Volume 5, Number 31 1 August 1988 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief Dale Lovell Editor Emeritus: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings Contributing Editors: Al Arango FidoNews is published weekly by the International FidoNet Association as its official newsletter. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1:1/1. Copyright 1988 by the International FidoNet Association. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact IFNA at (314) 576-4067. IFNA may also be contacted at PO Box 41143, St. Louis, MO 63141. Fido and FidoNet are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings of Fido Software, 164 Shipley Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94107 and are used with permission. The contents of the articles contained here are not our responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them. Everything here is subject to debate. We publish EVERYTHING received. Table of Contents 1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1 DATELINE: EUROPE ......................................... 1 Coping with Rapid Growth - Part 2 ........................ 3 New Echo Area Established! ............................... 13 2. NOTICES .................................................. 14 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 14 New Net Coordinator in Net 151! .......................... 16 Latest Software Versions ................................. 16 3. COMMITTEE REPORTS ........................................ 18 FidoNews 5-31 Page 1 1 Aug 1988 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Don Daniels, President International FidoNet Association 1:107/210 DATELINE: EUROPE Well, EuroCon II is now over and everyone here feels that it has been an unqualified success. I'm sure many join me in my personal thanks to the Dutch and the Holland Computer Club for all their efforts and hospitality. My understanding is that the news of the conference will be reported on in full by one of the Dutch Sysops, so I will just provide a few of my personal impressions. First of all, I was very impressed with the spirit of cooperation shown by the approximately 150 Sysops who attended the convention from a dozen countries. Europeans have come to face many of the same issues that confront us in North America, although their situation is compounded by, not only the long distance from the U.S., but also a combination of national influences, including the imposition by the various PTTs (national telephone monopolies) of various concerns which have made BBSing a far more expensive proposition for the typical individual. Meetings and discussions were held on Regional and international levels which led to the agreement that the various Regions (nations) will return to their countries to begin the process of creating such local organizations as seems reasonable in each instance, along with joining together in an international organization that can represent the interests of the entire area. The latter is especially needed to try to get the local PTTs to develop consistent regulations across borders and to prepare for the future integration of Europe telecommunications under the coming political and economic unification. One of the areas that I personally learned much more about was the special problems faced by the deaf and the various needs which they have toward better communications. As an example, the use of simpler words and abbreviations is necessary in menus because the typical reading level of the deaf may only be equivalent to a ten year old. Expressing their wish to be involved themselves, one of them, sysop David Jackson of England, challenged the developers and sysops present (and throughout FidoNet) to work with the deaf to create the necessary interfaces to meet their needs. A show of hands indicated a strong willingness on the part of the sysops in attendance to participate in support for the deaf and the blind (at least one blind sysop attended the conference). FidoNews 5-31 Page 2 1 Aug 1988 Also attending the conference were representatives of HANDYNET, an ECC-supported Network dedicated to support of the disabled, and the European Space Agency who provide them with Network resources. Future developments between them and FidoNet are awaiting the official creation of the European FidoNet organization. Although we indicated that the Europeans' primary concern, due to the various problems and lack of resources we presently face in North America, is that they concentrate on organizing and solving their own problems in Europe, many nonetheless requested to join IFNA as an expression of their desire to support FidoNet on a truly international basis. My thanks to all who joined and also to those who expressed their support on other levels. Other areas which we have been tasked to follow through on back in North America are the legal use of the names "Fido" and "FidoNet" by the various organizations here, the rights of the countries to translate FidoNews (and other material) into local languages, and, most challenging of all, the revamping of the current structures of IFNA to provide greater represention and support (on a per capita basis) for the international groups. