Minutes of Genesee Free-Net Board of Directors Meeting April 25, 2002

PRESENT

Scott Gifford, Lynette Griffin, Les LeMieux, Georgia Kitchen, Jon McCarron, Pat Peterson, Jerry Preston, Kay Schwartz, Gary Viele.

ABSENT

Ann Chow, Chad Cramer, Matt Groulx, and Vahid Lotfi

The meeting was called to order by the Chairman, Gary Viele.

Report from Merit

Rick Davis of Merit gave an update of the organization.

·         A new president, Huntington Williams III has taken over

·         Merit will be moving next month

·         Two of its organizations have spun off into the for profit world, Radius and ARD

·         Merit is getting into fiber ownership

·         Just finished being involved with Governor Engler’s Link Michigan! which was getting people together in possible networks

The Public

John Zentgraf has had a lot of trouble logging in his two computers with a 48k connection.  He keeps getting bumped off.  He has discussed this with technical people and the office staff.  R. Davis explained the variables involved.   It is probably connected with Ameritech’s switch from analog to digital in the area.  Suggestions were made to diagnose the problem.

Merit Suggestions for the Montrose Problem.

R. Davis said that Century Tel has no interested in cooperating with Merit for dial-in connections.  Currently, there are three modems in Montrose owned by FALCON.   GFN has 100 modems in Flint.  He suggested that GFN convert four of those to no priority modems to buy tokens for use by Montrose users.  This would happen only when the three Montrose modems are in use.  There is no charge for the conversion and Web TV cannot guest on them.  Les reported there are 44 users in Montrose.

GFN could buy more modems for Montrose but that would cost $80.00 per month on top of the one-time line costs ($450.00 a line) and the $250.00 per order for installation.

The Genesee Free-Net expressed its appreciation of R. Davis’ report and Merit.

OFFICERS' REPORTS:

Board Chair:

Nothing to report.

Vice Chair:

No report.

Secretary:

Minutes were approved online.  The online vote for the following recommendation was reconfirmed unanimously.  G. Viele recommended and so moved online on April 15 that we offer additional web space up to 25 MB at $1.50 per MB.  Board members voted online with 12 ayes.

Treasurer:

Report was distributed.  A cd was not rolled over.  The funds were placed in a checking account with interest.  J. Preston moved to accept the report.  L. LeMieux supported.  The motion passed unanimously.

Old Business:

New Plan Implementation:

L. LeMieux reported that the new database will be ready shortly.  After that, the account creation software can be finished.  Everything should be in place in two weeks.

A press release to the Flint Journal was written by the Marketing and Outreach Committee.

Office Manager Status:

Janet George has started her position as Office Manager on April 1.  It is working well.  She is being paid on the same schedule as the System Administrator.

Marketing and Outreach Committee:

Press release sent to Flint Journal.  Question asked if the organizational account application form could be put online.  S. Gifford will do so.  J. Preston reported that new individual applications will be printed very soon.

Web Site Committee:

No report.

Office Operations Committee:

Three new volunteers are going through training.

Technical Committee:

The committee had met and discussed allowing dynamic web pages.  The committee vetoed the idea.  The Boy Scouts will write a spec telling the committee what exactly is wanted.  The subject will be discussed again next month.

System Administration Committee:

No report but L. LeMieux reported that the committee has been working very hard on the New Plan Implementation.

New Business:

J. Preston moved that two modems in Flint be switched to no priority use status.  S. Gifford supported.  L. Griffin moved to amend the motion to four modems.  K. Schwartz supported the motion.  The amendment passed unanimously.  The main motion then passed unanimously.

A motion was made by S. Gifford to approve Board members use of a GFN email account for as long as they are on the board.  The motion was supported by J. Preston.  The motion passed unanimously.

Distribution of Proposed Goals and Time Frames for future meetings was tabled until the next meeting.

S. Gifford added information about the email from Vishant Shaw.  It is probably a six month project.  No one had any suggestions.

There being no further business, J. Preston moved that the meeting be adjourned.  L. LeMieux supported.  The vote was unanimous.  The meeting adjourned at 7:20.

Next meeting:  May 30 at the Flint Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Board Room.