Item 78. Minutes of the August 9, 1994 meeting, Cyberspace Communications B.O.D. John H. Remmers (remmers) Fri, Aug 12, 1994 (17:17). 181 lines, 1 response. Minutes of Cyberspace Communications Board of Directors Meeting, 8-9-94 0. Initializing Gavel (srw): The meeting was called to order at 7:09 p.m. Board members attending: Steve Weiss (srw) [chair], Dan Romanchik (danr) [treasurer], John Remmers (remmers) [secretary], STeve Andre (steve), Rane Curl (rcurl), Meg Geddes (meg). Board member absent: Mike Smerza (morel). Others attending: Misti Anslin (mta), Valerie Mates (popcorn), Carl Miller (carl), Bill Rayl (snark), Mary Remmers (chelsea), Pattie Snyder-Rayl (pegasus), Marcus Watts (mdw). 1. Treasurer's report (danr): There were $372 in dues collected in July. An anonymous donation of $100 has mostly wiped out the deficit in the disk drive fund. Dan distributed a graph showing a 6-month rolling average of member contributions, 1/93-7/94, showing that donations have approximately tripled in that time interval. Projected annual income is on the order of $6000. We will have to file a tax return but will not owe any taxes. Our membership in the Accounting Aid Society has lapsed; Dan recommended that we rejoin -- dues are $25/year. 2. 501(c)3 committee (rcurl): No progress since the last meeting due to time constraints. 3. Computer rehabilitation committee (rcurl): Rane reported that he doesn't have current status on the machines from either Dan R. or TS Taylor. Dan commented that there is no change in the status of the machine that is in his possession. 4. Publicity committee (mta): Misti indicated that there has no activity recently, due to the press of family and business concerns. STeve Andre commented that Grex is growing at a remarkable rate anyway. 5. Hypertext committee (srw, carl, robh): Carl indicated that he has made minor changes to the hypertext pages. 6. Technical committee (steve, gregc): New disk -- STeve Andre reported that there are problems with the new disk drive; inodes are being corrupted and we lose between 2 and 5 user files every 3 days. Four people have lost their home directories. However, there appears to be no corruption of data in existing files. Therefore, the problem is probably stems from some degree of incompatibility between SUN-OS and the new disk drive. Other disk drives on Grex are not affected. The technical committee is investigating possible solutions; in the meantime, other technical projects are on hold. Internet link -- STeve has obtained, but not yet installed, a new revision of the PC route software. It should help with "logjams" and improve flow through the link. Newuser program problems -- There are serious problems with newuser currently; approximately 45% of invocations fail. Possible causes are the size of the password file and bugs in the shadow password software. The company from whom we hoped to purchase the 386 motherboard appears to be out of business. Meg remarked that she has another 2400 bps modem that she can loan to Grex. 7. Financial planning. Steve Weiss indicated that our income is now stable and predictable enough that we can and should do more financial planning. Discussion ensued on categorize and prioritize. The concensus was that the next step should be an item in the coop conference to discuss planning. 8,e.Reimbursing Greg Cronau, Grex liabilities to individuals Steve W. felt that item 8 was a special case of item e -- monetary and equipment loans by individuals to Grex, so the two items were combined.. We need to take inventory and make a list of items which Grex is currently borrowing. STeve Andre indicated that he could do this for the equipment and supplies that are currently stored or in use at C.E. 9. Additional memory for Grex (postponed from last month). STeve Andre indicated that additional memory is needed to get the load average on the system under control. He can certainly purchase 32 mb of memory for $700 and can probably get it for less, perhaps as little as $450. Motion (meg, srw): To authorize $700 for 32 mb of memory for Grex. The motion passed unanimously (6-0-0). STeve will endeavor to find the best price that he can for the memory. a. ALM-II board. Grex is currently using an ALM-II board borrowed from Greg Cronau for its serial communications. We appreciate this loan from Greg but want to purchase a replacement and return Greg's board to him. Steve W. will communicate with Greg regarding Greg's wishes on how this should be handled. There was some discussion on whether the replacement should be another ALM-II or an Annex -- STeve A. indicated that the latter would be preferable because of its higher capacity and speed, but would also be more expensive. b. Dungeon issues (all). Steve W. expressed frustration that moving plans have been stalled for some time. Mary R. indicated that we should not move unless we are sure that all parties are comfortable with Grex occupying the new space, and now that we know that there are two owners of the property in question, further official discussions should involve both owners. Valerie will contact the owners to re-open the discussion process. c. Staff membership policy (srw). John R. proposed a policy for appointing staff members; there is currently no policy on how this is done. In brief, the proposal was that staff could use its own discretion in granting special resources to qualified individuals for projects that are beneficial to Grex, but that granting of root access, access to the staff conference, and access to the "baff" mailing list requires the advice and consent of the board. There was disagreement on whether *temporary* root access should be at staff's discretion or require board approval. John ageed to enter an item in coop to discuss staff appointment procedures, with a view to establishing a policy at the next board meeting. d. Request from MNAC for a closed conference (rcurl). Discussion focused on the propriety of Grex offering closed conferences and whether such conferences are compatible with the purposes and philosophy of Grex. It became apparent that the board was sharply divided on the issue but that a motion to authorize the conference, if made, would almost certainly not pass. Therefore no motion was offered. e. (See 8,e above.) f. New business. Motion (rcurl, meg): That a fund of $250 be set aside for the use of the Computer Rehabilitation committee. When equipment purchased with these funds is rehabilitated and sold at cost, or reciprocal donations are received, receipts would return to the fund, up to the fund limit. The motion passed unanimously (6-0-0). Valerie indicated that she would not be available to coordinate Grex's efforts at the fall JCC sale. If Grex is to participate, a volunteer is needed to take on this task. Someone (Rane? Meg?) observed two attendees at the meeting wearing Grex t-shirts (old pattern) and indicated that we should look into making mousepads available with the same design. Apparently the same person who is doing the t-shirts and coffee mugs also does mousepads. Mary R. will investigate. g. Terminating gavel (srw). The meeting adjourned at 10:04 p.m.