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HAL-PC Board of Directors

Houston Area League of PC Users
Board of Directors

Executive Committee Meeting Minutes 8/01/2011

Attendees:
Annette Story, President
John Furby, V.P. Programs
Jerald Linsley, Treasurer
Christian Hanlon, V.P. Communications
Erika Hanlon, Recording Secretary

  1. Contact lawyer for HAL-PC
    Not completed yet. Annette is working on this.
  2. MemberRenewalNoAutos Report
    1. Renewal mailing
      Anne Sipes is providing reports. A renewal report was provided, but we are waiting on included telephone numbers. TAC is not charging us for the reports. Angie and Sue will do the renewal mailing when the reports are complete.
  3. Security
    1. Internal and Stephen Cravey
      Stephen Cravey has sent an email and expressed concern in the past to five HAL-PC presidents about the security of HAL-PC's database. He stated there is very little security in preventing access to the database and claims credit card numbers and other personal data is at risk. Aldridge has also independently said that there is a security hole. Stephen has not made it clear what the security problem is. Annette asked Robert Spotswood to contact Stephen for more information but he has not contacted him yet. Stephen said that he would call us but he has not. Christian Hanlon agreed to talk to Robert and contact Stephen if necessary to get the communication started.

    PCI Compliance:
    We need to address issue of PCI compliance or we will not be able to use credit cards soon. For phone or in person transactions credit card info is entered by office staff. Online credit card transactions go straight to credit card company, and a notification is sent to the staff. Currently working on a way to reconcile month to month. Info is there, just need to figure out how to extract it.

    1. External
      1. Recovery of data on Landslide which is inaccessible (CCure System - card system used to get in the main door)
        Doug has a backup working of the old system, but he needs a password or for someone to log him on. Only people who are no longer members have passwords. We need to try to contact them (includes Stephen Cravey).
        A receipt signed by Robert Gunn 6/2002 for the upgrade of CCure to version 7.1 was found. Rick thinks he saw disks for 7.1 but isn't sure where they are now. For now we will continue to use the old versions.
      2. Wireless door bell system in response to extending hours?
        Annette will research cost of this.
  4. Communications/Internet
    1. Itemized List of HALNet and/or Electronic Related Job Tasks
      The decision was made to make this list because the staff feel like they can do more than what they are doing now and some volunteers think that there are certain things they should do instead of the staff. Would like to have each group define what they need to do, what they should do, and what they are able to do. Robert Spotswood turned his response in this week. He included tasks that could be given to staff and tasks staff wants to do but shouldn't for some reason. Rick's response is missing. We don't have that many volunteers that can do that kind of work, and if we can move some work to the staff that will help out.

    Jerald said that he has some tasks that the staff could help with (including membership and HALnet info in a spreadsheet). Annette asked Jerald to provide a write up of this project.

    Once all of the responses are collected, the office staff tasks will need to be prioritized.

    1. Policy of Paying for Domain names
      HAL-PC should pay for all HAL-PC domain names. Personal charge cards should not be used for this purpose. There are currently a number of HAL-PC domain names reserved in Robert Spotswood's name. Communication to fix this problem needs to be sped up.

    Other communications news:
    Broken links have been noted in the HAL-PC website (office.HALPC).

  5. The Aldridge Company (TAC)
    1. Outstanding bills
      Two bills are owed for past work. It is questionable whether we authorized payment of these bills. Robert Spotswood said he asked about whether we should be charged or not a while ago, but the issue is still not closed. Was Aldridge authorized or not to do this work for pay? Jerald will help with this.
    2. Access to allow work on tighter security
      Stephen Cravey issue - need access from Aldridge, discussed above in III.A.
    3. Tickets
      Aldridge tickets are going through John Furby for approval. Staff problems generate the tickets.

    Explanation of Office software/database to clarify might be needed. A series of explanation classes was suggested.

  6. Members of Standing Committees

Bulletin Board Committee - Robert Spotswood suggested as chair, consensus is that this the best choice. The bulletin board is old, now the bulletin board is effectively the HALNet systems.

