Vancouver Community Network Board Meeting Minutes - July 20, 1999 Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Vancouver Community Network, Board of Directors, held on Tuesday, July 20, 1999 at 6:30 P.M. in the Boardroom, 411 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver, BC. Present: Lyle Gardiner, Penny Goldsmith, Suzanne Klinga, Josee Lebel, Sujay Nazareth, Jonn Olldym, Richard Songhurst, Greg Sturk Staff: Jason Currell, Peter Royce Absent: Alison Curtis, Paul Hunt, Darlene McBain, Richard Smith Chair: Penny Goldsmith Secretary: Greg Sturk 1. Adoption of the Agenda, M/S/C. 2. Minutes of the June 15, 1999 meeting accepted, with corrections noted and made, M/S/C. 3. Staff Issues: 3a. Motion to have staff issues discussed in camera with staff absent, M/S/C. 3b. Motion to leave in camera, M/S/C. Approval of Staff Policy Manual, M/S/C with one abstention. 3c. Staff reports were given to the Board. 4. Financial Report: 4a. The financial report given to the Board was highlighted by Peter who substituted for Darlene. Total revenue for the month was $25,074 and expenses 12,677. Revenue from memberships was $4,474 for the month, increased by the added interest in PPP on our system. The majority of revenue is from VolNet, which continues to be our largest financial source. 4b. Penny noted that the increased funds would suggest that our financial reports need to be audited. Cost of a report is to be determined and reported back to the Board. 5. Fundraising Meeting The fundraising meeting chiefly concerned itself with Smart Communities, ( see: Policy Reports: 8d). 6. New Board Member Keith Kan is in Hong Kong and is not able to serve on the Board. Penny highly recommended Michael Gurstein for a board position. Michael has expressed great interest, has recently moved from Cape Breton and has had a long involvement with communities there. Motion to approve Michael Gurstein as a new Board member, M/S/C. 7. Policy Issues - Aliases A concern has been raised by some members of the VCN regarding privacy on our system. It has been VCN policy that as part of an open system of communication, only real names were to be allowed. Part of the reasoning was that people would be less likely to "flame" or be hostile if they did not have the cover of anonymity. However, Jonn felt that some people with disabilities, may wish to maintain their privacy about their condition while communicating about the subject. Board members also recognized the fear that some people may have. Jason noted that with PPP, an alias is not a problem but currently anyone on the web can search our system. He said it would be easy to restrict the search to VCN members only. Motion to have the search name utility restricted to VCN members only, M/S/C. 8. Project Reports: 8a. For the 604 Connect project, the VCN is sub-contracting delivery to a Francophone agency. We have hired 3 trainers, and have had 4 all day sessions and plan to spend 3 person hours per organization. 8b. The VCN has sent a letter of intent to Community Learning Networks. There is a possibility of a $25,000 grant for research, to bring community partners together, to access needs and partnership development. 8c. Nothing much has changed regarding our project with Langara College. Suzanne suggested we could take the initiative to create flyers, as example, a third of a page sheet could go in the Langara student mailout. Sujay mentioned that from his experience most of the students do not know about the connection we have with the College. Part of the problem may be the construction changes and current lack of space at Langara. 8d. The Smart Communities project would be a large project that would have to have the support of the municipality. The project would build on current initiatives and new technologies to support community development. 8e. Special Projects United Way would focus on multilingual access barriers and solutions. The intention is to meet with different language groups, Internet groups, and technology groups to build a kit as an aid to access. 9. Annual General Meeting: 9a. Board agreed that 7 P.M. on Tuesday, October 26, 1999 would be the next AGM. 9b. Agreement that a nominating committee for new Board members is needed. 9c. Some suggestions for a keynote speaker were brought forward with Peter to follow up. 9d. Agreed that a voluneer appreciation list would be created by Tuesday, October 5. 10. PPP Update: 10a. Agreement that the VCN needs the preparation of a generic media release to promote and highlight PPP and the VolNet project. It was suggested that handouts are a very cost effective method and could be done at venues such as the Vancouver Folk Festival. 10b. There were 503 regular users that have switched to PPP this month, to bring the total to about 800 currently of about a total of 2000 to 3000 users. 10c. We have done no promotion and there are only a few personal web pages at present, however people are talking about it. 10d. The voice mail system has been a problem, but Jason has the software working and will be reading in a script. 11. Other Business Jason mentioned that our contract with MetroNet ends on August 31st with no word yet on rates.