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-31 Page 3 1 Aug 1988 Lee Kemp, Communet 1:221/162.14 16 June 1988 C O P I N G W I T H R A P I D G R O W T H Part 2 Last week I promised technical details of an alternative method for administering the nodelist that would overcome the problem of excessive size while maintaining a "fully coupled" network, through automatic updates directly between nodes via NetMail and EchoMail. Actually, I'll get back to the technical details next week. This week I'll present some background information on why its essential to decentralize and automate the nodelist to prevent its abuse by *Cs. Today is the first anniversary of Communet's original appeal against having our incoming NetMail killed by our net host, who was also the Australian Regional Coordinator of FidoNet, because he did not like the "Political Overtones" of files in our internal file areas. This occurred about 2 weeks after we joined FidoNet. That appeal resulted in our being removed from the Australian Region nodelist a couple of weeks later, instead of being allowed to pickup incoming NetMail. In the 12 months since, NOTHING has been done about that, by either the Zone or International Coordinators, despite appeals through all the proper channels. Our experience shows that the existing administration of FidoNet will tolerate ANY abuse of power over nodelist entries, no matter how flagrant. Whether this is due to ignorance, stupidity, overwork or paralysis from constant petty disputes, the fact is that IFNA is incapable of administering FidoNet as it is supposed to be administered according to POLICY3. Its important for other SysOps to know that when considering future structures. After successive polite efforts by Ross Lazarus, Peter Green and Darce Cassidy, I am the one stuck with the correspondence now and have gained a reputation for "belligerence" as a result. I'm not prepared to waste my time on further private correspondence or discussions in the IFNA or POLICY4 echos. I think that after 12 months, its now time to start telling all SysOps all about it. Here's Peter Green's attempt to persuade the Australian Regional Coordinator to implement POLICY3, and the Australian Regional Coordinator's response. Over the next few week's I'll be publishing details of how the Zone and International Coordinators dealt with the problem. I hope that software developers and SysOps will think about the implications of this carefully when designing future structures for nodelist administration. I also hope that Tom Jennings will think about it carefully when FidoNews 5-31 Page 4 1 Aug 1988 deciding what to do with IFNA's licence to use the "FidoNet" trademark. The "FidoNet" trademark is NOT currently being used in Australia for the purposes intended - a public amateur Email network for the free exchange of information. BLATANT political criteria are being imposed for a nodelisting and that has been accepted at the highest levels. vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv AREA: AUST_SYSOP {Removed from the echo by John Blackett-Smith - Lee} To: John Blackett-Smith Tuesday 16 June, 1987 I understand you are now the FidoNet Coordinator for Region 50. As President of Communet I have taken over from Ross Lazarus as Sysop in charge of relations with FidoNet and am writing to formally appeal against our exclusion from FidoNet. Attached for your background information is an article we had prepared to send to other boards introducing ourselves. {See "Hello from Communet" in part 1, last week. - Lee} Below is the full text of the message excluding us from FidoNet. vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv Message #78 (CRASH) (PRIVATE) Date: Fri 12 Jun 87 21:02 From: Daryl Clayton on 50/0, Coordinator of AUSTRALIA To: Sysop(s) on 631/326, Communet of VIC OPUS NET, Subj: Communet To All sysops in communet: Hello all, tonite I logged onto Communet for the first & last time.. Also I have stopped the scanning and passage of mail to and from your board for a number of reasons being. A) The Political Overtones in the News Contributions (File area 2) B) The Statement concerning the charging for Aust wide mail (assumed to be fido-net mail as you are a fido node.) C) The asking for Money for Access & Other sevices on the bbs which contravenes the whole concept of OPUS (read the manual for more). D) Also you are taking a fair share of Echomail that is not available to Users but is listed as a later development, I do not intend to waste my time and money proccessing a substantial FidoNews 5-31 Page 5 1 Aug 1988 ammount of mail for 2 or 3 Sysops ONLY.. Daryl Clayton. Region 50 Co-Ordinator & Net 631 Host.. