March 17, 2009

Davis Community Network (DCN)
APPROVED April 21, 2009

A duly called regular meeting of the
Davis Community Network Board of Directors Meeting
March 17, 2009
5:15 - 6:21 p.m.
1818 5th Street, Davis [City Corporate Yard]

Members present (9): Tsui Chang, Jim Frame, Brian Gegan, Anne Hance, Russ Hobby, Jan Meizel, Steve McMahon, Kimball Sargeant, Vicki Suter,  (14 active members; quorum = 8)

Members absent: Rick Guidara, Robert Nickerson, Tom Stanionis, Bev Sykes, Richard Yamagata

1.  Called to order at 5:17:00 pm by President Kimball Sargeant
2.  Agenda approved as distributed
3.  No public comment
4.  Minutes of Feb 17 Board Meeting approved by consensus

5.   I-Net planning project update (Vicki Suter)
    Vicki reported that the timeline document has been submitted to the City staff and she is now talking with about twelve other cities to learn about their experiences with their local I-Nets.

6.  Telecomm Comm'n report (Jim Frame)
    Jim reported that the DCN budget request for a portion of the Franchise fees has been given to City staff and it is likely to be presented to the Telecommunications Commission at its next meeting.

(No item no. 7)

8.  Follow-up to Board Retreat; committee assignments, committee tasking, discussion

    a) A top priority is PR / Marketing of DCN  The organization needs to be better known in the community and needs to raise the community's perception of its relevance, value and competence.

    b) Brian Gegan will lead the nominations committee in a board search with a possible 90-day deadline. Members of this committee are: Brian, Russ Hobby and Kari Peterson.  Board members made a number of suggestions of people who would be good board members and bring needed skills such as development, finance, networking.  It was suggested that good candidates who are unable to accept an invitation but are interested in DCN might be invited to join a proposed Advisory Board/Council.

    c) Kari Peterson will chair the Outreach and Promotions Committee whose members are: Kari, Jan Meizel, Tsui Chang and Sheila Evans. This committee will continue work on the DCN website, the brochure and media outreach such as news articles. Celebrate Davis on May 14 should be on our calendar as a participant. The board was intrigued at the idea of a pre-Celebrate Davis online contest.  We reminded ourselves that Rian Graves did an evaluation of DCN's participation in the Fair last year.

    d) The DCN Strategic Plan will be completed by Kari with the addition of things that emerged from the Board Retreat.

    e) The need for more volunteers and for a volunteer coordinator was expressed and discussed. Volunteers are needed for various activities. A descriptive list is needed.

9. Committee reports

    RAC:  Jan Meizel reported that the committee is still meeting at her house since the remodeled City Training Room is not yet ready for use. At the last meeting several requests were approved and one was deferred. The committee reviewed the Project Plan drawn up by Vicki Suter and Jan is working on adding elements to the RAC section of DCN's website - specifically in response to the needs of the Pilot Project. 

    Web Team: Kari Peterson and Scot Alumbaugh are working on refining the DCN Homepage. Steve will implement the changes and updates including the addition of a button for the RAC application process.

    TechOps: The state of hardware (and software) in DCN's NOC was discussed. It's likely that wheel must be replaced.  It seems clear that DCN's current incomes are not able to support the new Systems Administrator recently hired to replace Jack Crowell.

10. Announcements

    a) Tsui shared information about the schedule of upcoming DCN free classes and invited comments, suggestions and offers.

    b) Brian announced an April 9 program, being arranged by his company, in which the current and future needs of IT employers will be explored as a guide to young people just entering or about to enter that job market. 

11. Meeting adjourned at 6:36 pm.

    Submitted by Anne Hance, Secretary

NEXT BOARD MEETING:  April 21, 2009