Log
Board Meeting
April 3, 2004

Session Start: Sat Apr 03 12:07:09 2004
(Roger) I call this meeting to order.
(Roger) The first order of business is the minutes from the last meeting. Any questions or comments?
(Nancy) None here
(Mary) None.
(Steve) none
(Roger) Then the minutes are ratified as correct.
(Roger) The next agenda item is the review of ongoing projects
(Roger) The first project is the CD project.
(Roger) Sales have been steady with the majority of requests being for the combined CD and booklet bundle
(Roger) 75 CDs have been distributed to date.
(Nancy) Inventory holding up well for the near future?
(Nancy) Oh, since we cut 1,000, looks OK :-)
(Roger) Most definitely. Until we have an increase in orders, we will be fine for several months at this rate of sales.
(Nancy) And as I recall on the booklets, we were OK in that area too, right?
(Roger) Mike Lob has reported that he has nearly completed a new set of CDs containing survival information gathered from multiple sources.
(Roger) He plans to cut samples and offer these for us to distribute as well.
(Roger) Yes, the booklet stock is about the same (maybe a couple hundred less).
(Nancy) I knew he was working on this. An immense undertaking. What are we to do with the sample, run a test of some sort? I think he was going to do that on tt-forum, if I recall correctly.
(Nancy) It would mean another couple thousand to burn THIS CD also, which we don't have at the moment.
(Roger) He says that it is 3 CDs so far. It will be expensive initially to get these stamped as we have done with our web content. There may not be as much interest so we would definitely want to consider a smaller set initially.
(Nancy) On a side note, I switched to PO Box 10 in town here on the web, as we had a sorting problem in Baraboo and got our mail late at PO Box 249. I am getting mail at BOTH boxes for booklets and Combos and the like.
(Nancy) So folks are ordering from the backs of booklets, as well as the web.
(Roger) We have kind of moved on to the Survival booklet project and these should probably be combined in future reports.
(Nancy) Yes, Roger, a smaller burn for this CD set would be the answer! We need to determine interest then, somehow.
(Roger) I haven't heard anything more from our lone watchdog (Mr. Jones). I guess he is content with the addendum and has not found any more errors in the booklet.
(Nancy) He's moved onto other forms of complain, but this is not nonprofit related so not a discussion item.
(Roger) We should probably use a similar method of polling interest as we used for the web content CD.
(Roger) If there is nothing further, I will continue with the Acreage and Seed projects.
(Nancy) Is this an action item for the nonprofit, to poll for interest?
(Nancy) Who is to do what?
(Nancy) Just so this does not get dropped.
(Mary) Lets wait until the CD set is completely done and one of you have been able to review it.
(Roger) It is a "team" item and as such is only overseen by the nonprofit.
(Nancy) Sounds like a plan!
(Nancy) Maybe we can line up some volunteers from the membership, too.
(Roger) Shall we move to the next report?
(Nancy) Yes.
(Roger) Nothing much to report from the Acreage project. I've been swamped at work and not able to do much at either location here. Within the next month or so I hope to transfer a good portion of the material from the original site to the secondary site (including the tiller).
(Nancy) The weather has been surprisingly warm, with drought conditions in Arizona (wild fire there already) and fires in Florida, so I think your plan solid.
(Roger) Most of the planting area and plans for it are maintained at the old site by Stan. I've not had a chance to make contact with Stan for a while. I will try sending another email to him and see how things are going.
(Roger) The new site needs a lot of attention to get going. We've had a good amount of moisture so far this spring so we should have a good start to this season!
(Nancy) Seems, Roger, you are doing all the work these days and should be commended!
(Mary) I agree!!
(Roger) Well, it's good to be busy (keeps the mind sharp and the body fit).
(Nancy) And an exhausted body sleeps well at night.
(Roger) The tiller issue is more of a report to the board. It will still be under my control, just moved to the new site where it is needed for the initial set up of the growing space.
(Nancy) If it is under turf, you'll get your exercise!