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Our response to these reasons is: A) We examined our verbose Opus logs to determine which files from our file area 2 Daryl had looked at so we could see what he meant by "Political Overtones". During the 10 minute call no files were either displayed or downloaded. B) and C) We have not charged any users for anything and do not intend to charge for FidoNet mail or for access. We will be charging only for actual costs of services like typesetting uploaded files. D) We do not give access to Echomail areas to twits on their first call. When new users are validated we upgrade their status from twit and give them access. As Daryl's call was his "first & last", we were unable to upgrade his status from twit. Ross Lazarus was unable to establish voice contact with Daryl over the weekend but informed me yesterday evening that he has done so and that Daryl no longer believes reasons B), C) or D) are grounds for excluding us from Fidonet. But we are still excluded for reason A) and that is the SOLE reason. We have now been told that the "Political Overtones" referred to in file area 2 were the EXISTENCE of draft papers for an election campaign, in files named DONTVOTE.TXT and DONTVOTE.2 and that we cannot remain a node of FidoNet if such files appear on our board. In the opinion of a friend of Daryl's who works for the Electoral Office, they could be illegal, and our association with FidoNet could therefore be damaging. A natural response for any newcomer to FidoNet, on being treated like that, would be to just not bother further. Most people would not be interested in going through the appeals procedures of an organization whose regional coordinator for Australia could behave in this way. They would simply not want to be in it. For our part, we seriously considered just not bothering. We could just setup our own Email network for community groups without any hassles. However we have been in FidoNet long enough to know that there are a lot of friendly and helpful people out there, who do not operate in this way, and that it is an extremely valuable international effort that ought to be supported and not allowed to degenerate. We are determined to ensure that no other nodes are lost to FidoNet in Australia from this kind of behaviour. We run a very tightly controlled board and will not be permitting users to upload anything illegal. We do not require advice from FidoNews 5-31 Page 6 1 Aug 1988 any other Sysops in implementing that policy, even if they take the trouble to read the material they think they might object to. We are fully aware that FidoNet coordinators put a lot of time and effort into the job, while we as a new node have not yet contributed anything. We have no wish to buy into a fight with anybody about anything. But we doubt that any newspaper, or any bulletin board in Australia would even CONSIDER submitting material with "Political Overtones" for inspection by some outside authority before publication. Even apart from internal file areas, the latest official US Echomail list (102) shows several Echomail conferences with "Political Overtones". If US Sysops can run Echomail conferences on subjects from Feminism to Politics to Sado-Masochism without this being considered damaging to FidoNet, we cannot see how anybody could object to discussions internal to our board concerning alternative voting options during an election campaign. Discussions with "Political Overtones" only require official approval in certain countries in places like Eastern Europe and Latin America, that have political systems very different from Australia's. According to the FidoNet Policy and Procedures Guide "each Sysop formulates his own policy for running his board and dealing with his users" (p2) and "can pretty much do as he pleases, as long as he observes the mail events, is not excessively annoying to other nodes on FidoNet, and does not promote the distribution of pirated copyright software" (p3). Since we will not permit illegal material on our board we will not permit its transmission from our board through FidoNet either. But if we did do anything on FidoNet that excessively annoys others, it only needs to be explained to us what we are doing wrong for us to rectify the situation immediately. We have an urgent need to resume interrupted communications as we are a private node with an unpublished phone number and have already been apparently ignoring incoming messages for 4 days. We would appreciate it if you could act promptly to restore the proper functioning of net 631. But if this will cause any delays at all, it is essential that we not remain unreachable. In that case please act promptly as follows: A) Please list us for the time being as an independent node of Region 50 from the next nodelist. Whether in net 631 or as an independent, our listing