February 17, 2009

Davis Community Network (DCN)
APPROVED March 17, 2009

A duly called regular meeting of the Board of the Davis Community Network was held
Tuesday, Feb 17, 2009 at 1818 5th Street, Davis

Members present (9): Tsui Chang, Jim Frame, Brian Gegan, Rick Guidara, Anne Hance, Russ Hobby, Jan Meizel, Kimball Sargeant,  Bev Sykes,   (14 active members; quorum = 8)
Members absent: Steve McMahon, Robert Nickerson, Tom Stanionis, Vicki Suter,  Richard  Yamagata

1.  The meeting was called to order at 5:35:00 pm by President Kimball Sargeant
2.  Agenda approved as distributed
3.  No public comment
4.  Minutes of January 20, 2009 Board Meeting approved by consensus with one correction: Item 10 should read: "Kimball reported that a donation of $100 was recently received"

5.  DCN Spring classes -:
    Rick Guidara said the Training Room should be ready for use in 4 to 5 weeks. The Spring classes therefore might start in late March or early April.  Tsui has suggested a class on e-Newsletters that might introduce Sympa as an alternative to Mailman.

6.  Report on retaining Vicki S. as consultant on I-Net planning project & update
    The Executive Committee (Sargeant, Frame and Hance) went into Executive session to continue action on an issue discussed at the Executive Committee meeting at noon. It was agreed that Vicki Suter would be offered a remuneration of $35 per hour for an initial 20 hours to work on the completion of the City of Davis I-Net Project Plan as requested by the City's Telecommunications Commission.

7.  Telecomm Comm'n report (Jim Frame) 
    Jim reported that DCN's Franchise Fees Budget Proposal was well received by the Commission and that DCN was asked to provide additional information about its annual budgets.  Jim will prepare a DCN General Fund Budget document for presentation to the Commission on March 18, 2009.

8.  Updating DCN workplan, new Board member recruitment (Kimball Sargeant, Brian Gegan)
    Kimball referred board members to DCN's draft  Strategic Plan and it was agreed that a mini weekend-retreat would be the most effective method of refreshing and finalizing the Plan.  Brian will try to recruit a facilitator. It was agreed that a small fee might be managed. About $200 was mentioned. Several Sunday morning dates in March were considered and March 22 was seen as the best choice if possible.

9.  Committee reports
    RAC: The RAC chair confirmed that the committee's charge is to provide resources (tools, disc space and technical help etc.) to non-pofit groups not individuals. DCN assists individuals in other ways including classes, seminars etc. that are open to the public. There was conversation about the fact that terminology clouds the issue of DCN's services in general and people do not easily comprehend the function of either DCN or the RAC. The latter is not easily found on the DCN website. The RAC Chair, Jan Meizel, explained the problem and asked the board to approval her efforts to improve the RAC's presence on the website and perhaps to find a more easily understood committee name. The board agreed informally.
    Tech Ops:  Jim Frame reported that DCN's System Administrator has submitted a proposal for considering various upgrades to DCN's network operations' hardware and software. This issue is not yet in this committee's domain but was discussed and Jim will confer with Robert Nickerson of Omsoft, before a meeting of the TechOps Committee is called.
 
10. Announcements. Brian Gegan and Jan Meizel both announced upcoming meetings that might be of interest to DCN board members.

11. Meeting adjourned  at 6:40 pm.
NEXT BOARD MEETING:  March 17, 2009
Submitted by Anne Hance, Secretary