(Roger) Some places will be challenging. My friend wants some areas that will attract wildlife (oats and such in narrow strips).
(Roger) It will be a good exercise to plan this out and get it going.
(Nancy) And it can be such fun, too.
(Roger) If there is no objection from the board, I will make the arrangements to move the tiller. I should be able to handle any expense involved.
(Nancy) You have my approval and best wishes!
(Roger) The next project is the Shortwave Radio project. The following was received from Shirley this morning:
(Mary) No objections from me.
(Roger) BlankHello: Nothing to report really. We are taking the first class tomorrow on how to build a Morse code radio. I won't, of course, be building mine, but the instructor is going to build it for me and use it as a demo for the rest of the class. I will get it when it's finished. Hopefully this will motivate me to get more into CW, which I do every so often; then something comes up, or I guess I'm not getting along as fast as I think I should, and then it all falls apart. I know the code all right, the problem is getting up to speed. It's a good job I took my exam years ago; not sure I could pass it today!!
Apart from that, nothing has really changed.
Best regards,
Shirley
(Roger) Any comments? I will forward them to Shirley...
(Mary) Apart from that, nothing has really changed.
(Mary) Best regards,
(Mary) No, The girl does good and just plugs along no matter what!
(Nancy) Roger, Shirley's report did not come through to me, on my log.
(Nancy) I would echo Mary's comments, so no need to repost.
(Nancy) BUT, as I will do the log and minutes, can you sent to me via email? Thanks.
(Roger) It was sent to the tt-inc list. I can also forward it to you.
(Nancy) Thanks, if you have it handy!
(Roger) It's on the way :)
(Roger) The last report is from Brent. I will try to post it in here...
(Roger) Microsoft servers. At this point I not sure what direction to go in, so in the mean time I just keep talking to people, and hope for a breakthrough.
(Roger) It might be best to switch to MS. I think Windows XP is mostly unix based now anyway so the only issue will be purchasing this and getting it installed. What is our available funding?
(Roger) [That last was from me.]
(Nancy) I noted his mention of MS software, concern that it would be more easily hacked. I have an older copy of MS server software, 10 years old, that we paid $2,000 or more for back then. I could attempt to copy the CD's and sent to him, if this should be the decision. Oh course, our available funding is at the bottom, and anything we gain from the CD and Booklet sales to turn around for more production of these popular items. Yikes.
(Nancy) I installed the MS on a server my husband built for me, user friendly enough. We had a little LAN in our apartment.
(Roger) Anything that can be done for us to benefit from this server would be good. I think we should send Brent a copy of this software and see if he can make it happen.
(Nancy) I'll dig this up and copy, as my time demands allow.
(Roger) As long as there isn't any sensitive data on that server, I don't think we will have any issues with hackers.
(Steve) I have to head off now everyone, supposed to meet a friend down at the pool for a swim.
(Nancy) Indeed, it would be used for web hosting which can be reloaded if hacked, or email pickup, or chat group support. None sensitive.
(Steve) Is there any vote issue that needs addressing?
(Nancy) The server software we have is well debugged, thus solid. Was NOT a new item at the time.
(Nancy) Steve, I don't think so.
(Mary) Why don't we e-mail Brent and get his idea on this.
(Steve) Ok, bye everyone for now!
(Mary) Bye steve.
(Roger) Later Steve. Thanks for coming
(Nancy) Mary, I will at least get started gathering it together but will wait to hear from Brent before doing more than that!
(Nancy) I can burn CD's here.
(Roger) I think Nancy should go ahead and find this when she has a chance and make a backup copy. We can ask Brent if he wants to try this option. The arrangements could be finalized between him and Nancy and just reported to this board.
(Mary) sounds good. This is all greek to me anyways !
(Nancy) I will email Brent re this, as an action item.
(Roger) I think that pretty much concludes all our business for this meeting. Do I have a motion to adjourn?
(Mary) I move we adjourn.
(Nancy) I second this motion
(Roger) Thanks for coming and this meeting is officially adjourned!
Session Close: Sat Apr 03 13:03:18 2004