HAL-PC Board of Directors
Houston Area League
of PC Users
Board
of Directors
Minutes of Meeting held Thursday, October 27, 2011, at HAL-PC Headquarters, SIG Room A
Attendees (14):
Officers:
Annette Story, President
Open, First Vice President
John Furby, Vice President Programs
Christian Hanlon, Vice President Communications
Erika Hanlon, Recording Secretary
D J Brown, Membership Secretary (absent)
Jerald Linsley, Treasurer
Directors:
Rick Archibald, Executive Committee (absent)
Bernard Silverman, Executive Committee
Greg Brewer, Director
Bill Budell, Director (absent)
Marco Ferrufino, Director
Meredith Foster, Director (absent)
Jay Kraker, Director
Jim Lavis, Director
John Molson, Director
Charles Olsen, Director
Kevin Peck, Director (absent)
Jim Story, Director
Dennis Waltman, Director
Mike Wilson, Director (absent)
I. Called to order at 7:33 p.m.
II. Approval of minutes for Special Meeting held on September 29, 2011.
Corrections: First and last names should be used at least the first time the name is written. The attendees section should list the entire board and mark absent board members.
Motion: Approval of minutes with the stated corrections.
Moved by Jerald Linsley, Seconded by Dennis Waltman. Passed.
III. Reports
A. President, Annette Story
Members have suggested having a class on Saturday for email or protect your PC.
B. First Vice-President - N/A
C. Vice-President Programs, John Furby
The door system is now working. We now have new batteries for the door system in case of a power failure. A recycler came and took items from the giveaway hall that had been there for a long time.
D. Vice-President Communications, Christian Hanlon
John Molson talked to corporate attorneys and they recommended not responding to emails about copyright infringement. They recommended not to respond until we get something via certified US mail or other official method.
Our legal representative is listed with the secretary of state. This needs to be changed. Jerald Linsley is looking for recommendations.
E. Membership Secretary, DJ Brown - absent, report by Jim Story
Membership is down by 19 since last month, it is currently 2780. These numbers have been consistently going down.
F. Treasurer, Jerald Linsley
TAC overage charges: we have made payment for the first month of the overage (April). We have received a bill for August with about half of the overage charges of the previous months.
Security:
CCure - Individual proximity cards can now be fixed.
Security of the Database - Some members have expressed concern about the security of the Office system. There is no way to prove a system is secure. We can follow industry best practices. Specific problems have to be pointed out so that we can then fix them. Access to the data is an important part of security.
IV. Old Business
A. Tabled motion to obtain upgrade to the security system for $5,000 until we have adequate facts about what we want to order and multiple bids on that and not necessarily simply fix what we got.
Old system is now fixed. New member cards can now be created. We are still investigating and testing the alarms.
Motion: Drop consideration of item A.
Moved by Jerald Linsley, Seconded by Christian Hanlon. Passed.
B. Tabled DISCUSSION: Do we need to hire a CEO (Chief Ex Officer), or COO (Chief Operating officer or OO (Operations officer) or EO or OO (Operations officer) or EO (Executive Officer) or Administrator, or other similar job functions.
Bernard: In the past we had an office manager. The board of directors is spending a lot of their time on operational issues. Bernard is in favor of an office manager handling these issues instead of the board.
General Discussion: The board should be addressing strategy. There is concern about the cost of an office manager. Maybe this should be addressed once the membership problem is turned around. Maybe this could be addressed by a strategy committee.
Motion: Turn this matter (item B and C) over to a strategy committee and have them bring back a report to the board.
Moved by John Molson, Seconded by Greg Brewer. Passed.
C. Tabled motion to direct the President or acting President to appoint a committee to begin the search for the above mentioned person, that will direct and manage the HAL-PC office activities on a full-time or part-time basis as a "contractor." The committee will conduct a "financial feasibility study" for this position and forward potential candidates to the next meeting of the BOD (within 30 days of its appointment) and said committee to present the candidate(s) to the BOD for approval to hire said individual or any other means granted by our Bylaws.
Included in the motion recorded in item B.
D. Tabled motion to begin developing and documenting a policy on record retention by starting with Financial Record retention being 10 years.
Motion: Approve destruction of records over 10 years old.
Moved by Christian Hanlon, Seconded by John Molson. Passed.
E. Tabled motion to change the current policy of a resignation of a Board member becoming effective only by the vote of the BOD to accept a resignation of a Board member becoming effective when it is received by the President.
This could be a bad idea because the President could possibly force people to resign.
Motion: As stated in item E.
Moved by Greg Brewer, Seconded by John Molson. Failed.
F. Tabled motion to verify and document the policy of a BOD member whose membership in HAL-PC has expired. The Board member is notified by phone of the expiration date and asked to pay the membership fee (dues). If the Board member does not pay in 30 days from the expiration date and no extraordinary situation exists, then the person is no longer a member of the BOD effective at that date.
Remained tabled.
V. New Business
A. Motion to change the November and December Board of Directors meeting to the third week of the month: November 17, 2011 at 7:15pm, December 15, 2011 at 7:15 pm.
Motion: As stated in item A.
Moved by Jerald Linsley, Seconded by John Molson. Passed.
B. Motion to authorize paying the remainder of the $6,050 to The Aldridge Company (TAC) for April, May, June, and July internet bandwidth overages contingent on receiving previous months overage bills and technical understanding of the overage charges. This was billed on Invoice 303459 dated August 11, 2011.
We have paid the April bill. The remaining quantity due is approximately $4,350. We did receive information from Aldridge about the overages. We have been billed for August. There is no overage for September. There was a large reduction in bandwidth use after the mail server was shut down. The timeliness of the billing is still a concern. Originally we were told there was no overage for August. Aldridge did prove later that we had an overage for August. Suggestion that we do not pay this until we negotiate the rest of the previous bills.
Motion: Table the motion stated in item B.
Moved by John Molson, Seconded by Jerald Linsley. Passed.
C. Motion to accept committees and members.
Motion: Add Safety and Security Committee to Standing Committees.
Moved by Jerald Linsley, Seconded by John Molson. Passed.
Motion: Establish/authorize an Ad Hoc Strategy Committee.
Moved by Jerald Linsley, Seconded by John Molson. Passed.
D. Motion to rename the Bulletin Board Committee to the HALNet Committee.
Motion: As stated in item D.
Moved by Dennis Waltman, Seconded by Jerald Linsley. Passed.
VI. Other business
VII. Adjourn
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