Item 121. Minutes of the Cyberspace Communication Board Meeting of Wednesday 9/25/96 Steven R. Weiss (srw) Mon, Sep 30, 1996 (01:15). 182 lines, 1 response. Minutes of the Cyberspace Communications Inc. Board Meeting of Wednesday, September 25, 1996 Held at the cafeteria of ITI on Hubbard Road, Ann Arbor. 1. The meeting was called to order by Scott Helmke, President, at 7:41 PM. Board members in attendance: Scott Helmke (scott), President Mark Conger (aruba), Treasurer Steve Weiss (srw), Secretary Steve Gibbard (scg), Valerie Mates (popcorn), Rob Henderson (robh) Absent: Misti Anslin Tucker (mta) Others in attendance: Dan Gryniewicz (dang), Jan Wolter (janc), Rob Argy (ajax), STeve Andre' (steve) 2. Treasurer's Report Mark Conger posted the report on-line which includes the results from both July and August combined, because he was not in town to post the results of July alone. We ran a deficit for the two months, but that is mainly because of a short-term loan to STeve, which was paid back by the time of the meeting. We are approximately breaking even. Mark also mentioned tat we had already received $449.50 in September. For planning purposes, Mark gave a presentation using a flip chart, which showed our income versus expenses over a 36 month period. This is important because our income fluctuates greatly on a monthly basis, but our finances are very stable over a period of several years. Here is the gist of it -- income $500/month constant income from memberships $115/month JCC sakes (averaging 9 sales over 36 months) $ 60/month auction (assuming one auction per year) $ 10/month T-shirts and mugs ------- $685/month total income expenses $275/month phone (excluding internet link) $ 10/month miscellaneous ------- $285 This leaves $400/month for rent, i-net connection, electricity and and hardware costs. Historically, over 36 months, we have spent an average of $185/month on hardware maintenance and upgrades. This excludes money spent from earmarked funds, such as the disk fund-raiser. If we allow $185/month to continue to be allocated for hardware costs, we are left with $215/month to spend on i-net, electric and rent. The purpose of this presentation was for planning and deciding how much we could afford to spend on these items as we pick our next home. Steve Weiss pointed out that we might choose to allocate a smaller amount for planned hardware upgrades and maintenance. 3. Computer Rehabilitation Report nothing to report 4. Publicity Report in Misti's absence, no report was given 5. Technical Committee Report * Nothing has broken * There was a problem in the last few days with incoming connections to the "portmapper" protocol. These connections cause a load and mail buildup. The offending site has corrected the problem. * Lynx has been upgraded (by Valerie) to 2.5, and there have been some configuration changes. * Nethack has been recompiled (Valerie) * chsh has a new wrapper to help people change their own shell settings without running into complication. (Valerie) * Backtalk is installed - running on two test conferences only. (Jan) * "write" was upgraded to fix a "hang" (Jan) * Scott noted that he has had to kill gettys on the fast modems a number of times, as they have a tendency to ring open. * We did a full tape backup (Valerie, STeve, Jan (I think)) * Valerie reported slowness on the staff line which is unexplained. (This comment sent us into a short tech-y diversion as to whether our local Ethernet is functioning properly. Nothing was resolved.) 6. JCC Sale It is coming on Oct 13. There was a discussion about how many tables we will need. The answer was 2. There was a discussion of whether we need to pay sales tax. This needs to be investigated. MOTION: (scott,aruba) Authorize $80 to rent 2 tables for the JCC Sale. PASSED 6-0 (1 absent) 10. Grex Has to Move All of the cheaper or free site alternatives have fallen through. The remaining ones are too expensive, considering Mark's presentation earlier in the meeting. The West Huron Street Site had been approved by the board at the 9/10/96 (special) meeting, so no action was needed to approve it. STeve has contacted the landlord for the West Huron Street Site, and determined that it is still available. He asked the landlord to agree to a 4-month notice provision. He agreed, and asked us to word it. Some board members agreed to get together after the meeting and hammer out the wording of a short agreement to present to the landlord. STeve still feels that centrex phone lines will be less expensive than our current arrangement with Ameritech. This had also already been approved by the board. Once STeve confirms these costs, and once our agreement with the West Huron Street site's landlord has been signed, STeve is to request Ameritech to reconfigure Grex's hunt group to a Centrex system at the new location. This should be in the next few days. STeve said that in the worst case it would take 8 business days for them to move the lines, but that when they do, the lines will be out of order for the duration of the move. He will request that Ameritech let us know when it will happen so that we can schedule Grex's move at that time. 11. Conference Backtalk Access Selena's concerns about access were presented (1) access from users who are anonymous (2) access from users who haven't read the Grex principles. There was a lively discussion for a short time, and it was suggested that this question be handled by a member vote. scg and srw suggested that the board had the responsibility to make a decision on the question and that it was not for the board to shirk that responsibility. Valerie then stated that as a member, she was going to call for a member vote (every voting member has this right). This ended all discussion on the topic. 12. New Business Valerie pointed out that we should be thinking about whom to nominate to run for the 1997 board. There will be three seats available. srw's seat - he is not running because he is ineligible popcorn's seat - she will be running for reelection scg's seat - he said he is probably going to run STeve Andre' noted that with the upcoming move there are likely to be miscellaneous moving costs. For example, we might need 60 feet of 25 pair phone cable. MOTION (scott, scg): Authorize $200 for staff to spend at its discretion for miscellaneous moving expenses. PASSED 6-0 (1 absent) 13. Adjournment Occurred at 9:47 PM Respectfully submitted, Steven R. Weiss Secretary ----------