Minutes of the Cyberspace Communication Board Meeting of Wednesday 9/25/96

Sep 30 05:15 UTC 1996

Minutes of the Cyberspace Communications Inc. Board Meeting of
Wednesday, September 25, 1996

Held at the cafeteria of ITI on Hubbard Road, Ann Arbor.

1. The meeting was called to order by Scott Helmke, President,
at 7:41 PM.

Board members in attendance:
Scott Helmke (scott), President
Mark Conger (aruba), Treasurer
Steve Weiss (srw), Secretary
Steve Gibbard (scg), 
Valerie Mates (popcorn),
Rob Henderson (robh)

Absent:
Misti Anslin Tucker (mta)

Others in attendance:
Dan Gryniewicz (dang),
Jan Wolter (janc),
Rob Argy (ajax),
STeve Andre' (steve)

2. Treasurer's Report

Mark Conger posted the report on-line which includes the results from 
both July and August combined, because he was not in town to post
the results of July alone.

We ran a deficit for the two months, but that is mainly because of a 
short-term loan to STeve, which was paid back by the time of the meeting.
We are approximately breaking even.

Mark also mentioned tat we had already received $449.50 in September.

For planning purposes, Mark gave a presentation using a flip chart, which
showed our income versus expenses over a 36 month period. This is important
because our income fluctuates greatly on a monthly basis, but our finances
are very stable over a period of several years. Here is the gist of it --

income
  $500/month constant income from memberships
  $115/month JCC sakes (averaging 9 sales over 36 months)
  $ 60/month auction (assuming one auction per year)
  $ 10/month T-shirts and mugs
-------
  $685/month total income
  
expenses
  $275/month phone (excluding internet link)
  $ 10/month miscellaneous
-------
  $285
  
This leaves $400/month for rent, i-net connection, electricity and and
hardware costs. Historically, over 36 months, we have spent an average of
$185/month on hardware maintenance and upgrades. This excludes money spent
from earmarked funds, such as the disk fund-raiser.

If we allow $185/month to continue to be allocated for hardware costs, we
are left with $215/month to spend on i-net, electric and rent. The purpose of
this presentation was for planning and deciding how much we could afford to
spend on these items as we pick our next home.

Steve Weiss pointed out that we might choose to allocate a smaller amount 
for planned hardware upgrades and maintenance. 

3. Computer Rehabilitation Report

nothing to report

4. Publicity Report

in Misti's absence, no report was given

5. Technical Committee Report

  * Nothing has broken
  
  * There was a problem in the last few days with incoming connections
    to the "portmapper" protocol. These connections cause a load and 
    mail buildup. The offending site has corrected the problem.
    
  * Lynx has been upgraded (by Valerie) to 2.5, and there have been some
    configuration changes.
    
  * Nethack has been recompiled (Valerie)
  
  * chsh has a new wrapper to help people change their own shell settings
    without running into complication. (Valerie)
    
  * Backtalk is installed - running on two test conferences only. (Jan)
  
  * "write" was upgraded to fix a "hang" (Jan)
  
  * Scott noted that he has had to kill gettys on the fast modems a number of
    times, as they have a tendency to ring open.

  * We did a full tape backup (Valerie, STeve, Jan (I think))
  
  * Valerie reported slowness on the staff line which is unexplained.
    (This comment sent us into a short tech-y diversion as to whether our
     local Ethernet is functioning properly. Nothing was resolved.)

6. JCC Sale

It is coming on Oct 13.

There was a discussion about how many tables we will need. The answer was 2.

There was a discussion of whether we need to pay sales tax. This needs to be
investigated.

MOTION: (scott,aruba) Authorize $80 to rent 2 tables for the JCC Sale.
PASSED 6-0 (1 absent)

10. Grex Has to Move

All of the cheaper or free site alternatives have fallen through. 
The remaining ones are too expensive, considering Mark's presentation 
earlier in the meeting. The West Huron Street Site had been approved by the 
board at the 9/10/96 (special) meeting, so no action was needed to approve it.

STeve has contacted the landlord for the West Huron Street Site, and 
determined that it is still available. He asked the landlord to agree
to a 4-month notice provision. He agreed, and asked us to word it.  

Some board members agreed to get together after the meeting and hammer out 
the wording of a short agreement to present to the landlord. 

