Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, June 6, 2000

Present:

• Sharon Parker
• David Murdoch
• Krista Olmstead
• Joyline Makani
• Andrew Wright
• Doug McCann
• Leo Deveau
• Kelly Marney
• Grace Paterson
• Viola Winstanley

Regrets:

• Mike Nicholson
• Bernie Hart
• Sylvana Buttigieg
• Mark Rushton

Agenda:

1. Approval of minutes of previous board meetings.
2. Executive Director's Report
3. Committee Chair Reports
4. Robert Speirs Police Case
5. New Business
6. Cuba Report

Meeting called to order at 6:40 pm.

Minutes approved for previous board meetings, April 4, 2000, and May 16, 2000.

Executive Director's Report
Leo Deveau:

The past couple of weeks have been concentrating on getting tasks focused on completing the IPDB script requirements for the office in managing IP accounts. The new homepage is now up and users can direct their browser (under the preference setting) to: www.chebucto.ns.ca .

There are still some adjustments to be made, but overall it is a very good start and thanks go to Andrew and all the volunteers that have contributed to its delivery. Now, it is time to begin thinking about how this site can become an attractive site for community reference and information in the HRM area, as well as an attractive site for sponsorship banners.

Below is David Potter's recent note concerning a report on the Chebucto website. Chebucto has got to begin taking economic advantage from this web visibility for potential sponsorship ads or affiliating marketing programs to our members. This will be the next stage of development for the Chebucto web site.

[The domain: chebucto.ns.ca, is ranked #691 out of 433576 domains in the
   WebsMostLinked.com database.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2000 21:30:50 -0700
From: spider@websmostlinked.com
To: webmaster@chebucto.ns.ca
Subject: Notice about www.chebucto.ns.ca

Notice for: webmaster@chebucto.ns.ca

This is a note to let you know that your site:

www.chebucto.ns.ca

...was spidered and ranked by WebsMostLinked.com on:

Jun 5, 2000 at 21:19:05.

We have checked your domain's popularity and ranked it relative to the
other domains on the net.

To see how your site stacks up to the other domains in the world, click
here and search for your domain:

http://www.websmostlinked.com/t.cgi?wmlm32

Just enter your domain in the search window and we will tell you your
global popularity rank. If you have any questions, please feel free to
reply to this email and we will answer within one business day.

WebsMostLinked.com]

*With the homepage now up, we're also moving forward in seeking potential sponsors to the planned webcam site for the Tall Ships event. (a mock-up has been made at: http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~awright/mockup/ ). Some ideas have also been made about having an Chebucto information booth down on the waterfront during Tall Ships and I'm going to look into that possibility.

*The Strategic Planning Day (June 24th) is in motion, having met with Peter Morgan, a former Chair of the Chebucto Board, as well as a specialist in organizational development and planning, I'm seeking his counsel in developing a framework for presentations, discussion and planning. More information will be forthcoming on that in the next couple of weeks.

*We're in the process of planning a Southend UrbanCAP meeting set for June 12th, to discuss how we might implement a CAP site(s) in the southend area with potential partners - possibly Dal through the Faculty of Computer Science Cybercafe location.

*With regard to UrbanCAP, I plan to organize a meeting soon for a working group to address challenges of community content presentation and management in the HRM area that would be available at either the CAP sites, or related servers which will be supporting this initiative.

*In the next couple of weeks, now that the Board committees have been either reestablished or operating as planned, I'd like to meet with each of these committees and begin to see what the coming summer and fall's priorities will be for each of them.

*We're in the process soon of hiring a co-op student to address Marketing and PR plans for Chebucto. He/She will be reporting to Krista Olmstead (Communications Chair) and Colin Mason (Killagriff Marketing Associates). Krista and I are mapping out the ideas for summer tasks - ranging from ways to marketing our services to the larger HRM populace, to identifying neat promotional items for fundraising initiatives that we hope to undertake this fall and to provide to new members who join Chebucto within specific periods of time.

*Since our last Board meeting, I've made public presentations for Chebucto to the Faculty and Students at the School of Computer Science and related work on the Urban CAP implementation plan.

*Speaking to issues of finance, Johanne is still pulling together the tax report and I'm meeting with next week to hopefully bring that to a conclustion. It's taken some time to get an inventory list together with appropriate costing. As a result, Johanne has not been able to provide an itemized financial statement for this past first quarter. But Sharon, Andrew and I met and were able to pull together the latest update which we believe is both current and accurate to the end of the first quarter. I've subsequently tweeked it a bit more to include the two weeks into May, which is outlined below.

Revenue from Account fees only:

Jan.- 14,452.

Feb.- 13,269.

Mar.- 8,952.

April-to May 15th - $12,459.98.

Total: $49,132.

• Surplus in Dal acct for internal costs related to Dalhousie: $2,843
• Beginning of year revenues: $35,369.
• Total operating revenues: $87,344. ('99 + 1st quarter to May 15)
• Total expenditures: 62,057.
• Excess of revenues over expenditures: 25,287.

  ---

  The 2000 budget was approved at projected expenses of $167,800 and revenues at $168,000.

