Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
August 13, 2008

Attending:

• Bernie Hart
• Marilyn MacDonald
• Jim MacLennan
• Kent Murray
• Max Russell
• Johnathan Thibodeau
• Alan Turner
• Andrew D. Wright

Regrets:

• Richard Connolly
• Bill Matheson
• Mary Rigby
• Joe Thomas

Absent:

• Roswell James

Minutes of last meeting

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.

Committee Reports

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.

Committee Review

Liaison with Organizations: We would like to ask Joy Woolfrey to chair this committee.

New Flyer

Booth Displays

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.

Global

Charitable Donations

Other Business

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.

Next Meeting

The meeting was adjourned at 7:40 pm.

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