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HAL-PC Board of Directors

                             Houston Area League of PC Users, Inc.
                                           Board of Directors

Unapproved minutes of the May 27, 2010 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 May 27, 2010
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
Houston Area League of PC Users, Inc.
4543 Post Oak Place
Houston, Texas 77027

ATTENDEES (14):

Officers:
John Furby, President
Rick Archibald, First Vice President (SIGs)
Sibley Cooley, Vice President Programs
Robert Spotswood, Vice President Communications
Annette Story, Recording Secretary
(vacant) Membership Secretary
(vacant) Treasurer

Directors:
Chris Read, Executive Committee (absent)
Jim Ward, Executive Committee
Greg Brewer, Director
Kelly Brown, Director
Meredith Foster, Director (absent)
Robert Gunn, Director
Kojo Idrissa, Director (absent)
Michael J. Lempel, Director
Jerald Linsley, Director
Mary Ann Mitscherling, Director
John Molson, Director (absent)
Bernard Silverman, Director
Jim Story, Director

1 HAL-PC member

I. The meeting was called to order at 7:02pm, John Furby presiding.

II. Motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting held on April 22, 2010 was made, seconded, and passed. Minutes of the May 6, 2010, Executive Session will be written and available at the June regular meeting.

III. Reports

President, John Furby

  1. John Furby said that an updated list of volunteers was being worked on.
  2. Nine hundred forty-one HALNet DSL users were given Postini free to test. There were only 5 or 6 serious complaints. The test will go until the end of June. At the next Board meeting Board Members will address what to do. Currently the decision is to begin charging for it. Director Kelly Brown asked what the nature of the complaints was and John Furby gave 2 examples: "I don't want this." "Why did you put it on?"
  3. The Office has been looking over DSL customers and customers not being billed. Payments are being received.
  4. HAL-PC had overpaid approximately $5,000 for postage for the HAL-PC Magazine. John requested a refund of the money from the post office.
  5. John stated that as part of his president's report he would give the floor to Jerald Linsley who would introduce an accountant, Bob Fryer, who in turn introduced James McElravy who may be able to help HAL-PC. Mr. McElravy has done work for non-profit business to file IRS forms. The last 990 was submitted in 2006. Annette Story reported that when she spoke to the IRS the agent recommended that HAL should get the 2009 return in and then go back an submit the earlier ones. HAL does not have a file copy of the last 990. It was stated that there have been no books closed since 2006. James McElravy recommended that HAL take what data there is and file estimates for the 2010 tax return. This should be amended later. A motion was made to have James McElravy prepare a report [proposal] of what is needed and the cost to do this for the next Board Meeting. The motion was seconded and passed.
  6. John Furby invited Carla Cawlfield to make a statement on the upcoming annual Board of Directors election on June 19, 2010. She reported that 5 candidates submitted their names by the deadline and in order: Jim Story, Jerald Linsley, Bernard Silverman, Sibley Cooley, and Kojo Idrissa. There are 10 vacancies. Write-in candidates are allowed. This year there will be no Magazine to provide the voting key to each member. The mailing list was pulled off the database today [May 27]. Members will need to receive their voting key via the USPS. Jim Ward suggested a letter. There is an 11.2 cost for letter postage. Jim Ward agreed to be the recipient of the mailing information. Carla agreed to send him the letter, the mailing list, and voting keys so that the information would get to the members.
  7. Please note that the HAL-PC Magazine is on the web.

First Vice President (SIGs), Rick Archibald

  1. The stats for May 1 were 3463 members, although today's number was 3480. Dial up was 1282, down 25. Mail only was up 9 to 550. Rick said he did not have the printout because the printer is still not working but he would be glad to email the stats.
  2. Cash flow has been surprisingly good during March, April, and May. Jim Ward stated that the following months would probably be below average according to George Vaughn. Tomorrow Internap will be settled by a second payment of $3,500.
  3. PacWest is going out of the regional and statewide TECA business so 31 of our Texas phone numbers for dial up subscribers that are out side of Metro Houston are going to have their lines go busy or dead as of June 7. The rest of Texas is already being served by IKANO and IKANO supplied Rick with 31 replacement numbers. What needs t be done is to put the new ones in the data base for lookups, publish them on the website, supply them to the tech staff so if someone calls in they can walk the user through and maybe get them going.

Vice President Programs, Sibley Cooley

  1. He has contacted Charles Strat to speak on "Cyber Wars."
  2. He also pursued contacting Don Sumner to help HAL-PC with our accounting.
  3. He turned in, for a second time, the information on equipment at Pac West. "It is done."
  4. Sibley was requested to definitely talk with Don Sumner to get an alternate proposal for those things being addressed by McElravy.

Vice President Communications, Robert Spotswood

  1. Robert Spotswood reported on the DSL price changes that the Board had voted on: Everyone at $19.95 is bumped up to $24.95. Using the April 1st numbers, there were 130 users that the office staff agreed to contact 30 a month stating that it would not be an undue burden with the other office duties. They was already sent out 30 letters that 'your" price is going up. A few comments were received and the letters will be revised accordingly. Out of the responses we got only 1 that was kind of negative, saying, "I never signed up for 1 year only. I got this price because I could only get 1.5 from AT&T and, if you don't like it, I am going to switch to AT&T." Robert said that AT&T was the reason you could only get 1.5. AT&T has 2 packages. One is $60--plain vanilla; and then they have a wireless router modem around $100. Robert and Doug are still working on what to say when people call in. Questions were asked about price quotes.
  2. John Furby stated that he is negotiating with AT&T month by month.

Sibley moved to adjourn and Jim Ward seconded. The motion passed.

Next regular Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for June 24, 2010.

Annette Story
HAL-PC Recording Secretary