July 18, 2006

Davis Community Network (DCN)

A duly called regular meeting of the
Board of the Davis Community Network was held
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
at the City of Davis Training Room
600 A Street.

Present: 8 members: Tsui Chang, Jim Frame, Rick Guidara, Anne Hance, Steve McMahon, Jan Meizel, Kimball Sargeant, Vicki Suter, also Administrative Assistant Sheila Evans

Absent: Tony Bernhard, Brian Gegan, John Jones, Robert Nickerson, Tom Stanionis, Richard Yamagata

1. Called to order at 5:22:00 pm by President Kimball Sargeant

2. Agenda approved as distributed with clarification of items 7 and 8.

3. Minutes of June 20 Board Meeting approved by consensus with correction of item 5.b. where Kari Peterson's early DCN title was corrected from Executive Director to President.

4. No public comment

5. Kimball welcomed Sheila Evans to DCN as the new Administrative Assistant. Sheila said a few words about her background as a restaurant manager and event planner for the past 25 years.

6. Presentation, discussion re proposed consultancy agreement with Kari Peterson.

Kari presented her proposal as requested and laid out the basic concepts for her temporary involvement as a 10 hrs per week, strategic planning consultant starting on August 7 for a period of 6 to 12 months. Kari made it clear that she is very excited at the prospect of working with DCN and helping the organization move into a new era for which it is poised to be a model, laboratory project in community digital media.

Kari included a suggestion that DCN consider the possibility of hiring a CTC Vista (Americorps) volunteer she has been in conversation with. This person is likely to be available this Fall. Cost to DCN would be approximately $11,000 for 12 months.

The following motion was made by Steve McMahon, seconded by Anne Hance, and approved by consensus:

The Board approves Kari Peterson's draft proposal in
principle and approves of contracting with Kari for the
services outlined. The Executive Committee is authorized
to finalize a contract and to hire Kari Peterson for a
6 to 12 month period as Strategic Planning Consultant.

The hiring will be ratified by the Board at the August board meeting.

7. Vicki Suter presented a handout in which she offered "Another Approach to Planning" as an alternative to the traditional "Goals and Objectives" style. The handout included some provocative ideas that she hopes to be able to work on with Kari Peterson.

8. Tsui Chang and Sheila Evans shared their progress to date in their researching the potential of a Movie Screening Fundraiser at the Varsity Theater in late October or early November. They have consulted with experienced fundraiser friend Gina Daleiden.
The idea was originally put forward by retiring Executive Director Richard Lowenberg and approved in principle by the Executive Committee.
In their handout Tsui and Sheila suggest that the Varsity would set aside one screening of a scheduled film to benefit DCN. The owners have endorsed this idea. DCN would provide pre-show appetizers and beverages and a brief presentation about DCN. Sheila has offered to do the appetizers and suggests we ask for donations of the wine.
Some target audience members are being identified as are ways of promoting the event to them. It would be most desirable if each board member would sell 10 tickets. Anne worried that we might not be very good at selling tickets so we should have other ways of selling them.

The following motion was made by Tsui Chang, seconded by Vicki Suter and approved by consensus:

The Board approves in concept the Movie Screening
Fundraiser and authorizes the Executive Committee
to give final approval if it all "looks good."

Tsui and Sheila agreed to be the 'torch bearers' for the event. However, Tsui pointed out that other board members will be needed to help. Anne has offered to sell tickets at one or more Farmers Market days if she has company to do it with her.

9. Committee Reports:

RAC No report

Web Team:
A fully subscribed Simple Site class was held in June and a Plone class for KDRT on June 29 went well. KDRT is busily working on the site.
Steve recommended - as well worth reading - an O'Reilly book titled "Ambient Findability."
After some expressed concern about the relationship between the original DCN homepage and the new DCN Plone site Steve agreed that it would be a good thing to adjust the old-style page to make the new site easier to find and explore.

Other:
Jim Frame reported on the purchase of a new Dell computer for the DCN office where the Administrative Assistant did not have an appropriate machine to work on. The purchase had been approved by the Executive Committee.
Sheila reported that the County Elections Office MOU is dated as continuing through June 2007 so all that is needed right now is the issuance of an invoice to the County.
The City MOU needs to be confirmed but should renew automatically.

Meeting adjourned by president Kimball Sergeant at 6:49 pm

Submitted by Anne Hance, Secretary


NEXT MEETING Tuesday, August 15, 2006