Item 251. Board Meeting Minutes for April, 2009 Denise M. Anderson (denise) Wed, Apr 22, 2009 (18:43). 60 lines, 21 responses. Here are the minutes for the meeting held on 4/19/09 Present: gelina, aruba, STeve, tsty, denise, and by speaker phone: cross. Unable to attend: unicorn. STeve called the meeting to order at 7:25 pm. First order of business: election of officers. For president, gelinas was nominated and elected, 5 for, 1 abstained For treasurer, aruba was nominated and elected, 5 for, 1 abstained For secretary, denise was nominated and elected, 5 for, 1 abstained. Treasurer report: Monthly expenses are $150/month In the bank, we have about $5,000. The question of earning interest was brought up. The checking account is earning a small amount of interest; having it in a savings account may not get us much more than what we're currently getting. If someone would like to do some research, let us know. There are a number of people who's memberships have expired. Reminders need to be sent. Will consider having membership start on the date membership is paid instead of being made retroactive to when it expired. Issues discussed: -How do we want to expand: growing the membership vs fixing the system and thus, then growing the membership... -What do we want Grex to be and what can we offer? Primary purpose-communication. Should we consider having a blogging option available to members? Something like Wordpress or LiveJournal? Other things we offer includes conferencing, front talk, backtalk, party/multi-user chat, unix, mail [very limited at this point in time]. We still have students that are referred to grex for coursework--programming, code writing, etc... -Newusers come in to the system with restricted access; can get increased access through validation from one of the porters. Do we want to have some kind of fee structure to get better access? Even something like $1.00 through a check or paypal may limit access to vandals. Would this be a problem in accessing the funds in some situations [ie, other countries]; could we work this out on a case by case basis? -How do we attract younger users? Why kind of things [not already mentioned] will attract them to grex? And along the same line, how do we get current members to recommend grex to others? Why do people leave, why are some coming back? Getting back to having some face-to-face interactions for those in the Ann Arbor area may help build connections. Along with the Saturday morning grex walks and debriefing, perhaps having potlucks, happy hours, picnics, etc would bring more people together. What else? -What other technical stuff do we want to work on? New equipment/hardware? More RAM? -->Discussion to be continued at a future meeting. Next meeting is scheduled for Sunday, May 24th, time and place to be determined. Meeting adjourned at 9pm. 21 responses total. ---------- (251) #1 Denise M. Anderson (denise) Wed, Apr 22, 2009 (18:45). 5 lines. Sorry this took a few days, I've been having some technical difficulties. Any other board members that were in attendance--feel free to add or elaborate on any of the above statements. ---------- (251) #2 TS Taylor (tsty) Thu, Apr 23, 2009 (14:32). 1 line. quite fast enough .... nicely done. ---------- (251) #3 TS Taylor (tsty) Mon, Apr 27, 2009 (11:29). 4 lines. several qustons wer reaised in the meeting ... and posted above ... one concep t of coop.cf is that these ten get disciussed here. anyh idesa/toghts from the above start-talking points? ---------- (251) #4 TS Taylor (tsty) Wed, Apr 29, 2009 (21:50). 2 lines. how about hte blog sofware installation idea? ---------- (251) #5 Denise M. Anderson (denise) Tue, May 5, 2009 (20:27). 2 lines. Are we still considering having the next meeting at Zingerman's or some other public place? ---------- (251) #6 Mary Remmers (mary) Wed, May 6, 2009 (06:54). 7 lines. If it's at, say, Zing's, and you wanted to try this, I could bring a laptop and bring in Dan via Skype or iChat. Not sure how easy it would be to bring in two remote users though. The video is fine but it starts to get difficult for both remote users to hear each other. As long as you have two or more remote board members it may just be easier to continue holding meetings in quiet, well-connected locations. ---------- (251) #7 Denise M. Anderson (denise) Wed, May 6, 2009 (18:29). 6 lines. There's some sort of system [I forget what it's called] that TS mentioned and he was going to try and see what kind of reception he'd get at Zing's; I'm not sure if he's tested it yet or not. At the last meeting, Unicorn couldn't come nor call in due to his work schedule; hopefully he'll be able to attend this next meeting. ---------- (251) #8 TS Taylor (tsty) Thu, May 7, 2009 (02:34). 2 lines. oh, yeh ... better got on that... it;s gonna be weird to waltz into zingies witha laptop AND a telephone on the table. ---------- (251) #9 TS Taylor (tsty) Thu, May 7, 2009 (02:35). 