Open to the public, San Francisco, 12:00 PM Pacific Time, July 5, 2003
Please email board@onlinepolicy.org for specific location if you wish to attend.
Board Meeting Action Item Summary
New action items followed by action items from prior meetings.
Action Item: Will to add a standing agenda item for the Operations Advisory Committee to prioritize which clients we want to do publicity on in the coming month.
Action Item: Roger to set up phpwiki for OPG to include pages
for board action items, operations committee items, advisory board, and backup/redundancy plans.
Action Item: David to verify that RT backups are happening daily.
Action Item: David and Roger will work together to set up a
verifiable and automatically generated email list of CCCP clients.
Action Item:
Roger to remove any unneeded colo lists set up by OPG staff.
Action Item:
David to send Will info on colo equipment needs, specifically
a router and any switches and the prices for those if they
can be obtained through donations.
Action Item: Will to remove domain registration form from
services page and to fix web, email, and email list hosting forms so t
hat
domain registration can be requested from those forms.
Action Item: Will to put possibility of using OPG as agent on domain registration
form so that clients may stay out of whois database. [2x renew]
Action Item: Will to enter all board action items into new opg-board queue
in RT task manager. [David proposed using wiki instead, David will install wiki for this purpose, renew]
Action Item: Alayna to add Veritas Foundation to the list (http://www.veritas.com/aboutus/foundation/GrantProposal.jhtml) [renew]
Action Item: Roger and Will to come up with email list categories
and a pull-down for those categories on the email list request forms. [2x renew]
Action Item: Will to add default support queues
for email lists, web hosting, and domain registrations. [2x renew]
Action Item: Roger to make recommendations for improving
email request forms. [2x renew, partly done]
Action Item: Roger to investigate whether
OPG can make MoveableType available to clients so they can
set up blogs. [Can't have centralized MoveableType install due to licensing issues. Drupal is an
alternative that is centrally installable. Roger will investigate Drupal further, especially
implications for Calliope-related functionality. Roger to set up testing of centralized Drupal installation.]
Action Item: Roger to investigate whether
OPG can make Gallery available to clients so they can
set up picture galleries. [2x renew, possible integration with Drupal]
Action Item: Will to make the items for free services and donations
are on the front page, but want them to be more obvious. [2x rewew, waiting for graphic designer]
Action Item: Roger to ask Beth Weise of NLGJA to pitch or let OPG pitch
a story on OPG to their members. [renew, ask is done, waiting for reply, Roger will try again with new contact]
Action Item: Biella to request creation of remote-volunteers@lists.onlinepolicy.org [2x renew,
Roger will setup and administer the list because Biella can't]
Action Item: Biella to investigate proposal to Alameda County Resource Center. [2x Renewed, transferred
to Mitch]
Action Item: Will to set up twice weekly aggregated automated task manager email reminders. [3x Renewed]
Action Item: Biella to recruit Larry Lessig for Academic Advisory Board. [2x Renewed,
Biella will interview Lessig and ask him on March 4, Will
will .]
Action Item: Will to ask Cynthia Cooper to organize a meeting of advisory board members.
Action Item: Roger to add central script repository on
webs.onlinepolicy.net [Done]
Action Item: Roger and David W. to do a written redundancy plan including
mail server (MX2),
local backups, remote backups, spam block recovery, web server
failover, crash notification, DNS redundancy, and get in touch with Micah of
Tech Fed. Update: just need to set up disk-to-disk backups at HE
without MX2 or remote backups, but still considering spam block
redundancy, web server failover, crash notification, DDOS recovery, and
DNS redundancy.]
Action Item: Will to get graphic intern to do QueerNet logo
plus QueerNet and CCCP inserts for the brochure, as well as office signs once logos are done.
[Renewed x4: QueerNet will happen when a graphic design volunteer appears, David W.'s co-worker made a new logo for CCCP, Roger to ask *-owners lists for graphic design help.]
Action Item: Will to experiment with brochure design to
move name of organization down and increase size of
motto while decreasing size of contact info block.
