Notes from the October 26 Non-Board Meeting

Oct 27 13:41 UTC 1994

Here are notes from the meeting which was held at Zingerman's on
Wednesday, October 26.  Five Board members must be present for
quorum and only 4 could make it this time around so no official
business was conducted.  Login IDs of those present (* denotes
Board members): *rane  *morel  *srw  *steve  wh  jep  mta linda
leann  chip  svaujin  carl  chelsea 

The meeting began at 7:20 p.m.

1.  Treasurer's Report:  The treasurer (danr) was not present.  It was
pointed out there is an item online detailing how we were very fortunate to
have done so well at the JCC sale (thanks to all involved, especially
Steve Saricca who mailed us a whole bunch of what sold).  Total take for
Grex was something like $1072, which is helpful as membership income was
down this month.  The general feeling was this was at least due in part to
the recent instability of the hardware. 

2.  501(c)3 Committee Report:  Rane is working on this and has been in 
contact with someone else who is involved with a similar project
for another non-profit group.  The plan is for the two of them
to work together sorting through the best way to proceed and 
possibly splitting the effort involved.

3.  Computer Rehab Project: The first rehabed computer is very close to
ready.  It is an XT with printer, monitor and keyboard earmarked for a
handicapped child known to a public health group in Pontiac.  The machine
will be loaned to the organization until the child no longer has a use for
the machine.  tsty has been working on the hardware.  Rane has a need for
legitimately owned DOS v4.x software to be donated to this project.  If
you have original disks stuck away somewhere that you'd like to give to
the cause please let him know. 


4.  Publicity Committee:  Misti commented that she will be getting
involved with a rather large, time consuming project within the next few
months and will not have a lot of time to donate to Grex publicity.  She
wondered if someone else might be found to chair the committee.  The
general feeling seemed to be publicity wasn't a concern at this time as
new users are finding us without too much trouble. 

5.  JCC Sale:  Grex did good.  Real good.  srw pointed out that 
sometimes it's tempting to skip a sale but that this last pointed
out how our regular participation can be worth the time and effort
as this month's finances were saved by the sale.  The next one rolls
around in a couple of months so no immediated plans were made on how
it will proceed.

6.  Technical Committee:  My notes on this subject go on for about
2 pages, are difficult to read, and probably incomplete as I was 
eating a #18 Georgia Reuben at the time.  But in reviewing them I
realized most of what STeve discussed over about 30 minutes was 
already online in his summaries of both the disk/controller/hardware
crash problem and the security breach item.  He mentioned Grex has 
been gifted with numerous shrink-wrapped copies of Mac System 7 manuals
which could be sold at a JCC sale.  And the price of 486 motherboards 
continues to drop - he's watching with anticipation.  Our first
Supra modem has died (RIP).  If there is anything STeve would like to
include from these discussions I'd appreciate his additions.

7.  Financial Planning:  This discussion was deferred until next meeting
so that the treasurer could be present and action taken on issues related
to planning and taxes. 

8.  Dungeon Issues:  Carl and STeve plan on getting over to the
dungeon this Saturday.  What remains to be done is electrical wiring,
dry wall and vent installation, and painting.  The estimate for moving
runs between 3 weeks minimum to about 2 months at the outside.  The
phone installation will be scheduled only when the date of the move
is quite firm.  

9.  Staff Membership Policy:  This issue was deferred until next
meeting so that John Remmers might be present; srw was concerned
there were issues John had wanted discussed.  Also, no action could
be taken at this time due to lack of quorum.

a. Grex Liability to Individuals:  srw commented that this issue had
been resolved at the previous meeting and would be dropped from
the agenda.  

b. Ordering Mousepads:  It was noted that over the past month there had
been only one more person expressing interest in purchasing a Grex
mousepad, bringing the total to 11 sold out of a minimum order of 30.
Mousepads will not be ordered at this time.  The issue may be revisited in
the future if it becomes obvious more people are interested in purchasing
one or if we find a vendor willing to print a smaller minimum order at a
reasonable price.  Thanks to all those who expressed an interest in
ordering. 

c. Reimburse danr for a Rubber Stamp:  This item was postponed until
next meeting when official action could be taken.  (I'd bet he gets
his stamp. ;-) )

d. Verification for Usenet Use:  An item asking for discussion of
verification criteria will be entered and this item will be on
the next Board agenda.  STeve will find out what other large
systems providing such service do to authenticate their users.
Anyone interested in entering the item in Co-op for this discussion
please feel free to do so.

e.  Ameritech Telephone Line Deal:  Discussion centered on the what ifs of
trying to take advantage of the free telephone installation offer for
orders placed before November 19.  The benefits of doing so would be a
savings of $420 which would be paid off over time if we went with Centrex
lines.  The downside is that Centrex lines offer advantages over business
lines, advantages worth the extra money. The feeling at the end of the
discussion was that we'll proceed with plans to move to Centrex lines at
the time Grex moves to the dungeon. 

f.  New Business:  STeve detailed how our lack of a good backup
system makes a lot of what the staff has been doing to repair
the system so much more difficult.  He suggested it would be a good
thing for Grex to consider purchasing a new 8mm tape drive which would
allow for remote automatic backups on a daily basis.  The estimated
cost would be about $600 to $700 for new equipment.  He'll enter
an item for discussion.

Discussion ended about 9:00 p.m.  If there is anything I've forgotten
please feel free to make corrections or additions.

response 2 of 12:

Oct 27 14:37 UTC 1994

   The advantage of 4mm is theoritically, the heads are better technology;
If we get an 8mm drive we'll have to verify that the head was rebuilt.
They go after several years.  The problem with 4mm is that there are
several different incompatible standards for them, such that what is
written on one drive might not be readable on another.  Even writing to
a 4mm tape in uncompressed mode, there are problems from time to time.
8mm tapes in the other hand, are/were all made by Exabyte, and they
do work together.  8mm tapes also have the advantage of known long-term
reliability, because tapes written back in 1988 are still readable today.
   So I think becuase of the above, plus the price factor, 8mm will be
the better thing to buy for Grex.

response 4 of 12:

Oct 28 01:34 UTC 1994

Thanks for posting these notes right away, Mary. 
I have two minor corrections to note: (1) Rane's id is rcurl, and
(2) in item 9a, we decided that we would leave this issue on the agenda
for a final action which would declare that we have paid all the
remaining liabilities, and to establish that future liabilities will
need a commitment from the board in advance.

response 6 of 12:

Oct 28 03:22 UTC 1994

Re No. 3 - this will be the *second* computer donation, the first having
gone to an Attention Deficit Disorder organization.

response 8 of 12:

Oct 31 15:55 UTC 1994

And thankxx go to canis for the donation of the printer for
this current rehab project.

response 10 of 12:

Nov 4 07:00 UTC 1994

That's what has been going on - just discussion.

response 12 of 12:

Nov 7 06:18 UTC 1994

I meant, there have been no actual votes. Yes, we do need to have 
financial information available at every board meeting. I think that
it is rather important to have that, and I suggest that we always
schedule so that the treasurer can be at the meeting. An alternative
is to have financial statements, budget, etc *on hand*. The former
is distributed on line, but I haven't seen one at a meeting, unless
the treasurer is there...(I'm at fault too, of not making and bringing
a copy).