------------------------------------------------------- Note: A Board quorum was not present for this meeting. ------------------------------------------------------- Item 110. Special Board Meeting Minutes (Sept 10) Jan Wolter (janc) Wed, Sep 11, 1996 (00:42). 120 lines, 1 response. Grex Special Board Meeting Minutes Sept 10, 1996 - 7:30pm - Michigan Union Grill Board Members present (not a quorum): Mark Conger (aruba) Steve Gibbard (scg) Scott Helmke (scott) - chair Valerie Mates (popcorn) Others present: Dave Dorney (dadroc) John Remmers (remmers) Mary Remmers (chelsea) Marla (qt314) Charles Mitchell (arthurp) Jan Wolter (janc) - acting secretary This meeting of the Cyberspace Communications Board was called to discuss options for moving. We need to move Grex out of the dungeon within the next 9 days (by September 18). The following options for places to move have been considered: (1) West Huron street - Scott reports that Steve Andre says this is still available. Rent would probably be $60 a month. No long term lease is available, though we would get four month notice if we had to move out. Ownership of the building might or might not suddenly change in the future. It's across the street from a homeless shelter and Steve Gibbard reports having seen fights in the neighborhood late at night. (2) Plymouth road (Cottage Inn office building) - This is a basement space where we would have to build a our own wall to separate it from the rest of the building (scott estimated this would cost about $500). We would have a regular lease perhaps at $75-$100 for the first year, and $100 a month thereafter. It's a very good space, in terms of size, ventilation, and access to phone and electrical hookups. (3) Red Cross Building - There is a possibility of getting free space in a small room in the basement of the red cross building. It's not quite as nice a space as the above two, being smaller. The Red Cross has not officially approved this offer, and some of their board members are concerned about allowing Grex in there because there is only one stair- way and the fire code resticts the number of people who may be in the basement. Because of the location of the Red Cross space, Grex's dial-in phone numbers would all have to change. Scott reported that Steve Weiss was in touch with the Red Cross and that the Red Cross had not yet made a decision, or spoken to the fire marshall yet. (4) CICnet - If we could find space in the ITI building, CICnet would likely (though no firm commitment has been made) to be offer us a better internet connection than we now have. So far we have not found any space in the ITI building, though with the net connectivity savings, we would be able to pay considerably more than in other places. Steve Andre has been talking to various ITI building people and Jared Mauch has apparantly been talking to some people. (5) Another un-namable ISP-type place - We had been talking to another group about co-locating and getting a cheap or free connection from them. Valerie Mates reported that this was almost dead. They have not got room. There might still be a possibility, if Grex could be put in a rack. Various alternatives were discussed. - Could Grex be put into a rack or rack-like structure, and stuck into a machine room full of other peoples machines? Steve Andre has argued in the past that a work space is very valuable. Nobody was very enthuastic about this alternative. - Can we light a fire under the search for space in ITI? Steve Andre was been busy and not (we think) been able to pursue this. Valerie and Jan somewhat reluctantly agreed to try to get in touch with Steve Andre and see if we can take a hand in this. - Mary Remmers suggested that we shouldn't hang around waiting more than a couple more days for the ITI or Red Cross things, or rush into making a deal with these organizations that we might later regret. We should get into some stable space, and continue negotiations in a more leasurely fashio with these kinds of organization, possibly moving again in a few years. Mark pointed out that there is about $3000 in our treasury, and we can afford to do this, if need be. This might actually make it easier to negotiate a good arrangement with some other group in the long term, since "desparation is never attractive." - There was some discussion of whether we would be interested in the Red Cross space even if we were offered it. Valerie pointed out that changing phone numbers would be especially painful because we won't be able to give the users much advance notice. It would be nicer in many ways to be a real tenant in commerical space rather than being someone else's guest. - There was some discussion of the relative merits of the Plymouth Road and West Huron locations, the former costing more and requiring construction but being a nicer and more stable location. Opinion swayed. No vote was taken since no quorum was present. Scott will contact Richard Berk (rickyb) to see if the Plymouth Rd space still is available and perhaps do a bit of further negotion to try to set the price more firmly. - We will try to get an extension on the time we can stay at the current location. Valerie will contact the city about this. - Valerie has several other people she wants to contact about possible space. - Dave suggested a possible location near the Manhattan Cafe that Valerie will do some further checking on. - If Grex needs to be somewhere between the time it moves out of the dungeon and into some real location, we have two people who have offered a room in an apartment and an already-installed phone line that can be dedicated to be an internet connection. [I'm omitting the names of the volunteers on the ancient tradition of being a bit vague about the exact location of Grex]. In one of these locations it might be possible to install three dial-in lines if Grex has to be there for a longer period. - Jan suddenly noticed that he'd stopped taking notes some time ago, and would thus have to regenerate the minutes from memory. Sorry. Please give any corrections or additions. The board will meet again Thursday, Sept 12 at 7:30pm at the Michigan Union Grill, to try to make a final decision on where to move. ----------