June Board Meeting Minutes

Jun 29 03:11 UTC 1997

Minutes of Cyberspace Communications Board Meeting -- Wed June 25, 1997
acting secretary:  Jan Wolter (janc)

==============================================================================
board members present:  Mark Conger (aruba), Steve Gibbard (scg),
        Dan Gryniewicz (dang), Scott Helmke (scott), Valerie Mates (valerie),
        Jan Wolter (janc)
others present:  STeve Andre (steve), Dorian Kim (dorian), Rob Argy (ajax),
        Jared Mauch (jared), Jessica Draper (llanarth), Bill Moran (bmoran),
        Patrick Moran
==============================================================================

ITEM "videvisoM?" -- Initial Gavel Pounding -- Valerie Mates (valerie)

   Meeting was called to order

ITEM "Eansonag<"  -- Treasurers report -- Mark Conger (aruba)

   Month of May:
      Covered expenses with $18 to spare.
      Income  $625.83 (almost all from memberships).
      Debits  $606.06 (phone $394.21, electric $83, rent $60, ICnet $20,...).
      Five new members - eeyore, mziemba, nt, polygon, tao.
      Ended with 94 members.
      (See treasurer's report for complete details)

    Month of June:
      Looks pretty good so far.
      Income (to date) $626 (auction $118, dues $508)
      One new member (to date) - mercedes
      Currently 96 members.

    We are no longer seeing excess numbers of outgoing calls on our phone
    bills.

ITEM "nitylloyaR6" -- Computer Rehab. Committee -- Scott Helmke (scott)

    Nothing to report.

ITEM "ociscragR$" -- Publicity Committee -- Misti Tucker (mta)

    No report from publicity committee.
    Valerie has added Grex to various bbs listings on the net.

ITEM "Rlemauls>" -- Technical Committee -- STeve Andre (steve) & Company

    Scott Helmke (scott) has been working on getting error correcting modems
    configured and installed on all dial-in lines.  Some people still seem
    to be experiencing flow control problems on the 2400 baud lines.  Scott
    plans to move as many of the old GVCs to the slow lines as possible,
    since they handle slow speeds better than the new GVCs.  This will leave
    only two 2400 baud lines with new GVCs.  Users are advised to turn on
    error correction when using any Grex dial-in lines.  Thanks Scott.

    Marcus has updated the password system, using better locking and a better
    encryption algorithm that will simplify future migration to some Kerberos
    style authentication system.  There may still be some problems with this.

    Valerie made some further improvements to the change program (adding a
    command to change your default editor).  Thanks Valerie.

    On the Sun 4/670:
      Dan Gryniewicz (dang) installed spacers to improve its cooling.

      Steve Gibbard (scg) and Jan Wolter (janc) tried installing two other
      CDC disk drives, but both exhibited the same write errors as the one
      currently being used as boot disk.

      Marcus Watts (mdw) and Jan Wolter (janc) attempted to convince the
      670 to recognize an external SCSI controller card, but didn't
      succeed.  Needed openboot documentation (since obtained).

    Dan Gryniewicz (dang) donated a 486 chassis for use as a SCSI enclosure,
    but it has only one full-height drive bay and probably isn't very useful.
    Thanks anyway, Dan.

    Jared Mauch (jared) wrote a "fake pop server" which does not provide any
    pop service, but does generate a message saying that Grex does not
    provide POP service.  Steve Gibbard (scg) installed this on Grex.  We
    have received no questions about our pop service since this.  Thanks,
    Jared.

    STeve Andre (steve) reports that we have had a plethoria of vandals
    assaulting this system in the last month.

    Marcus has started work on changing the structure of the unread-mail
    directories on Grex to a hierarchical structure similar to that no used
    for the home directory structure.  This should improve performance
    significantly, but requires that many programs (especially mailers) be
    fixed.  Marcus has done a lot of work to get a new version of the
    "mail" mailer working.  Dan Gryniewicz has done work on "mh".  The "pine"
    mailer still needs work.

    On July 1, we will be changing all dial-in lines to 8N1 (8 data bits, no
    parity, one stop bit) instead of the current 7E1 (7 data bits, even
    parity, one stop bit).  The 8N1 settings are much more widely used and it
    should be easier for new user to connect to Grex with those settings.

    Steve Gibbard (scg) has been working on the terminal server.  He put
    another ethernet card in Gryps and put the terminal server on that
    ethernet, where it may be less confused by the traffic on Grex's main
    ethernet.  He needs a serial cable to complete tests (since obtained).

    We need to measure the electricity used by Grex's equipment, so that
    we can update the amount we are paying for electric bills.

    Grex has been crashing more often as the temparature in the Pumpkin goes
    higher.  The air conditioning in the building does not appear to be
    sufficient to keep that room cool.

    The dead phone line has been repaired by Ameritech, but we haven't got
    it into our trunk hunt again.

ITEM "fuldombeT=" -- ISDN Connection -- staff

    The offer from CICnet is not going to materialize.

    Jared Mauch (jared) has offered a 128K ISDN off the T1 connection that
    he will have once he moves.  Grex will pay for the ISDN lines themselves,
    and supply the equipment on both ends.  This offer looks promising.

ITEM "Toosocurm>" -- User File Privacy Policy -- all

    Staff has produced a document describing the kinds of conditions under
    which they might look at a user's private files.  This has been discussed
    first in the staff conference and then in the coop conference, and has
    been uncontroversial.

    It has been suggested that the Grex board should issue a statement of
    principle describing our belief in the importance of privacy on the
    net.  The board felt that wording for such a policy should be developed
    and discussed in coop before the board takes any action.
 
ITEM "Uggliguma5" -- New Business -- all

    Auction is in progress and doing well, though not as well as last year.

ITEM "Heckstmome<" -- Final Gavel Pounding -- Valerie Mates (valerie)

    Meeting was closed.

response 2 of 6:

Jun 29 13:40 UTC 1997

<orinoco wonders about the sanity of the item numberer...>