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?
You don't need it. It's not about need.
I'd prefer a voice solution to a video solution as well. Having done a large number of videoconferences on high-end hardware, I'm less than impressed. I can probably find a friend who'd host a conference call, too. If voice isn't important, IRC makes a fine place for meetings, would be easy to record, and if anyone wanted to sit in they could idle in the channel.
What about in 'party' on Grex ;)
Grex doesn't own the name Grex. Other places use it. There is a grex.com that is not us for instance. We never trademarked the name.
dumpsterdiving.com is also taken.
cyberspace.org is however a nice domain name that surely has some value.
"Cyberspace.org" was picked because it was available and it was a buzz word. The name probably does, or did, have some value, but for Grex it was just something to use in hope confused people would stumble into the conferencing system. There's no "cyberspace.com" WWW site. Someone owns the domain name but doesn't use it for the WWW. It may reflect something about the current value of "cyberspace.org". I think it's better to keep Grex going for a while longer. I hope that can happen. It looks promising for a couple more years as there are people willing to serve on the Board. In a couple more years, lots could happen. A new crowd might appear. Unix, text and non-profits might become popular again. (Grex is the text-message mechanism of the Facebook age! We have privacy here.) Heck, get a cell phone app and people will probably start blaming Grex for car accidents.
I can certainly help host an audiconferencing line if it's needed.
I think there's definitely a place for Grex in the world. There are a few groups I'm part of that are looking for a BBS or forum solution that has a lower signal-to-noise ratio than most of the public Internet -- and less spam! Grex could probably generate more interest from the vintage computing crowd, too. There aren't many fully text-based services out there anymore.
Item 76 in agora has been linked to item 326 in coop.
Is there any further interest in running for the Grex Board?
Last year, jadecat ran for a seat on the board. I think she'd be an asset so I wonder if she would consider running again?
Nominations for the seats open for the Board in 2012 are now closed.
BTW, the Board voted to elect all 4 candidates to the Board as it was an uncontested election. You'll all need to be members of Grex if you aren't already. We'll need your real names and addresses for our Michigan state annual report, too. Send those to the treasurer.
Thanks, glitch, Andy, Ryan & Kent!
Information sent to treasurer@grex.org -- is that ok?
Yes, I think so. Thanks, glitch.
You have several choices: