************************************************* Vancouver CommunityNet Board Minutes -- July 15/97 Present: Penny Goldsmith, Jack Vickery, Ryan Hung, Katharine Shipley, Greg Sturk, Margaret Coates, Neil K. Guy. The meeting was called to order by Penny Goldsmith at 6:40 p.m. 1. Adoption of agenda M/S/C The agenda be adopted with two additions. a) A report from Penny Goldsmith on a meeting with Vancouver Foundation. b) A request from Jack Vickery that VCN join the BC Alliance of Information & Referral Services 2. Adoption of minutes from June 17 M/S/C That the minutes of the June 17, 1997, meeting be adopted. M/S/C 3. The office: a) Staff Reports Peter Royce's Staff report was circulated and within the report a number of grants were reported upon (see #6 Grants). In general, the office is continuing to be busy with grant applications and day to day management of the CommunityNet. b) Summer Students The summer students Kitka and John have been in place for the past 3 weeks and 2 week respectively are working out well. c) Ian's Farewell Penny Goldsmith has ensured that a small token of the Board's gratitude was presented to Ian Pringle. d) Priorities for Systems Administrator Extensive discussion regarding priorities for the System Administrator and how they effect the short and long term goals of the VCN. The Sys-Admin Committee will work with the System Administrator to assist in setting priorities and developing methods to move some of the work load on to the Sys-Admin Committee. 4. Money a) Treasurer's Report Lily Fu was unable to attend. An statement of our accounts was included in Peter Royce's report. Penny Goldsmith will ask the Treasurer to post a more complete report as soon as she is able. 5. Committee Reports a) Fundraising The fundraising committee is continuing to work on a number of projects these are reported on in section #6 Grants b) Systems Design Ryan Hung reports that he has been able to fix a number of problems on the system. He will also be meeting with Jason Currell, System Administrator, to discuss how the Sys-Admin Committee can be of more assistance to him. There was also discussion on how to expand the Sys-Admin Committee to include more qualified people. The issue of training and getting to know new volunteers (and their level of expertise) was the focus of the discussion. The Sys-Admin Committe will continue to work on this issue. 6. Grants a) BC Multicultural Peter has reworked application for a Spanish language pilot project for community development and translation of some front end Web material. b) LMCIA Job Seekers Internet Access Project: Suzanne Klinga has finished, we are posting again to rehire a Project Manager - 3 mo. 4 days/wk. $10,000. Deadline for applications is Friday. We seem to have at least one strong candidate. The project is on hold for the month of July (approval from HRDC received), though we are already a bit behind. The next meeting of the Advisory Committee is in late August. c) United Way United Way has received application for a part of the Spanish language pilot project and is reviewing. d) ITAO Research has been done and the report is being written. e) Communities Connect The Board of Directors has directed the Fundraising Committee to investigate further the requirements of the application procedure and to work towards writing an application for CommunityNet. f) Industry Canada An application for modem and termserver hardware plus installation - hopefully submitted soon under the Community Access Program. g) Heritage Canada Canadian Heritage application for funding for the Spanish Language Pilot project has not yet been written. 7. Annual General Meeting a) Nominating Committee Katharine Shipley and Margaret Coates will form the Nominating Committee, please contact them directly if you have any suggestions. b) Date of the AGM will be Tuesday, October 21, 1997 at 7:00 pm in the 411 Seniors' Centre. c) Organizing Committee Greg Stark will be working on the organization of the AGM, please contact him directly if you can help. We also need ideas for a speaker for the AGM. If you have a suggestion please pass it on to the office. 8. Telecommunities Canada Conference BCCNA has some money available to assist CommunityNets in attending the TC Conference ($500.00). The VCN board will be applying for one of these grants to send someone form the VCN to the conference. 9. PovNet Update PovNet has requested that we give them a proposal for their project. Steven Chan (Fundraising) and Jason Currell (Systems Administrator) are presently working on this. The Board of Directors support the concept of PovNet and welcome the possibility of partnering with the community. There are some concerns about the strain on VCN resources. 10. Workshop on directions for VCN Date for the workshop on directionss for the VCN has been set for Saturday, September 6, 1997 between1:00 pmm and4:00 pmm at the 411 Seniors' Centre. 11. BCAIRS Membership Jack Vickery requested that VCN join the BC Alliance of Information & Referral Services (BCAIRS). BCAIRS is an umbrella group of information & referral agencies throughout BC. VCN has been a member in the past. The Board of Directors has agreed to this.