projects, Smart
Capital would be smaller by about $100,000 (not a
concern, still going to do what we said we were going
to do); single value on original submission, Ian
working out details and costs involved in each
component
- Talked about HRDC/Webmail, extended contract date
to Sep 30th, Ian got into discussions with Michael
Williamson, who pushed for us to get the extension
(very few projects are technological, easier to measure
and be used by many)
- Talked about possibility of getting students at
Algonquin to look at our database
- Always talk about 3Com, strategy, financial
analysis
- Third meeting Sep 11th, heard important parts of
tonight’s ED report, discussed them
- Chris discussed the e-commerce solution Edunet is
using for payment and thinks there would be a profound
impact on donations)
Motion: That Executive Committee report be accepted as
presented.
Moved by: Seline Herz-Fischler
Seconded by: Mark Mielke
VOTE: All in favor
-
NEW BUSINESS
-
Board vacancies
Miranda Gray announced she was resigning as a Director
because of pressures of work and study.
Motion: That Miranda be thanked for her years of
service to the membership of NCF.
Moved by: Seline Herz-Fischler
Seconded by: David Millman
VOTE: All in favor (Miranda abstained)
-
Volunteers thank for work on annual picnic
Motion: That Marissa Chartrand and her team be thanked
for their work in organizing the NCF picnic.
Moved by: Seline Herz-Fischler
Seconded by: Miranda Gray
VOTE: All in favor
-
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- President Chris Cope reported that the Global
Networking Conference will be held in Buenos Aires next
year and is scheduled to be held in Montreal in 2002.
Chris, who is on the board for the conference, invited
comments and suggestions. There is no guarantee that
funding will be available to hold the conference.
- Chris explained that “community” is not a
word used in other parts of the world in the way we use
“community networks”; includes digital cities,
small wireless communities, communities of interest (ie
women, aboriginal, etc.)
- Last year was Barcelona, 2002 will be third year for
conference
- Chris will send out web link for conference
- Community networks are strong in Africa, none in
France, few in England, Australia now starting to set up a
service like a freenet, working on aggregating users into
communities
- Would be very interesting to attend. NCF seen worldwide
as a leader in this type of organization
-
NEXT MEETING
October 16, 2001 at 7:00 pm
RMOC - Honeywell Room
110 Laurier
-
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 9:12pm.
