12 January 1999 Meeting Minutes

Lebanon Public Library Meeting Room
12:00 noon.

Pursuant to Notice given all members of the Board of Directors via Electronic Mail, the Monthly Meeting convened upon the President calling the same to order.

The meeting was called to Order by President Wallace and the agenda was pursued as previously distributed via E-Mail.

Board Members present were John Wallace, Dave Truitt, Monte Bowman, Cheryl Walden and Terry McCain. Jane Brandenburg and Carl Corson, BCCN Members were also present.

IRS Issues

John and Dave brought the board up to date on the status of some of the issues that were of concern to the IRS. Dave indicated that he got some information from Ruth Lucas at the schools office to pass along to the IRS in Utah. The school served as the fiduciary agent on the grant application when the board was first formed.

At the time the IRS is seeking payment and saying there was "income" (and thus a penalty) the Board was not even in the form of a tax exempt corporation. This approval came much later from the State of Indiana Corporations Division - Not-For-Profit Section. It might also have to do with the IRS granting approval for the Tax Exempt Status through the Atlanta, GA field Office and this action being taken buy the division of the IRS in Utah. Dave faxed information to the IRS immediately, once the request for information was discovered, to attempt to alleviate the concerns of the Executive Committee.

Dave indicated his main worry was the possible loss of the tax exempt status and not wanting to go back through the re-application process. He and John both have yet to hear from the IRS about the reply that was submitted via Facsimile in November 1998 in response to the query from the IRS field office.

System Administrator's Report / New BCCN Features

Terry has been having fun ! There is now a link on the page to allow people to send mail and alert them to the presence of BCCN. People have been accessing it but not sure if they are sending mail. (Tell a friend) The software has been updated to allow people to subscribe and un-subscribe for the email directory. We now have about 300 names and addresses. Many people out of state are enjoying keeping up with events in Lebanon.

The email addresses are an easy thing to keep up to date. We could provide a service to allow our not for profits to send a lot of email at a time. This was shown as a need due to the recent snowstorm. An easy way for people to communicate would be to run this through our server. Jayne Brandenburg has volunteered to work with her sorority on the possibility of using this system. Several churches now keep their membership list for email addresses. Would have a minimal impact on our server.

Monte asked about control over the email. Terry explained the procedure of using passwords to allow access to the system. Monte suggested that this could be an effective tool to notify schools staff and radio/tv of school cancellation or church service cancellation. Monte moves that this be offered as a service, Dave seconds the motion. This will be set up on the page and an email to Terry will allow the setup to occur. For those who have a page of their own a link could be set up to allow subscription and un-subscription. The vote was unanimous on the pending motion.

A second possible service to add to the page is the discussion board software. Jerry Selby has been asked to serve as a moderator by Terry. You can post messages and receive things. You can post things for sale. This is not a chat room. Terry would like to see some accountability till this goes a little bit further. There is some additional software available for $99.00 that we might pursue at a later date. There is some software that will help edit the language that is posted and assure proper content in the discussion group. The moderator will have the ability to "chop off" conversations if the get to long.

Terry distributed examples of limitations from Syracuse online. There are some great bits of information available from this handout. The choice of the moderator would seem to be important in these instances. Jayne suggested that the Online User Agreement should be formulated and sent to each potential user to confirm their willingness to comply with content rules and acceptable use policy of the group. Terry provided the address to allow the Board and members to access this area for a "test drive. This would also allow you the opportunity to see what it would be like to be a moderator. Terry suggested this could be the subject of an e-mail vote. This is now called the Boone County Community Network Discussion Group. This is based on the software known as Discus.

John asked that language and topics be considered and passed back to Terry. Once this is formed up we should have an email vote on topics.

An email script was sent out advising about the availability of postcards using Tom's electronic pictures. The new police vehicle used by the sheriff and Xmas in the village were cited as examples. This software is free for this and it could be set up to send lots of pictures. This does not take up much room on the server. The package resides on our server. The pictures are all there too and Tom would be interested in taking more pictures.

Content Report

Terry reported that the Community Foundation is very excited about the information that is posted on their site. The guidance offices of the schools are now open 24 hours a day thanks to this page. It has also helped out on basic questions over the phone. All of the scholarships are on line as well as the grant guidelines. There is a young man out in the Western Boone Schools that is interested in setting up an EMA site. He is going to help coordinate the information from the Thorntown Fire Dept. and the Police Dept.

2000 visits per month for site stats. A lot of repeat visits to the site. John suggested that we should solicit volunteers for opportunities with BCCN. John will try and promote the Boone County Solid Waste Dept. that is now in place and the child protection service.

Terry commented that the patches for Y2K are yet to be completed but it will require a block of time to download. There are 38 Megabytes of information on the site to correct time and security information. The newly passed County Zoning and Subdivision control Ordinances are available now. Dave has a clean copy available to use if needed. Terry will check first with Deb Luzier and see if see has an electronic copy.

Treasurer's Report / '99 Invoices

Monte brought the board up to speed on the status of the corporate funds. Ruth was unable to provide exact funds yesterday due to the busy schedule in the administrative office resulting from the recent snows. Monte needed some suggestions on some of the invoices he had printed up for the coming year. He updated the board on those who had paid and those who have not do so. Monte has the invoices ready to go out and would appreciate some help in this area.

The next meeting in March is the Annual meeting. John will add on the information about having the annual meeting at the time of the bi-monthly business meeting at the Lebanon Library.

The meeting adjourned at 1:25 p.m.


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Last updated: 2 February 1999/jjw.
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