VANCOUVER REGIONAL FREENET ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS MINUTES OF MEETINGS MARCH 1, 1994 Vancouver Public Library Present: Tom Hansen, Margaret Coates, Phil Lyons, Eric Yung, Brian Campbell, Jacqueline Van Dyk, Steven Chan, Guy Thomas, Mike Hrybyk Missing: Fritz Radandt, Janet Askin, Boodie Arnott, Susan Pendakur Guest: Sharon Zaluski 1.0 Agenda * Item 3.6 of the agenda is board membership Motion: Phil/Eric To adopt the agenda with the above noted modification. PASSED 2.0 Minutes Motion: Phil/Jacqueline To accept the January 8th minutes. PASSED Motion: Tom/Margaret To accept the January 18th minutes. PASSED * Guy reminded Eric to change the permissions in the poplar site so that everyone can read the minutes. * Suggested to Eric that the subject line for future minutes contain the date. Motion: Phil/Jacqueline To accept the February 1st minutes. PASSED Motion: Margaret/Steven To accept the February 15th minutes. PASSED * Minutes were incorrectly dated February 16th... corrected. 3.0 Policy Issues 3.1 Registration Policy: Steven * A comprehensive handout of the questions raised was distributed. * discussion has been abbreviated in the minutes and results posted. * there will be a mailout to members at the middle of the month. * 1) types of information required: Motion: Margaret/Jacqueline: That we require the Name, Affiliation, Address, City, Province/State, Country, Postal/Zip Code, Phone Number, E-mail address, temporary password, and Membership status of all users to VRFA. PASSED. * 2) agreement: Steven suggests that we should have a user agreement * Motion: Steven/Jacqueline: That we have a user agreement. PASSED. * Brian: we could send the agreement (as per Appendix B) to David Konn? * Mike: suggest we remand to Steven for a redraft * Eric: To send Steven a copy of the BC NET Acceptable Use Policy. * final suggestion that we send the agreement to David for a rewrite and follow BC Net AUP - items #1, #2 of the agreement to be rewritten. * deferred to next meeting. * 3) Where do users mail registration forms?: * Motion: Phil/Jacqueline: That we include the current VPL address and change the address to VRFA's public office later on. PASSED. * Guy: we could pay to forward mail. * Mike: only change the electronic form when mailing address changes. * 4) Levels of access: * Mike/Brian: suggest that guests do not post. * Motion: Guy/Phil: That guests have read-only, post-to-Sysop access, with sympathetic consideration for downloading of materials pending technical ability, while normal users have all normal access priviledges. PASSED. * 5) Type of Email ID: * Eric: option #2 (algorithm based on name) may be redundant * Steven: assume all options are possible. * Motion: Guy/Margaret: That we adopt option #3 (freely chosen IDs by users). * Mike: Option #3 is subject to technical difficulties - may fall back to Option #1 (default Freeport aa100-type IDs). * vote was 5 for, 1 against. PASSED. * 6) Acceptable IDs * Motion: Guy/Tom: That an ID be 7 characters or less. PASSED. * 7) Forgetting passwords? * Motion: Phil/Mike: To accept option #2 (to reauthenticate based on alternative information provided by the users). Vote was 6 for 1 against. PASSED> * 8) How to reauthenticate? * Motion: Mike/Guy: To accept option #1 (a user is asked for easily remembered information like Mother's maiden name, birth date etc.) that was collected during registration. Vote was 6 for, 1 against. PASSED. * 9) How should users change information in their accounts? * Motion: Steven/Guy: To accept the recommendation: That users would logon, give their passwords and change any account information. PASSED. * 10) How long should users expect to have their accounts active? * Motion: Mike/Eric: To delete user accounts after 6 months of inactivity, on a biannual basis. This was tabled after discussion. * Motion: Jacqueline/Margaret: To delete user accounts after 9 months of inactivity, on a biannual basis. PASSED. 3.2 Interlink Issues: Jacqueline * will librarians (and libraries) get preferential access to the freenet? * discussion centred on access technical problems vis-a-vis phone lines, and modems and connection resources. Motion: Jacqueline/Phil: That there will be preferential access to VRFA from all public sites. PASSED. 3.3 Gopher - deferred to March 15th meeting. 3.4 Machine name - deferred until an idea arises. 3.5 BC Freenet: Brian * note from Fritz on mailing list about telephone conference. * Brian informed us that he was not notified of consultation grant until extremely late in the process. He personally is dissatisfied with the methods currently used by the BC Freenet administration. Also, BC Freenet has not yet incorporated as an entity. * Margaret: There seems to be 3 levels of problems with BC Freenet Motion: Phil/Tom That the Vancouver Regional Freenet Association objects to the procedures of the BC Freenet due to: 1) An internal board discussion by VRFA 2) the positions of the BC Freenet members 3) public position of the BC Freenet (government interactions with a quasi-organization). and that we are calling for a teleconference with the members of BC Freenet to resolve this issue. 3.6 Board Membership - deferred to next meeting 4.0 Membership report - Susan was absent and thus no membership report. 5.0 Treasurer's report: Tom * report was passed around. Net income of $7,685.49. Motion: Tom/Margaret: That we accept the Treasurer's report. PASSED. 6.0 Committee reports: 6.1 Hardware/Software: Mike * summary of minutes and issues from Mike * Brian: modems sent by Cardinal are 25 14.4K external (non-rack mounted). * Motion: Mike/Guy: That information providers have the ability to create menus offline and send to the system for incorporation, and that data can follow a similar path. PASSED. * Harvey's procmail interface was discussed at some length. * Vic to respond to Jacqueline's password scheme. * structure of newsgroups was discussed. (eg. bc.freenet.vancouver etc.) Motion: Mike/Jacqueline: That we adopt a "bc.freenet.{city}" structure for our newsgroups where VRFA would have "bc.freenet.vancouver" as its structure. PASSED. * deferred draft of UBC-UCS agreement to next meeting. * letter to BC Net to ask for 1 year free (to be followed up by Mike and Brian) * Guy: Creating discussin groups from IPs. Mike replied that you need a login ID to create newsgroups. 6.2 System Design - handled under registration issues. 6.3 Community Content: Guy * links to geographical/alphabetic and subject indices. * IP meetings coming up. * Wednesday at the GVRD meeting - service guarantees? disk space? donations from IPs? Motion: Guy/Margaret: To accept the Community Content report. PASSED. 6.4 Public Relations: Fritz was absent - draft of newsletter deferred to next meeting. 6.5 Fundraising * Have BC 21 proposal * Canarie proposal submitted * April 15th deadline with the Real Estate Board * VanCity Annual General Meeting coming up [Note: The AGM date is March 30th, but this was added AFTER the meeting and was not brought up for discussion] * Steven to work on proposal with the Law Foundation * UBC-UCS agreement needs equipment spelled-out. Motion: Tom/Margaret: To accept the Fundraising report. PASSED. 7.0 Endorsements: Phil * list of endorsers distributed. 66 endorsements to date. Motion: Phil/Margaret: To accept the Endorsement Coordinator's report. PASSED. 8.0 No report from the Volunteer Coordinator. 9.0 Library Coordinator: Jacqueline * discussion of Internet, public access, charging to subscription or membership censorship issues. * Mike to work with Jacqueline (and get others to help) to work on proposals for Monday (March 7th). Motion: Jacqueline/Guy: To accept the Library Coordinator's report. PASSED. 10.0 Other business: * discussion was raised (general level of amazement) on Toronto Freenet's agreement with Roger's Cablesystems Ltd. * Advisory committee - Ellen Matrick, Nancy Bane, John MacDonald to be approached. * Jacqueline: is there any way to generate stats of use of Freenet? (especially specific parts of Freenet?) * Eric offered to get faxes of Board mailing list ot Phil and Margaret * Eric asked about possible meeting with Ano Automation and what we're looking for - Mike responded that we want external SCSI drives. * VCC Continuing Education interested in setting up courses for Freenet Education. Meeting was moved to be adjourned by unanimous consent at 10:15pm.