Is anyone interested in running for a seat on Grex's board of directors?  
If so, please volunteer here.  If not, maybe we should plan to dissolve 
the organization in a graceful manner.  This probably means revoking our 
501c(3) status and our bylaws and simply allowing whatever volunteers are 
interested in running the hardware to do so, probably out of one of their 
homes.  Whatever money we have would need to be donated to another non-
profit entity, I believe. 

I, for one, sincerely thank our current board members for all their 
efforts.  Kent, especially.  

But without volunteers the game is over.  Anyone willing to step up to 
the plate and give it a try?  

57 responses total.

for once you and I agree mary. the days of this type of forum are
over.m-net has a superior shell and platform so most of the CS majors
use that as a practice box. grex could have had a part in that but
everyone ignored cross's suggestion to move over to freebsd. Openbsd
just plain sucks.the bbs here has decayed into a few users who shout out
their particular party line and all the good trolling fodder is gone so
I am the only die hard troll left. gone are the heydays of party. even
the system info conf has been laid waste by valerie mates unethical
delete script that violated the stated purpose of grex and all that
because someone suggested that nursing makes your nipples tough.grex was
an interesting place when it ran on sun hardware as that was a bit of a
novelty even those many years ago. you and remmers both have forsaken
grex and no longer entertain with your witty and creative comebacks. 

grex is dead,long live m-net!

I guess that means you're not interested in running for a board seat.

What kind of time commitment is involved with being on Grex's BoD?

I live in Chicago, so I can't volunteer, sorry!
If I was local, I would do it.

We have had board members dial-in (or Skype in, if that works), and our
by-laws allow for this.  It does make it a little interesting to find a
location were we can have a phone, but it's not impossible.

The time commitment is a couple hours every 6-8 weeks plus whatever
thinking you need to do to prepare for a meeting and answer an e-mail or
two in between meetings.

It might be less time depending on how often the board chooses to meet
and how many issues requiring board input occur between meetings (that
has not been much other than contribute to the agenda and commit to a
meeting date and time).

If you are a Board officer, your time commitment will be somewhat higher.

If we stick with the by-laws, I won't be able to run again as this will 
end my 2nd consecutive term. Of the 5 current board members, 4 members 
term will expire at the end of the month; if IIRC, 3 of us are
ineligible  to run again due to this 2 consecutive term limit.

How about voting on whether to allow more consecutive terms if nobody else
is running?

We'd need to change the by-laws for that since the by-laws are 
specific about the number of consecutive terms.

Well if a "warm body" is just needed, who can participate via skype, I
suppose I could throw my hat into the ring.  However, I do not know if I'd
be qualified, as I have just recently re-joined Grex after several years 
away -- and I'm not really sure what the duties of a board member are anyway.
But still, if it is needed for Grex to continue operating, and nobody else
is willing, I'd do it just to try to keep Grex going -- because I think it
is something worth keeping.  I learned quite a bit of stuff on Grex
"back in the day" ;)

One duty of a Board member is to keep Grex going

Thanks, Ryan.

Yes, thank you, Ryan.  

Where will grex be meeting (every 2-3  months).

I can throw my name in the hat as well. Being from upstate NY means it'd be
a remote thing.

I'll run again, too.

Wow, thanks Kent & glitch.  There is hope for this sucker yet. ;-)

Meeting place seems to be irrelevant at this point.

The organization cannot dissolve because in doing so, not only would 
the money have to be donated to charity, but the organization's assets 
as well.  Which would principally include the hardware grex runs on.  
How much money does Grex have left anyway?  The ballgame's over when 
the money runs out regardless. 

Actually there is little point in continuing the cyberspace 
communications organization when it does nothing, doesn't have enough 
people for its board, and has really ceased to exist for practical 
purposes. Perhaps Grex should dissolve the corporation and donate the 
box to someone who can keep it in their house and reboot it now and 
again.  A benevolent dictator who will keep running it.

Somebody call Dave Cahill  :)    Easy easy...only kidding about that.  
He'd take the Grex box and throw it into Lake Michigan.  Better find 
somebody else. 

Dave Cahill never did anything to make you think he had ill intentions 
toward Grex.

