Vancouver Regional Freenet Association Minutes of Board Meeting December 18, 1995 Present: Margaret Coates (chair), Ross Penner, Godwin Chan, Vic Vaivads, Neil K. Guy, Stephanie Fletcher, Nicholas Fong, Larry Kuehn (secretary). Staff: Kathy Fournier Regrets: Penny Goldsmith, Mark Moran, Jennifer Higgins-Ingham, Lorne Gray, George Lindholm. 1. The meeting was called to order at 7:05. 2. M/S/C. That the agenda be adopted. 3. M/S/C. That the minutes of the November 21, 1995 meeting be adopted with the correction of the spelling of the new staff member, Herbert Tsang. 4. Relocation committee report. M/S/C. That the VRFA board approve in principle that the Freenet computer site be relocated at the Vancouver Public Library, subject to agreement on final details on access. Until final arrangements are made, board members can inform system users that the Freenet is making arrangements for improved access. 5. Name change. M/S/C 1. That the service name of the Vancouver Regional Freenet be officially changed to Vancouver CommunityNet effective March 1, 1996; 2. That for three months after March 1, all literature include "formerly known as the Vancouver Regional Freenet." M/S/C That the domain name be "vcn.bc.ca" (Stephanie Fletcher asked that her negative vote be recorded). Stephanie and Neil will bring logos to the January board meeting for the board to select a new logo. 6. Meeting with VanCity VanCity will give a number of used PCs to the Freenet early in 1996. VanCity is prepared to consider proposals for joint projects with the Library and Freenet for the 50th anniversary of VanCity. Board members are asked to make suggestions for possible projects. The site selection committee will consider offers of additional after-hours phone lines from VanCity and Rogers and will report to the February board meeting. 7. Advanced training centre. The Advanced Training Centre is being developed by "Tri-net," a consortium of 411, NAOC and the Freenet. Stephanie and Kathy will prepare material for the NAOC board. 8. SIG agreement. Neil and Kathy will prepare and circulate a proposed agreement for individuals and groups which want to set up SIGs. This will be brought to the January board meeting. 9. Committee reports. Community content--Ross indicated we need to have more people working on bringing in "high-profile" IPs. An IP kit will be brought to the January board meeting. Public Relations--there will be a committee meeting on January 4. Staff report--Kathy provided a report on the many activities being undertaken by staff. She was asked to send a weekly summary report to the board on staff activities. 10. B.C. Coalition for Information Access. Stephanie reported on the activities of the coalition. The B.C.C.I.A. has formally endorsed the Freenet and has requested a listserv for its communication. It was agreed that the Freenet would not participate in the planning of the FIPA conference being organized for June, but would request a table to provide information. 11. Future of VRFA. The board discussed the proposal for a personal Web page. M/S/C That the board approve in principle personal Web pages for members, and that the board at the January meeting deal with recommendations that define the parameters for personal pages and that deal pro-actively with equity issues and the mandate of the Freenet. (Stephanie asked that her abstention be recorded) Neil asked that the next meeting deal with the issue of whether commercial sites can have pointers on the Freenet. 12. Parental responsibility. M/S/C That the Vancouver CommunityNet (formerly the Vancouver Regional Freenet Association) policy be that a parent or guardian of a user under the age of 18 is responsible for access and actions of the user under the age of 18; and that the parent or guardian assumes that responsibility by signing the Reply Memo indicating acceptance of the User Agreement. 13. Next meeting. The January meeting of the Board will be held on January 16 at 7 p.m. at 411 Dunsmuir. Agenda items for the January meeting shall include the following unfinished business: 1) Responses to issues sent by email to the board 2) alt.sex newsgroups