Log
Board Meeting
October 27, 2002

(Brent) OK, I call the meeting to order
(Brent) Item 1 Minutes of last meeting
(Brent) comments or questions?
(Jan) None
(Gerard) none
(Mary) None
(Brent) Shirley: none
(Brent) Ok, then the minutes are ratified as correct......
(Brent) Item 2 Major Donation Vote
(Brent) Ray Girod has donated
(Brent) $3000 to TT Inc, with no qualification.
(Brent) Questions of comments before we vote?
(Mary) I move we accept the donation.
(Jan) I second
(Brent) Shirley seconds
(Brent) OK vote yes to accept, no to reject
(Roger) yes
(Brent) Brent: yes
(Mary) yes
(Jan) Yes
(Brent) Shirley: yes
(Gerard) yes
(Brent) Motion carries unanimously! ( of course)
(Brent) and Thank you Ray!
(Brent) Item 3 TT Booklet Roger, Mary?
(Mary) Booklet orders have reached over 400 to date.
(Mary) The cost in the US is 1.42 , most overseas run around $5 US dollars.
(Mary) I have about $200 left in postage money so will not need more for a while unless
(Mary) we get a lot of overseas orders.
(Mary) Roger in gettin an order of 200 to be shipped ASAP. End of report
(Roger) An order of 200 copies has been placed with Kinkos. They are ready to pick up (which I will do later today) and be checked before sending them on to Mary tomorrow. I'm not sure of the cost yet. They said something like $1200 on the phone, but I reminded them we had a quote for less than that which was supposed to be "long-standing."
(Brent) Good, Mary. Roger: no problems with the reorder?
(Brent) opps, sorry
(Mary) Note. We are getting more multiple orders now than before. Mostly for 2 or 3 rather than 1.
(Brent) And they responded how?
(Roger) I have the quotes for the larger quantities and tried to find a copy of a previous receipt (I'm in the process of moving and things are a bit scattered around at the moment).
(Brent) Roger, will they give you the lower price?
(Roger) I'll bring in the quotes and work something out with the manager. They had a change of management and I believe that the new manager would like to maintain large-order commitments (like ours).
(Roger) Mary, do you remember the month of the last order we had?
(Mary) Just a second. let me look.
(Brent) Roger: good idea. Also remind him we are a noprofit Org. that migh help.
(Mary) I mailed out mass orders on 7/22
(Roger) I did that, and mentioned that they should have a letter on file from us. They might have lost the letter, but that shouldn't be our problem!
(Mary) Roger I will double check and let you know for sure. I think it was around the 4th of July.
(Brent) Roger: true, and if he is new, probably not familuar with old clients and files yet.
(Roger) I'll email the group tomorrow with the final costs and postage costs. Nancy will be sending me the balance.
(Mary) Whoa, I have the box with the postage stamp right here, July 16th it was mailed to me.
(Jan) Roger, if they have lost the letter, and it was a good price, then the problem may be ours anyhow. Would be nice if you could find that quote...
(Roger) Thanks Mary! That will help steer me to the right file folder for the receipt.
(Brent) Roger: do you anticipate a problem?
(Roger) Nah, just a little inconvenience. I'm looking through my files right now. The old receipt wasn't in July's.
(Mary) Try June's that is probably when you made the order.
(Roger) Not in June either. I'll try May too.
(Roger) Found it! It was in May. The total then was $507.24 for 100 copies. I'll see what I can do about getting this order for $1014 or so!!!
(Brent) Roger: very good. email us with the update later.
(Brent) Are we done with this agenda item?
(Mary) Done here.
(Brent) Jan, roger, Gerard?
(Brent) hello?
(Gerard) yes
(Brent) OK, item 4 800 number cancelation discussion?
(Jan) Done. OK. Btw, Roger just e-mailed trying to get on. Guess he hasn't realized the DS change
(Brent) Jan: you mean Stan?
(Roger) Hmmm, I told him it was at noon!
(Roger) Maybe he's looking at the wrong clock.
(Brent) Can we discuss Item 4 now?
(Mary) If the 800 isn't being used, I do not feelwe can afford to keep it. Our time and money are better used elsewhere.
(Roger) I agree with Mary
(Jan) Sorry Roger :-) Seems like an old e-mail from you that I didn't get until now...
(Mary) I would like to make a motion to disconnect the 800 number effective immediately, or asap.
(Brent) Shirley: I move we cancel the 800 number, and all final bills to be sent to Nancy for payment.
(Roger) I second the motion.
