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HAL-PC Board of Directors

Unapproved minutes of the November 19, 2009 regular Board of Directors Meeting.
Any corrections, changes, additions to these minutes will be provided following approval of the minutes by the Board.

HOUSTON AREA LEAGUE OF PC USERS
MINUTES OF November 19, 2009
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
Houston Area League of PC Users, Inc.
4543 Post Oak Place
Houston, Texas 77027

ATTENDEES (15):

Officers:
John Furby, President
Rick Archibald, First Vice President (SIGs)
Robert Stewart, Vice President Programs (absent)
Allan Holtzmann, Vice President Communications (absent)
Annette Story, Recording Secretary
(vacant) Membership Secretary
George Vaughn, Treasurer

Directors:
Chris Read, Executive Committee (absent)
Jim Ward, Executive Committee
Will Beazley, Director
Greg Brewe,r Director
Kelly Brown, Director (absent)
Mark E Crain, Director (absent)
T. Norman Crook, Director
Robert Gunn, Director
Kojo Idrissa, Director (absent)
Michael J. Lempel, Director
Jerald Linsley, Director
Mary Ann Mitscherling, Director
John Molson, Director (absent)
Robert Spotswood, Director
Jim Story, Director
Russell Vesey, Director (absent)
Bernard Silverman, Director (elected)

4 HAL-PC members

I. The meeting was called to order at 7:05 PM, John Furby presiding.

II. Motion to approve the minutes as corrected for the regular meeting held on October 22, 2009, and the special meeting on October 8, 2009, was made. The motion passed.

III. Reports:

President, John Furby

  1. John Furby stated that he was informing the employees and everybody that no contracts or agreenments can be signed by someone representing HAL-PC unless they have the approval of the Board of Directors.
  2. The Non-Profit Directors and Officers Insurance has been paid for and is in effect thanks to work by Annette Story.
  3. Advantec had already distributed their Anti-Harassment and Anti-Discrimination Policies/Statements so HAL-PC will be posting them. John stated that we want all employees, volunteers, and members to be aware of them.
  4. Robert Spotswood has been seeing which servers work and which don't. Robert stated, "One set is labeled junk and one, not junk."
  5. Will Beazley accepted the assignment to list existing HALNet servers.

First Vice-President, Rick Archibald

  1. Rick Archibald announced statistics from his printed report HAL-PC & HALNet Statistics, 11/01/2009 for the month of October.
  2. DSL count is down a little bit. (In looking for Colocation Partners the Colo committee was told by one candidate, "We don't want to do residential DSL," so they set up one of their lines to forward to Doug Kneupper's line.
  3. There were 70 SIG meetings in October.
  4. Bandwidth switch is complete. The switch took place last Friday from midnight to 1:00 a.m. It went smoothly. An earlier switch had a dial-up glitch that got fixed (as reported on the HAL-PC Website). Except for rising cost we should be reaping $5,000 monthly savings.

Vice President Programs, Robert Stewart (absent)

Vice President Communications, Allan Holtzmann (absent)

  1. Rick Archibald stated that his statistical report contains HALNet information.

Treasurer, George Vaughn

  1. George Vaughn stated that HAL-PC has almost realized the goal of reduction of expenses by $26,000 (short by $3,000).
  2. There is at least a $65,000 accounts payable backup so we need about $5,000 a month profit to pay it off.
  3. We are not yet cash positive. "The best case is about a $70,000 revenue estimate (an October 31 Actual Revenue Report was $68,500). That is understated a little because when we go back to June or July we have understated $30,000 posted bank receipts."
  4. We need someone to donate the time to locate data in the HAL-PC User Management System that we can tie back to the bank because the two are out of sync.
  5. We don't have new money for new programs.

Real Estate Committee Chair, Jim Ward

Jim Ward stated that in response to his latest periodic inquiry about the status of HAL-PC's lease renegotiation documentation, R.M. Crowe's representative Dorothy McDonald, Senior Property Manager, sent 2 emails. The Board discussed these 2 emails.

Colocation Committee Chair, Jim Ward

  1. Jim Ward stated that members of the Colocation Committee had 9 candidates on the Colocation List. "At a meeting we eliminated 4 serious candidates." The committee will do a more in depth technical analysis of the 5 remaining candidates. Chris Read is going to start doing due diligence on the companies selected.
  2. Jim described what the Colocation Committee is: Take the server room and colocate with another ISP able to accommodate our bandwidth, our servers, our dial-up customers, and DSL. HAL-PC could get a lot of savings from that.

Other discussions were requested:

  1. Will Beazley requested a "public discussion or description" of Internap. Rick Archibald stated that Internap provides bandwidth (not transport). There is an ongoing discussion about requirements concerning the termination of their services and the cost of doing that. Robert Gunn stated that the original Internap agreement was 7 or 8 years ago. A discussion included input from Robert Spotswood.
  2. Will Beazley stated that Information Assets, Inc. wants to make two proposals to HAL-PC but is not prepared with the proposals yet.

IV.New Business

A motion to schedule the January General Meeting on January 30, 2010, was made by Annette Story. Jim Ward seconded it. Jim Story moved that an amendment to have it [the meeting] at 1:00 p.m. Mary Ann Mitscherling seconded it. The amendment passed. An explanation of the January General Meeting was made. Question called and the motion passed.

Rick Archibald asked that at the next Board of Directors Meeting that the Agenda for the January General Meeting be set.

V.Old Business

  1. After John Furby stated that we needed to elect a new board member to replace Al Greene, Jim Story stated that we had another resignation and moved that we elect a second Board member. Greg Brewer objected to electing another Board Member. No second; motion died. Jim Ward made a motion to accept Mark Crains resignation; Annette seconded. Jim Ward called the question. Motion passed. Jim Story moved that we fill both positions on Board tonight; seconded by Jim Ward. Jim Ward called the question; passed. Jim Story moved to make it a paper ballot. Rick Archibald seconded. No discussion. Two opposed the motion, which passed.
  2. There were 14 Board Members in attendance. Two tellers were named: Rachel Nichols, head teller; and Mary Seay. There were preprinted red paper ballots with the names of 4 candidates and places for two write-ins. Each Board member present could cast 2 votes. After the ballots were passed out, the one candidate in attendance, Bernard Silverman, told about himself as a member of HAL-PC and his work background. Board Members present described the backgrounds of the other candidates, Sibley Cooley, Meredith Foster, and Bob Longoria. On the first ballot, Benard Silverman was elected. He was seated as a Board Member after signing the Conflict of Interest form and the attendance sign-in.
  3. There were now 15 Board Members. Blank yellow ballots were passed out for members to write-in their choice. Meredith Foster was elected.
    4.John Furby stated that a motion to elect the Membership Secretary had been tabled on October 22 and asked if there were any candidates for that position. No one volunteered.

VI. Robert Gunn moved to adjourn at 8:28 p.m.

Next regular Board of Directors Meeting is scheduled for December 17, 2009.

Annette Story
HAL-PC Recording Secretary