should now read as follows: Name "Communet", Sysop, "Peter Green", Address "Melbourne AUSTRALIA", Phone "61-3-482-1718". We run Opus 0.0 under SEAdog 4.00 24 hours, 7 days with a Netcomm 1234A modem so baud rate is 2400 with flags for Continuous Mail, Extended Protocol and all CCITT V21, V22, V22bis, V23 and corresponding Bell standards both answer and originate mode. FidoNews 5-31 Page 7 1 Aug 1988 Also please inform us what polling arrangements we should make to pickup Fidonews and nodediffs etc each week. Although it is now necessary to publish our phone number in the nodelist, we are still a private board not ready for calls from the general public. As our number could become public knowledge through the nodelist, we are now restricting access to pre-registered users until we are ready to go public. This may also help to avoid unduly alarming Daryl's friend at the electoral office. B) Please assist us to arrange an alternative Echomail feed, if necessary, either from your board or by suggesting who we should approach. We will poll for pickup to pay the direct cost ourselves and would of course be happy to contribute our share towards any other costs. As we were in the middle of several technical discussions with US and other nodes when suddenly cut off, this is very urgent and it is important for us to catch up on any messages that have been missed, by scanning out all items since last Wednesday or Thursday. A copy of our areas.bbs file is attached. C) Please ask Daryl to at least permit us to pickup our incoming mail until the nodelist is changed, including any outstanding items that can be recovered. According to the FidoNet Policy and Procedures Guide, FidoNet has a philosophy for resolving disputes based on two simple rules: 1) Thou shalt not excessively annoy others. 2) Thou shalt not be too easily annoyed. Any network host, even if it happens to be a regional coordinator, is obliged to allow nodes in their net to pickup incoming messages. Nodes can only be removed from a net by amending the international nodelist, not by refusing to implement it. Points A), B) and C) above represent all that can be done immediately to temporarily resolve the situation. Once we are back in communication we would then appreciate your assistance to help us join another local net as soon as possible, if that is necessary. However we hope it is not necessary. We do not believe the long term solution should be to require a node to become independent or form its own net or even join another net because of a dispute like this. That would have serious consequences for the whole nature of Fidonet, at least in Australia. It would lead to networks being based on approval of each others' internal operations instead of being components of an international public amateur Email network to facilitate communications. FidoNews 5-31 Page 8 1 Aug 1988 We anticipate being in a position to act as a host ourselves before long and will be assisting a number of other community groups to establish nodes, especially public radio stations around Australia. We believe that networks should be organized on a purely technical basis for the most efficient flow of message traffic. It would be quite wrong for us to refuse to host a board that we did not agree with, or one that was not interested in the same topics as others in our net, but had no other convenient link to national Echomail traffic etc. Agreement about "Political Overtones" is not necessary for the technical coordination of Email traffic. The International Telecommunications Union and Universal Postal Union are reasonable examples of the possibility of even Governments with great hostility towards each other coordinating in the interests of communications efficiency. We found Daryl to be very friendly and helpful until he discovered that our users were discussing political topics (among many others incidentally). Once this incident is resolved, we would be perfectly happy to forget it ever occurred and rejoin Daryl's net. Yours sincerely, Peter Green for Communet PS 1) Though not easily annoyed, we are EXTREMELY annoyed that Daryl's action may have resulted in other nodes who rely on the published FidoNet nodelist thinking their replies to recent messages and Echomail from us have been ignored. We will forward copies of this message to other regional nodes to inform them that net 631 is violating the currently published nodelist by not forwarding inwards mail to 631/326. They need to know that the only way that messages can reach Communet until the nodelist is amended is through crashmail or special direct routing. Since we have an unpublished phone number, any node wanting to correspond with us will need to recompile the current nodelist with the following line added to XLATLIST.CTL or equivalent: PHONE 631/326 61-3-482-1718 Please note that you need to do this yourself to reply. To reduce costs, we would appreciate your