Help       |       Contact Us      

Back To Chebucto Community Net Homepage


Chebucto Community Net

CCN Board Minutes
Home >> Chebucto Board >> Chebucto Board Minutes >>
July 18, 2000 Board Minutes

Serving Your Community's Online Needs Since 1994.

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, July 18, 2000

Agenda:

  1. Call to order
  2. Approval of last week's minutes
  3. Executive Director's Report
  4. Re-Election of Board Member - Bernie Hart
  5. Prospective New Board Members
  6. Committee Reports
  7. Communications Process from chairs to committees, using the committee list serves.
  8. Restructuring the office positions for the future: Executive Director and
  9. Office Manager
  10. Policy Case Updated
  11. New Business
  12. Next Meeting - Tuesday August 8th

Present:

  • Sharon Parker
  • Krista Olmstead
  • Leo Deveau
  • Mark Rushton
  • Doug McCann
  • David Murdoch
  • Bernie Hart
  • Grace Paterson

Regrets:

  • Andrew Wright
  • Sylvana Buttigieg
  • Kelly Marney
  • Viola Winstanley
  • Joyline Makani

    6:40 PM - Call to order.

    Approval of last week's minutes deferred to next meeting.


    Executive Director's Report:

    Planning has begun for when I step down on August 31st. I've met with the Executive to review specific plans as they relate to some of my duties, namely processing the weekly deposit and project development specifically related to the Urban CAP implementation and the Word on the Street event.

    I've written up a 'job description' for issuing a call for a volunteer who might assist in making the deposit (see below). Two Board members will be coordinating information and awareness on Urban CAP (Grace Paterson) and Word on the Street (Krista Olmstead).

    Plans are being prepared as well to review the duties that my position held and to determine whether to rehire a new Executive Director later in the fall, or modify the position for specific tasks (ie; marketing and public relations, etc.). Also, the contract for the Office Manager position has been up for renewal for the past few months and it too will be reviewed. I will make recommendations soon to the Executive on these matters for further deliberations by all Board members.

    At the moment, in the office we're planning for Andrew to take a well-deserved holiday in August. In preparation for this we will soon be training one of our summer students, Jonathan Thibodeau, to update accounts and handle office visits and tech support issues during Andrew's absence.

    Since we last met, I attended an IP Committee meeting where roles and tasks were delineated between the Webmaster and editor-in-chief positions. I'll let Doug speak further on that. What also came out of the meeting was an idea to begin looking at the overall Chebucto information architecture tree, possibly getting some outside consultation as to ways of improving it in light of various new technologies and software systems - comparable to what we did last fall to begin the redesign of the Chebucto homepage.

    As I've mentioned in past reports, this coming fall Chebucto will once again host two Net corps interns from Canada World Youth. These two interns are scheduled to arrive in mid September (18th) to work four days a week in the Chebucto office. I would suggest they could be put to work on cleaning up a variety of old or dead links within the Chebucto directory vis-a-vie establishing new links off our new homepage and updating archives. I would suggest direction for this should be provided by the Webmaster, Editor-in-chief, with some guidance as well from the Tech committee.

    Our summer marketing student, James Carroll, has been working diligently on assessing the survey data and assisting in the marketing of the new Chebucto web cam site. He is working closely under Krista's direction within the Communications Committee and will begin plans soon on looking at various promotional opportunities for the fall.

    Further meetings were held in the past couple of weeks concerning the Urban CAP implementation plans in Spryfield, Dartmouth South and Cole Harbour.

    Lastly, David Murdoch and I were invited to attend a meeting on July 7th with the Atlantic Canada Organization of Research Networks (ACORN-NS), chaired by John Sherwood, Director of Communications Network Services at Dal. I've attached a copy of a segment of their Bylaws for your review. Essentially Chebucto is being asked to become an Associate member of ACORN as a result of our access and use of the Dalhousie's Network services via the GigaPOP and CANARIE systems. The fee for this membership is $3000 and allows Chebucto to be at the same table as the major users of the network services. I suspect, in light of Chebucto's finances, ACORN would consider quarterly payments to fulfill our membership requirements.


    ACORN MISSION

    The Organization will promote the development and operation of advanced network infrastructure and services in support of health, research and education for the growth of a knowledge-based economy and society in Nova Scotia.

    OBJECTIVES

    The objectives of the Organization shall be:

    1. To promote the use of advanced networking within Nova Scotia.
    2. To oversee the operation of the Nova Scotia GigaPOP and its connections to the CANARIE national research and education networks.
    3. To make access to regional broadband networks and to the GigaPOP available to approved member institutions.
    4. To cooperate with regional carriers in their testing and deployment of innovative technologies and services.
    5. To facilitate economical access to these networks and to the GigaPOP through the establishment of an optical regional network or through other means.

