Minutes of Genesee Free-Net Board of Directors Meeting

Flint Area Convention and Visitors Bureau – Mason Street
Flint MI

PRESENT:
Larry Porn, Board Vice Chairman
Solomon Johnson, Board Secretary
Kay Schwartz, Board Treasurer

Dennis Cavanaugh, Board
Les LeMieux, Board
Jerry Preston, Board
Garry Viele, Board
Scott Gifford, Board
Harvey Sherman, Board

Also present:
Robin Rabidue, Office Staff
Kenny Thomas, Technical Staff

Call to order at 5:15pm with L. Porn presiding.

Officers' Reports:

Chair – V. Lotfi:
L. Porn relayed a message from V. Lotfi about the upcoming Crim race on August 28, 2004, asking if GFN wanted to staff a table for promotion activities. V. Lotfi indicated that he would be willing to volunteer time at the table. K. Schwartz and R. Rabidue indicated they would volunteer also.

Vice Chair – L. Porn:
No report.

Secretary – S. Johnson:
No changes received for the June 2004 minutes. Will post to the GFN Web.

Treasurer – K. Schwartz:
Has received some database statistics from L. Porn. Nine accounts shut down so far for July, eight to be reactivated that expired in June, making account loss/renewal a “wash” for June/July. Larry's analysis of the database indicates an average loss of ten members a month for January through June 2004.

The Treasurer presented Cash Basis Income and Expense report through 6/30/04 and comparison with the year ago period. Revenue is down about $3800 compared to 2003. There may be some bias due to when deposits were made over the year end holidays.

Kay is concerned about GFN cash flow. The Merit bill is paid through March 2005. Expenses are not out of line but revenue is not meeting expenses and is about $6000 under budget. Kay is not overly concerned yet but it appears that GFN will not meet the revenue target set for 2004. J. Preston moved that the Treasurer's report be received and filed subject to audit. The motion passed.

Committees' Reports:

Marketing and Outreach – G. Viele:
Garry presented items discussed with Olmstead Associates on enhancing marketing efforts for the Free-Net. He emphasized items 2 and 3 from the list:
doing small direct mailing campaigns of the brochure to narrowly targeted groups and making presentations to neighborhood block clubs and community associations.

K. Schwartz requested the script for such presentation. H. Sherman indicated that UM Flint would have tables at the Buick Open where GenTech is supplying wireless access for score keeping and could display GFN posters. Kay indicated she could produce a PDF handout from the Olmstead graphics if they are not proprietary. R. Rabidue urged promoting GFN as backup for broadband outages.

Kay will proceed in concert with Garry on developing a mini-poster. Garry will send e-mail to Board members requesting time they have available for representing GFN in the community. Target groups mentioned included the Disability Network, Senior Citizen Centers, Salem Housing Project, area churches, advertising in the Concerned Pastors Courier and Uncommon Sense. Garry indicated that Davison GDL will now accept GFN brochures.

Charter member Roger Burstrem sent a message offering free advertisement in his 2005 edition of the “Community Value Book.”
J. Preston moved and D. Cavanaugh supported that GFN offer discount coupons with thirty day limit as incentive to attract members. The motion passed.

S. Gifford moved and J. Preston supported that GFN participate in the Roger Burstrem value book with coupons offering $10 off the GFN set up fee. The motion passed. The expiration date of the coupons will be set by Roger Burstrem.

G. Viele asked what was being done as follow up on members who don't renew? H. Sherman suggested a telephone survey on why not continuing membership. Too few volunteers was cited as making such follow up difficult to do. S. Gifford mentioned a web survey on the Website. Also mentioned was requesting members alternate e-mail address on the application brochure.

J. Preston requested time to inform the Board of talks ongoing with Flint City, Fire and Police with respect to developing wireless access points downtown. Working with the Michigan Broadband Authority, “Cool City” initiative, Wi-Fi hot spots first will link City, Fire and Police units and later provide public access to the Internet with GFN being the Internet link. Jerry sought the sense of the Board for him to follow up on these talks.

D. Cavanaugh moved and K. Schwartz supported authorizing J. Preston to work with the City of Flint on its Wi-Fi initiatives. The motion passed. A formal announcement of the initiative will be made within the next six months.

Web Site Committee – C. Cramer
No report.

Office Operations – L. Porn:
A quorum of the Board was no longer present after 6:30pm. The renewal policy suggested by the office staff was discussed. The grace period will be redone with accounts cut off when they expire on the first of the month and the setup fee required if the account is not renewed by the fifteenth of the month in which they expire.

System Administration/Technical Committee – K. Thomas:
The servers were successfully moved to GenTech. Lots of work done by Scott and Chad. A reverse DNS (rDNS) had not been assigned to GFN and was causing problems with some e-mail servers. Acme Mail will not send e-mail and the problem appears to be related to lack of the rDNS address. Mentioned was apparent speedier response of GFN servers due to redundancy of Internet connections at GenTech.

Questioned was how to initiate Merit 1-800 service? It appears that Merit will only talk with Kay and Garry as GFN representatives on service issues.

Briefly mentioned was moving the Free-Net office and difficulties non-profits, such as the Resource Center and the Red Cross, are having with funding.

Matters Arising:
None.

Adjournment: 7:11pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

Solomon T Johnson, Secretary