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From: sjackson@tic.com (Steve Jackson)
To: eff-abod@tic.com
Subject: Draft minutes for last night's meeting
MINUTES OF AUSTIN EFF DIRECTORS' MEETING - May 12, 1992
Prepared by Steve Jackson.
Board members present: John Quarterman, Matt Lawrence, Steve
Jackson, Ed Cavazos. Observing: Bruce Sterling, Susan Cisco, Dick
Anderson, Dave Smith. In phone contact for part of the meeting:
Smoot Carl-Mitchell.
The minutes of the last meeting were approved. It was noted that
minutes or a report need to be produced for the May 3 general meeting.
Discussion of General Meeting
Overall, there was consensus that the facilities were
excellent, and that the meeting went off as well as possible given
the relatively short notice. Most of the attendees came because
they saw notices on Internet. We had very few students, very few
Austin-area BBSers. Almost nobody came because of notices in print
media. Nobody at all said that they came because of notices in
broadcast media, and indeed we are not certain that any of the
broadcast media ran the PSAs which we sent. A few people did show
up because they saw the TV show which the Houston group put on the
day before.
Room for improvement: It would have been good had we had a
more elaborate program, possibily with visual aids. The TTI site
could have supplied audiovisual equipment on request.
Committees Named
Incorporation Committee - Steve Jackson, Ed Cavazos, Frank
Kurzawa.
Police Liaison Committee - Bruce Sterling, Dick Anderson
and, subject to his acceptance, Smoot Carl-Mitchell.
BBS Study Committee: Dave Smith, Matt Lawrence and, subject
to his acceptance, Loyd Blankenship. Dave reports that the Robot
Study Group would like to donate a Unix box to Austin EFF.
SPA Committee - Dave Smith, Bruce Sterling. Look into the
current rumors that the SPA is going house-to-house on the UT campus.
Program Committee - There were no takers for a general
Program Committee, so ad-hoc committees are geing set up for each
upcoming meeting. See below under Local Activities.
Local Activities since the last meeting
We held our first general members' meeting May 3, as
described above.
SJ went to a small SF convention in Jackson, MS, passed out
literature, and answered questions.
Local Activities, upcoming or proposed
We will start by holding one event a month; if this pace is
too fast, we will cut back. We will alternate informal Cyberdog
get-togethers (eat, talk, watch computer videos) with more formal
sit-down meetings with actual programs.
June: A Cyberdog. SJ will look for a site with a big TV
screen and somewhere to cook and eat hot dogs. Bruce will supply
videos. Susan will help publicize this and other meetings.
July: A sit-down meeting, to be held the third week in
July. Ed Cavazos will organize it. Program will be a panel on sysop
issues. Dick Anderson will help.
August: A Cyberdog. Volunteers still needed to run it.
September: JSQ will organize a sit-down meeting on NREN.
October: A cyberdog. Volunteers still needed to run it.
November: A sit-down meeting. Bruce Sterling will speak on
"The Hacker Crackdown." Volunteers still needed to run it.
Membership Outreach and Communication
The board thanked Monica Stephens for creating the
beautiful graphics on the new membership form.
SJ will post an ASCII version of the membership form to
eff-a.
Bruce will write an introductory letter to go into the
membership packet.
JSQ will immediately start sending out membership packets
to those who inquire. For now, the packet will include the Austin
membership form and a copy of EFFector. JSQ is not volunteering to
do this forever - this is a one-shot.
Agreed that we should have a newsgroup; that it should be
moderated; that the preferred name is austin.eff. We'll discuss
this again next meeting.
Matt will input the mailing list. He will work with TIC to
keep it on aahsa. Matt will get existing mailing list info from SJ
and Earl Cooley.
The privacy policy will be noted at the beginning of the
list document. Board members will have access to the list. Privacy
flags will be set in all copies of the list to remind users of the
privacy policy.
Financial Issues
We now have money, though we cannot touch it yet. We have
to incorporate first, and then open a checking account. At the
general meeting, we had 13 member signups at the regular rate, and
4 at the student rate, for a total of $150. We also had one signup
for National; that money will be forwarded to Cambridge.
We sold 24 shirts at $10.80, and had one 20-cent "keep the
change" donation.
At the board meeting, we had 5 more member signups at the
$10 rate.
That means that when we have a checking account, $499.40
will be deposited. $130, in round figures, will go to Cambridge
immediately.
SJ reported that we must proceed in the following order:
Finalize the charter and bylaws. Get an attorney to check them.
Incorporate as a nonprofit organization. Get a checking account.
Cash the checks.
Incorporation and Bylaws
Amendments to the last version of the charter and bylaws
were discussed. It was agreed that dissolution provisions were
necessary, proxies were not desirable, and non-Board members could
be officers.
Memberships will run from the date of joining to the end of
the same month in the following year.
Checks will require the signatures of any two of the four
corporate officers.
We have a volunteer, Joan Stuller, to set up our books.
However, her CPA license is from California. We will need a Texas
CPA eventually. In the meantime, we are following her advice on
financial matters. Matt will try to find his old CPA to see if she
is interested in helping us.
Dick Anderson says that Frank Kurzawa is willing to be our
attorney. SJ will contact him tomorrow morning.
Ed Cavazos will rework the bylaws and charter and send them
to SJ, who will discuss them with Frank Kurzawa. When the material
seems ready, it will be posted to eff-abod. All directors will have
3 days for asynchronous voting on the final proposal. As soon as it
passes, incorporation can proceed.
Officers and Directors
We will not name any new directors until after incorporation.
Founding officers will be: President, John Quarterman;
Vice-President, Jon Lebkowsky; Secretary, Steve Jackson; Treasurer,
Smoot Carl-Mitchell.
Board members will discuss nominations for the "advisory
board" on eff-abod. Anyone with a suggestion for the advisory board
should send a note to eff-abod@tic.com.
Cybertex
Ed presented a brief report. April 23-25 appears to be the
preferred date. Meetings are being held regularly.
Other Things
John will find a flag shop that can correct thee e-mail
address on our flag. SJ will give him the flag.
We should perhaps change the name of eff-abod, because it's
too easy to confuse with eff-a.
JSQ will schedule net training sessions for Board members
starting in early June.
We need more outreach to BBSs - sysops who become
interested in the EFF will serve as proxies to their users.
Next Meeting
The agenda for the next meeting will definitely include
Dick Anderson's ideas for education, ACTV, Dick Cutler's
"Interactive University," the SPA in Austin, and more on meeting
plans and membership packets.
Adjourned at 11:15 pm.