Special Board Meeting Minutes (Sept 10)

Sep 11 04:42 UTC 1996

Grex Special Board Meeting Minutes
Sept 10, 1996 - 7:30pm - Michigan Union Grill

Board Members present (not a quorum):
   Mark Conger (aruba)
   Steve Gibbard (scg)
   Scott Helmke (scott) - chair
   Valerie Mates (popcorn)

Others present:
   Dave Dorney (dadroc)
   John Remmers (remmers)
   Mary Remmers (chelsea)
   Marla (qt314)
   Charles Mitchell (arthurp)
   Jan Wolter (janc) - acting secretary

This meeting of the Cyberspace Communications Board was called to discuss
options for moving.  We need to move Grex out of the dungeon within the
next 9 days (by September 18).

The following options for places to move have been considered:

  (1) West Huron street - Scott reports that Steve Andre says this is still
      available.  Rent would probably be $60 a month.  No long term lease is
      available, though we would get four month notice if we had to move out.
      Ownership of the building might or might not suddenly change in the
      future.  It's across the street from a homeless shelter and Steve Gibbard
      reports having seen fights in the neighborhood late at night.

  (2) Plymouth road (Cottage Inn office building) - This is a basement space
      where we would have to build a our own wall to separate it from the
      rest of the building (scott estimated this would cost about $500).  We
      would have a regular lease perhaps at $75-$100 for the first year, and
      $100 a month thereafter.  It's a very good space, in terms of size,
      ventilation, and access to phone and electrical hookups.

  (3) Red Cross Building - There is a possibility of getting free space in a
      small room in the basement of the red cross building.  It's not quite
      as nice a space as the above two, being smaller.  The Red Cross has not
      officially approved this offer, and some of their board members are
      concerned about allowing Grex in there because there is only one stair-
      way and the fire code resticts the number of people who may be in the
      basement.  Because of the location of the Red Cross space, Grex's
      dial-in phone numbers would all have to change.  Scott reported that
      Steve Weiss was in touch with the Red Cross and that the Red Cross had
      not yet made a decision, or spoken to the fire marshall yet.

  (4) CICnet - If we could find space in the ITI building, CICnet would likely
      (though no firm commitment has been made) to be offer us a better
      internet connection than we now have.  So far we have not found any
      space in the ITI building, though with the net connectivity savings, we
      would be able to pay considerably more than in other places.  Steve
      Andre has been talking to various ITI building people and Jared Mauch
      has apparantly been talking to some people.

  (5) Another un-namable ISP-type place - We had been talking to another
      group about co-locating and getting a cheap or free connection from
      them.  Valerie Mates reported that this was almost dead.  They have
      not got room.  There might still be a possibility, if Grex could be
      put in a rack.

Various alternatives were discussed.

 - Could Grex be put into a rack or rack-like structure, and stuck into a
   machine room full of other peoples machines?  Steve Andre has argued in
   the past that a work space is very valuable.  Nobody was very enthuastic
   about this alternative.

 - Can we light a fire under the search for space in ITI?  Steve Andre was
   been busy and not (we think) been able to pursue this.  Valerie and Jan
   somewhat reluctantly agreed to try to get in touch with Steve Andre and
   see if we can take a hand in this.

 - Mary Remmers suggested that we shouldn't hang around waiting more than
   a couple more days for the ITI or Red Cross things, or rush into making
   a deal with these organizations that we might later regret.  We should
   get into some stable space, and continue negotiations in a more leasurely
   fashio with these kinds of organization, possibly moving again in a few
   years.  Mark pointed out that there is about $3000 in our treasury, and
   we can afford to do this, if need be.  This might actually make it easier
   to negotiate a good arrangement with some other group in the long term,
   since "desparation is never attractive."

 - There was some discussion of whether we would be interested in the Red
   Cross space even if we were offered it.  Valerie pointed out that changing
   phone numbers would be especially painful because we won't be able to
   give the users much advance notice.  It would be nicer in many ways to
   be a real tenant in commerical space rather than being someone else's
   guest.

