Item 63. Minutes of the Board Meeting on July 12, 1994 Carl Miller (carl) Thu, Jul 14, 1994 (20:26). 146 lines, 8 responses. Minutes of the GREX Board of Directors Meeting - July 12, 1994 ---------------------------------------------------------------- The meeting was called to order after 7:30 p.m. by the chairman, Steve Weiss (srw). The gavel was ceremonially banged. Board members attending: Dan Romanchik (danr) [treasurer], STeve Andre (steve), Mike Smerza (morel), Steve Weiss (srw), Meg Geddes (meg), and Rane Curl (rcurl). Absent: John Remmers (remmers) [secretary] Others attending: Valerie Mates (popcorn), Kevin Powell (kpowell), Carl Miller (carl), Misti Anslin (mta), Bill Rayl (snark), Pattie Snyder- Rayl (pegasus), Mary Remmers (chelsea), Rob Henderson (robh), Dave Lovelace (davel), Rob Cummings (robc), Marcus Watts (mdw), Glenda Andre (glenda), Staci Andre and Damon Andre (dae). Minutes (srw): Since John (remmers) was not present, Steve requested a volunteer to take minutes. Carl (carl) agreed to do this. Treasurer's report (danr): Dan gave the financial report which is available in the Agora or coop conferences. There is about $2500 currently in the budget. He pointed out that our recent boost in memberships may be a "blip" or it could be that we are sustaining more long term members. It is too soon to tell. Dan mentioned that Grex may have to file with the IRS this year. He will follow up on the outstanding plegdes to the disk drive fund. 501c3 committee report (rcurl): Rane reported that the IRS has just made available the new forms which will need to be filled out. He offered to type in the answers to the questions online where they can easily be viewed. Computer rehabilitation committee report (rcurl): The committee just purchased two computers. The main job of the committee now is to find acceptable organizations for the computers. Publicity committee report (mta): The new handbook is almost ready to be printed. Misti brought a pre-production copy which was well received. Hypertext committee report (robh, srw, carl): Rob has finished redoing the Grex Activities pages. Steve and Carl have been maintaining the software and system files. Technical committee (steve): The new disk is in and being formatted. From here it will need to be put in a box with the controller. The current drives will need to be backed up, the disks repartitioned, and the swap space increased to 200 megs. When it is online, the /home partition will have 1.3 gigs and each user will have 1 meg. The machine is running well despite the heat. When the Hayes Optima started doing strange things at temperatures above 99 degrees, STeve discovered that turning it over with the back on the cement floor seemed to remedy it. It will be possible to double throughput on our internet link with a new PC Routebox. We have everything we need for this except a motherboard and cpu. Dungeon issues (steve): STeve will talk to Nick tomorrow concerning the move. Valerie agreed to help STeve coordinate the preparations and the move. Carl agreed to help with the ventilation of the room. Staff membership policy (srw): Steve mentioned that we do not have a written policy concerning staff membership. There are four levels for staff: those with access to any system files, those in group staff, those who receive staff mail, and those with root access. Steve would like to see board approval of those with root access. The board voted unanimously to table this discussion until next month. Proposed internet access policy (srw): Since Andy (cicero) wasn't present, Steve filled us in about the proposed policy which is in the Coop conference. It was decided that no action was needed by the board, since a membership vote would be best to change a policy made by a membership vote. Financial planning (srw): There was much lively discussion. Mary (chelsea) voiced her concern that a successful application for 501c3 status which could be later overturned could leave Grex with a huge tax bill at some point in the future. Rane (rcurl) seemed confident that this would not happen. Since Dan (danr) volunteered to check with the Accounting Aid Society, it was decided that all questions and concerns be forwarded to him for a professional opinion. Automated reap policy discussion (staff): For a lack of time, it was decided to discuss this further in the coop conference. New business: Meg (meg) would like to see a statement concerning users' privacy. Since staff reserves the right to look at private files when there is a potential threat to the system, she would like a statement to that effect. Steve (srw) agreed to put this on the next agenda, and it was decided to discuss the issue online. Since January 1 is the start of the new fiscal year, it would be good to start budget planning for November and December. A more detailed budget is called for, since Grex is growing into a larger organization. Motion (morel, meg): To authorize purchase of one motherboard for $200 for the PC Routebox. The motion passed unanimously. STeve recommended the purchase of a 32 meg card which is available for a short time at $450. Since these cards are difficult to find at a good price, are available from a trusted source, and are needed to upgrade the computer, STeve requested immediate action. Dan expressed a concern about spending money quickly without a planned budget. Motion (steve, srw): To authorize expenditure of $450 plus $20 shipping for a 32 meg card after determining that it works and with the understanding that Marcus will purchase it if it cannot be used with our existing 8 meg cards. The motion was not voted upon (see next motion). Motion (rcurl, danr): To postpone the vote on the previous motion until the August meeting. Rane's (rcurl) new business of requesting a fund for the computer rehab committee will appear on the next agenda. The meeting adjourned at about 11:00 pm, with gavel-banging. Respectfully submitted, Carl Miller