(Brent) All in favor vote yew, against no
(Mary) yes
(Brent) Yew=yes hehehehehe
(Roger) yes
(Jan) Mary, what do you know about the usage of the 800 number? Has it ever been in any real use? How many contacts have we gotten via the 800?
(Brent) sherley: yes
(Brent) brent:yes
(Mary) I don't know Jan.
(Jan) OK
(Jan) Yes
(Brent) Jan: no use, no contact
(Brent) OK, motion carries, 800 number to be cancelled
(Gerard) yes
(Jan) Brent, I think a lot of rather grand plans were made back in the days Nancy concentrated more on TT and when Ron was around.
(Brent) OK, on to item 5 Treasurers Report
(Brent) Comments? Jan?
(Brent) Shirley: no comments here......
(Brent) Jan: true.....
(Mary) The report seems complete. I have no questions.
(Jan) I have received the last batch of receipt copies etc. from Nancy. No report except the one on the web. Looks good though. No other comments
(Brent) OK, good....shall we move on to item 6?
(Brent) Gerard just got bumped.......lets wait a few minuts.
(Mary) Question on Item 6, Are you, Brent going to be utilizing this server? and what exactly are the plans.
(Gerard) sorry
(Jan) Brent, before we start on item 6. WHat does "Nancy is aware" in the agenda mean? Does it mean she is positive about the idea, or what?
(Brent) Jan: Nancy is posative, and aware (in the loop) about these plans
(Jan) OK
(Jan) But for this to make sense, you will also need a (A)DSL and somebody to set it up, right?
(Brent) Mary: Instead of moving server to Sweden with Jurian, move it here for TT use, not personal. Plans include audio, video, possably a newsletter...the last Nancy's idea.
(Gerard) Brent: but you need a good co-loc for that
(Brent) Jan: we are talking about "colocation" at an ISP useing T1.
(Jan) Brent, we are talking about the second Unix machine at Nancy's house, not the Sun server?
(Jan) (Whatever happened to that...)
(Brent) Jan: yes, server 2 at Nancy's......God knows what happened to the sun server and Shawn.
(Jan) Wasn't the idea to have it as a failover for the TT server? If one's at Nancy's house, and one in Hawaii, then we will need two DNS addresses as well
(Brent) Jan: that may have been the original idea, but hasn't come through. The second server is collecting dust, and should be used. As far as DNS addy, not sure, but Gerard and Jurian in duscussion don't seem to think there would be a problem.
(Jan) Was it ever planned to move this server to Sweden? Wasn't that the Sun server that Jurian would host?
(Jan) My take would be to find a new solution for BOTH servers. If the one falls over, then the second should be able to take over locally.
(Brent) Jan: both had been discussed at different times, first server 2, then the Sun.
(Brent) Jan: that is still a possability with server 2 in Hawaii, used as a back up mirror site.
(Brent) Gerard: want to jump in here for technical info?
(Jan) The main TT pointer is still to the ZetaTalk server. If the TT pointers in ZetaTalk are changed to point to the TT server (as they should have been), I think there would be more thaffic & higher demands.
(Brent) Jan: your point?
(Jan) Hawaii could very well work as a backup mirror, but then we would need a new DNS for that, and people would have to be aware of the mirrors
(Brent) Well, that could be arranged, and worked out....
(Gerard) Brent: as long as you will find a good co lo for it
(Jan) Brent, my point is that even though server 2 gathers dust, it's purpose of fail-over cannot be accomplished if it is moved.
(Jan) Our main problem may be that except for Nancy, we don't seem to have any volunteer unix admins around any more?
(Gerard) well i am only learning a bit of it now
(Gerard) and i don't have the knowledge yet to run a server
(Gerard) or to install it
(Brent) Jan: Thats why I'm volunteering with Gerards and Jurians help behind the scenes. IF the server is collecting dust now, it certainly is not being used as a fail safe backup!
(Jan) Brent, would you be willing to arrange for taking over both?
(Brent) Nancy, Jurian, and I have been in discussion on this, and the attitude is favorable. I do need to find a proper "colocator" for the server.
(Brent) Jan: no need for both, Jurian and gerard help Nancy behind the scenes, as they will help me.
(Jan) Separating them will generate more issues I think, and by combining their power at an ISP we could take more traffic than Nancy can now, have a more stable environment with UPS etc.
(Roger) Any idea how much it will cost to ship both?
(Jan) Well, I'll not be the difficult one here, only you know the implications by separating them.
(Brent) Nancy does not want to ship both....only one. the more diversified sites we have , the safer the info stored on each server is. one may be destroyed in the PS, another may survive.
(Brent) Jan: server 2 is not even hooked up.....
(Roger) I move we approve the $200 to ship server 2 to Brent's location.