 - There was some discussion of the relative merits of the Plymouth Road and
   West Huron locations, the former costing more and requiring construction
   but being a nicer and more stable location.  Opinion swayed.  No vote
   was taken since no quorum was present.  Scott will contact Richard Berk
   (rickyb) to see if the Plymouth Rd space still is available and perhaps
   do a bit of further negotion to try to set the price more firmly.

 - We will try to get an extension on the time we can stay at the current
   location.  Valerie will contact the city about this.

 - Valerie has several other people she wants to contact about possible space.

 - Dave suggested a possible location near the Manhattan Cafe that Valerie
   will do some further checking on.

 - If Grex needs to be somewhere between the time it moves out of the dungeon
   and into some real location, we have two people who have offered a room
   in an apartment and an already-installed phone line that can be dedicated
   to be an internet connection.  [I'm omitting the names of the volunteers
   on the ancient tradition of being a bit vague about the exact location of
   Grex].  In one of these locations it might be possible to install three
   dial-in lines if Grex has to be there for a longer period.

 - Jan suddenly noticed that he'd stopped taking notes some time ago, and
   would thus have to regenerate the minutes from memory.  Sorry.  Please
   give any corrections or additions.

The board will meet again Thursday, Sept 12 at 7:30pm at the Michigan Union
Grill, to try to make a final decision on where to move.

response 2 of 42:

Sep 11 14:54 UTC 1996

(Actually, it was scg who pointed out that the users wouldn't get much notice
of a change in phone numbers if we moved to the Red Cross location in a hurry.
My comment on the subject was that we could mitigate that problem by having
a computer still attached to 761-3000, displaying an ascii message with Grex's
new phone number, each time someone calls.  That idea was srw's.)

response 4 of 42:

Sep 11 17:31 UTC 1996

it's not worth the risk - and eliminating 761-3000 as a good
dialin would be, imo, a terrible decision.

response 6 of 42:

Sep 12 04:30 UTC 1996

I think I agree with Jan in response #5.
Um, *I* don't know M-Net's number...

response 8 of 42:

Sep 12 13:54 UTC 1996

Come to think of it, M-Net just changed their access number
(i.e. the phone number that non-paying users can access the
system with) so even I don't know what their number is any more.

response 10 of 42:

Sep 12 15:17 UTC 1996

(313) 996-4644 or (313) 994-6333.)

response 12 of 42:

Sep 12 18:50 UTC 1996

Is there a way you could send mail to every login at once?  Like a mass
mailing?  I can't think of the command right now, but my friend can send one
piece of mail to everyone on his mailing list with one command.  Does grex
have that ability?  You could send mail to *everyone* about the new phone
number;  Those of us who telnet in could just ignore it and delete it if
necessary.  

Also, if you know of the change a few weeks in advance, you could post it on
the motd.  (I think that's been proposed already, though).

response 14 of 42:

Sep 12 21:42 UTC 1996

Russ is saying you don't want to send mail to every account on Grex,
which is correct.  An motd mention, OTOH, would be no problem.
(Just to clarify.)

response 16 of 42:

Sep 13 08:55 UTC 1996

25???  I expect 250 would be more accurate, if you're referring
to people who dial 761-3000, not just those who connect on that line.

response 18 of 42:

Sep 13 14:42 UTC 1996

That's been discussed, but it costs money per call to forward calls, which
makes it cost-prohibitive.

response 20 of 42:

Sep 13 19:35 UTC 1996

Whoops.  I didn't think about disk space.  After I logged off, I thought about
the response and remembered Valerie saying something like, "We have thousands
of users."  Hmmm...  <birdy does some calculating then nods>  Yup.  Too much
disk space.  Definitely too much.

response 22 of 42:

Sep 13 20:51 UTC 1996

Merit has been adding/changing dialin numbers like crazy. I don't consider
changing nubers to be a problem. Doesn't a caller get a message saying
what a changed number has been changed to, at least for a little while?

response 24 of 42:

Sep 14 05:06 UTC 1996

A likely thing to do, if you find you can't connect. And, you don't
need the modem speaker. Pick up the phone and make the call.