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

Scott Gifford, Board
Garry Viele, Board
Charles Wright, Board
Robin Rabidue, Marketing

ABSENT:
Dennis Cavanaugh, Chair
Scott Arnst, Board
Chad Cramer, Board
Georgia Kitchen, Board
Les LeMieux, Board
Kay Schwartz, Board
Kenny Thomas, Systems

Call to order at 5:25pm. Vice Chair Larry Porn presiding.

Officers Reports:
Vice Chair:
Larry Porn mentioned a problem with the GenTech modem pool. A Portmaster occasionally locks up and has to be reset to correct.

The Board needs to plan for the annual membership meeting in October. An announcement needs to be made and nominations sought for Board members. The terms of Kay Schwartz and Garry Viele will expire this year and they will not be eligible for reelection. Jerry Preston stopped by at the end of the Board meeting and after being asked about securing a site for the GFN annual membership meeting offered the large meeting room at the Flint Area Convention and Visitors Bureau as meeting site.

Treasurer:
Harvey Sherman distributed a list of checks written and deposits made over the last three months. GFN revenue and expense is close to the break even point ~V income about matches expenditures. Over the last three months checks written totaled $26,260.67 and deposits totaled $20,512.86. Expenses paid for the three months is skewed somewhat in that the Merit modem fee paid is for service through June, 2006.

Larry Porn presented Harvey with output from the office database on account deletions, renewals and new accounts from the first of the year through August so far. There were 109 account deletions, 41 new accounts and 544 accounts paid during the approximate eight month period. There are 230 potential accounts (potential renewals) to be paid through the end of the year. GFN has about 1000 active accounts.

Harvey emphasized the need for GFN to generate new accounts. GFN needs about $4000 in revenue a month. That breaks down to a need for 67 renewals and new accounts a month.

After estimating likely Merit and GenTech expenses going forward, Harvey revised the revenue GFN needs a month to $5000. That breaks down to a need for 83 renewals and new accounts a month.

The question arose whether 123.net could get a presence in Montrose and allow possible further reduction of Merit expense. Answer unknown.

Discussion shifted to possibly offering wider options to attract members such as Web tools for easy personal Web page construction, Blogs and E-Mail as a surface mail substitute to individuals who belong to organizations like the Lion's clubs. Comment made was the need to market to appropriate groups. There was wide ranging discussion on the shift to newer technologies, including wireless, and the need for GFN to be on the cutting edge to stay alive.

Secretary:
The minutes of the July, 2005 Board meeting had not been posted to the Website.

Other Items:
Dean Johnson of Montrose declined becoming a Board member.

With respect to bad modems in the Portmasters, does GFN need to schedule downtime to do maintenance? A notice would have to be sent to the membership announcing any scheduled downtime. What time is best to schedule maintenance? At present, we don't know how to disable bad modems. There is need for remote monitoring capability. Scott Gifford will look into remote power control to reset modems.

The Federal Tax forms for 2004 are complete and have been filed. Larry Porn offered to fill out the State of Michigan Non-Profit Corporation form and Harvey Sherman accepted the offer.

It appears that some Montrose members are now getting ~Sno tokens available~T on dial-in to the Merit modem pool. Garry Viele is waiting response from Merit on revised GFN services. Jim Moran is our Merit representative.

Should GFN provision for a dial-up number to access wireless? The general comment describing these Board meeting proceedings is that GFN needs a clear view of its direction for the future.

Adjournment: 6:45pm.

Next Meeting:
Thursday, September 22, 2005 at 5:15 pm at the Flint Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Respectfully Submitted,

Solomon T Johnson, Secretary