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Index of Subjects
Hi everyone,
Here are the minutes of today's meeting. Any errors are entirely my own
(except for that one sentence where I went to the can and Dave took over).
Please post any corrections, clarifications, or additions.
Agenda (provided by Doug McCann)
1/ Introductions
2/ Administrative Matters (minutes, meeting frequency)
3/ Team Leader Reports
4/ Chair Reports (Board news)
5/ Virtual Domain Names and fee structure
(http://chebucto.ns.ca/~aa935/Profile.html)
6/ Forms archive
(http://chebucto.ns.ca/~aa935/forms/ccnforms.htm)
7/ Prospects database
8/ Other business
9/ Adjourn
----
Present: Doug McCann, Mark Rushton, Mike Cormier, Andrew Wright, Dave
Potter, , Sue Newhook, Leo Deveau, Ed Dyer.
IP Cttee meeting frequency: monthly through the summer, adjusted as needed
to deal with business. Doug suggested the forum could be modified to be
more social in character & setting.
We now have an Executive Director (Leo), and with that position, via the IP
Cttee, an opportunity to bring forth concerns and issues as they relate to
IPs.
Area Editors (term "Team Leaders" misleading in the IP Cttee context -
we're straightening out terminology. These minutes user "Area Editors" to
refer to Editors in charge of sections of CCN like "Community Support",
"Health", "Science & Technology", "Religion", etc.) need to get a handle on
the IPs under their jurisdiction (i.e. new IPs added / lost, abandoned,
which may be suitable for P.R. purposes, etc.).
Leo described fall projects -- (i) VOLNET - Federal programme to get
volunteer organizations online. CCN will coordinate with NovaKnowledge to
assist orgs. in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM). Visited the Black
Educators organization -- interested in going online. Had someone awhile
ago create a website, but hasn't been placed online yet. No-one internal
with org. to deal with it. Who should I (i.e., Leo) get hooked into this
to assist them through the process. How do we as an organization deal with
this scenario in general?
This would seem to fall in line with the position (filled yet?) of a
Volunteer Coordinator for CCN.
Leo: That's in the works.
Doug: Feedback from Area Editors (on items noted above) important for me to
bring to the Board. Reporting outcomes / occurances with respect to IPs.
[How many IPs do we have?] Ans: 185 in database.
Mark: what are we doing vis-a-vis internal "stock taking", tracking of IPs,
processes, etc.?
Ed: that requires the database be up-to-date [it pretty much is, good
attention on part of Chris Majka].
Sue: How do we identify and bring to full IP status users who have
useful/valuable information worthy of "upgrading".
: In the "old days", that was discouraged -- having an organization
rather than an individual as an IP was preferred.
Doug: There are 4000 accounts out there -- our first prospects for IP
cultivation, better option at this point than doing a mass mailout.
Leo: Re: P.R. --I want to work toward a fall strategy to do public
profiles of IPs.
Sue; Communications Cttee's idea of having a "Speaker's Corner" -- a list
of "experts" or commentators on a particular subject area for
media/whomever out of our IP list.
Mark: Communications can't do its job without feedback, information flow
from IP cttee and other related sub-groups of CCN.
Leo: Once we know the strengths of IPs, maybe we can get
partnerships/sponsorships (mentions as eg. Health Canada dropping a few
bucks for a logo-link on a health-related page on CCN).
Mark: part of that process, once we I.D. IPs for P.R purposes is to bring
them up to speed if needed (i.e. spruce them up). "Raging Grannies" is a
good example - a media-friendly social justice singing group, with a
relatively inactive website on CCN.
Other issues: Gender-representation on IP and other Cttees, and Replacement
for me in the Community Support area (I'm going overseas from Oct-Feb :
Mike Cormier may be interested).
Michael: Not much activity in the gov't area -- Transit 2000 being built
now, also Solid Waste site (looking for someone to take it over).
Leo: I may be able to plug in the Dalhousie Library Science students as
volunteers
Ed: Religion area pretty quiet. Gaining a few / losing a few. Not clear
why groups are leaving ... interested in setting up a heirarchical system -
United church sites for each church.
Sue: one problem: people who work at an organization don't know CCN
[Classic problem - often discussed at IP cttee; there exists a CCN-IP
editor relationship, but not much of a CCN-Organization(IP) relationship].
Re: example of church, if individual parishoners know the church's website
is on CCN, potential for future members / IPs.
Chair Report:
Doug - Glad to be aboard. Meeting of board was held last night (8 June).
- Two major items: VOLNET and URBAN CAP.
(discussion turns to European ISPs, services and fee charges, differences
to CCN model, comparison, etc.)
Ed: there are a number of "free" sites (eg. Geocities) for IPs.
Dave: We should be thinking about _content_
Andrew: Why couldn't we institute a model for fees based on feature-set
(progressive)?
Doug: the Halifax guide to clubs and organizations is on our site
Doug: CCN's status as a charitable organization (we are) has a role to play
in calculation of fee structure (how much is payment for service, how much
is donation, and therefore receiptable)
- This is CCN's fifth year -- Party!?
- 26th September "Word on the Street" fair - CCN will be represented.
Doug: We've had a large donation ($500-thou) from a CCN member - will
respect privacy of that member unless they agree to be identified in the
future. Funds were specifically donated for equipment purchase. Still
discussion on Board as to specific use of the $$.
Leo: We need to assess what IPs are using for space/services vs. what
they're paying.
- Plan out how we approach donors, corporate, etc., fee structure,
promo material.
Doug: Forms archive (see URL in Agenda at top): I'd appreciate feedback for
changes, any omissions, etc. It's simply a catalogue - I have no
responsibility for the forms themselves. Will eventually be moved from
personal directory to appropriate area in CCN directory structure.
[lots of discussion re: forms availability, use of .pdf files, obtaining a
Unix-->PDF converter application, etc.]
Mark: issue of multilingual support and documentation (since CSuite is put
out there with language support as a selling point). Already in French,
some work being done on Spanish version.
Dave: There needs to be a general announcement about IP-FTP service. It's
been working fine, time to let everyone know it's available.
- Just starting to test IP-CGI. (may setup an independent machine to serve
CGI scripts). Looking for Beta-testers of CGI scripts.
Mark: is this leading toward use of secure transactions? (eg. some IP orgs
would like to be able to accept donations online)
Dave: yes, working toward that ability.
: new provincial server: letting IPs in local dialing area around
the province be directed specifically to Chebucto
: Need to provide same editor services to those new IPs
: Hope is that we'll attract editors from the local areas as well.
Mark: where will those IPs go? Under the CCN directory structure? Would
Provincial server "page" subsume CCN as an entry point/portal?
Dave(?): An option is to put a link to "other Nova Scotia IPs" or something...
Leo: still working on it. step at a time. It will evolve... benefits for
ev