Minutes of previous meeting had been circulated by email
and corrections noted by Andrew had been inserted.
Motion to approve made by Alan, seconded by Kent. Passed.
Financial Report
Statement was distributed. Alan pointed out that
July revenue was made respectable by the receipt of the
HST rebate of $2939. He then pointed out that our
revenue year to date from external sources was $10000
less than last year at this time. Our expenses were
(adjusted for the $10000 earmarked for Andrew's salary)
$5000 less than last year, i.e. we were a further $5000
"in the hole". Furthermore we are now paying Andrew
the full amount due to him, so projections to year end
become: Revenue $84000, Expenses $98000, a deficit
of $14000. As at the end of July our total liquid assets
were $24628. After the amount earmarked for Andrew's
salary this becomes 14100, just enough to cover the
projected year end deficit. We have 4 and a half months
to "do or die". Bernie thanked Alan for the wake up call.
There was some discussion as to what we should do to
avoid "dying", and Andrew showed a screen from our
website portraying 160 volunteers interested in hosting
a node for our wireless network. There were two areas,
near South Street and north of North Street, where the
concentration was sufficient to make it work. Andrew also
showed a customer on the fringe of our existing coverage
now using wireless for access to the internet as her phone
service could not be restored. Alan proposed acceptance
of his report, seconded by Kent. Passed.
Technical Report
Johnathan reported also on our our solitary wireless user,
whose reception is spotty due to the distance, but this will
improve as intervening nodes will help carry the signal to her.
At Spencer House we are going to move the node downstairs
and run a connectionto the antenna (re-wiring is not practical).
We are getting a quote on buying 10 antennas so that we will
have 10 to 12 nodes ready to go for expansion.
There will be a power outage later this week from 11 pm
to 7 am. We will not rent a generator but will use the opportunity
to install battery back-ups (which require the system to be down
at the time).
The office has been partially cleared: Johnathan is checking
the old computers for usable parts and will dispose of the shells
(the offer of storage from Physics did not work out). We are
still working on improving the mail system.
Policy Committee
Nothing to report. Only one member responded to a widely distributed
password-fishing scam. We cancelled his old password and set him up with
a new one.
Liaison with Organizations: We would like to ask Joy
Woolfrey to chair this committee.
Joy also suggested CCN have a display at "The Other Home
Show" in mid November. Mary has contacted the organizers
and will report back at the Board's September meeting.
Meeting with Dan McKeen. Bernie said he and Alan made
a presentation (left in point form with Dan) on CCN history
and where it stands now. We asked for a donation to cover
our internet costs (estimated at 15000). Dan said the situation
is now different (Eastlink donated to help us start up). We
were now a competitor. He was nevertheless sympathetic and
promised to pass it by the executive committee this week.
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