[Renewed x4 will happen when a graphic design volunteer appears]
Action Item: Will to investigate T-shirt designs.
[Renewed x4: May have to wait for a graphic design volunteer.
Roger to send Will idea he received from Carol for T-shirt design.]
Action Item: Roger and Will to do test market email to [list|web|colo]-owners about T-shirts and stickers and
ask them for designs.
[Renewed x4]
Action Item: Roger to set up auto-generated email list of website-owners.
[Renewed x4, pending move to webs.onlinepolicy.net.]
Action Item: Biella to attend a BAIDO meeting and let them know about OPG.
[Renewed x4, need to assign to someone else]
Action Item: Roger to write web page explaining how AOL handles different categories
of incoming email.
[Renewed x5.]
Board Meeting Agenda
1. Welcome
2. Approve Agenda
3. Board Responsibilities
4. Review Action Items
5. Financial Report
- Status: Month, Quarter, Fiscal Year to Date
- Forecast: Upcoming revenue and expenses
- Donor thank you notes
- 990 and 199 Filing
- Bank and brokerage account
- Grant proposals
- Fundraising strategy brainstorm
- Board fundraising commitments
6. Online Services
- Services: Email list hosting, Website hosting, Domain registrations, Colocation services
- Support: Task Manager, Upgrades, Redundancy
- Online Community Forum
- New services
7. Research
- Overall: need to recruit volunteers/interns and prioritize projects
- OSPA
- School & Library
- Online oddities & atrocities museum
8. Outreach
- Website status
- Materials: Logo design, website design, business cards, letterhead, brochure, reply card, office sign
- Schwag: T-shirts, stickers, etc.
- Events
9. Action
- Action alert updates
- Legislative and policymaking updates
10. Network
- Web and email list hosting excellent way to expand networking
- Networking brainstorm
- Tech Fed
11. Media
- Media coverage
12. Office Space
- EFF
- LGBT Community Center
12. Legal
- Representation
- Terms of Service Policy
- Privacy Policy
- Event Liability
13. Human Resources
- Board, advisory board, and committee recruitment
- Volunteer recruitment (regular weekly project meetings)
- Intern recruitment
14. Vacation and travel schedules
15. Public Comment Period
16. Next meeting(s):
- 12 noon, Saturday, September 6, 2003
- 12 noon, Saturday, December 6, 2003
- 12 noon, Saturday, March 6, 2004
- 12 noon, Saturday, June 5, 2004
-end-
Board Meeting Minutes
1. Welcome
Attending:
Will Doherty (Director), Roger Klorese (Director),
David Weekly (Director)
2. Approve Agenda
Motion to approve, seconded, and approved unanimously.
3. Board Responsibilities
Discussed composition of board and how to add members to the board. Roger pointed out we should inventory the skills we need for the board as we recruit. He pointed out that we really need fundraising expertise on the board. He mentioned that aiming at seven board members, as provided by the bylaws, seems like a reasonable board size. He suggested at least two outside directors with fundraising expertise. David brought up the issue of gender and ethnic diversity and Roger agreed it is an important issue roughly equal in importance with the fundraising issue. Will mentioned that diversity into the other constituencies that we represent is important. Roger brought up diversity in computer literacy, gaining representation from users and not just the provider side. David brought up a concern regarding timeliness of decisions on technology related expenses.
Roger expressed his feeling that we are operating as a board and as an executive staff and suggested that we need to split off an operating committee to handle many of the items currently covered in the board meetings. David and Will expressed agreement.
David brought up bringing in some people from CCCP ops or OPG volunteers who could participate in an operations committee. Roger agreed.
Roger mentioned that we could reduce board meeting duration to two hours and have a one or two hour operational meeting once a month.
The operations committee would report back to the board for decisions requiring board action.
Will brought up the idea that some day would might also have a
fundraising committee of the board.
David expressed a concern that people not on the operations
committee might feel that they are not participating fully,
but Roger and Will explained that the committee structure
works that way with the board members participating in all
decisions that are relevant to the board.