There are established rules for disbanding a non-profit.  Grex could 
disband, sell off assets, and donate any remaining cash to any 501(c)(3) 
selected by the Board, as long as there is a Board.  If there is not, I 
imagine the assets would be collected by the IRS and probably put into 
storage and forgotten.  I bet it happens pretty often that way to small 
non-profits that cease to have a membership.

re #20 "Dave Cahill never did anything to make you think he had ill 
intentions toward Grex."

Oh I dunno.  When I suggested sometime back on mnet that grex was in 
trouble and maybe arbornet could take it over, he said something 
like 'over my dead body', with a few expletives thrown in.  You got the 
impression he'd do everything in his power to prevent those guys from 
helping grex in anyway.  Well it wasn't an impression, he *said* that. 
Is that ill will?

I'm open to the idea.  It's about time I pulled a
shift just to give a little back to Grex.

Thanks, Andy.  We've got 4 people running for 4 seats now.  Anyone
else interested in help Grex by serving on the Board?  

Don't the articles contain a statement on how assets will be disributed if
the organization folds? I thought that was required of non-profits.

Are you running for the Board, Rane?  Thanks, we'll put you down for it.

On an off note, thanks to whoever did it for fixing cyberspace.org's SSL
certificate. It seems tonster took it upon himself to have a new certificate
issued to cyberspace.org under his name. Thanks to him, too.

Re: #24  The title should probably be "dissolution" but here is what's 
stated in our bylaws.  State law may have some say that would fine tune 
the procedure some.

ARTICLE 8:  DISSOLVEMENT
 
  In the event the membership is unable to support Cyberspace
  Communications, all property belonging to the club shall be
  sold.  The remaining cash assets, after paying final bills, shall
  be donated to a charitable organization, as determined by the
  BOD.  All elected officers shall then be released from their
  obligations and the corporation dissolved.

Thanks, Andy!  Woot!
 

re #27 If grex was required to sell its box, couldn't it continue 
hosted somewhere as a virtual conferencing system?  If we just want the 
conferences, and there's no further need for a corporation, why not go 
in that direction?  

resp:26: You're welcome.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a choice with the
provider of the ssl certificates on whose name to put there, so that's
how it shows.  It works though, and I don't see a problem with it.

Re #25: No, I did that, and found my approach to non-profit corporate
management was incompatible with the established ethos. I'm a Roberts Rulian.

re resp:28: The name 'Grex' has always been presumed to be worth more than 
the hardware.  That is, after all, why the users paid for the hardware.  
The name itself is an asset, and I'd think it would have to be sold just 
like anything else.  Maybe an enterprising or public-spirited person would 
buy the name and continue to offer Grex as a private system, or maybe it 
could be donated to another non-profit if Grex were to disband.

Do you really mean "Grex" or our domain, cyberspace.org.  If the 
organization revoked its 501(c)3 status and wanted to continue using that 
domain, it gets muddy.  The domain is worth money.  The cleanest way to 
do it would be to sell the domain and give that money to another non-
profit.  We could make a case for keeping the domain as we had it before 
we gained non-profit status.  But I don't see "Grex", the name, as having 
any value at all.

It has great intangible value to some of us. :-)

If there are ever sufficient people running for the board without me running,
then I would withdraw my bid for it ;)  I don't think I'm the best person
for it, but I will do it if absolutely needed, and nobody else is willing.

I think there are probably a number of non-local people out there who 
would consider taking a turn on the BOD if they could get to meetings, 
easily.  I'd like to suggest Google plus hangouts as a way of 
facilitating such meetings.

Just like on Facebook someone would setup a Grex page.  Folks who are on 
the board and others who would like to be part of meetings would need 
Google+ accounts.  That's the hardest part.  From there on our you'd be 
able to have board meetings without anyone being in the same room.  You 
could connect with video by smartphone or computer or by simple 
telephone dialin.  Everyone is heard by everyone else.  The person who 
is speaking gets the large video frame, others are along the bottom of 
the page.

Anyhow, just knowing this could be easily done might encourage people to 
volunteer.

Here is a link to more on the Google hangouts:
http://goo.gl/z74dv

People still use Google+?

Would a conference call not work, without the video?

Yes.

Not as well.

Why do you need video to talk about grex?

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