[FreeGeek] meeting minutes - 2007-03-07 - corrected

[sean hill]

Sorry about the weird duplications in the minutes... not sure what
happened, but hope this one works properly.

sean h  :o)

=======================================

Free Geek General Meeting - 3 March 2007

Agenda
======

Old Business
- PayPal
- Summit on IT
- Location - Victoria/Powell

New Business
- Donation/Grant $
- Locations
- Membership definition
- Charitable status

Events
- March 19 - VANlug
- 21 - Linux Clinic - Windowless Wednesday
- 24 - Sista' Hood
- 28 - Movie Night - Software "Pirates" and Files Shares
- April 7 - General Meeting - Video In 1965 Main St


Paypal
------
- Up and running - online
- registered as non-profit - lower fees
- Separate Vancity account for PayPal
- Still looking at other options

Summit on IT
------------
- 24th - Supposed to be there but fee was $1200
- too expensive, opted out
- brochures were to be put into bags of entrants
- about 150 distributed

Locations - Victoria/Powell
--------------------------
- looked at by David and Directors
- good location - $ 1500 month
- option to expand to basement
- elevator ~4x5 foot - wouldn't fit a std skid
- door to upstairs facility too small
- asked to resize door - said they would but rent would increase by sq foot
- offered to donate door and labour - refused
- off the radar
- developed good relationship with Colliers (Scott)

Donations/Grants $
------------------
- March 1st - won the Canadian Association of Cultural Studies at the
University of Alberta grant - $300
    - will help with future applications
    - included much of the text that went into the Freedonia grant

- Other donations have come in
    - $200 cash
    - Received sound equipment that we can sell to raise money

Ifny's Trip to Portland
-----------------------
- 4 hours at PDX
- picked up FGV's new server by bike
- server donated by PDX to replace old server
- sat with Richard (one of FG-PDX founders)
    - talked about hardware grants

Locations
---------
- 7th & Manitoba
    - for sublease by CBRE
    - in negotiations - off the market
    - good location

- 5th & Quebec
    - 2 sides leased by 2 different companies
    - 6000 sq/ft - 1500 warehouse - 700 reno'd office
    - 2 floors
    - ~$3750/mo
    - might be able to share with another org

Membership definition
---------------------
- by law membership must be defined
- BC societies must have members - not the same as Portland
- basic definition came out of last governance meeting:
    - "Having a volunteer number"
        - people would need to register
    - some contention around how a member is defined compared to how a
member is dismissed
    - issue put back to governance for further discussion
    - please watch governance list

Software/Distro
---------------
- first meeting
- what distro will we use
- moving towards ubuntu for workstation computers, debian for servers
- our version will likely be tweaked to FGV's liking
- ubuntu is flexible and has lots of support

Charitable status
-----------------
- meeting with Omar from Pedal Depot
- talked about his experience with charitable status application
- Omar suggested now is the right time - apply now while you don't have
to prove anything. The idea of where you're going to go is more important.
- our mission statement fits well with application requirements
- Charitable status will help us get grants and receive donations by tax
deductibles
- application will go up on grant wiki for modification and discussion
- question raised: how might it restrict our actions/choices?

Recent communication meeting
---------------------
- talked about publicity
- brochures have been printed
- business cards on the way - including generic cards for people to pass out
- looking for a printer to do a geek calendar for Fall
    - talk to whoever did downtown eastside calendar
    - perhaps to include other FGs
- more DVDs from PDX
- buttons/stickers
- accessibility must be prime for all meetings and venues

Events
------
Mar  6    - FG intergalactic irc meeting
    - 1 hour
Mar 19  - Presentation at VANlug (Vancouver Linux Users group)
    - 1/2 hour
    - play video
    - spiel
    - questions
Mar 21  - Linux Clinic (Windowless Wednesday) - 7-10
    - Roundhouse will not work
    - likely to be at SPEC again
    - OpenOffice.org presentation
    - education meeting next week to discuss needs
    - used at library - outreach/publicity at library
Mar 24  - Sista' Hood
    - will have a table with material and running computers available
    - $30 table
    - on their website with a description
Mar 28  - Movie night - Software "Pirates" and File Sharers
    - 1983 TV show - The Software Chronicles
        - same issues and topics as today
    - "Steal This Film"
        - About the Pirate Bay
Mar 28  - "Massive Tech"
Apr  7    - Next general meeting
    - Video In - 1965 Main St