assistance in forwarding copies of this message, and the accompanying article, through the AUST_SYSOP Echomail immediately - without of course implying your agreement to anything we have said. We are unable to use our normal Echomail route through 631/320 for obvious reasons, however we will of course forward a copy to Daryl directly to give him an opportunity to reconsider. FidoNews 5-31 Page 9 1 Aug 1988 2) We will also forward a copy of this to the international coordinator. That is not by way of appeal of course, but to introduce the following remarks in support of criticisms we have read in Fidonews, of proposals to separate FidoNet into independent zones. Our excommunication message was signed by the then Regional Coordinator for Australia as well as our network host. Though there are many regional coordinators to keep an eye on each other in zone 1, Australia is the major region in its zone. If each zone was independent with no responsibility to an international coordinator, that message could easily have been signed by the same person as "Zone coordinator and network host". What could a node do if it received a message like that? Lets have one set of policy and procedures for the whole network, so it remains one network. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The response to that polite and reasonable message from Peter Green was an attempt to pretend we had lost any right to appeal, followed by a string of abuse and threats from John Blackett-Smith, culminating in a formal decision upholding our excommunication for "Political Overtones": vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv Date: Wed 17 Jun 87 15:19 From: John Blackett-smith on 630/301, The National of VIC NET, To: Peter Green on 631/326, Communet of VIC OPUS NET, Subj: Communet Peter, Ireceived your standard verbose message a few minutes ago and wish to advised as follows: I am prepared to consider your case in the light of Policy 3 and after discussing the matter with Daryl Clayton. I am most unhappy with your attempts to pressure me into a decision on your terms by threatening to circulate the two messages you sent to me to all Regions. I am adamant that this is a Region 50 matter and the messages should have been treated as such and placed in the RG50_SYSOP conference. If the messages have gone out as you threatened, then you leave me no alternative but to accept that the matter has gone beyond Region 50 and that it now becomes the province of the Zone Co-Ordinator or even the International Co-Ordinator. In that case you may feel free to appeal to either. As you are so keen to quote Policy 3 when it suits your case (and to decry it when it doesn't) another read of that will give you a good idea of what the attitudes will be when it is discovered you are not following the normal appeal protocols. [...] FidoNews 5-31 Page 10 1 Aug 1988 {Peter's message merely ASKED John to place our message in AUST_SYSOP so other nodes would be able to bypass the net host that was killing our incoming NetMail. We foolishly went along with John's belligerent demands that we not publicize the situation while he made up his mind. John and Daryl took advantage of that to organize a smear campaign about us being a "nest" of "commies" while we were cut off from EchoMail and incoming NetMail and therefore unable to reply. Nor have we ever been able to publicly reply since, until now in FidoNews, as EchoMail in zone 3 is censored - Lee} Date: Thu 18 Jun 87 20:16 From: John Blackett-smith on 630/301, The National of VIC NET To: Communet on 631/326, Communet of VIC OPUS NET, Subj: Re: Communet [...] > We have received a message from Daryl Clayton 631/0 > dated 10:49 this morning saying that as from this week > we will not be listed as a working node of net 631. This > is news to us. As Daryl is/was your Net Co-Ordinator, he is at liberty to make that decision, providing it is done so on reasonablew grounds. Your court of appeal is to me... [...] > As you are responsible for forwarding the nodelist to > the international coordinator we can only conclude that > you have informed Daryl Clayton that you will not be > acting on our request to publish our phone number in the > nodelist, as a working node, either of net 631 or as an > independent. As with many of your messages, Lee, you demonstrate an incredible ignorance... an ignorance of FidoNet, Policy 3, the structure of the system. You appear to have a propensity to tell far more experienced and knowledgable people "how to suck their own eggs" and only succeed in demonstrating how much of a newcomer you are. I am responsible for forwarding the NODEDIFFs to the ZONEGATE who forwards them on to the International Co-Ordinator. [...] {Needless to say, John was then responsible for forwarding the Region 50 nodeLIST to the IC as I had stated in my incredible ignorance. He received nodeDIFFs FROM the IC via the zonegate despite his great experience and knowledge. John had in fact agreed to remove us from the nodelist AFTER we appealed to him about our NetMail being killed and BEFORE his final decision. I am confident however that he is quite good at sucking his own eggs. - Lee} > You are solely responsible for the affairs FidoNews 5-31 Page 11 1 Aug 1988 > of region 50 and you are responsible upwards, not to the > Sysops of region 50. Again.... more of your arrant, ignorant, nonsense. