Minutes
of Genesee Free-Net Board of Directors Meeting
June 24, 2004
GenTech
5225
Exchange Drive
Flint MI 48507
PRESENT:
Vahid
Lotfi, Board, Chairman
Larry Porn, Board Vice Chairman
Solomon
Johnson, Board Secretary
Dennis
Cavanaugh, Board
Lynette Griffin, Board
Les LeMieux,
Board
Jerry Preston, Board
Chad Cramer, Board
Scott Gifford,
Board
Georgia Kitchen, Board
Also
present:
Janet Craig, Office Staff
Robin Rabidue, Office
Staff
Kenny Thomas, Technical Staff
Mark Evans, FALCON
Representative
Call
to order at 5:15pm by V. Lotfi.
Don
Doyle and Liz Saab of GenTech were introduced to the Board and each
person present stated their name and affiliation.
Don
Doyle gave a tour of the massive GenTech facility which offers a wide
variety of products and services in data security for business'
including off site Data Backup and Disaster Recovery, Website and
Email hosting and Support Contracts. Shown was redundant cooling
equipment, extreme amounts of storage space for tape and CD media,
redundant Internet and voice connect equipment and redundant power
generation and UPS (uninterruptable power
supply) machinery. The tour lasted about 40 minutes.
Officers'
Reports:
Chair
– V. Lotfi:
The Board returned to the conference room
supplied by GenTech for its meeting. Vice Chairman L. Porn conducted
the meeting after 6pm because V. Lotfi had to leave.
Mark
Evans, FALCON representative for Ingrid Halling, was granted time to
relay to the Board that in very short time, GDL will accept delivery
of their new server system and will need the space used by the
Free-Net. The estimated time frame is late July to early August.
Mark indicated that Ron Long, GDL accountant, had expensed some racks
that belong to GFN and can use them.
After
Mark left, there was discussion of the urgency with which GFN had to
act on moving its servers. Les LeMieux moved that GFN accept the
offer from GenTech for GFN server space in their facility with
recognition on the GFN Website as compensation. Dennis Cavanaugh
amended the motion to allow Jerry Preston to interface with
GenTech on the Free-Net's behalf in working out a written agreement.
The motion passed.
Jerry
Preston and GFN technical people will work out the details of moving
the GFN servers to the GenTech facility after the written agreement
is accomplished. Server downtime on the move is expected
to be 4 to 6 hours.
With respect to the GFN office,
Larry Porn will conference with Les LeMieux on the nature of the
current arrangement with the Resource Center. A different office
location will require another telephone system with number change and
expenditures for office furniture.
Newsletter Feedback:
Send
comments on the newsletter posted to the GFN Web to V. Lotfi.
July 17 Folk Music Festival:
A
free booth is offered for Free-Net promotion from 1pm to 10pm.
Former Board member Jim McTiernan is the contact person. Georgia
Kitchen will be there with another organization . Volunteers would
be needed to explain GFN to interested persons and to prepare posters
and other display materials. GFN would have to supply its own tables
and chairs. Consensus seemed to be that GFN would need more time
than is available to find volunteers and staff the booth.
Vice Chair – L. Porn:
Sought
comments on changing the cut off date for expired accounts. Office
suggested disabling accounts on the 1st when they expire
and deleting on the 1st of the following month. The usual
setup fee, along with the renewal fee, would be required to re-enable
the expired account during the month. L. Griffin questioned whether
this is a user friendly approach and suggested the office allow a 15
day grace period before imposing the setup fee. Les LeMieux
suggested that office staff discuss among themselves and return to
the Board for approval. Consensus seemed to be to take the most user
friendly approach available.
Secretary – Sol Johnson:
The
May, 2004 minutes were posted to the Web site by Chad Cramer.
Treasurer – K. Schwartz:
No
report.
Committees' Reports:
Marketing and Outreach – G.
Viele:
No Report.
Web Site – Chad
Cramer:
ActionWeb is now ready for content for the new GFN Web
page. There was some discussion of page layout. Georgia Kitchen was
assured that she will be able to read the next page
mock up. Want a page attractive enough for people to want as
their Home page. Chad will incorporate comments made and pass on to
ActionWeb.
Office Operations – L.
Porn:
Nothing beyond what has been discussed already.
Systems – K. Thomas:
No
significant token errors have been observed. A change has been made
for the POP3 setup. If users put “@gfn.org” at the end
of their username in their mail client setup it will be ignored by
the mail server.
Matters Arising:
None.
Adjournment: 6:55pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Solomon T Johnson, Secretary