David moved that the board create an operations committee
that meets monthly. Roger seconded. Passed unanimously.
Roger moved that the operations committee meet on a
mutually agreeable weekday evening during the third
week of each month. David seconded. Passed unanimously.
Will moved that the name of the operations committee
should be the Operations Advisory Committee in accordance
with the bylaws of the organization. Roger seconded.
Passed unanimously.
Will moved that Roger Klorese, David Weekly, and Will Doherty
be initial members of the Operations Advisory Committee.
David seconded. Passed unanimously.
The board agreed to contemplate additional members of
the Operations Advisory Committee and
add them as needed later.
Back on the board issue, David pointed out that we have
existing candidates and then how to proceed in recruiting
future candidates.
The three candidates are Art McGee, Theeba Soundarajan,
and Susan Tenby.
David asked to discuss Susan Tenby first. Will summarized
Susan's application to the board, pointing out that she
would consider her participation on the board as part
of her work responsibilities and wanted to have approval
from her manager to participate.
Roger pointed out that Compumentor would not have
an ex officio Compumentor seat on the board. David
agreed that we should point that out. Roger expressed
his concern that a partnership with Compumentor could
increase demand for our services without increasing
our ability to provide services. Will mentioned that
Compumentor would consider joint grant applications,
which since they have a track record of success could
help immensely in obtaining foundation funding.
David moved that Susan Tenby become a board member
of the Online Policy Group. Will seconded. Passed
unanimously.
David suggested that meeting Art McGee before
making a decision on his board candidacy would
be a good idea. Will replied that he would like it
if Roger and David met with Art before the next
OPG board meeting and Roger and David agreed.
Will outlined Art's experience and the board
remarked on the positive interactions we've had
so far with Art. Roger asked whether Art is a
member of Third World Majority and if that would
double representation from that organization if
we agreed to bring both candidates related to
that organization onto the board. Roger asked
about defining the scope of the board and how
a "leftie" composition of the board would
influence people's perceptions of and the actual politics
of the organization. Roger explained that the
politics of the organization should be broader
than the politics of any individual board member
or group of board members. Will said we should
consider any candidate in agreement with the
organization's vision and mission.
Will presented materials related to Theeba
Soundararajan's board candidacy and the
board discussed them. Roger said that if
Theeba is coming to the organization in a
capacity similar to Susan's capacity, that
is with the understanding that there is no
ex officio position for Third World Majority
and that she serves as an individual on the
board and need not take back all questions
to the collective before making decisions,
then Roger is in favor of her candidacy.
He mentioned that he is tremendously impressed
with the scope and position of Theeba's work
with both Witness and Third World Majority.
He said Theeba would cover the gap from user
sensibility to technology issues that OPG
is concerned with, but he wants to clarify
the working relationship between Theeba,
her collective, and the OPG board. David
pointed out that the extent to which she
is representing her organization is that
there is an avoidance of conflict of interest
and that extending beyond that is improper.
David said he'd like to see a clarification
of whether Theeba is on the board as an
individual or as a member of a collective.
Roger would like to ask her for a general
statement about her role on the board and
what she perceives representing the collective
as meaning.
Will moved that Theeba Soundararajan be
accepted onto the OPG board if she confirms
that she would advocate regarding OPG's
services with the various clients she
relates to in her activities, agrees
to participate on the board understanding that
the seat on the board is not an ex officio seat
for any particular other organization, that
she be free to make decisions without consulting
with another organization, and that she express an
understanding that she should recuse herself
on decisions that involve any conflict of interest
as all board members should do. David seconded.
Approved unanimously.
Roger suggested that at the first board meeting
that involves new members we make an effort
to have a focused fundraising discussion.
4. Review Action Items
Reviewed and updated action items.
5. Financial Report
- Status: Month, Quarter, Fiscal Year to Date
Will provided report. Brief discussion about how
likely OPG is to make last fiscal year goals once
Network for Good donations arrive.