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you can't be so stupid as to believe the above three lines. Without the nodes... no region! {Well I guess we WERE pretty stupid to believe what we read in POLICY3. The actual reality is that the IC will NOT intervene in any decision taken outside the USA no matter how absurd. He apparently believes that the SysOps of other zones have some mechanism that would allow them to remove an RC who censors any mail critical of him and excommunicates anybody that might want him replaced. - Lee} [...] > Please note that no messages sent to or from us > concerning our exclusion from FidoNet should be regarded > as confidential. Well, Lee, there you go again..... as a novice SysOp of a very new node, your effrontery in telling others what will happen astounds me. As your Regional Co-Ordinator I am telling you, that any discussions between you and I are to remain confidential until a resolution has been reached. {In view of our experiences of being silenced by a demand for confidentiality while the person making the demand organized a smear campaign, we have since adopted a policy of NEVER agreeing to confidentiality for any correspondence whatsoever. - Lee} [...] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ On 22 June 1987 John confirmed our excommunication from the Australian Region of FidoNet, giving the following reasons: 3. A file list in Area #2 wherein two of the file names could lead the average person to believe that they were instructions on how to avoid voting in elections requiring compulsory voting and other file names and descriptions could easily be construed to be political in nature and to be promoting actions and/or responses and/or ideas beyond the acceptable limits of the normal political spectrum. He based his decision on: what I consider to be normal societal values of FidoNews 5-31 Page 12 1 Aug 1988 Australia in general and Melbourne in particular,... John also reported us to the telephone company, the Electoral Commission, his Solicitor and the Police. None of them have been in touch so we presume that our understanding of normal societal values of Australia is closer to the mark than John's. Unfortunately its equally clear that John's understanding of the realities of his position as Regional Coordinator responsible to nobody was accurate. We were never re-instated to the Australian Region and have since been excommunicated from FidoNet altogether for complaining about that through the appeals procedures set down in POLICY3. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-31 Page 13 1 Aug 1988 Jake Hargrove Fido 301/1 High Mesa Ranger's Treasure Hunter's & Coin Collectors After searching high and low for a connection to an echo area called COINS, boy was I disappointed. It is not an area for coin collectors or the like it is something totally different. An like most things when I find that what I am looking for is not available I take it on myself to make one. Effective 1 Aug 1988 the Echo Area TH_ING will be avaialbe for connection from 301/1. Anyone interested in Coin collecting, Treasure Hunting, or Collection of any kind are welcome to join. If your Sysop does not carry the area and you would like for him to leave him a message and he can contact me. The disappointment of not finding an area where collection of coins was being discussed left me a little out of sorts because I had been looking for almost 3 months and I was told by a reliable source ( I thought) that the COINS echo was just that. The establishment of the New Echo TH_ING, which stands for Treasure Hunting is prompted partly in fact I am not an avid coin collector but I have several hundered coins which are several years older than a lot of us and I am interested in finding out the value of these things. The guidelines for the Echo Conference will be very simple. It will be used for the discussion of Collection of Things, no matter what they might be. BaseBall Cards, comics or so forth. An the location of possible buyers of said items, or sellers of said items. I will act as the Echo Moderator, and the Echo will be controlled here at 301/1. If the echo achieves a participation level of 20 or more nodes I will at that time consider placing it on the BACKBONE for better distribution. No node who connects to the echo my distribute it to another node without first ensuring the node does not route it to another node already participating. I will call this a