Greenbelt Internet Access Cooperative

Monthly Board Meeting – January 7, 1999

Conference Room, Greenbelt Police Station

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

DIRECTORS: Tom Crompton, Bill Dupree, Jim Heagy, Doug Love, Neil McLeod, Patty Merryman, Chris Morris, Nancy Revis, Brian Schieber

MEMBERS: Nancy Allen, Ed James

GUESTS: David Grey, Wilfred Saul

=== PRELIMINARIES ===

1. The meeting was called to order at 7:05pm, with Nancy Revis presiding.

=== MONTHLY REPORTS ===

2. Secretary (Bill Dupree) [acting]

- Minutes of the Monthly Board Meeting – December 3, 1998

3. Treasurer (Chris Morris)

· Chris distributed financial statements to each Director present. Chris explained that there is enough money in the general operating fund to cover expenses; the current share value is $71.21. This is not what a Member would get if the Cooperative dissolved, but it is a good indicator of the financial health of the organization.

4. Membership Committee (Neil McLeod)

· Neil distributed a membership roster to each Director present. We gained two new members and lost two members in December.

· Bill Dupree will help out with this committee until the elections.

· Nancy Revis asked about the supply of membership kits. Jim Heagy indicated that a supply of kits is needed. Nancy Allen volunteered to make kits; she will need approval for postage, raw materials, and where the kits are needed.

· Greenbelt Homes Inc. has indicated it will be joining GIAC around the end of February.

5. Legal Committee – No report

6. ISP Committee (spokesman unknown)

· Two meetings were held this month at Generous Joe's, including a planning meeting with Sanjay Mishra and Ashok Saxena of SigmaNet about our move to a GIAC-dedicated web and mail server. SigmaNet has Linux servers; Brian, Doug, Neil and Ed will come up with a website migration plan. We will have to have one day of dual e-mail (to two mail servers). Ed James will work out cgi scripts after the transfer. There will be no increase in rates for administration purposes.

7. Audit Committee (Tom Crompton)

· Tom, Nancy Revis and Chris Morris volunteered to conduct the FY 1998 audit of GIAC books and Member journals and to submit the annual audit report by March.

=== OLD BUSINESS ===

8. Classes

· Tom Crompton reported that, although the attendance was small, the “Internet Basics” class held in December was successful. Tom would like to thank all the volunteers who helped set up and take down the room.

· The next class will be “Windows 95 Basics” on Tuesday, February 16, presented by Bill Dupree.

· Doug Love had the borrowed projector serviced and thanks go to him as well.

· It was proposed that we should look into a class provider to offload some of the class burden. A Hyattsville company (Computer Utopia) was mentioned. Decision tabled.

9. Internet Service Provider

· Neil McLeod reported that our ISP service has been OK this month. If anyone needs to contact Neil, please e-mail macro@greenbelt.com or call 701-758-4083. Don't bother Patty at home.

10. Technical Support / Voice Mail

· Bill Dupree will investigate voice mail vendors for pricing, the reason being to lift the burden of trouble calls at all hours to Nancy Revis at home.

=== NEW BUSINESS ===

11. Annual Meeting

· We need an election committee to reach out to tap the membership for nominations. This needs to come together by March's meeting.

· It was recommended that Bill Dupree should fill the Secretary position vacated by Jim Heagy until June, at which time we will re-elect Bill so he can't leave.

· Patty Merryman will canvass to fill Director spots.

· Flyers must go out in June for Officer and Director vacancies.

12. New Projector

· Doug Love turned over material sources to Bill Dupree to investigate prices for a computer projector. He found they range in price from $1200 to $12,000. Doug will continue by checking rentals at Ritz Camera, etc. Next we will approach companies about outright gifts of equipment.

13. Girl Scout Internet Classes

· Papers were submitted with course content and dates for classes in the Community Church. GIAC must see if the schedule conflicts with our regular classes and if we have an instructor willing to give the class onsite. Decision tabled.

14. E-mail Voting

· Doug Love and Neil McLeod discussed the need to get things done between Board meetings. Neil will write up a proposal on implementation of a system whereby the Board can conduct some of its business online.

15. Postal Mailing

· A mailing needs to be made about changes to the VIP program and about Members clearing their accumulated e-mail to prepare for the upcoming mail server transition.

16. Macintosh Setup

· Ann Duncan needs a Mac setup. We need a volunteer to get the Mac disks from Jim Heagy and to help Ann.

17. Service Rates

· SigmaNet doubled the national access dial-up rate from $2.75 to $5.50 (from all locations).

=== GUEST PRESENTATION ===

18. Webmaster Volunteer

· Our guest David Grey, a high school student, asked if he could work with the Webmaster in order to hone his skills. He would like to help organize or redesign parts of the GREENBELT.COM website. His qualifications are that he was doing website work at DigiWeb and was adept at support for Unix, NT, and Solaris. Or maybe he could work on permissions and cgi scripts for his membership fee.

· The Board put off consideration of the request.

=== CONCLUSION ===

19. Scheduled Meetings

· The next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on Thursday, February 4, in the conference room at the Greenbelt Police Station.

- Minutes of the Monthly Board Meeting – February 4, 1999

20. The meeting was adjourned at 10:00pm.

- 01/__/99 Posted by Bill Dupree
- 09/01/05 Reformatted & edited by Neil McLeod