Minutes of the October 1999 Grex Board Meeting

Oct 31 20:02 UTC 1999

                         Cyberspace Communications
                  October 1999 - Board of Director's Meeting
                                   Minutes

Presiding:  John Remmers (remmers)
Recording:  Jan Wolter (janc)
Other Board Members Present:
    Steve Andre (steve)
    Mark Conger (aruba)
    Scott Helmke (scott)
    Misti Tucker (mta)

Members of the Public:
    Steve Gibbard (scg)
    Christopher Goosman (goose)
    Mary Remmers (mary)

Board Members Absent:
    Dan Gryniewicz (dang)

AGENDA ITEM 1:  Gavel Banging

  - John Remmers began the meeting at 7:34pm.

AGENDA ITEM 2:  Chairman's Report

  - Board did not meet in September.  Oops.

AGENDA ITEM 3:  Treasurer's Report

  - Mark Conger presented the treasrurer's report for August.  The full report
    is available on-line in coop item 124.

      * After eight consecutive months in the black, August was not a very
        good month, income being rather low.  We are once again paying the
        full phone bill, the tax rebate being complete.

           Total Income:     $238.00
           Total Expenses:   $471.18
           New Members:            2

      * We ended the month with 93 members, 83 of which are fully paid up.
        The number seems to have been slowly declining for a while now.

      * Our bank balance ended at $5,344.24.
  
  - Mark Conger presented the treasrurer's report for September.  The full
    report is available on-line in coop item 127.

      * September was better than August, but not great.

           Total Income:     $326.20
           Total Expenses:   $474.43
           New Members:            2

      * We ended the month with 90 members, 79 of which are fully paid up.
        The number seems to have been slowly declining for a while now.

      * Our bank balance ended at $5,196.43.

  - Mark Conger presented a preliminary report for October.  The month looks
    good so far, and should end well in the black. 

           Income to Date:         $569.20
           New Members to Date:          2

  - There is some concern about the drop in the number of members.  Looking
    at Mark's graph of the number of members over time, it is evident that
    there has been a slight drop, but nothing of really dramatic proportions.

  - Mark also presented a series of graphs showing the longer run status of
    Grex's finances.  Generally things look very good.

      * Monthly expenses have decreased significantly overall.  We dropped
        a couple dial-in lines and the IC-net link, we've reduced electric
        usage, and we got rid of the bank service charges.  This more than
        covers our increased expenses for insurance premiums.

      * The historical graph of income is extremely erratic - lots of boom
        months and bust months.  This is why we don't necessarily get
        concerned over a few bad months like August and September above.
        Generally, our income seems to be improving a bit.  We had a couple
        one-time windfalls recently - the phone tax rebate and the conversion
        of the spare parts fund to general fund, but even setting these aside,
        we seem to be maintaining a steady small surplus.

      * Currently we spend about half of our money on phone lines.

      * Income comes mostly from dues, but auctions play a big part too.

    We'll look for ways to get some of these graphs on line.

AGENDA ITEM 4:  Publicity Committee Report

  - Misti Tucker, the Publicity Czar, reported no new publicity.

AGENDA ITEM 5:  Technical Committee Report

  - Steve Gibbard reported that Grex's ISDN line was down for a couple days.
    Apparently one of Ameritech's cable's failed and had to be replaced.
    The board thanked Steve for notifying Ameritech, and Ameritech for
    repairing things substantially more quickly than we're used to seeing
    Ameritech repair things.

  - Steve Andre reports that the /c drive may be approaching the end of its

    life.  It will be replaced soon. He feels Grex generally goes through
    drives fast.

  - Steve Gibbard reports that the ventilating fan in the pumpkin is dead,
    and it is getting hot in there.

  - We've had a number of complaints of disconnects on the dial-in lines,
    but haven't been able to discern any sense or pattern to this.  Some
    users are getting very reliable connections, some not so good.

  - The staff actually had a full-scale staff meeting this month.

  - Staff recommended that Michelangelo Giansiracusa be appointed to staff.
    Jan Wolter moved:

       I move that Michelangelo Giansiracusa be appointed to Grex root staff
       with all the privileges and responsibilities appertaining thereto.

    Scott Helmke seconded.

    Passed, 6-0-0.

AGENDA ITEM 6:  ACLU Suit

  - It will likely be at least next summer, possible next fall before the
    6th court hears our case.  In the meantime, the law is on hold and
    everything is peachy.

AGENDA ITEM 7:  Credit Card Info

  - We will be sending in our application now.

AGENDA ITEM 8:  Future Planning Meeting.

  - Tentatively scheduled:  5pm, Sunday Sept 21, at the home of Mark Conger.

AGENDA ITEM 9:  Auction

  - There will be another auction real soon now.

  - Sara Arthurs (swa) and Jeffery Carey (coyote) have agreed to be
    auctioneers.

  - We will probably try setting a minimum bid of $5 on all items.  This
    should massively reduce the amount of work in tracking the bids, and 
    ensuring that all purchased items get delivered, without taking too
    much out of the profits.  Possibly smaller items can be sold as groups.

AGENDA ITEM 10:  Schedule for Future Meetings:

  - Tentative dates for the next board meetings:

       7:00pm  Tue, Nov 16
       7:30pm  Wed, Dec 15

AGENDA ITEM 11:  New Business

  - No new business.

AGENDA ITEM 10:  Gavel Cessation

  - John Remmers ended the meeting at 9:07pm

response 2 of 18:

Oct 31 23:05 UTC 1999

nitpick:
        I'm pretty sure we picked a date less than 11 months away for the
future planning meeting.  I don't remember what that date was, though.

response 4 of 18:

Nov 1 00:03 UTC 1999

Thanks for posting these.

Incidentally, Zingerman's closes at 10pm, contrary to the 9pm I
was told on the phone when I reserved the room.  But it may be
just as well that we thought we had to be out by 9, since it
motivated us to conduct business efficiently.  We covered
everything on the agenda adequately, I think.

response 6 of 18:

Nov 1 04:03 UTC 1999

Congratulations, Mic! (:

response 8 of 18:

Nov 1 21:37 UTC 1999

Thanks Mic!

response 10 of 18:

Nov 2 00:37 UTC 1999

I will include photocopies of my student and staff ID's at my university,
medicare card, and bank keycard - I hope that's sufficient (don't have a
driver's license and my passport is at home).

response 12 of 18:

Nov 2 12:22 UTC 1999

Re resp:10 - two pieces of ID are sufficient for our purposes.  Thanks
for becoming a member, and congrats on being named to staff.

response 14 of 18:

Nov 2 19:30 UTC 1999

One piece of ID that has your name and some other identifying feature, such
as a student number or passport number.  You wrote the policy, John.  :)

So your student ID or your staff id would be fine, Mic.

response 16 of 18:

Nov 3 03:07 UTC 1999

Thanks John and Mark. I sent off the money order for US$60 yesterday,
alongwith 4 pieces of ID..just to make sure (o:

response 18 of 18:

Nov 8 17:57 UTC 1999

Re resp:14 - Just because I happened to write something doesn't
mean that I remember what I wrote.  :)