streight line distribution system. I will act as the center hub. I am sitting here awaiting the start of the month of August, so if there are any of you out there who want to make the connections please do so and if you read a copy of this prior to the 1 Aug date you may ask your sysop to connect or if you are a sysop just drop a line and I will add you. LET'S GO TH_ING. TH_ING ECHO NET 301/1 JAKE HARGROVE, MODERATOR ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-31 Page 14 1 Aug 1988 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 25 Aug 1988 Start of the Fifth International FidoNet Conference, to be held at the Drawbridge Inn in Cincinnati, OH. Contact Tim Sullivan at 108/62 for more information. This is FidoNet's big annual get-together, and is your chance to meet all the people you've been talking with all this time. We're hoping to see you there! 24 Aug 1989 Voyager 2 passes Neptune. 5 Oct 1989 20th Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Rob Barker 138/34 Chairman, Elections and Nominations Committee RULES AND PROCEDURES The next two pages are your Official ballot for the Election of the IFNA Board of Directors. The following are the few rules which must prevail in this election: 1. You must send a legible copy of this ballot to the address listed on the ballot or cast your vote in person at the conference prior to the closing of the election Polls. It must be signed and bear your current net/node number. 2. You may vote for any person in your Division for the position of Divisional Director. This vote is to be cast in the LEFT column of the ballot. 3. You may vote for any six people for the position of Director at Large. These votes are to be cast in the RIGHT column of the ballot. 4. Voting will continue until the end of the Conference registration on the 25th of August, 1988. Ballots which are mailed must reach the address listed below prior to Wednesday, 24 August 1988. The results will be read during the opening of business meeting on the first day of the conference. 5. Write-in votes will be accepted and are requested during this FidoNews 5-31 Page 15 1 Aug 1988 election. IFNA Board Of Directors Ballot Candidate Net/Node Divisional At-Large Vote Vote ------------------ --------- ---------- -------- DIVISION 2: Henk Weavers 500/1 (1) DIVISION 10: Jim Bacon 103/507 _____ _____ Courtney Harris 102/732 _____ _____ Steve Jordan 102/2871 _____ _____ DIVISION 12: Bill Bolton 711/403 _____ _____ Leonard Mednick 345/1 _____ _____ DIVISION 14: Glen Jackson 100/517 _____ _____ Ken Kaplan 100/22 _____ _____ DIVISION 16: Vince Perriello 141/491 (1) DIVISION 18: Chris Baker 18/14 (1) ADDITIONAL AT-LARGE Steve Bonine 115/777 _____ Don Daniels 107/210 _____ Dave Melnik 107/233 _____ Robert Rudolph 261/628 _____ Greg Small 148/122 _____ ________________ _________ _____ ________________ _________ _____ ________________ _________ _____ (1) This candidate has been elected to the office of Divisional Director with no further voting procedure necessary as per By Law #11. "The Nominations and Elections Committee shall delet the name of any nominee who mayt be ineligible for election and the name of any who may withdraw by written communications. The remaining names shall be listed on a ballot, in alphabetical order. IF THERE BE BUT ONE ELIGIBLE NOMINEE, THE NOMINATIONS AND ELECTION FidoNews 5-31 Page 16 1 Aug 1988 COMMITTEE SHALL DECLARE HIM ELECTED WITHOUT BALLOTING BY THE MEMBERSHIP. (Emphasis added. -rb) If there be more than one eligible nominee, then at least 45 days prior to the Annual Meeting the Secretary shall send by mail to every voting member, and publish in FidoNews, a bollot listing the candidates for director. The ballor shall contain a copy of the current voting rules." Name ______________________________ Net/Node ___________ Signature______________________________ Date ___________ Please complete this and mail it to: Rob Barker IFNA Elections Committee 7406 - 27th Street West Suite #7, Plaza West Tacoma, Wa 98466 or bring it with you when you come to the conference in August. Thank You Rob Barker Elections and Nominations Committee ----------------------------------------------------------------- Net Coordinator Change in North Carolina. Please Note: As of Nodelist.190, the Net Coordinator of Net 151 in North Carolina is now Richard Epson at 151/201 (0) in Charlotte, NC. Please update to Nodelist.190 as soon as possible to avoid confusion in Host routing to Net 151. Thank you. Christopher Baker, 135/14 Region 18 Coordinator ----------------------------------------------------------------- Latest Software Versions BBS Systems Node List Other & Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version Dutchie 2.90* EditNL 4.00* ARC 5.22* Fido 12h MakeNL 2.12* ARCmail 1.1 FidoNews 5-31 Page 17 1 Aug 1988 Opus 1.03b Prune 1.40 ConfMail 3.31 SEAdog 4.10 XlatList 2.86 EchoMail 1.31 TBBS 2.0M XlaxNode 2.10* MGM 1.1 BinkleyTerm 