Greenbelt Internet Access Cooperative

Monthly Board Meeting – December 3, 1998

Conference Room, Greenbelt Police Station

M E E T I N G M I N U T E S

DIRECTORS: Tom Crompton, Jim Heagy, Doug Love, Neil McLeod, Chris Morris, Nancy Revis (Absent: Brian Schieber; Resigned: Ralph Bram)

MEMBERS: Bill Dupree, Ed James, Patty Merryman, Shawn O'Neil

GUESTS:

=== PRELIMINARIES ===

1. The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm, with Nancy Revis presiding.

=== MONTHLY REPORTS ===

2. Secretary (Jim Heagy)

· Jim read the minutes of the previous Board Meeting.

- Minutes of the Monthly Board Meeting – November 5, 1998

3. Treasurer (Chris Morris)

· Chris reported the year-to-date income as $1,564.74 and share value at $74.72, based on 74 Members.

· Income for the month due to the VIP was $135, which corresponds to 45 members or ~61% of the membership.

4. Membership Committee (Neil McLeod)

· Neil distributed a membership roster to each Director present. GIAC gained 4 new Members in November and 1 in December. Two Members have been suspended.

5. Legal Committee – No report

6. ISP Committee – No report

=== OLD BUSINESS ===

7. Classes

· The December class will be "Internet Basics", taught by Tom Crompton. The class will be held on Wednesday, December 16, in the meeting room of the Greenbelt Library and will start at 7:00pm.

· Bill Dupree expressed interest in giving another Windows 95 class in the near future. Patty Merryman also expressed her interest in giving a class on "Exploration of Online Directories."

· Tom said that while GIAC volunteer assistance for class setup is generally available, there continues to be a problem in getting volunteers to instruct classes. He added that people needed to support their interest with involvement rather than words.

· The possibility of buying a class was raised. Neil has contacted a company in Hyattsville that offers a wide variety of computer classes. The point of contact is willing to give the class in the Library, but no terms were discussed. There was general support for this idea, but it was agreed that we should attend one of the classes before an invitation is extended to teach a GIAC class. Also discussed was the amount GIAC would be willing to pay for such a class; $75 was generally agreed to be the upper limit.

· Class preparation by instructors was also raised. It was emphasized that instructors should be prepared for classes and that they should submit an outline of the material to be covered to Tom before their class. Provision of handouts for class attendees was also strongly encouraged.

· The need for repairs to the projector (kindly provided by the Atholton Seventh Day Adventist Church) was discussed. The projector is missing a foot and is in need of routine service. Doug Love offered to look into a place to get the projector repaired. Bill Dupree also volunteered to look into prices of computer-driven overlays for use with a standard overhead projector.

8. Internet Service Provider

· SigmaNet continues to have problems with their servers (one server ran out of IP numbers) and tech support is still not acceptable. SigmaNet claims to have several people in training, yet no new beeper numbers have been given out to GIAC. Ashok Saxena, SigmaNet president, has provided GIAC with a new personal cell phone number. CGI scripting is still not possible even though public domain CGI libraries are believed to be readily available. [NOTE ADDED: News service (Usenet) has been down for over a two-week period in December and tech support response to the problem has been slow at best. News service was restored late in December.]

=== NEW BUSINESS ===

9. Technical Support

· Nancy Revis expressed her desire to be out of the tech support loop.

· Tom Crompton suggested that a subcommittee be formed to deal exclusively with tech support issues; the committee would report their activities at the monthly meetings.

10. GIAC Website

· Nancy Revis reported that there is a problem with the Online Registration page and that a rather unpleasant message results when attempting to use the page.

11. Leadership Transition

· Before the meeting Ralph Bram sent an e-mail stating his resignation from the Board of Directors. The Board expresses its appreciation for his service and will miss his command of parliamentary procedure.

· Ralph's resignation left two Board seats open. Nominations for the Board were heard. Bill Dupree was nominated and seconded and Patty Merryman was nominated and seconded. Both were approved to the Board by a unanimous vote of acclamation. Bill stated his interest in helping with classes, while Patty stated her interest in assisting with volunteer efforts.

12. Volunteer Incentive Program

· A question was raised on how VIP tasks were decided. Neil explained that tasks are generally "pre-decided". Exam