Monthly Board Meeting
August 10, 2000
Meeting Minutes

Preliminaries The meeting was held in the conference room at the Greenbelt Police Station, beginning at 7:05pm. In the absence of a permanent Secretary, Peggy Bates volunteered to act as recording secretary for this meeting. Attendees: Directors - Peggy Bates, Mary Camp, Gilbert Lee (presiding), Doug Love, Neil McLeod Members - Ed James, Bruce Kuhl, Joseph Notes, Jeff Travis, Joyce Wineland Guests - Leonie Penney Preliminary Agenda Neil McLeod and Mary Camp added several items to the agenda, which was then approved. Monthly Reports Secretary: Neil McLeod reported on the posting of the minutes from the Annual Membership Meeting, Annual Board Meeting, and the June and July Monthly Board Meetings. At this point, only the Annual Membership Meeting minutes are not completed. Neil will post these after receiving/locating missing portions due from certain Officers. Before the next Board Meeting, the Directors will review all the recently posted minutes for approval at the meeting. Minutes of the Monthly Board Meeting - July 13, 2000 Vice President: Mary Camp reported on the results of the Class Planning Open House held on August 1, 2000, and on the upcoming class schedule. Class Report - August 1, 2000 Schedule of Upcoming Classes Mary Camp and Doug Love have been in contact with Joe McNeal of the Community Center about the cancellation of GIAC's room reservation for the June class. Joe McNeal apologized for the mix-up and has since sent written confirmation of upcoming reservations. Neil McLeod has changed the wording of the posted class announcement as suggested in the July Board Meeting. Treasurer: Peggy Bates summarized the financial activity last month, reporting a net income of $158.12. This includes our usual monthly income and expenses, along with: receipt of Federal and State income tax refunds, accrual of the obligation to pay the ISP an additional $0.95 per account per month back to February, and the obligation to pay for the Quickbooks software. We have a negative net income for the year to date of $152.84, but expect to end the year with a positive net income, unless we spend. Balance Sheet - August 1, 2000 Profit & Loss - July, 2000 Profit & Loss - January-July, 2000 Peggy also reported on the investigation into purchasing equipment. After putting out an "Attention GIAC Shoppers" RFV (request for volunteers), she received several responses of people willing to do some on-line research for a fireproof container to store the CO-OP records. Two candidate containers have been identified. Both are two-drawer file cabinets rated to 1700 degrees for one hour. It was moved and seconded that Peggy be authorized to spend up to $500 for a container of this type. Joe Notes suggested that records could be scanned and kept on a CD in a safety deposit box. The practical difficulties of this approach (which had been previously considered) were explained. After some discussion, the motion passed unanimously. Neil McLeod reported that recent financial reports have been posted on-line. System Administrator: Neil McLeod distributed a membership roster and a voting list to each Officer present. Account Summary - August 1, 2000 Neil reported that subscriber domain name attachment and e-mail routing via GREENBELT.COM has been successfully tested using 'www.centerway.com'. The one-time setup charge for domain name attachment is $50.00 and for e-mail routing, $25.00. Joyce Brown believes that Chesapeake has satisfied all the requirements of the Board's April letter and has requested back payment of the rate increase to February. After meeting with Joyce and subsequent further investigation, Neil believes there are still outstanding issues, but was unable to communicate those to Joyce before the August service payment was sent (without the increase). Neil will discuss the situation with Joyce ASAP. At their meeting on July 19, Neil and Joyce discussed the outstanding issues. Progress is being made with the CGI issues, but there are still problems with certain e-mail issues and with the availability of the promised Netscape 4.5 CD-ROM customized for GREENBELT.COM. All other issues outlined in the April letter were ostensibly resolved; however, there is now a new (old) issue--notification of changes. Last week, Chesapeake changed the FTP access security without notification and left many users unable to use their FTP access the way it had been set up previously. Users were left to believe that their FTP function was suddenly "broken". Adequate notification to GIAC of changes by the ISP was one of the points emphasized in the April letter. Neil also reported another recent controversy resulting from the apparent spamming (twice) of those listed in the People section of the Community Directory by the promoter of swing dance fundraiser events on behalf of Friends of the Greenbelt Museum. One person was sufficiently offended by the unsolicited e-mail to request that his address be removed from the Directory. Gilbert Lee will contact FOGM to formally complain about the practice of spamming on behalf of their organization. Neil McLeod will add "terms of use" statements to the Directory webpages and will contact the promoter directly with instructions to "cease and desist" spamming