    MEMBERSHIP

    CLASSES OF MEMBERSHIP

    There shall be two (2) classes of membership:

    1. Full
    2. Associate

    Membership in the Organization is non-transferable.

    CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP

    Full Full Membership in the Organization is open to bodies corporate or other organizations which operate in the Province of Nova Scotia and utilize advanced computer networking to support their primary organizational objectives other than:

    1. bodies corporate or organizations that are predominantly engaged in the production, sale or rental of computer networking services, equipment or consulting services;
    2. organizations, one of whose primary functions is to represent its members, and whose members consist primarily of bodies corporate or organizations referred to in paragraph (a); and
    3. bodies corporate or organizations that are regulators of telecommunications common carriers.
    Associate Membership in the Organization is open to:
    1. bodies corporate or other organizations that are excluded from Full Membership by reason of paragraphs 4.2.1(a), (b), or (c);
    2. individuals that have a professional interest in computer networking; or
    3. persons who support the objectives of the Organization; that would be otherwise ineligible to be Full Members.


    MEMBERSHIP REPRESENTATION

    Full Members

    Each Full Member shall be entitled to one vote at meetings of members of the Organization;

    Each Full Member shall designate a representative, who has a professional interest in the use of computer networking services and facilities on behalf of the Member, as its "Voting representative" to exercise the Member's right to vote at meetings of the Organization.

    Each Voting Representative may designate at his/her discretion an individual, who would be eligible to be appointed as a Voting Representative, as an Alternate Voting Representative.

    A Full Member shall have the right to one vote at all meetings of the members of the organization provided that such Full Member is in good standing at the time of the vote. The Voting Representative, or, in his/her absence, the Alternate Voting Representative, of each Full Member or, in the absence of both the Voting Representative and any Alternative Voting Representative, any other Representative of a Full Member appointed by proxy, shall exercise that Full Member's vote at meetings of members of the Organization.

    Full Members may have additional Representatives in excess of the Voting Representative.

    Associate Members

    Each Associate Member shall designate one of its employees as its "Primary Representative".

    Associate Members may have additional Representatives in excess of the Primary Representative. Representatives or Primary Representatives of an Associate Member may not vote at meetings of the Organization.

    Associate Members are not entitled to receive notice of or to attend or vote at meetings of the Organization or to receive the annual financial statements of the Organization.

    A Representative of an Associate Member is not eligible to chair a subcommittee of the Organization.


    JOB DESCRIPTION
    FOR VOLUNTEER IN OFFICE

    The Chebucto Community Net Office Manager processes every week a number of membership renewals and new member accounts which require a weekly bank deposit. We are seeking the assistance of a Chebucto member volunteer who can come into the office once a week to cross-reference all the cash, VISA and cheque entries that has been carried out and to do up the deposits and deliver them to the bank.

    This requires a regular weekly commitment of approximately one hour in the office and another thirty minutes to deliver the deposits to the bank. The volunteer should have a working knowledge of computers, has a familiarity with basic financial records and data entries, has good interpersonal skills and is trustworthy. This position is expected to start these tasks on August 24th.

    If you are interested, please submit a statement of interest, outlining your skills and two references to:

    Volunteer Office Position,
    Chebucto Community Net
    Rm 125, Chase Building,
    Dalhouise University
    Halifax, N.S.
    B3H-3J5

    or email: ljdeveau@chebucto.ns.ca

    End of Executive Director's Report.


    External Relations:

    Bernie is not present so Viola reported that she will touch base with him to get an update on progress and report to the board.


    IP Committee

    Featured IP - One of CCN's successful projects is the 'Featured Information Provider's program. The program showcases a selected Information Provider each month. It was suggested by Doug that the program be expanded to each of the major subject areas. While the Featured IP would continue on the CCN main page (high profile), each subject page (lower profile), could also highlight a selected IP. This expansion would provide the various IP Editors the opportunity to interact with their IP's. IP's would benefit from this additional service.


    Features Editor

    The IWK-Grace Telethon has just past. Word-on-the-Street, Tall Ships, Jazz and other festivals are coming. These events should be linked from CCN, so that CCN members would be able to locate information about them without having to search the 'net. For example, it was difficult to locate any information about the IWK Telethon on the net.

    For the last provincial election a link banner was installed on the CCN page pointing to the CBC (results) and various political party pages.


    IP, Editor Training

    Leo has suggested (via e-mail) that besides IP Training, that CCN should provide editor training. The object is to provide the opportunity to bring IP Editors up to date.