(Jan) I was only thinking pre-PS here. If this is for post-PS usage, then I have no comments
(Brent) Shirley: I second
(Brent) Jan: a little of both, pre and post PS. We want at least one to survive....better odds if seperate.
(Brent) Any more comments, or questions before we vote?
(Jan) No
(Gerard) no
(Brent) Vote yes to approve, no to disapprove
(Roger) yes
(Brent) Shirley:yes
(Jan) Yes
(Brent) Brent: yes
(Gerard) yes
(Mary) I am going to abstain. I am not knowledgeable enough on this subject to vote.
(Brent) Mary: none of us are that knowlegable....this is just a vote to ship the server.
(Mary) Yes, but there are other things here, post ps, pre ps colocator? mirror sites?
(Mary) Please continue with the agenda. I remain abstained.
(Brent) Mary: fine......Nancy has submitted absentee votes incase of quorum issues.....Nancy has voted yes on this item of the agenda
(Jan) Mary no problem. I was originally about to abstain as well, but given that the current planned usage has not taken place, some usage in Hawaii may be better.
(Brent) the motion carries, and server shippment approved.
(Brent) Item 7 ongoing projects......reports linked to agenda. Comments on the acerage project?
(Brent) Shirley: none here
(Jan) None.
(Mary) Roger, since next spring is so close to the ps date, are you anticipating planting again.
(Brent) Roger?
(Roger) Yes, we hope to plant this spring. There was a blurb about the survivability of storage vs. planted crops.
(Mary) OK, no other questions at this time. Thanks.
(Roger) Planted crops may be harvested and eaten (emphasis on may).
(Gerard) i have no questions either
(Brent) Yes, may as well take the chance, and plant what you can.....
(Brent) OK, Shortwave project......questions for shirley?
(Brent) hello?
(Jan) No report on the web. I guess this was due to low activity?
(Roger) No questions here.
(Roger) There was a report, bad link on the agenda.
(Jan) OK - haven't seen the report. Anything interesting?
(Mary) No questions here.
(Jan) Any link to the report?
(Brent) Roger: I just tried the link.....no problem opening the report. Basically, not much to report this month, hopefully next.
(Roger) Sorry, I seem to have misplaced the email. It should be on the group page. I don't remember the details...Shirley?
(Roger) Brent: Both links point to my report.
(Jan) Brent, both acerage & radio links to the acerage report only.
(Brent) shirley: what Brent just said.....i am ready to cooperate, and do my part if called upon.
(Brent) Roger, Jan: just noticed that...sorry, should have checked the links before meeting.
(Roger) No problem.
(Jan) No problem.
(Brent) OK, shall we move on to item 8? Seed Dispersal?
(Jan) To add in from my part, I am currently concentrating more on astronomy that radio, and have a high travel frequency, so I don't count on much happening from my side either short term (e.g. this year)
(Jan) Let's move on
(Brent) OK, thanks Jan for that input.
(Brent) Item 8....Seed Dispersal, and request for funds.
(Brent) discussion?
(Jan) Currently, the most important projects are the booklet and acerage / seed distribution. I don't think this needs much discussion.
(Brent) seems the dispursal is going well, and there is quite the interest.
(Roger) Nancy estimate is conservative. I'll be preparing
packages soon to supplement her stock as needed.
(Jan) I move we approve the required funds
(Mary) I second it.
(Roger) We may want to approve additional funds in case we run over the 100 additional packages she estimates.
(Roger) Or we could revisit next month.
(Brent) OK, vote yes to approve, no to deny
(Roger) yes
(Brent) shirley: yes
(Mary) yes
(Brent) brent:yes
(Jan) Yes - revisit next month
(Gerard) yes
(Mary) We can always approve more as needed.
(Brent) motion carries, funding approved. and, yes, we can revisit the issue if needed in the months ahead.
(Brent) OK, very good! thats all the agenda items......any more thoughts or discussion?
(Jan) AOB: I have not received any feedback from Geson on the video
(Brent) Jan: hmmmm.......wonder if he is still around?
(Jan) I guess we should point people to the Planet X video instead, even if it costs more...
(Brent) mabe so.....hopefully we can get server2 operational with streaming audio and video!
(Roger) Well, since the agenda's exhausted, and I have things to do...I move to adjourn!
(Jan) Brent, he had 2 e-mail addresses, one e-mail that was flooded, and one he is subscribed in Digest mode to TT Watch (I believe). Seems he has moved back to ...
(Mary) Bye all. Gerard, keep yourself and yours SAFE in that storm.
(Brent) OK, meeting adjourned