1.50 XlaxDiff 2.10* QuickBBS 2.01 ParseList 1.10 * Recently changed Utility authors: Please help keep this list up to date by reporting new versions to 1:1/1. It is not our intent to list all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-31 Page 18 1 Aug 1988 ================================================================= COMMITTEE REPORTS ================================================================= International FidoNet Association 1988 By-Law Amendments Ballot --------------------------------- Docket Number BLA-88-0001 (Definitions) A _____ B _____ None _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0002 (Membership) A _____ B _____ C _____ D _____ E _____ None _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0003 (Application and Notification) A _____ B _____ None _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0004 (Annual Fees) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0005 (Directors' Successors) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0006 (Compensation) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0007 (Qualification) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0008 (Representation) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0009 (Nomination Deadline) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0010 (Nominations) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0011 (Ballots) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0012 (Vacant Position) Yea _____ Nay _____ FidoNews 5-31 Page 19 1 Aug 1988 Docket Number BLA-88-0013 (Alternates) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0014 (Elections) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0015 (Recall Petition) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0016 (Annual Business Meeting) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0017 (Agenda) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0018 (Voting Divisions) A _____ B _____ None _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0019 (Secretary Responsibilities) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0020 (VP-TC Responsibilities) A _____ B _____ None _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0021 (Standing Committees) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0022 (Administration and Finance Committee) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0023 (By-Laws and Rules Committee) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0024 (Fidonews) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0025 (By-Law Amendments) A _____ B _____ None _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0026 (Non-Compliance) Yea _____ Nay _____ FidoNews 5-31 Page 20 1 Aug 1988 Docket Number BLA-88-0027 (Financial Audit) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0028 (Trademarks) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0029 (Conduct of Business) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0030 (Meeting Precedence) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0031 (Zones) Yea _____ Nay _____ Docket Number BLA-88-0032 (Grievance Committee) Yea _____ Nay _____ ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-31 Page 21 1 Aug 1988 International FidoNet Association Proposed By-Law Amendments --------------------------------- For the purpose of voting on these By-Law amendments, all amendments have been grouped into sections and have been assigned a Docket Number. The Ballot will show each amendment by Docket Number along with the choices FOR or AGAINST to be marked appropriately. Where there is more than one proposed amendment to the same By-Law, the Ballot will show multiple choices for the Docket, only one of which is to be marked. The proposals will be shown as follows: (1) present wording; (2) proposed wording; (3) comments submitted with the proposal. The order of the Dockets will follow the order of the existing By-Laws, with all proposed additional By-Laws following. -------------------- Docket Number BLA-88-0001 (Definitions) Present Wording: --------------- DEFINITIONS: The following terms have meanings as follows for all purposes of these By-Laws and Articles of Association: IFNA NETWORK: The current set of systems which have been certified as FidoNet compatible and conform to policies established by the Board of Directors. IFNA NODELIST: The list of nodes active in the IFNA NETWORK, prepared by the IFNA Vice President - Technical Coordinator. PUBLIC ACCESS: A system that has a telephone number published in the IFNA Nodelist, and in addition provides services to the public. ANNUAL MEETING: A yearly meeting of all members of IFNA with the expressed purpose of conducting business requiring the membership to vote. The Vice President, in conjunction with the Membership Services Committee, shall arrange for and coordinate all activities leading up to and the conduct of this meeting. ENDORSED: A physical, hand-written, verif