- Forecast: Upcoming revenue and expenses
Discussed budget for current fiscal year.
- Donor thank you notes
- 990 and 199 Filing
- Bank and brokerage account
Brokerage account recovering. Cash position ok.
- Grant proposals
- Fundraising strategy brainstorm
- Board fundraising commitments
6. Online Services
- Services: Email list hosting, Website hosting, Domain registrations, Colocation services
Discussed domain registration policy at OPG. OPG currently treats domain registration as a pure service to those engaged in nonprofit activities. Roger feels that domain registrations are less likely that other services to establish an ongoing relationship with a client. With declining domain registration costs, people can register domains elsewhere for less than what it costs OPG. He feels OPG should continue to register domains for clients that use other OPG services and for partners with whom we are affiliated. There is also a mechanical issue that those requesting website hosting get confused about having to request domain registrations separately. We could switch this so that website requests include the domain registration request as needed. Will asked about financial impact on the organization and Roger said it's minimal at this point and more a matter of how we establish a relationship with the client. Will asked about whether we would actually refuse a request.
Action Item: Will to remove domain registration form from
services page and to fix web, email, and email list hosting forms so that
domain registration can be requested from those forms.
Move of OPG servers: response from people who have sites on machine that needs to move has been pretty dismal. Where OPG is in control of the domain name services, we can move the sites, but clients in control of their own domain name services need to handle it.
Action Item: Roger to prepare client status sheet with columns
for website name, username, password, web services such as
MT, gallery, custom CGI, etc., comments, and status.
Action Item: Roger and Will to contact clients that
need domain name service changes.
- Support: Task Manager, Upgrades, Redundancy
- Online Community Forum (codenamed Calliope)
Will asked Alex to relinquish management of the project.
The folks interested in the project are meeting on
Tuesday evening. Roger will describe more specifically what he'd like to see as a stop-gap measure prior to full development of the Calliope project, for example, requiring log in for action pages and linking to admin pages from user pages.
- New services
7. Research
- Overall: need to recruit volunteers/interns and prioritize projects
- OSPA
- School & Library
Will published the "Internet Blocking
in Schools" report on the day the Supreme Court decided the CIPA library challenge.
The board it would be good to participate in a campaign
against wrongly blocked Internet sites along with EFF
and other interested organizations. David suggested a
site called wrongfullyblocked.org to host the project.
- Online oddities & atrocities museum
8. Outreach
- Website status
- Materials: Logo design, website design, business cards, letterhead, brochure, reply card, office sign
- Schwag: T-shirts, stickers, etc.
- Events
Possible fundraising event at Cafe du Nord organized by
Sister Kitty Catalyst. Will to ask Kitty for a budget
for the event.
Roger won $250 of public relations assistance for OPG
which could be used for event promotion.
9. Action
- Action alert updates
- Legislative and policymaking updates
10. Network
- Web and email list hosting excellent way to expand networking
- Networking brainstorm
- CalTEG
David described the current situation of CalTEG and considering have them become a project of OPG. CalTEG would provide virtual consultation and website design. Will asked if CalTEG would charge for services and David said they would not charge for services. They have a little cash in the bank but not many donations. David suggested OPG would be a fiscal sponsor for CalTEG at least at first. CalTEG has moved one of its two servers into the colo facility.
The board agreed to have Graham Freeman present a project
proposal for CalTEG at the next board meeting.
11. Media
- Media coverage
- Media releases
12. Office Space
- EFF
- LGBT Community Center
12. Legal
13. Human Resources
- Board, advisory board, and committee recruitment
The Board discussed potential candidates as described above.
- Volunteer recruitment (regular weekly project meetings)
- Intern recruitment
14. Vacation and travel schedules
15. Public Comment Period
No members of the public attending.
16. Next meeting(s):
- 12 noon, Saturday, September 6, 2003
- 12 noon, Saturday, December 6, 2003
- 12 noon, Saturday, March 6, 2004
- 12 noon, Saturday, June 5, 2004
-end-
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