Hamilton-Wentworth FreeNet Annual
General Meeting
Monday, September 15th, 1997
Hamilton Public Library Rooms A&B
7:00 pm
1. Welcome and Introduction from the President
Marcel Mongeon welcomed the members.
2. 1996 Annual Meeting Minutes
A motion was presented to approve the minutes from the 1996
Annual General Meeting held October 1st, 1996. MOVED BY Ian Stott
and SECONDED by Al Munro THAT THE MINUTES BE APPROVED. John Nusselder
requested that the spelling of his name be corrected.
THE MOTION WAS CARRIED.
3. Financial Statements and Report of the Auditors
George Geczy presented the financial statements - the Summary
of Revenue and Expenses and the Assets and Liabilities.
The total revenue for the year was $267,1117.00 including the
$106,592.00 in government grants received.
ONIP will be ending this year and we are expected to be self-sustaining
next year. We received 231,230.00 in the 1995-96 period and $106,592.00
in 1997. We hope to receive approximately $40-60,000.00 in the coming
year.
Membership revenue is up, Youthnet generated $15,475.00.
We lost $11,000.00 on operations but the FreeNet is growing.
The budget amounts were estimated only.
We averaged about $12-15,000 each month on expenditures and we
are well on our way to a sustainable FreeNet organization.
We plan to expand the number of modems on the PPP lines.
George Geczy will be moving on to the Vice President position.
QUESTIONS:
Andre Vere - questioned the difference of monies in the salaries.
George Geczy explained that there was a Junior System Administrator
hired and pointed out that the 'System Administration' amounts dropped.
A motion was presented to approve the financial statements for the
fiscal period ending February 29, 1997.
MOVED BY Ron Moreau AND SECONDED BY Art Ward THAT THE FINANCIAL
STATEMENTS FOR THE FISCAL PERIOD ENDING FEBRUARY 29, 1997 BE APPROVED.
MOTION WAS CARRIED.
4. Appointment of the Auditors
MOVED BY George Geczy and SECONDED by Ron Ness THAT ERNST AND
YOUNG BE APPOINTED AS AUDITORS AND TO AUTHORIZE THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
TO FIX THEIR REMUNERATION
5. Reports
5.1 President's Report
Marcel Mongeon spoke of the accomplishments of the last year:
The PPP was introduced and despite the "3rd disk" problems,
the graphical access has been launched. There are now busy signals
on the graphical access lines and this is being looked into.
Financial Sustainability is the first priority.
The membership was reminded that we do not view ourselves as in
competition with the ISP's in the area. We provide information areas
for not-for- profits at no charge.
Bravo to the userhelp newsgroup helpers who provided support to
our members.
A new Executive Director was appointed - Valerie Ramsay-Brown to
replace the outgoing David MacDonald who is now working for the
Royal College of Dentistry.
The partnerships with HWIN, YouthNet were described.
The new challenge of SPAM was mentioned.
A resolution will be presented to change the name of the FreeNet
later in the meeting. The name change came about due to the fact
that we are now charging for the membership levels so that costs
can be recouped via administration fees.
The new Board of Directors will have many challenges in the coming
year.
5.2 Treasurer's Report
George has already presented the report above.
5.3 Committee Reports
5.3.1 Education Committee - Vivian Lewis
Vivian Lewis tabled her report from the Education Committee and
associated groups for the 1996-97 year. The office Help Desk and
User Help Support Team are included in the report.
Vivian spoke of prior accomplishments of the Education Committee
- two RoadShows(one text and one graphical) and the Text manual,
two 'Chapters' appearances and the total re-writing of the Help
Pages on line.
It was a challenging year and special thanks to Ron Ness, Michael
Lawlor and Anne Hogan for their outstanding work around the PPP
launch - conferring with other FreeNets, customizing and producing
the installation discs, writing the documentation and running the
focus groups.
The Help Desk and User Help Support Teams then swung into action
fielding calls, online queries and even in-person visits.
Two hundred queries a week come into the Help Desk and special
kudos go out to Ron Ness, Russ Filman, Linda Shoup and Dan DiFilippo
for fielding most of them! Userhelp answers approximately 350 questions
per month.
Vivian put out a plea for more help and particular those who have
free time during the day to help out at the Desk in the office.
Vivian reported that after 3 years she is stepping down as the
Chair of the Education Committee and she wishes the best of luck
to her successor, Ron Ness.
Vivian expressed a special thanks to Liz Bayley the committee secretary.
5.3.2 Information Committee
Kit Darling explained the importance of the Information Committee
was to assist groups to find a place to put information on the system
and also to identify what type of information our members want on
the system.