    IP PROCESS

    A discussion about the IP Process was conducted. David provided a progress report on how the neighbourhood concept was being integrated into the database. The accounting module is ready to go. While IP editors and others will continue to have access to the IP data, only the office and other authorize persons will have read/write access to the accounting fields/records.


    Policy Committee:

    The change has been implemented to the User Agreement. There will be a letter sent to all members and users notifying them of the change. The privacy Policy is currently in review.


    Technical Committee:

    Web Cam: The Committee has acquired the computers to put on the roof of Fenwick Place and Andrew Wright is currently negotiating a deal on the camera. Andrew has arranged a meeting for Friday to ask permission to set up the camera on the roof of Fenwick Place. The camera costs will be between $1000 and $1500. Implementation date is proposed to be July 7th. The committee has set up a task list and assigned people to specific duties.

    Johnathan Thibodeau is the new Tech support student hired for the summer. Giselle Corkam is the Co-op student. Both of these people will be setting up for seniors Expo (setting up phone lines, computers, etc., for both CCN and CAP.


    Home Page Debate:

    Due to the conflicts that have arisen from lack of communication and standard procedure for implementing new systems, it was decided that an assigned Web Master must be elected to handle all incoming requests for changes to Chebucto, and for delegating responsibilities. Sharon Parker nominated Doug McCann to be the new Webmaster. Joyline Makani seconded the motion. Motion carried.


    New Business:

    Andrew Wright lodged a formal complaint to the board regarding receiving abusive treatment from David Potter, a member of the Editor's Committee. Andrew reported that David has been disrespectful, abusive, extremely rude and unprofessional in his behavior toward Andrew. Andrew requested that the Executive Committee interfere on his behalf to get the abuse to discontinue, and voiced his desire to have a public apology from David Potter. The Executive Committee agreed to set up a meeting with David Potter and Chris Majka to see if there was a way to rectify the situation.

    Re-election of board member Bernie Hart. Krista moved to re-elect Bernie. Doug Seconded. Motion carried.

    Prospective new board members.

    Sharon Parker suggested inviting Marilyn MacDonald and Derek Ferguson to the board, and have them sit in on the next meeting. Sylvana's staus as board member was questioned due to her lack of involvement. Krista was directed to conatct her regarding her status with the board.

    External Relations Report:

    Communications Report:

    The press release on the launching of the web cam went out to the media and received a huge response. C100, Q104, Sun FM, CJCH, KIXX Country, CBC Information Morning, Country 101, CHNS, ATV ran the infor on their news shows. The Halifax Herald will be running an article in tomorrow's paper. The paper took a picture of the web cam on Fenwick Palce with Andrew Wright, James Carroll, and Krista Olmstead present. The web cam is ready to go and a second press release will be sent out later as a reminder.

    Volunteer Committee Report:

    Mark requested feedback on the volunteer web page. He reported that he will be recuiting volunteers for various committees.

    Webmaster / IP Committee Report:

    Doug reported that he has created a Webmaster web page. An Editor in Chief has been assigned to coordinate and oversees all web page developments with the various committees. David Murdoch suggested that the ruling to elect a new Editor in Cheif should be reviewed by the Policy Committee, and a standard procedure for electing Editor in Cheif should be developed for the future. Sharon Parker suggested that the Editor in Cheif should have a representative on the board, which could be connected with membership. The IP Committee is running low on members and needs to recruit more. A features editor is suggested to wrote articles on IP's.

    Technical Committe Report:

    Web Cam: Network configuration is completed.

    IPDB: a stanbdard procedure should be approved and implemented. Giselle will be requested to set up a meeting with David Potter to idscuss a unified sytem.

    Mark moved that Chebucto starts imidiately starts adding all new IP's to the current IPDB while waiting for implementation of a new system. David Murdoch will direct Giselle to hasten the implementation of the database and make modifications for the new system.

    Communications Process form Chairs to Committees - Deferred to next meeting.

    A special meeting was called to discuss the office positions for next Tuesday.

    Meeting adjourned - 8:43 pm

Use Chebucto's
Secure Webmail!

Chebucto Username

Mail Password

Set Spam Filter Preferences


Join Here!
Get your own Chebucto account

Chebucto Services
Look here for our available services and prices!
Accounts for individuals, families, non-profit groups and small businesses!

Secure Online Payment
for Donations/
Membership Renewals
[PayPal]  

About Us      Help promote us!
Who we are, what we do
and how you can help

Chebucto Plus
Our Premium Internet Access

Chebucto Wireless
Our Community-Run
Non-Profit Highspeed Access

 

The Chebucto
Neighbourhood

Websites of Dozens of Groups, Organizations and Businesses hosted by Chebucto

By Alphabet      By Subject

Chebucto Photo Gallery


Chebucto Community Net
Our Privacy Policy                Our Web Site Terms of Use