Minutes
of Genesee Free-Net Board of Directors Meeting
August 26,
2004
Flint Area Convention and Visitors Bureau
PRESENT:
Vahid
Lotfi, Chair
Larry Porn, Vice Chair
Solomon Johnson,
Secretary
Kay Schwartz, Treasurer
Dennis Cavanaugh, Board
Chad Cramer, Board
Jerry Preston, Board
Garry Viele,
Board
Call to order at 5:18pm. V. Lotfi presiding.
Officers'
Reports:
Chair – V. Lotfi:
Presented signed
Colocation Agreement between Internet Solutions Group, Inc. DBA
GenTech and Genesee FreeNet for filing. L. Porn will file the
agreement in the office secure file cabinet after developing another
agreement for relocating the GFN office.
A table had been made
available for a GFN information desk during the CRIM on August 28th
near the South entrance of the UM Pavilion. K. Schwartz and V. Lotfi
volunteered to staff the desk. The staffing schedule was completed
after the meeting.
Feedback on relocation to GenTech:
There
have been unexplained shutdowns. No idea of what happens. Possibly a
routing circuit outage or equipment failure at Vario. At times, users
can't get recognized by the Mail Server. Other times users can't get
to the GFN servers to validate after connecting to the modem pool. C.
Cramer will investigate to determine what is happening. Acme Mail
will not send mail.
Vice Chair – L. Porn:
See
Feedback on relocation to GenTech. Additional under Office Operations
report.
Secretary – S. Johnson:
None.
Treasurer
– K. Schwartz:
No formal report. Three deposits made and
four checks written. Approximately $17,300 in the checking account
and $50,900 in the American Funds account. Waiting for the invoice
from ActionWeb Services. C. Cramer informed the invoice will come on
completion of work. ActionWeb is pushing for GFN to submit its
content. C. Cramer, L. Porn and V. Lotfi are working on the
content.
Committee's Reports:
Marketing and
Outreach:
V. Lotfi reported that G. Viele asked to be relieved
from Marketing and Outreach. D. Cavanaugh and R. Rabidue have agreed
to assume the responsibilities of the committee. Concern was
expressed about the ability of GFN to generate new accounts.
Web
Site Committee – C. Cramer:
Content needed for the Help
section and links need to be set. Need to finish in about two weeks
and get the ActionWeb invoice. L. Porn is working on content for Help
and will consult with setup helpers Matt Lewicki and Richard Utley
for input. He has sent some suggestions to C. Cramer and suggested
use of the “Under Construction” sign where work is not
complete. The Help Page will be dynamic and change frequently. C.
Cramer will forward recent work to Cheryl at ActionWeb.
Work
so far was displayed on a Convention Bureau computer and layout of
the Main Page was discussed. It was suggested that GenTech be
acknowledged prominently on the bottom left of the Main Page. The
About Page was suggested as the place for general
acknowledgments.
V. Lotfi raised the question of whether GFN
should seek sponsorships? Will explore with Marketing and Outreach.
K. Schwartz will look into tax reporting requirements and whether to
view funds received as advertising fees or contributions.
Office
Operations – L. Porn:
Would like to move the office location
to provide greater accessibility to members and greater variability
of office hours. GFN rent is paid through November 30th at
the Resource Center. L. Porn will consult with J. Preston on
composing a Memorandum of Understanding for the new location. Consent
of the Board was sought. Discussion followed on additional furniture
required and changes in telephone equipment and billing.
D.
Cavanaugh moved that GFN relocate its office. L. Porn supported. The
motion passed.
The telephone system will remain under the same
agreement as arranged by J. Preston but the fee structure will
change. He will check on number portability.
L. Porn expressed
the need for a modest budget for office equipment such as a scanner
and file cabinets and moved that up to $500 be approved for
expenditure for the items. K. Schwartz supported. The motion
passed.
Systems Administration/Technical Committee – K.
Thomas:
K. Thomas submitted a written report through chair, V.
Lotfi. Reverse DNS (rDNS) has been configured for the FreeNet
servers. While not in its final form, it will allow email exchange
with the vast majority of email servers that require a reverse look
(such as Charter cable, flint.org, etc..)
There have been a
couple of outages with Vario this past week that have caused GFN
servers to be unreachable from some locations, most notably the Merit
modem pool. Email has been sent to ISG/GenTech to see if they have
any contacts at Vario that could help with the problem. On both
occasions the problems were resolved in a few hours. There has not
been much other activity systems wise.
Matters
Arising:
None.
Adjournment: 6:18pm.
Staffing
Schedule during CRIM at UM Flint Pavilion:
K. Schwartz 7:30am –
10:30am
S. Johnson 10:30am – 12:30pm
V. Lotfi 12:30pm –
2:00pm.
Respectfully
Submitted,
Solomon
T Johnson, Secretary
