Minutes of Genesee Free-Net Board of
Directors Meeting
August
24, 2006
Flint Area
Convention and Visitors Bureau
316 Water Street
PRESENT:
Dennis Cavanaugh, Chair
Larry
Porn, Vice Chair
Solomon Johnson, Secretary
Beverly Duval,
Board
Charles Wright, Board
Kenny Thomas, Systems
ABSENT:
Chad Cramer, Website
Scott Gifford, Board
Georgia Kitchen, Board
Les LeMieux, Board
Call to order at
5:20pm. Chair Dennis Cavanaugh presiding.
Finances.
Chair Dennis
summarized GFN recurring monthly expenses as approximately $6200 and average
monthly receipts as approximately $4000. Monthly expenses include about $2600
for contract personnel, $2168 for OTC services and $683 for Merit services.
Monthly receipts are generated by renewal contributions from 900 to 1000
accounts. Active memberships total about 950 Individual and Organization
Accounts. The ELGA savings account holds about $56,000 on August
24th.
Projects.
Chair Dennis Cavanaugh suggested a number
of projects to increase memberships.
1. Contact all senior citizen centers
and distribute GFN brochures.
2. Contact local radio and television
media.
3. Develop a press kit.
4. Have GFN present at community public
events.
5. Talk to ~STalk Show~T people.
6. Get other nonprofit
organizations to use GFN for email and Web hosting.
Merit Connection in
Montrose.
Members in Montrose continue to get ~Sno lines available~T when they
attempt to connect to GFN through the Merit/CenturyTel dial-in number. What
should be attempted to resolve the long standing problem? Contact the Public
Service Commission? Put a broadband connection in Montrose? Set up a wireless
system to get around Merit/CenturyTel? No action decided at the meeting.
Actions and Discussions.
Board member Charles Wright moved
and Board Chair Dennis Cavanaugh supported that Beverly Duval be appointed to
the Board of the Genesee Free-Net. The motion carried.
Board member
Charles Wright will distribute GFN brochures to the Lapeer Senior Citizens
Center, the Davison Senior Citizens Center and Davison High School Adult
Enrichment Program.
The account registration form in the ~SJoin Now~T link
on the GFN Web page will be changed to indicate that
accounts are available to anyone who can use a local dial-in number given on the
GFN Website. Potential members outside Genesee County will be cautioned that
calls to the GFN office may incur long distance charges.
$35 was spent
for a PCI card to stabilize the monitor display on the office computer. Office
2000 spell checker will be installed on the office computer. Larry Porn will
give volunteer help technician Richard Crang five (5) computers to refurbish and
distribute to members in need of an updated computer. Larry Porn reported that
the ~Snull modem~T cable required to access the Portmasters by laptop has been
built. He and Kenny Thomas will proceed with installing new passwords on the
Portmasters, permitting use of the diagnostic program PM Vision to resolve
problems.
Board member Beverly Duval suggested using bulk mailings.
Permit requirements limit use by GFN. Suggested was sharing bulk mailing with
another organization. Chair Dennis Cavanaugh will check on feasibility of
sharing with the Knights of Columbus Council.
Webmaster Chad Cramer
continues to work with implementing tools for member personal
Web page content management.
Systems.
Kenny Thomas reported
that changes authorized at the July 27th Board meeting had been
implemented. Mail space for members is now 100 megabytes. The physical size of a
single email message is now 5 megabytes. The Calendar feature in Open Webmail is
now active.
Kenny Thomas advised that implementing Family Accounts should
not be too difficult. There was considerable discussion of problems that might
be encountered with database changes, Family Accounts usernames, the number of
logons permitted at the same time and account fee. Suggested was a beta test
project using the Custom Account structure on the server to set up five (5)
sub-accounts within it as a Family Account.
Larry Porn reported that
Portmaster usage appears never more than 43 lines in use at a time for the 69
Portmaster lines. Member Frank LeMieux has contacted the engineer who has
extensive knowledge of the Portmasters and will pass on to Larry.
Annual
Membership Meeting:
Set for Thursday, October 26, 2006. Applicants for Board
will be announced. Revision of Board member term limits may be considered.
Adjournment:
6:36pm.
Next Regular Board Meeting:
Thursday,
September 28, 2006, at 5:15pm at the Flint Area Convention and Visitors
Bureau.
Respectfully Submitted,
Solomon T Johnson,
Secretary