  ---

  From this statement above we can see that Operating Revenues from Jan. 1st to May 15th averages out to $12,283/mth rather than the $14,000./mth we were projecting, which has shorted us by $6868. in projected revenue in the 1st quarter. Combined with this, was our expenses being high ($15,514.25/mth), when we had hoped to average about $13,983./mth. This has further shorted us by $6124. in the 1st quarter. So when we add our revenue decrease to this over-expense we are down by $12,992 in the first quarter of our projections (or $3248/mth). Some of this over expense relates to a new modem rack which was purchased ($3,000. U.S.) and will make due for well into next year - so this is an asset, not just an expense.

  It should be further noted that we continue to have a cushion from the previous year of $35,369. In further addition, with regard to the past 4.5 months, we have also received approximately $10,000. in project administrative revenues thus far, but that still puts us in a shortfall situation of about $2992. thus far to meet the expenses of the past four months.

  As a further improvement to report on revenues, since May 15th to today (June 6th) Chebucto will have generated $7255. in revenues and have also received a $5,000. donation, for a total of $12,255. in revenues in the past three weeks. I don't have an update on expenses yet from May 15th to June 6th, but I'm confident they are considerably lessen and they will continue to be through the summer months.

  In summary, with regard to our financial situation, we can address this picture by restrategizing further on our revenue generating plan - ie; conduct a internal fundraising campaign to our membership in the fall; speed up IP renewals and web page development to attract sponsorships; identify a potential partner to merge our services with ie; Dalhousie's dial-up services, a corporate partner, etc. ?

  We can also begin to consider what expenses can be contained, ie. no more technical equipment other than what is absolutely necessary and is backed-up with a concrete revenue stream committment. No further expense outlays over the summer, other than salaries, the normal connectivity charges and very basic office expense requirements.

  [End of Executive Director's Report]

  ---

  Communications Report

  Media Relations Student

  Met with Colin Mason who has agreed to mentor the program. Student will work 2-3 days out of his home office.

  Job Description:

  The Media Relations Coordinator will generate a comprehensive marketing strategy to promote Chebucto to all relevant communities within the Halifax Greater Region. Reporting directly to the Communications Chair, as well as to the Media Relations Consultant, the Media Relations Coordinator will be responsible for promoting Chebucto Community Net, using all available resources from traditional media such as print, television and radio as well as multimedia opportunities. Coordinating events, advertising, and seeking out new initiatives to increase Chebucto's public profile within the community.

  The student will work closely with the Executive Director on a pre-determined schedule to assist with the planning development

  ---

  Volunteer List

  Called all of the volunteers who responded to Michael Colborne's email.

  3 declined, 2 because they had already made previous volunteer commitments

  2 already board members, (Grace and Mark)

  5 interested

  2 - Confirmed for Communications

  1 - Possibly the helpdesk

  2 - undecided on a committee

  The Communications mailing list-serve is reactivated

  New positions created:

  Vice Chair Marketing - Kelly Marney

  Vice Chair Internal Communications - Derek Ferguson

  Vice Chair External Communications

  Communications has added 3 extra Committee members for a total of 10. All members of the Communications Committee are Board Members with the exception of the most recent 3.

  Communications Mailing List members are:

  David Murdoch

  Sharon Parker

  Andrew Wright

  Leo Deveau

  Krista Olmstead

  Kelly Marney

  Mark Rushton

  Derek Ferguson

  Marilyn MacDonald

  IP Report: There will be a meeting at the Computer Science Building on Thursday, June 8th, at 6:30 pm.

  ---

  Policy Report:

  New Individual Account User Agreement submitted for approval to the board. David Murdoch moved to accept the new policy with corrections. Krista Olmstead seconded. Motion carried. Andrew Wright reported that the Confidentiality Agreement is in the works.

  Hugh Wright has sent a letter to Robert Speirs denying his claim for charges for a new ISP.

  ---

  Technical Committee Report:

  Web Cam for the Tall Ships is in the works. Locations are being determined. Fenwick towers looks like a probable option.

  ---

  Robert Speirs Police Case:

  Sergeant Coombs returns to work on Monday with a report. The "detectives" assigned to Chebucto's case have until Friday, June 9th, to decide if they will proceed with an investigation on this complaint.

  Andrew Wright brought up the subject of the board member's biographies on the board web page. He suggested that the newer members write a small, general bio on themselves for submission, if they are concerned about receiving harassing phone calls.

  ---

  New Business:

  There will be an HRM / 2020 meeting on Monday. Various civic organizations have participated in the structure of the meeting, and have submitted their proposals on what they would like to see accomplished in Halifax in twenty years. All available Chebucto Board Members are encouraged to attend.

  ---

  Cuba Report:

  David Murdoch and Mark Rushton attended the conference in Cuba. Many Chebucto materials were given out for Cuban organizations. There is an opportunity for Chebucto and C-Suite to be utilized, as there is a very low level of connectivity in Cuba at present. This could be a great opportunity to sell C-Suite to them.

  Next Meeting - Tuesday, June 27th
  Seminar Room 1 - Computer Science Building, 6:30 pm

  Meeting Adjourned: 8:15 pm