dpc
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Notes of the Board Informational Meeting of February 18, 2005
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Mar 2 15:46 UTC 2005 |
Attending Board Members: slynne, mary, dpc, gelinas
Non-Attending Board Members: bhoward, vanloons, polygon
Attending Non-Board Members: STeve, aruba, remmers
The Board meeting was never called to order on February 18, 2005
because of lack of a a quorum (5 members). Bhoward had sent e-mail
stating that he would not be able to attend. We reached vanloons by
phone. He said he was moving out of his apartment that evening and
could not attend. He said he was moving to India March 1, and wants to
connect after then by Yahoo video conferencing. We were not able to
reach polygon.
The "informational meeting" began at 7:15 p.m. at slynne's house, 208
N. Grove, in Ypsilanti. Dpc said he thought the only thing the Board
could do under its rules was seek a quorum or adjourn. Since we had
sought a quorum and failed to achieve one, we must adjourn. Others
present said that it was Grex practice to hold an "informational
meeting" at which matters could be discussed, but no decisions could be
made. Dpc, wanting to be a good sport, took notes.
The Board first discussed the question of subpoenas. Generally, people
thought we should have a policy on subpoenas. Slynne said that until
we had a policy, she would decide what would be done if we received
another one. Mary said she wants the Board and staff involved.
STeve said that that four times in Grex history the staff had had
communications with law enforcement, and the information requested had
been public. Mary said we don't have the resources to fight a
subpoena. STeve said we should examine everything on a case by case
basis. For example, what if we received a request for information on
people with Arabic-sounding names?
Dpc said that cost should not be a factor in contesting a subpoena. He
would provide legal services at no cost. The motion fee used to be
$20; it may have increased. There would probably be just one court
hearing. Mary said what do users expect? People have to expect we
will give up information. Maybe we should say something like "you were
warned."
Dpc said what if someone asked for his own privileged client-lawyer
e-mail? Or what if someone on Grex is involved in a divorce, and a
subpoena arrives for all the e-mail between the user and the
boyfriend/girlfriend? Dpc said we need two things: a policy to give
users notice of what we will do, and a policy on how we will handle
things internally. He said would draft something, although it might be
a while.
Treasurer's Report:
None.
Staff Report:
STeve reported that the hardware was stable. There has been one crash
caused by an Internet card.
The Board congratulated everyone on the smooth move to Provide.Net -
especially gelinas. The DSL line at the Pumpkin has not been reliable
and gelinas will disconnect it on Monday.
Schedule Next Meeting:
The Board members present thought that the next Board meeting could be
held on Friday, March 18, at 7:00 p.m. at mary's. However, since 3
members were not available, this will have to be decided on line.
Moving Out of the Pumpkin:
We are moving out of the Pumpkin on February 26. There was a l-o-n-g
discussion about what would be going where, and who would be taking it
there.
Since we moved out of the Pumpkin, some of our users no longer have
local dialin service to Grex. The Board considered putting a terminal
server in somewhere, or installing another phone in Ann Arbor and
paying for forwarding. 761-3000 no longer forwards. Further discussion
of this matter, and a poll, will be online. STEve said that about 25
people use the dialins. Dpc expressed surprise that this was such a
small number. Aruba said that it was part of our charitable mission to
provide access to the Internet, and that if we do not provide phone
lines we are not providing a minimal connection to the Internet for
people with limited means. Apparently 4 people are being affected by
the long-distance problem.
New Business:
Aruba reported that he had done the personal property tax return.
Dpc said that he had been getting at least 50 pieces of spam a day on
his Grex e-mail account, and suddenly there was an almost total lack
of spam. STeve said that it was not our doing. He said that most spam
is due to "zombie" machines, especially at universities, which have
been taken over by spammers. Whoever was spamming their machine had
been knocked off; hence no spam. STeve said that when we go to some
form of Spam Assassin, Grex will box down, and we will need a second
box. Gelinas said that the University of Michigan is going with
DeSpam. Remmers said that a new version of exim is coming out, and it
will have hooks for Spam Assassin.
STeve said that Grex is still as big as most medium-sized colleges in
terms of what we do. We are one of the larger OpenBSD systems in the
world.
Dpc expressed his concern that in order to use Grex e-mail people still
have to use telnet, which is obsolescent. He pointed out that when he
clicks on the "Telnet In" link on the home page, he gets a system
message saying that telnet is not supported on the Mac for OS 9.2. He
said we should move to Web mail. He said we should either install
decent e-mail or not offer it at all.
The informational meeting adjourned at 8:40 p.m.
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