link to Home Page

Minutes
Board Meeting
October 10, 2009

The meeting was called to order via email on November 10, 2009. Those attending: Roger, (chairing President), Gerard, Steve, and Nancy.

Agenda Item 1: Minutes of Last Meeting - Approval
 
- Since there had been no objections, the Minutes of the last Board Meeting were by default considered ratified as correct.
Agenda Item 2: Financial Report
- Nancy reported that all administrative expenses having been paid, the 2009 total in the checking account was $897.43. At the beginning of the year it was $873.73. The checking account receives checks for booklets and CD's from those not wanting to use PayPal.
- The Annunal expenses for 2009 had been $25 to the State of Delaware with an annual report, $15 to the State of Wisconsin to register a place of business for the nonprofit, $100 for the official nonprofit PO box here in North Freedom; and $235 to The Company Corporation, the Delaware agent.
- Roger reported that the PayPal account has $1395 on hand. The PayPal account receives funds directly from those buying booklets and CD's.
Agenda Item 3: Booklet/CD Project
- Nancy reported that the website had recently undergone an internal link audit, with repairs, and that a volunteer was currently checking external links too. The website will be in good order when it comes time to burn new CD's.
- Roger reported that the booklet inventory is at 120, and that 48 CD sets remain. The booklet is reprinted in batches as needed and the CD's can also be burned as needed.
 
- Since the CD master would be recreated from the website, Roger posed the possibility of producing only one CD to reduce production and shipping and packaging costs. Nancy computed that both the HTML and PDF versions would not fit on a single CD, as the CD only has 700 MB of space available while the PDF version alone requires 493 MB and the HTML website is 640 MB of data.
- Roger posed the possibility of burning a single DVD, and found the cost would be around $1.49 each (for a batch of 100). That would allow production costs to be within the margin for retailing at $4.10 each.
- The issue of whether to offer a single DVD as well as twinset CD's was left open, no vote taken.
Agenda Item 4: Webserver Project
- Roger reported that running a webserver from his DSL connection is not feasible due to his workload and the inability to obtain a static IP address. Nancy noted that she has switched to running a newsletter from a professional website rather than from home, for similar reasons. The issue of what to do with the aging server in Roger's possession, or the nonprofit assets in Nancy's possession, was left open, no vote taken.
 
- Nancy noted that bandwidth costs are lately the major cost of webhosting elsewhere, for downloads of the Troubled Times data to qualifying members of the public. Based on the cost of maintaining the website, 17 GIG were downloaded for a cost of $135/mo. This would equate to 74 CDs worth of data, at a cost of $1.82/CD, making download of data comparable to producing and mailing a single CD.
- Gerard stated that if the cost was comparable, there would be no reason to host the data for downloading at a cost to the nonprofit.
 
- Roger mentioned that a member was in the process of setting up a webhosting site, donating access for download to the nonprofit and putting funds for the cost of webhosting and downloading in a fund. This is tentative pending finalization of the gift, which will be anonymous at least at present. The vote to accept this givt was left as an open issue until such time, no vote taken.
 
- Gerard raised the issue of using BitTorrent as a download facility, to save bandwidth.
- Steve explained that the cost is negligible because a BitTorrent host allows access to the file, which is then "seeded" to personal computers as the data is accessed, wherein these personal computers become the next host to be used.
- Nancy noted that this process appears to be simultaneous, the download and "seeding" to the next request done at the same time, so no particular password or access to someone's personal computer is necessary.
- Using BitTorrent as a download option was left open, no vote taken.
 
- Nancy stated the rules for allowing someone to get a free CD or download the data - that they agree to distribute the data for free with no charge. Roger reported that he had only gotten one request on this matter, from someone wanting to market on eBay, but this request was refused as not in compliance with the nonprofit rules.
- Nancy questioned the ability of BitTorrent to keep control of the data, which would be public domain once on a BitTorrent host. Since the data is given away free on the web anyway, perhaps not an issue.
- Roger mentioned that the gift of a webhosting site would be controlled such that qualifying individuals would get a password for downloading site data.
- The issue of any change in the nonprofit rules for downloading data was left open, no vote taken.
Agenda Item 5: Adjournment
 
- A motion THAT the meeting adjourn was made by Nancy and seconded by Mary.
- The meeting was adjourned on October 13, 2009 at 4:35 pm with no objections from the board members.