Attending Board Members: Aruba, Mary, Gelinas, Slynne, Mooncat Attending Non-Board Members: Remmers, Kip 1. 6:30 Arrivals- well, not quite but almost 2. Opening Gavel Tap: 7:26pm 3. Treasurer s Report: For May: in $331.42, out: $438 a. $60 in/out/in- user sent in $60 with no id, eventually wanted a refund, then never claimed the refund so Paypal returned it to us. b. Idea discussed regarding changing Grex s ID policy to allow Paypal s verified user as acceptable id. Further discussion as to what Paypal required for a person to become verified. Aruba proposed entering an item in coop to further discuss the idea. c. In June: in $260 + $60 refund, will spend $378. d. Two new members so far in June. e. Rent went up in May from $80.41 to $84.43 4. Staff Report / Next Grex update: a. After the last board meeting Steve (Andre), Marcus, Slynne, Kip, Joe and Mark went to Cady s to continue discussing items. Kip, Steve and Marcus stayed until they were kicked out due to the weather. Much was accomplished in this discussion. b. Kip has taken over working on mail for Next Grex, and will be working with XIM. c. For Next Grex we will most likely be going with Front Talk, which Steve will be working on. d. E-mail and security issues are a couple main things currently holding up Next Grex progress. e. Reap gets run once a month now. f. Belief now that there is much more potential for progress, since a few key decisions have been made (for e-mail and Front Talk), than we have had for a while. g. Kip s reasoning for using XIM is that it is built with more security and spam control features. 5. Post Office Keys- How many are there and who has them? a. We used to have just two keys, and a request was put in by Gelinas for a third. b. The post office said that they didn t have a third key for the box, but that they could re-key our box and cut new keys, any above 2 would cost $4.50 each. c. Aruba had them re-key the lock and paid them, and for turning in his key he was able to get two. d. Jan has the second old key and will need to get it to Mark so that he can take it to the post office in order to get our third new key. 6. Schedule next meeting: Friday July 30, 7:00pm at Mark s new home: 3255 Cardinal Drive (48108) 7. New Business: Gelinas motion, Aruba seconded- final motion: to Add Paypal verification to the list of accepted forms of ID for individual membership privileges. In Favor: 5, Against 0, Abstained: 0 (5 board members present, 2 absent) 8. As far as housing is concerned, the point was raised that we should seriously consider where Grex will be living by next summer, when our lease runs out. Are we going to be able to move into the library? The change in the library board may change the likelihood, but is still considered a viable opportunity to look into. a. The point was also raised regarding co-lo- given our current mechanical make-up is co-lo even feasible? We would have to find a co- lo that would allow us to put the tower on the side- and perhaps spend $100 on a tray. Something to consider as a fall back, fall back plan? 8. Closing Gavel: 9:06pm21 responses total.
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Could be.
Yes, it is EXIM. Re 3b: aruba had proposed entering an item to discuss the matter. However, I remembered that there had already been such a dissucssion; see Item 66.
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regarding minutes #8 ... housing ... would this be a cost-saving move or is the lease not renewable?
The worry is that the required insurance for the current location will not be available at a price we can afford. So it's both: without insurance, the lease is (probably) not renewable, and co-location should be cheaper than the current costs of rent, power, insurance, DSL and telephone lines.
Excellent minutes, Anne!
I updated the membership FAQ to say that verified Paypal members need not send ID when they become members of Grex.
I know. Anne takes really really good minutes. I am always impressed.
Hmm, looks to me like the meating took a couple of hours, but oh well.
Meat hook? Meeting took? Ach...phonics
WurKt PhInE 4 MEE, or whatever.
re #10 The meeting did take a couple hours. But some of the conversation wasn't quite... relevant to the meeting.
uhhh, re #6 ,,, i thought it was grex's individual decision to get insurance not some landlord dictate. am i incorrect? besides, what insurance is it, what does it cover, what are the durrent premiums, why have it?
You are incorrect. Grex is required to carry one million dollars worth of liability insurance. This is to cover damages should, for example, our equipment cause a fire. I expect this clause in our lease is dictated by the insurance coverage our landlord purchases. Our current coverage is through Hastings Mutual. This type of coverage is extremely difficult to find in a policy we can afford.
Everyone on the road needs insurance. It saves lives. Cost isn't a factor, mary.
ummm, we might wish to canvass the other tenants to see if they are running bare or have similar requreiemnts..... also what they are paying and through whom.
The other tenants are not computer service providers.
I remember following up one lead, from another non-profit in the building, who was also struggling with their insurance premium. It turned out they were paying more than we were as their clients and their employees had more of a liability exposure than our public and our volunteers. But what I heard over and over again when seeking bids is that they didn't even need to hear the details of our needs as the least expensive policy their company offered was more than we were paying. It would be foolish in the extreme and a huge risk to those serving on the board for us to ignore the insurance clause in the lease. Before that would happen we should be going co-lo or finding other housing. But maybe sharply rising insurance premiums are settling down. Maybe. We (John and I) just got our rates for next year and for the first time in ages, there wasn't an increase.
The insurance market seems to adapt to changing conditions (in some ways) rather swiftly. Perhaps the next time we look, ther will be a greater likelihood of some insurer being willing to write a policy of the sort we need at a cost we can afford. </rosecoloredglasses>
TROGG IS DAVID BLAINE
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