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From: sjackson@tic.com (Steve Jackson)
To: eff-a@tic.com
Subject: Minutes of Jan. 6 Austin meeting
MINUTES OF AUSTIN EFF DIRECTORS' MEETING - Jan. 6, 1992
Prepared by Steve Jackson; blame him for errors or omissions.
7:30pm at Matt Lawrence's. Present: Steve Jackson, Matt Lawrence,
Jon Lebkowsky, Smoot Carl-Mitchell, Susan Cisco.
There were no problems with the minutes of the last meeting.
Structure - Smoot and Jon had not yet gotten together to discuss
group structure and status, but will definitely do so next week.
Local dues - Cambridge having approved, we will have local
dues of $10/year, or $5 per students, or $50 for corporations.
There was a bit of question as to whether we should require Austin
members to join the national group as well.
Meetings and publicity - Before we can hold meetings, we need a
meeting site. SJ has not gotten an answer from Dell, and will stay on it
and report to the Austin board via e-mail.
We still need a membership package for the local group, once
the first meeting is set. SJ will do DTP and printing, Smoot will take
care of postage. We can probably include some of the new handouts from
Cambridge.
We have had an increasing demand for literature, as various
of the Austin EFFectives make public appearances. Steve now has a
stock of literature at his office, including a few dozen leftover
copies of the CHRONICLE with Bruce Sterling's story - thanks to the
Chronicle for letting us have these.
Convention appearances - We will definitely make an
appearance at the GTC Conference, Austin, Feb. 12-14. Jon has
gotten us a table space. He is still looking for Austin EFF members
to help run the table.
Jon brought some information on a Computer Security Institute
event - a paid seminar - to be held in San Antonio. He will contact
them and find out if they are interested in us.
VOLUNTEER STILL NEEDED: We need someone with a car to be our
literature distributor . . . to make suggestions to the board about what
ought to go where, and to see that it gets there. If you're interested in
helping with this, please send e-mail to sjackson@tic.com.
Local activities last month -
SJ appeared on the TV show TAKING LIBERTIES, hosted by the ACLU -
two segments were taped in early November. Segment 1 aired on the 3rd,
Segment 2 will air on the 10th; they will be repeated on the 17th and
24th, respectively, and probably a few more times in the next months.
These appear on Austin local access TV.
John and Smoot participated in a seminar Friday, December 6,
for the Library and Information Science Department at UT. The topic was
The Use of Computer Networks and Electronic Mail to Support Routine
Organizational Functioning. The organizer was Susan Cisco, a Ph.D.
candidate, who is interested in joining our board. It went well.
Christmas party - Thanks go to Matt for hosting this.
Turnout was only about a dozen - we obviously needed to publicize
it more than just to the eff-a mailing list - but there was some
good conversation.
Local activities, upcoming or proposed:
The UT College of Communication is interested in having an
EFF speaker at their Communications Week, April 1-4. They're
talking with Steve.
Bruce will be doing a multi-city signing tour for the paperback
release of DIFFERENCE ENGINE, and is willing to distribute EFF material.
He and/or SJ will talk to Cambridge about logistics.
Dean Langston is still interested in doing something for
cable TV. He has been calling SJ, and says he will call back soon
with a specific proposal. (Videotaping speakers at the quarterly
meetings would be worthwhile.)
We could also no doubt get on the local radio shows.
When Bruce Sterling's HACKER CRACKDOWN book is published,
EFF-Austin should sponsor a signing. Maybe at a local bookstore .
. . maybe at a computer store. Bruce is willing. The book will be
released in September.
Mailing list - We have volunteers to help with this. Earl Cooley
and Steve Jackson discussed format at the Christmas party. Susan Cisco
is interested in working with the list once it's set up.
Computer display program - No progress.
Logo - we now have a working graphics file of the star, cannon and
"Come And Take It" image. What shall we do with it?
Local BBSing conference - Jon reports that he has had no
significant offers of assistance.
NEW BUSINESS
Do we want an Austin newsletter? The question was discussed, but
no particular conclusion was reached. An electronic newsletter would
be appropriate, and easier to do. How many potential members are not
yet on the net and would therefore not be able to read such a publica-
tion? Smoot points out that soon Austinites will be able to buy netmail
and newsgroup access for $25 per month.
Ed Cavazos and Susan Cisco would like to join the Board. General
agreement that there is no upper limit, at present, to the number of
Board members we can have, as long as everyone is active.
Susan Cisco wants to be the information-resource person for the
group. There was a long discussion about exactly what this might mean;
the final decision was "wait and see and let it evolve." Suggestions
included creating a database of computer-seizure incidents; archiving
publications of interest on both paper and disk; collecting data on
relevant court cases and legislation; and the more general goal of
making the EFF a research resource. Susan points out that a lot of
this information may already be well-organized somewhere, and we don't
want to duplicate effort - but we DO want to be able to give our members
pointers to the data we don't archive ourselves.
Susan will do some basic research and report next meeting.
Our next directors' meeting will be some weekday evening
before February 12, before the GTC conference - date to be set
after e-mail discussion. Site will be Matt's house. SJ will collate
preferences and announce the decision.