operations to all addresses obtained from the Directory. For those who may still be unaware, a public 'Greenbelters' eGroup was established for those who wish to be informed by e-mail about Greenbelt-related activities and events. ISP Committee:  (no written report submitted) Doug Love reported that the ISP Committee met at Doug's house on August 3. They tested Ed James' perl script 'hello.pl', but it didn't work. They then modified the script to avoid CGI system calls, but that didn't work, either. Dorian wants to talk with Joyce to have her "activate" CGI. Neil McLeod pointed out that Dorian had previously demonstrated successful perl/CGI functionality on the GREENBELT.COM server and that Joyce Brown had been so informed. Neil offered to attend the next ISP Committee meeting to clarify any misunderstandings regarding CGI configuration, directory access and communication with the ISP. Legal Committee:  (no written report submitted) Neil McLeod reported that a "final" draft of amended Articles of Incorporation and related Bylaws changes had been forwarded to Legal Committee chair Doug Caprette for approval by the committee, after which the amended documents would be posted for review and approval by the Board and Members. Gilbert Lee confirmed that no July meeting of the Legal Committee was held. The next meeting is set for 8:00pm, Tuesday, August 15, at Doug Caprette's office. Audit Committee:  (no written report submitted) Peggy Bates reported that no Audit Committee meeting was held in July, as Carol Gordon is in Kansas. The next meeting will be scheduled when Carol returns. Neil McLeod inquired about Carol's audit activities. Peggy explained that they include back-checking the bookkeeper and drafting audit procedures for use by the next Audit Committee. Old Business Board and Committee Vacancies: Gilbert Lee has been in contact with several people and wants to exhaust those avenues before putting another announcement in the News Review and Gazette. Jeff Travis expressed possible interest in helping, either in the role of Secretary, or as a Director investigating electronic funds transfers for the CO-OP. Jeff will review the posted Secretary's duties and let us know if he is willing to serve. Since the last meeting, Neil McLeod has contacted all of the business members of GIAC about volunteering, with no success so far. Procedures & Documentation: The Officers met on August 3 and continued to review procedures and documentation. The next meeting is scheduled on Tuesday, September 5. Activity Planning: Mary Camp reported that plans for a Cybercafe have been put on hold for the time being because of all the other activities going on. Labor Day Festival planning: September 2 (Saturday) - Information Day GIAC information table located near the Mother and Child Statue E-mail Members by August 11, asking for volunteers to set up, work at, and take down the table Status of tent covering Other items: tablecloth, computer, phone cable, electrical hook-ups, handout materials September 4 (Monday) - Labor Day Parade E-mail/call Nancy Revis by August 11 regarding parade application E-mail Members by August 11 asking for volunteers Status of propellers, pickup truck, other items (?) Action items: Gilbert Lee will purchase an awning (up to $50) before Mary attends the LDF Information Day meeting with David Pitts. Doug Love will check on a vehicle for the parade. Doug Love will find out how many propellers he has for the Parade of Propeller Heads. A meeting to finalize LDF plans will be held at Peggy Bates' house on Monday, August 28. Website Harvest Party planning: October 14 (Saturday) - Senior Classroom, Greenbelt Community Center Doug Love able to run phone line? Discuss refreshment plans with Social Director Ellen Lee Form party committee; ask for volunteers Make a more detailed list of things to do New Business Community Website Appearance: Neil McLeod requests that if anyone sees anything that looks "funny" while browsing GREENBELT.COM websites to please bring it to his attention. He has found that different browsers can do things that upset the look of some of the tables. Overview of WIN31 Connection Issues: Neil McLeod reported difficulty in supporting WIN31-based e-mail service for Members using only GIAC-licensed software. Netscape Navigator 3.0 Gold or NewDeal software (both user-licensed) may be solutions for some Members. Special Interest Group: Mary Camp proposed the creation of a GIAC Linux Special Interest Group. She was encouraged by all present to proceed. GIAC Logo: Mary Camp has investigated establishing the GIAC logo at Land's End (clothing catalog retailer) for application to articles (e.g., hats, shirts) that GIAC may wish to sell at a later time. A discussion ensued about the identity of GIAC within the community and how it is different from the "product" GREENBELT.COM. Mary has offered to donate her GIAC instructor credits to pay for the setup charges. No action was taken by the Board at this time, although there was interest in the proposal. Conclusion The next regular meeting will be held at 7:00pm on Thursday, September 14, in the conference room at the Greenbelt Police Station. The meeting was adjourned at 9:30pm. - Notes 8/11/00 by Peggy Bates - Reformatted & edited 8/13/00 by Neil McLeod