Meredith Foster has volunteered to be on the elections, publications, & SIGs committees.

Need the committee chairs to find members for their committees.

Any HAL-PC member can be a committee member.

  1. Email Accounts for each member of the BOD â Rick Archibald
    Rick is not here to discuss this. Rick thinks each board member should have a board email account. He was going to discuss this with Spotswood.

Phishing emails - a notice is on the website. Annette asked if there is a way to automate posting notices like this on the website. Currently Meredith Foster is the only person that can post notices. This is a concern because there was a hold up getting it onto website this time. Would like to set criteria for ability of others to update the website (aka Network Admin or VP Communications). Need to ask Meredith about this.

Postini - now owned by Google and is coming up for renewal on September 1st.

  1. Financial Jerald Linsley
    1. Finance Committee Meeting - Meet this Thursday 7pm, first topic will be when to hold the committee meetings.
    2. Prosperity Bank charge card
      The card should come in this week. The card will be used to register online for the Quickbooks training course. No other HAL-PC charge cards currently exist.

    Reconciliation reports in work.

    Quest
    HAL-PC has long term debts to Quest. The matter has been turned over to a collection agency. Currently owe about $7000. Rick was supposed to negotiate with them. After service was cut off, their equipment was left in our server room for several months (they did eventually pick up their equipment, and none remains at this time). Rick wants to charge them rent for this equipment. It was suggested that we try to get rid of this debt by paying them $5000 and charging them $2000 rent. Plan to send a $5000 check along with a letter, return receipt requested, that explains the rent charges and that we consider this full payment. The letter will state that by cashing the check they agree with these terms. Jerald asked permission to send the $5000 check and letter to Quest. Question: There is a plan to pay off the AT&T debt in 2 payments, has this been taken into consideration, can HAL afford the $5000 payment to Quest at the same time? Jerald said yes. This payment needs to be approved by the full board.
    Motion: Send a $5000 check along with a letter, return receipt requested, that explains the rent charges and that we consider this full payment.
    Moved by Jerald Linsley, Seconded. Passed.

    1. Regular, overtime, & holiday pay using Advantec's online system
      Hourly staff are not paid holiday pay. An error resulted in some of them getting holiday pay. Advantec said this info is available online only (amount of pay and who it was paid to). Possibly approved a long time ago and not ever fixed. This needs to be fixed (HAL will not try to get back old pay, just fix for the future).
    2. Possible expenditures: hardware for CCure system, salary?
      Long term debts should be paid off soon. Feel that we should build some reserve finances. Current staff might need an increase in pay.
      Salary - Still unsure if a salary should be paid to Robert Spotswood, the current Network Administrator. HAL-PC has paid an administrator before, but a low salary (not competitive).
  1. Miscellaneous
    1. Resignation of Mary Ann Mitscherling from the BOD
      Official notice has been given. This will be part of next board meeting.
    2. Jeff Brownin's storage of education software on other than W drive
      Techsoup software ordered. An email will be sent out. Questions about cost. Should HAL-PC buy a new drive, possibly a terabyte drive?
    3. Pay for DSL used for product reviews for online magazine
      Charles Evans has been in charge of getting reviews for different products in the magazine for a long time. His costs are getting high including the cost of personally paying for DSL. Can we pay for his HALnet DSL line? Have done this before for other volunteers (currently 3 or 4 people).
      Motion: Pay for Charles Evans DSL line used for the HAL-PC online magazine.
      Moved, Seconded. Passed.
    4. Forecast tool revised and renamed as Monthly Expenditures
      This tells what the monthly expenditures are.
    5. Room usage - topic skipped
    6. ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers) Voting Representative
      HAL-PC is part of this organization, rep needs to have a HAL email address. Christian will look into this.
    7. HAL-PC and FACEBOOK policy - topic skipped
    8. Procedure concerning DSL disconnects
      Regular DSL lines can be disconnected due to:
      1. Customer request
      2. Non-payment
         Co-location - using our facility and internet access, charge for    bandwidth. Co-location service can be disconnected due to:
      1. Customer request
      2. Late or non-payment

IX. Adjourn