Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
June 26, 2001
Attending:
- Ed Dyer
- Tom Fullerton
- Bernie Hart
- Marilyn MacDonald
- John McKay
- Jeff Warnica
- Chris Watt
- Andrew D. Wright
Regrets:
- Jamie Carroll
- Grace Paterson
- Mark Rushton
- Viola Winstanley
Minutes of Previous Meeting
It was moved by Chris Watt and seconded by Ed Dyer that the Minutes
of the June 5th meeting be approved as amended. Passed.
Business Arising
Tom Fullerton reported he had not had an opportunity to address the phone
message situation but would do so before the next meeting. B. Hart agreed
to send the amended minutes for May 15th and June 5th to Andrew for
posting. Andrew also reported that there were still minutes from the
previous Board which had not yet been made available to him.
Updates
Status of Provincial Server
B. Hart reported he had been in contact with Gary Shearman, Chair of
Telecommunities Canada, who indicated that there was not a formal
agreement with respect to the Provincial Server but the funding was
provided to CCN through TC for the Server with the anticipation it would
be used to meet province-wide needs of all of the Community Nets.
B. Hart reported he would check with the Province (Technology and Science
Secretariat) to determine whether there might be a grant to CCN for
maintaining the Server and for providing specific services. He will
report to the next meeting on this issue. He also agreed to speak to
David Murdoch re his understanding of the Provincial Server arrangement
and his present uses of this equipment.
There was also discussion about the possibility of exchanging the two
servers so that CCN could get use from the higher grade equipment.
Chris Watt spoke about a server which he would be prepared to sell to CCN.
He added that it would not include a monitor but would have a CD burner.
It was agreed the CD burner would be useful to CCN. Ed indicated this
unit would meet our needs for a Secure Server as well as for a web server.
It was agreed Chris would develop a proposal online to which Directors
would respond. Ed pointed out that we have funding in our budget for a
Server.
In-house training proposal
B. Hart reported he had met with Alan Brown and Steve Gallagher. Steve is
working on the development of a Standard Training Materials project which
will result in an online tutorial session on the Internet. Alan is now
reviewing these materials with a view to preparing a modified version for
his program. He and Bernie will also be meeting with Shelly
Kwik-Mitchell, Dartmouth North Community Centre to discuss her training
program. As soon as Alan feels confident, B. Hart will arrange for him to
use the Training Lab at the Alderney Gate Library for CCN members or
prospective members wishing to take his program.
CCN Revitalization
Marilyn suggested this item should be carried over to the next meeting as
Mark Rushton was not able to be present. Marilyn added that she had
attended a Forum on the Federal Task Force on Broadband Connectivity. She
suggested the activity is important for CCN and she would like to
encourage the NS Group involved in this work to use Chebucto as its host
site - particularly for a discussion forum. Marilyn agreed to send the
Board the URL for the Broadband Site.
There was a brief discussion of advertising opportunities available at the
Macdonald Bridge. Andrew indicated we have a T-Shirt which could be used
on the "advertising mannequin".
B. Hart raised the possibility of revisiting the request from Cole Harbour
Radio to web-cast over CCN. Ed responded that this is one of the
possibilities which Johnathan is looking into. It was suggested we should
investigate the approach being used at CKDU. B. Hart offered to check
with Mike Whitehead who is the School Board person associated with the
Cole Harbour Station.
Inner City Project
Marilyn reported on a meeting she and Bernie had had with Gordon Michael
who is working on an HRDC funded project aimed at improving the social and
economic opportunities of people living in the North-Central Halifax area.
Marilyn pointed out that one of the elements of the project is to
investigate to what extent IT can be of assistance and she believes CCN
can play a role here. She added that at this point it is difficult to
determine what may come of this but it is clearly within the mandate of
CCN. The Board endorsed the general direction the Executive is taking
with the project.
CSuite Project
Marilyn reported on a telephone conference she, Ed and Bernie had had with
Gary Shearman. She said she made it clear to Gary that CCN would not be
continuing with the original Office of Learning Technologies funding
application. The reasons for this were that the proposal as written was
not sufficiently clear on the "deliverables" and further it would not have
been possible for CCN to meet the in-kind funding requirements which were
forecast.
There was general discussion about the merits of reworking the proposal
for a CSuite 2.0. This led to the question of the ownership of CSuite.
B. Hart indicated that to the best of his knowledge CSuite was owned by
CCN but that a motion was passed by the Board which established the
arrangement between the two organizations with respect to CSuite. He
suggested, if at all possible, this motion should be consulted.
Following a discussion about the merits of continuing with the CSuite 2.0
approach versus a move to an Open Source package which we could adapt to
our own needs, it was agreed that Ed, Chris and Andrew would prepare a
report for the Board which would provide background to this issue and
present the pros and cons of each approach. They agreed to report on
their progress by July 17th.
Committee Reports
Finance Committee
Jeff distributed a statement of CCN funds. Chris pointed out that there
should be additional GICs of $15,000.
It was recommended that Jeff make use of the reporting procedures
developed by Doug McCann. This approach made use of projected revenues
and expenditures as a gauge of our financial standing.
It was moved by Chris Watt and seconded by John McKay that Jeff transfer
an additional $12,000 to GICs. Passed.
Technical Committee
Ed reported that the replacement switch is on order but has not yet
arrived. Chris Watt raised the question of the use of a "wireless"
network. He pointed out that is becoming more common as an alternative to
cable.
Policy Committee
Andrew reported the By-law changes made at the AGM had been approved by
the Registrar of Joint Stocks.
External Committee
Marilyn indicated the Committee had met on June 12th and the main topic
was "Revitalization of CCN". Time was spent doing an analysis of our
declining membership. The two directions being taken to address this issue
are: a) Community Forums and Broader Membership Involvment and b)
Membership training opportunities.
The Committee also discussed our involvement in Word On The Street. It
was agreed that Johnathan would be asked to develop an activity to
illustrate the dismantling and reassembling of a computer.
Andrew distributed copies of his mock-up for the ad to be placed on the
back cover of an HRDC resource guide. This was approved by the Board with
minor changes.
Following a discussion of the use of the TV Schedule Channel for a CCN ad,
it was moved by B. Hart and seconded by Chris Watt that CCN arrange for a
one month exposure and then evaluate the benefits. Passed.
Internal Committee
Marilyn reminded the Board that Chairs of the Internal Committees are
still required. She expressed particular concern about not having anyone
with responsibility for Membership. This was followed by a discussion
about declining membership. Concerns were expressed about - faster
modems, PPP performance and login problems.
The meeting adjourned.
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