STeve still feels that centrex phone lines will be less expensive than our
current arrangement with Ameritech. This had also already been approved
by the board. Once STeve confirms these costs, and once our agreement with
the West Huron Street site's landlord has been signed, STeve is to request
Ameritech to reconfigure Grex's hunt group to a Centrex system at the new
location. This should be in the next few days.

STeve said that in the worst case it would take 8 business days for them to 
move the lines, but that when they do, the lines will be out of order for
the duration of the move. He will request that Ameritech let us know when 
it will happen so that we can schedule Grex's move at that time.

11. Conference Backtalk Access

Selena's concerns about access were presented
 (1) access from users who are anonymous
 (2) access from users who haven't read the Grex principles.
 
There was a lively discussion for a short time, and it was suggested that 
this question be handled by a member vote. scg and srw suggested that the
board had the responsibility to make a decision on the question and that
it was not for the board to shirk that responsibility. Valerie then 
stated that as a member, she was going to call for a member vote
(every voting member has this right). This ended all discussion on the topic.

12. New Business

Valerie pointed out that we should be thinking about whom to nominate to run
for the 1997 board. There will be three seats available. 

   srw's seat - he is not running because he is ineligible
   popcorn's seat - she will be running for reelection
   scg's seat - he said he is probably going to run
   
STeve Andre' noted that with the upcoming move there are likely to be 
miscellaneous moving costs. For example, we might need 60 feet of 
25 pair phone cable.

MOTION (scott, scg): Authorize $200 for staff to spend at its discretion for
       miscellaneous moving expenses.
PASSED 6-0 (1 absent)

13. Adjournment

Occurred at 9:47 PM

Respectfully submitted,

Steven R. Weiss <srw@cyberspace.org>
Secretary

response 2 of 31:

Sep 30 14:41 UTC 1996

Nope.  We take in an average of $115 per month from JCC sales, but spend $80
per sale.  Sales happen once every 3 to 6 months.  So we've taken in a lot
more than $35 per sale.

Re nethack: Actually, I installed a new version of it.

response 4 of 31:

Sep 30 16:12 UTC 1996

STeve had made a lot of long-distance calls from the Dungeon (some kind of
info he needed personally, I think).  The "loan" was really his calls on the
phone bill.

response 6 of 31:

Sep 30 16:30 UTC 1996

Hey, we have to find *some* way to make money.  >8)

response 8 of 31:

Sep 30 17:12 UTC 1996

Hey, this is convenient, users answering their own questions
correctly.  We could save a lot of staff time this way.  >8)

response 10 of 31:

Oct 1 03:22 UTC 1996

The most bell can do is to turn on a phone line with no assigned long distance
carrier.  However, if the user knows any of the long distance carrier codes,
calls can still be billed to the number.

response 12 of 31:

Oct 1 16:07 UTC 1996

#11..oh I agree...if small loans now and againkeep STeve happy and showing
up at the Pumpkin Cyberpatch (or whatever its going
 to be called) more than reasonable.  Probably easier to deal with
occasional financial discrepancy than more than occasional
"steve discrepancy"  :)

response 14 of 31:

Oct 1 18:10 UTC 1996

Re 10-11: Actually, as I understand it, if you don't select a long distance
carrier, the phone company is legally required to select one for you.
The default isn't AT&T anymore; they choose one at random now.

response 16 of 31:

Oct 1 19:12 UTC 1996

Ick.  I'll pass on that, thanks.  We hardly need to give any more
encouragement for people to break in to the Dungeon/Pumpkin.
I prefer being on staff with no perks.

response 18 of 31:

Oct 4 03:10 UTC 1996

re:14 No, if you fail to make a choice, Bell will assign one randomly.  If
you actively choose "Non-of-the-above", Bell will fuss and complain, and tell
you it can't be done.  But eventually, after a chat with the manager, they'll
do it.  I've done it everywhere I've had a phone line in my name.

response 20 of 31:

Oct 17 11:27 UTC 1996

I like the minutes in their own item since it makes them easier
to find; all you have to do is a 'browse' of the conference. If
they're entered as a response to another item, digging them up
is more difficult. Finding the record of what the board actually
did should be easy, not a treasure hunt.

response 22 of 31:

Oct 18 13:45 UTC 1996

There's a directory somewhere (or used to be) with all the agendas & minutes
in files - without the discussion, I believe.  Memory is failing me ...

response 24 of 31:

Oct 18 15:15 UTC 1996

(They are, though the list may need some updating.)