Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
June 3, 2004

Attending:

• Tom Daly
• Ed Dyer
• Bernie Hart
• Marilyn MacDonald
• John McKay
• Jeff Warnica
• Andrew D. Wright

Absent:

• Mark Alberstat
• Reg Hody
• Bill Matheson
• Tanya Moxley
• Chris Watt

Minutes of Previous Meeting

The minutes of the May 6th meeting were presented. It was noted that there was a spelling error in the Policy report - "PIPEDA" is correct. The report was corrected.

Moved by Ed / Jeff that the minutes be accepted as amended. Motion carried.

ACORN Membership

The ACORN membership was discussed. The appointed of a primary representative and a back-up representative was discussed. Andrew agreed to be the primary rep. and Ed agreed to be the back-up.

Moved by Bernie / Tom. Motion carried with two abstentions.

Andrew reported on the ACORN meeting he attended last week on Chebucto's behalf. It went well and our membership is already realizing benefits. Some connection speeds have vastly improved by the use of ACORN. Andrew also had a look at the Dark Fiber network which is part of ACORN. Apparently with the present configuration this network will not serve as a useful tool for Chebucto. If the network is expanded in the future into the Metro area it may be of use.

The fee for Chebucto to join ACORN was set at $3000 at the May 6th meeting. Unfortunately this did not include HST. Bernie moved that the allocation be amended to include $450 HST. Seconded by John. Motion carried.

WiFi Report

A WiFi report was tabled by John. The report consisted of three proposals from CABCO to place a WiFi transmitter receiver on the top of Fenwick Place (aka "Fenwick Tower").

After a long discussion it was agreed that the report would go to Ed and the Technical Committee for a full study.

Bernie suggested that he contact Industry Canada to search out the possibility of financial assistance. Tom offered a contact name in HRM that might be interested in seeing the proposal. Also Bernie suggested that the Port of Halifax Commission might be interested in the project.

It was suggested and agreed that Bernie would attempt to set up a meeting with Transport Canada and that he and John and would attend.

A report on the meeting will be presented to the Board on line as well as at the July meeting.

Chebucto Board Retreat

Marilyn brought forward the idea of a fall retreat for the Chebucto Board and possibly the membership if they were interested.

A discussion of the relative merits of the exercise ensued. Tom thought it would be a very good idea and that it might re-focus the Board on the actual mandate of Chebucto. It might also serve as a source of new ideas and directions.

Marilyn suggested that an outside facilitator be used for the exercise and that it be held on a weekend for a day or more.

All agreed that further planning should take place and that we set a fall date.

A committee consisting of Bernie Hart, Tom Daly and Tanya Moxley was struck to report back to the Board on July 8 regarding a proposal and arrangements for a retreat.

Committee Reports

Finance Committee

Bernie presented the financial report.

Chebucto experienced a number of large expenditures in May. However the overall picture is still very good. The only problem arose when the current account was short of cash and was almost unable meet the May expenditures. Bernie was able to cover the current account shortfall from the reserves.

Bernie suggested that Chebucto open a "Line of Credit" (LOC), in case the same situation arises again.

Bernie discussed the pros and cons of such a move. It was generally agreed that a LOC would be a good move for Chebucto. However with the departure of Ed from the meeting it was felt that there should be more Board members present to discuss such a motion. It was agreed that we defer the idea until the July meeting.

Technical Committee

Unfortunately Ed had to depart prior to giving his report.

It was noted by John that the technical team was to be heartily congratulated on the large reduction of spam.

Andrew indicated that the success with spam may be short lived. Spammers are slowly working around the fixes that have been put in place.

Policy Committee

Andrew reported that the Committee had to deal with two members whose machines had been infected with a virus. The machines were sending copies of virus to the net unknown to the owners. The problem was resolved by shutting down the machines and having the owners disinfect their machines.

External Committee

Marilyn reported on the recent External meeting. Planning for Word on the Street (WOTS) is proceeding. Marilyn has been in contact with HRC@P on the shared display area. Chebucto will pay the full WOTS costs by the mid-June date and then bill HRC@P for its half.

The booth will be 20x20 instead of the 10x10 that Chebucto has used for the past number of occasions.

She also noted that WOTS is celebrating its 10th anniversary as well as Chebucto.

She has made an arrangement for a newspaper article detailing Chebucto's 10th anniversary which will appear in a Halifax Herald supplement on June 10th. There will be a Board photo taken on June 8th. This is a reminder to all members to please show up at the Chase Building by 5:15 pm. ! There will also be articles in the Daily News and the Dalhousie News.

Internal Committee

No Report

Other Business

The Chair noted the first Thursday in July is the holiday July 1st. It was agreed that we move the meeting to the second Thursday. Therefore the July meeting will now be held on the 8th.

John brought up the CCRA review of the status of Not-for-Profit and Charitable originations. The question of the expenditure of funds on administration cost has come under the scrutiny of CCRA. Not that Chebucto has a problem but we should have the financial facts at hand if we are ever called to account for the monies.

John also raised the problem with the accounts set up after Dalhousie shut down its Premium Dial-up accounts last year. A lot of the account holders just use their Dal mailboxes and never check their Chebucto box. They then miss the renewal notices that Chebucto sends and therefore face automatic cancellation. Andrew and Marilyn agreed that this is a problem and they would try to contact Dal to make sure people were aware of the situation.

Jeff Warnica pointed out that much the same situation prevails with the shut down of the Provincial Server at the end of June. There are about fifty users that have not responded to the information letter. Bernie Hart offered to get the address of the fifty and attempt to rectify problem.

Adjournment

Tom moved that we adjourn.

Next Meeting: July 8, 2004. 6:30 PM, Colloquium Room