Minutes of Genesee Free-Net Board of Directors Meeting April 27, 1999

---

 

Call to Order:  4:39 p.m.
 

PRESENT

Lotfi, Preston, Shepherd, LeMieux, Viele, Stone, and Brown
Also present Thomas.

Quorum present with arrival of Brown.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

None

MINUTES

The March minutes were approved electronically. The Vice-Chairman reported that this Agenda item would be removed in future, as minutes are approved electronically.
 

OFFICERS' REPORTS

Board Chair:

No report.

Secretary:

No report.

Treasurer:

Preston distributed the GFN Balance sheet as of 4/27/99. The balance sheet follows:
 

Finance Committee:

See above balance sheet for financial report.

Marketing and Outreach:

Viele indicated that he had not met with Goldfarb regarding Marketing. LeMieux commented that there had been some Email discussion about representation at the Technology Fair.

Web Site Committee:

Stone and LeMieux raised the question about who was responsible for the GFN Home Page. Stone commented that he had been monitoring links but not the actual home page. Lotfi indicated that he was only assisting in the minutes of the GFN Board meeting. LeMieux thought that Chick-Whiteside also does work on the web page.
 

Office Committee:

No Meeting. No report.
 

Non-Profit Committee:

Board received EMAIL from Wascha concerning this committee. Wascha indicated he was going to have to resign from the GFN Board but wanted to finalize the Non-profit corporation sector before that. A committee meeting will or has been setup. LeMieux will contact Wascha to see if he can be persuaded to remain on the Board. The Board determined that they would be willing to change days, times and/or locations if necessary. Some discussion followed about changing the time to later. Preston indicated that a breakfast meeting could be held. Selected board members indicated that they would not be in favor of that. A time that seemed to be best for most was 5:00 p.m. instead of 4:30 p.m. No official action was taken on this discussion.
 

System Administrator:

Thomas reported some stats on the new server. He reported that 40% to 60% of users are able to sign-on in one dial session. The additional 20 modems are not installed and MERIT has indicated that it will be two weeks before they will know exactly when they can install them. Phone Michigan is installing a new switch and some new T3 lines and this is delaying the modem installation.

LeMieux reported that there were 19 accounts waiting to be created. He proposed that we go ahead and create them. Discussion ensued with the result that a consensus of the Board to create 25 new accounts maximum until the 20 new modems are installed.
 
 

New Business

LeMieux indicated that he had received three calls from Millington resident inquiring how she could get dial-in toll free to Flint GFN. LeMieux reported that the Millington zip code was in our catchment area as an approved one. LeMieux will contact MERIT and inquire about the possibility. Discussion concerning the library involvement such as in Holly, Goodrich and Lennon as this is what caused some changes in those communities.

Brown mentioned that the "Greater Thumb Telecommunications Consortium" might be able to shed some light on this issue.

Other Board members indicated that perhaps Mike Mosher could also assist in discovering any pertinent information.

LeMieux mentioned that he had seen Laura Austin and she said she would like o see some people. He mentioned that it would be a good idea to call before visiting.
 

General Discussion:

Stone inquired about free access to the GFN for Board members as an incentive to get more people to serve. Some discussion resulted from the question with the result that most of the board felt that $60.00/year would not be that much of an enticement.

Sending out a poll to the members regarding serving on the board and what would be an incentive.

Brown brought up the Tech Display, which is Sunday at 12 noon to 5 p.m. GFN will not be present because we are not creating new accounts.

Preston brought up the "Michigan Internet Council" which will be held June 14, 1999 in Flint. He inquired about any suggested speakers for this group of predominantly Ann Arbor attendees.

Brown asked if it were possible to have CEO's of other organizations come and present to the Board or even members of the Board make presentations about their organizations. Discussion and interest was started with this idea and the board felt they would look into it further.
 

ADJOURNMENT

Meeting adjourned at 5:57 p.m. by L. LeMieux

Garry Viele