Vancouver CommunityNet
Board Meeting
March 17, 1998

Present:  Penny Goldsmith, Margaret Coates, Larry Kuehn, Lyle Gardiner,
Richard Songhurst, Sujay Nazareth, Lily Fu, Greg Sturk, Darlene McBain,
Keith Kan, Robert Sanzalone.

Staff:  Peter Royce

1. Agenda.

M/S/C		That the agenda be adopted.

2. Minutes.

M/S/C		That the mintutes of the February 17, 1998, meeting be approved.

3. Staff report.

A. Peter reported on positive responses from the Vancouver Foundation and
on the status of the Spanish language project and the Communities Connect
project.  Also, it is likely that VCN will receive a grant for position for
five months under a federal grant project.

B. Board/staff relationship.  In order to most effectively use staff
resources, the president asked that any projects that might make
significant demand on staff time should be forwarded for consideration by
the Operations Committee (consisting of the president and past president).

C. Staff hiring for an office coordinator for 6 months.  An ad has been
placed and a number of applications have been received.  The task for the
person hired is to get the system in the office set up so it can operate
effectively over the long term.  The hiring committee for the position is
Margaret Coates, Richard Songhurst, and Peter Royce.

4. Treasurer's report.

The treasurer reported that the cash balance after expenses is $50,201.50.

5. Policy issues.

A. Security policy.  There was agreement on general principles for a
security policy, based on a report prepared by Jason Currell.  Richard
Songhurst agreed to bring a proposed policy statement to next meeting with
precise policy wording.  A committee of three people, to be named at the
next meeting, will be created to be responsible for implementation of the
security policy.  The committee will make recommendations to the board on a
regular basis.

B. Reduced user base.  General discussion took place on issues related to
where VCN should be positioned in future service directions.  It was agreed
that this should be the topic of the work with the consultant being
contracted through the planning grant.

C. VCN membership survey.

M/S/C		That VCN send a questionnaire to members after the initial stages of
the planning process with the consultant.

The meeting examined a proposed questionnaire.  Portions of it were agreed
to not as a membership survey, but as a questionnaire about interest in
course and volunteering for the VCN.  It was agreed that these questions
should be available at VCN promotional presentations.

D. Upgrade to system.

M/S/C		That the VCN buy equipment to upgrade our system to Sun Ultra 
5, at a cost of up to $8000.

6. Current projects.

A. Fundraising for new equipment.  Community information providers will be
contacted to request donations.

B. The events section of the VCN Web page is being moderated by Richard
Songhurst.

C. Library pilot project.

Lyle and Robert are doing a promotion event at the library in the West End.

D. It was agreed that the planning sessions with the consultant should be
one day on a weekend and two evenings in May and June.

7. Net '98 Community Network Conference.

Several board members will be attending the conference, which includes the
annual meeting of the B.C. community network organization.

8. Library closure.

It was agreed that the VCN would send the Mayor of Vancouver a message in
opposition to closing libraries for one week.  The email address for
messages is mayorowen@vancouver.bc.ca

NEXT MEETING:   April 21, 1998