PRESENT:
Dennis Cavanaugh, Chair
Larry Porn, Vice Chair
Solomon Johnson, Secretary
Harvey Sherman, Treasurer

Scott Arnst, Board
Scott Gifford, Board
Georgia Kitchen, Board
Kay Schwartz, Board
Robin Rabidue, Marketing
Kenny Thomas, Systems

Call to order at 5:54pm. Chair Dennis Cavanaugh presiding.

Welcome was extended to new board member Scott Arnst. He works in the Information Technology department at UM Flint.

Agenda Items:

Officer's Comments.
Chair:
Denny Cavanaugh reported that GenTech dial-up was almost up.

Vice Chair:
Larry Porn has been working with GenTech on getting modems online as well as recovering from eye surgery. Chad Cramer issued a call for Web Site Committee members. Larry Porn, Scott Gifford, Charles Wright and Kenny Thomas along with Chad are working as the Web Site committee. The committee indicated a need to offer dynamic content to attract subscribers. There were questions about possible security problems associated with offering dynamic content. Users will need to supply their own security.

Secretary:
Secretary Solomon Johnson reported that the March minutes were on the GFN Web and that some graphic characters failed to translate properly. The March minutes were approved.

Treasurer:
Treasurer Harvey Sherman reported that the American Funds balance was being moved to ELGA Credit Union and he is slowly getting the checking account up at ELGA. Harvey and Kay Schwartz are having a hard time finding meeting times to complete transfer of treasurer duties. Some bills are due and will be addressed after the board meeting. Officers who will be signers on the ELGA account need to supply Harvey with a copy of their driver's license with social security number written below.

Marketing:
Denny Cavanaugh reported that a press pack was needed for the Marketing Committee. The committee already has a marketing writeup.

Office Operations:
Larry Porn reported that the GFN office is waiting to make the transition to the GenTech modem pool. Robin Rabidue has set up and networked all computers in the office. Slowly things are getting squared around in the office. As of meeting time, GenTech dial-up had not been able to validate with GFN servers. Prognosis is that next month GFN may be able to determine the number of Merit modems to retain. Office staff member Ron Crang is returning from his Winter hiatus to provide improved office coverage.

Denny Cavanaugh questioned if there could be a printer friendly copy of the GFN registration form installed on the Web site? Systems will investigate. Larry Porn mentioned experiences while attempting to help a few users resolve their computer problems. In some instances, help way beyond installing setup entries is demanded. Larry is also working to get responses to the office from volunteer helpers on the help they give to GFN users. A final office item, the information recorded on account application forms of deleted accounts will be scanned to CD disks before the paperwork is destroyed. .

The Web server is stable. The Committees are considering adding Bulletin Board software to the server and can see no real security risks above what already exists. Need board approval proceed. Questions arose around costs to the users. What type of GFN account would user purchase?

Larry Porn moved that GFN install Bulletin Board software for use by organizations who will, themselves, moderate its use. Harvey Sherman supported the motion.

The organizations themselves will moderate and maintain content on their setup. GFN offerings of ~Sskins~T, configuration files and image files will be resolved by the committees. The motion carried by acclamation.

Considered next was the raising of e-mail quota for GFN users. Kenny Thomas indicated that there is about 160 gigabytes of storage on the Mail server and about 25% is in use by users home directory/folders and 16% in use by users mail. Should easily sustain an increase of quota for GFN's 1500 or so users. Mail space on the server is dynamically assigned as needed. Message size limit would be maintained at 3 megabytes and a warning could be sent when space used by user reaches 5 megabytes. Question not resolved was at what point would GFN have to add hardware?

Larry Porn moved that member e-mail space be raised from 5 megabytes to 25 megabytes. Scott Gifford supported the motion. The motion carried.

The systems committee will consider whether to archive mail over six months old, whether to automatically delete trash Web Mail and modifications to apply to the acceptable use policy. Policy recommendations are to be presented at the next board meeting.

The five-fold increase in member e-mail limit will be announced in the press release of the creation of the GenTech modem pool.

Old Business:
Press Release.
Scott Gifford presented a draft of a press release for ~SBig Changes at Genesee Free-Net.~T A few changes were suggested for the text and Larry Porn gave permission to have a quote in the press release assigned to him. Permission will be sought from Chad Cramer to have another quote assigned to him.

Denny Cavanaugh asked if a counter could be installed for the ~SWhat's New~T page on the Web site?

Automatic Poll.
Scott Gifford announced that the software chosen to solicit member input is ready to go after he gets the questions to ask.

New Business.
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunity, Threat) facing GFN.
Execute marketing survey of membership using polling software.

Matters Arising.
None.

Adjournment: 6:25pm.

Next Meeting:
Thursday, May 26, 2005 at 5:15 pm at the Flint Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Respectfully Submitted,

Solomon T Johnson, Secretary