April 17, 2007

NOTE:  There was no quorum for the March meeting and no business was conducted. RAH.

Davis Community Network (DCN)
See Amendment: #9 below

A duly called regular meeting of the
Board of the Davis Community Network was held
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
at the City of Davis Training Room
600 A Street.

Present: 7 members: Tsui Chang, Rick Guidara, Anne Hance, Steve McMahon, Jan Meizel, Kimball Sargeant, Richard Yamagata, also consultant Kari Peterson.

Absent: Jim Frame, Brian Gegan, John Jones, Robert Nickerson, Tom Stanionis, Vicki Suter.

1.  Called to order at 5:22:00 pm by President Kimball Sargeant
2.  Agenda approved as distributed
4.  No public comment
3.  Minutes of Feb 20, 2007 Board Meeting approved by consensus
    Notes from March 20 Board Meeting at which no quorum was attained were accepted.

5.  VISTA volunteer planning; purchase laptop, cell phone; supervision; supervisor training in June
        Kimball Sargeant and Kari Peterson reported on the progress of arrangements for the arrival of Rian Graves our newly hired CTC Vista Volunteer, who arrives on Monday, April 23. Arrangements to be made during Rian's first week include: setting up an email address, purchase of a laptop computer (approx $1,300), obtaining and installing 'Open Office,' and obtaining a pre-paid cell phone.  Rian will be introduced to the intricacies of the DCN Office, and given a comprehensive set of DCN basic materials to absorb. She is expected to manage DCN's presence at "Celebrate Davis" with help from Admin. Asst. Sheila Evans and a set-up and break-down crew.  She will also have a regular schedule for meeting with Kimball and Kari, will attend Friday Exec. Comm. lunches and will also attend DCN committee and working group meetings.
        Kari is developing material for a Davis Enterprise article relating to DCN's Americorps CTC Vista Volunteer. A DCNews should go out soon and requests for material to be included should be forwarded to Secretary Anne Hance.
        Kimball is planning to attend the required CTC Vista Supervisors Training Week in Wilmington Delaware in June.  CTC Vista will largely pick up the costs.

6.      GSM market research project - update
    Kimball reported that the Graduate School of Management (GSM) Team of 4 very capable and energetic students is off to a roaring start. They have developed an assessment of Web 2.0 tools especially as they apply to DCN's mission and work; they are arranging focus groups with representatives of nonprofit groups served by DCN; and they are (or will be) uploading their plans and progress to the Davis Open Plans site at http://www.openplans.org/projects/dcnplans/gsm-project

7.      DCN 2007 Techie Award, NTEN report
        Kari reported that the $1,000 award has arrived and she unveiled the interesting sculpture/trophy that DCN and the 5 other winners received at the ceremony in D.C.

8.      Celebrate Davis! (May 17th)
        DCN will participate and as mentioned in 5. above, Rian and Sheila will work on the event aided by volunteers throughout the day as well as setup and break-down.
        We discussed give-aways. Tsui Chang will inquire in downtown Davis about costs of personalized pens and report the outcome on Friday; Kimball will ask Sheila to approach Heron Technologies with a suggestion that they underwrite a number of inexpensive thumb-drives inscribed with their name and DCN's as give-aways at the event.

9.      Volunteer Management Plan - update
        In Vicki Suter's absence Kari asked if the Board would
approve synchronizing the work of three groups: Volunteer Management, Community Media Working Group, and the GSM Project; with the work of the CMWG being put temporarily on hold until DCN's direction becomes more clear.  The board concurred informally.

    In Vicki Suter's absence Kari asked if the Board would approve synchronizing the work of three groups: Volunteer Management, Community Media Working Group, and the GSM Project; with the work of the CMWG being put temporarily on hold until DCN's direction becomes more clear.  The board concurred informally.

10.     Committee reports
        RAC: Anne Hance thanked Alan Brattesani for chairing the April RAC meeting in her absence. She introduced the fact that a Simple Site has been made available to Robert Gonzales for demonstration and training mostly DJUSD groups; He will do this either through the RAC or the DCN Web Team.  Tsui will ask him his preference.
        Training: Tsui and Jan Meizel are arranging a May class in Spanish for people needing help using e-mail. PR is circulating throughout the DJUSD and other places too.
        Web Team: Steve McMahon announced that a Plone conference arranged by UCD Letters and Sciences is happening in the first week in May. DCN and Steve's company (Reid McMahon) will be involved in informal supporting roles.  Steve will attend the GooglePlex Plone Sprint at the end of June.  Everyone congratulated Steve on his choice of Plone as the content management tool for DCN to adopt.  It seems that Plone is becoming a major player in the field.

11.     Announcements (included above)
12.     Meeting adjourned by Chair Kimball Sargeant at 6:30 p.m.

Submitted by Anne Hance, Secretary
NEXT BOARD MEETING:     May 15, 2007