Special thanks to Cedric and Stephen and Fadi.
The information committee has 55 active providers and over 100
accounts.
The committee is also looking for new volunteers to work as editors
and to set up new I.P. accounts.
5.3.3 Technical Committee
Matt Kelly gave the technical report.
There have been some changes to the system over the past year
- including software upgrades, the timer for the PPP.
A membership database was created for the office and a new NIS
password file.
Software upgrades have included the mail program, lynx and the
newsserver.
Tech's next challenge is to stop the mail bombs.
Hardware upgrades - memory was replaced, a 4 gig hard drive was
purchased and installed and more modems were purchased.
We have 13,500 members, 5,000 of which are active and 8,500 of
which have completed the registration process.
The PPP group has grown by 100 members / month to a total of over
400 members on 20 modem lines at present. There are plans to purchase
more modems. The discussion is presently whether to purchase expensive
digital or regular modems.
The 'Basic' lines are experiencing little congestion.
Plans for next year include a new Ultra One server which will take
care of some redundancy and result in less downtimes, a 'mail only'
phone line and making general scripts available for web pages.
5.4 Executive Director's Report
Valerie Ramsay-Brown gave her report.
5.5 Open Question and Discussion Period
Art Ward asked where in the library the FreeNet was moving.
Ralph Kee asked if there was any consideration to allowing members
to purchase more time. It was suggested that we are not in competition
with other ISP's and that once members require more time they are
encouraged to go to the other ISP's.
Paul Davy asked about the random dropped carrier times from the
PPP lines. Some suggestions were given.
Why should we maintain good relations with other local ISP's?
We get money from taxes that were collected from other ISP's.
We are moving to donated space from the library.
We are a not for profit.
Some of the 'glitches' experienced were discussed and it was suggested
that the members be informed when events happen (ie recently when
the newsserver was down.)
Notices to graphical members need to be addressed. Our new homepage
administrator will incorporate this into the new pages.
A member remarked that the service has been improved.
Are there plans to re-institute the 10/5/1 minute warnings? Yes.
Bill Barnard - are there plans for more modems? Yes.
6. Nominations Committee's Report and Election of Directors
Bill Morris and Ron Ness headed up the nominations committee.
Public thanks to Vivian Lewis for her contributions over the past
3 years.
Standing for re-election: George Geczy and Kit Darling, Nicholas
Solntseff and Ron Ness.
The new members were introduced: Dr. Bill Barnard, Shannon McKay,
Ron Moreau, Ian Stott, Christine Swenor.
MOVED BY Cecil William AND SECONDED BY Art Ward THAT THE SLATE
OF CANDIDATES TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS BE APPROVED. 37 agreed,
1 opposed.
7. New Business
The new President, Kit Darling, thanked Marcel Mongeon and named
him our "Founding President".
Thanks also to Vivian Lewis of the Education Committee.
7.1 HomePage Winner Announcement
Ron Ness announced that Luke Chao has won the homepage contest.
There were 3
honourable mentions: Michael Robinson, Linda Shoup is our new Home
Page Administrator. This is not the last contest of its kind on
the FreeNet.
The winning entries and runners up will be posted on line.
7.1 HWFN Name Change
Discussion took place about the name change. The question of whether
the name will be CommunityNet or CommunityNetwork arose. The board
had decided that it would be CommunityNetwork. If CommunityNet is
what is the membership prefers, then the vote will be delayed until
next year.
Diane Kennedy asked for clarification about the trend to community
Vs FreeNets.
Charles Gregory commented that the name is more reflective of the
service we provide to the community.
Call question: to adopt to 'CommunityNetwork'. None opposed.
Charles Gregory asked how long the "old name" would exist.
Probably until the end of the year.
7.3 Spam Filtering Policy
Spam takes up system resources and there is a question of censorship.
We are working on a filter and are very close to implementing it.
Questions:
Do we institute it on a system wide basis?
Do we leave it up to the members?
What are the legal ramifications?
Can we create a 'hwcn.spam' newsgroup to discuss this?
Would the site be blocked during the vote? NO
Would the Spam Administrator have the power to block the site
immediately? NO
Due to censorship issues, the Board was reluctant to pass a policy.
What is the definition of SPAM? Unsolicited e-mail.
Is this temporary ? We hope to institute a per user personal filter,
not system wide.
MOVED BY Al Monro and SECONDED BY Mike Robinson THAT THE SPAM POLICY
BE ADOPTED.
Voted by the membership. One opposed.
MOVED BY Bill Morris and SECONDED BY Paul Davy THAT THE MEETING
BE ADJOURNED.
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