4 lines. or under myu arm ... or whatever.. i know .. i;l jsut say it;s an old fashined cell phone! back be fore they got minatuareized. think that would work? ---------- (251) #10 Denise M. Anderson (denise) Fri, May 8, 2009 (15:04). 5 lines. I'm sure people have done stranger things... I can't remember the last time I've been to Zing's; it's been too long. If we end up not meeting there, I'll have to make a run out there some other time soon. Soon, it will be nice enough to dine outside. ---------- (251) #11 S. Lynne Fremont (slynne) Fri, May 8, 2009 (15:43). 1 line. It has been nice enough to dine outside for that past few weeks :) ---------- (251) #12 Ken Josenhans (krj) Sun, May 10, 2009 (12:09). 2 lines. Remember, you can't get a sandwich at Zingerman's these days until your loan is approved. ---------- (251) #13 Mary Remmers (mary) Sun, May 10, 2009 (14:10). 5 lines. Hey, it's only expensive if you eat a whole sandwich at one meal. Which is simply wrong to begin with. They are HUGE. If you go to McDonald's you'll spend $7.00 for garbage. I'll take a half #32 over that any day. ---------- (251) #14 Denise M. Anderson (denise) Sun, May 10, 2009 (20:46). 11 lines. Ok, Mary, what's a #32? Years ago, the walking group must've been pretty rich since we had the debrief at Zingerman's on a fairly regular basis. I have a friend that, when she dines out, will mainly go only to places that have the dollar menu items. Granted, she can't eat a whole lot in one sitting due to having had a gastric bypass many years ago but still, she's a cheapskate. It seems like McD's, Wendy's, and Taco Bell are her favorite restaurants. I'll have to ask her sometime if she's ever eaten at Zing's. ---------- (251) #15 Mary Remmers (mary) Mon, May 11, 2009 (07:34). 17 lines. A #32 is fresh mozzarella cheese, roasted red pepper, lettuce, tomato and olive oil on Paisano bread. I sub-out balsamic vinaigrette for straight olive oil. I'll agree with Ken that Zing's prices are too high for it to be a stop on the debrief circuit. For the first few years it was open they did try to compete with other sandwich spots and their price-point reflected that. They have since gone on to carve out a niche where it's all about the quality of the ingredients. And the knowledgeable service. And, with lines out the door, they can afford to do this. ---------- (251) #16 Denise M. Anderson (denise) Mon, May 11, 2009 (09:40). 2 lines. The #32 sounds delicious! And I agree that the prices at Zing's is too high for the regular debriefings. ---------- (251) #17 Ken Josenhans (krj) Mon, May 11, 2009 (13:01). 17 lines. Drift Advisory: Narrating some back-story about things that happened while Denise was gone... Yes, Zingerman's used to be the regular walking debrief location each Saturday, back when you could get a sandwich there for maybe $6-$7 -- and also back when the lines were not around the block at Saturday lunchtime. Sometime in the mid-1990s, Valerie, who was a vegetarian, fomented a revolution to stop going to Zing's every week, and she started the current concept where we visit a different restaurant every week. I think that Zingerman's can get somewhat boring if one doesn't eat meat. The Saturday lunch still happened at Zingerman's once or twice a year, until the last few years, when there seemed to be general discontent with the price and crowding issues. ---------- (251) #18 Mary Remmers (mary) Mon, May 11, 2009 (13:08). 5 lines. I'm really liking the current system. Not every week is a favorite but that's okay. Too, I've tried restaurants I otherwise wouldn't have and found a few jewels along the way. Ken does a fab job of mixing it up, syncing with local events, and keeping everyone happy. Not sure how he does it, but he does. ---------- (251) #19 Ken Josenhans (krj) Mon, May 11, 2009 (18:35). 2 lines. I started Agora item #98 for discussion of the walks, lunches and area restaurants. ---------- (251) #20 Denise M. Anderson (denise) Wed, May 13, 2009 (17:34). 9 lines. resp:18 The current system does seem to be working well. [I hope it didn't come across as complaining that the debriefs aren't at Zing's any more. I'm the first to admit that the crowds and the expense are good reasons to go elsewhere for the lunches. Since it's probably been at least 2 years or so since I've been there, I do want to go again sometime in the relatively near future. Perhaps after my stimulus check comes. Or for my birthday which is coming up in a few weeks. Then I can go for another couple years without eating there...] Or do we know yet if we're having our meeting at Zing's Next Door? ---------- (251) #21 TS Taylor (tsty) Fri, May 22, 2009 (15:09). 13 lines. uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, i jus tnow thogut to ask ... is/are there other acepatble spots w/wireless that i could try out?? franlky i only considered zingerz ... (w/o thohgt of $$$$$$). any other suggestoins for wireless connetion & mmeeting place & food? (mcds' *does* have wireless i;ve seen plasted on some of their windows) send email ... it;s faster than xxx.cf or telepphone (which is even faster Plan: phone: 734.817.1982 R/P: OK: