General VOICE Meeting from 07/16/2001

<Walter This Members meeting of VOICE is hereby called to order.
<madodel0 What problem with the VOICE computers?
<Walter Before we go any further, I have a fairly extensive agenda for tonight--not one that should take us long get through, however.
<Walter General Meeting - 16 Aug 2001 - Agenda
<Walter Make sure someone is taking the log.
<Walter Call meeting to order.
<Walter Treasurer's report.
<Walter Status report on Server1 from Judy (aka mandie) or Abel (aka
<Walter Hoss).
<Walter Status report on Ceilidh:
<Walter Memo and ballot documents have been completed and emailed to the
<Walter members.
<Walter Awaiting results.
<Walter Ballot document reads as follows:
<Walter -----------------------------------------------------------------
<Walter -------------------------------------------------
<Walter Dear VOICE Memb
<Walter like to know if you would be in favour of
<Walter VOICE spending $149 US
<Walter in order to licence Ceilidh 2.60, an OS/2 message board, for the
<Walter purposes of providing
<Walter additional, web-based, communication facilities for VOICE
<Walter members. For more information on Ceilidh, and what we would
<Walter like to do with Ceilidh, please go to
<Walter http://www.warpdoctor.org/ceilidh_survey.html .
<Walter To vote, fill out the Ballot below, and click on the "Reply"
<Walter icon of your EMail program. Please DO NOT change the SUBJECT
<Walter line.
<Walter -------------------BALLOT------------------------
<Walter --------------------
<Walter Please place an 'X' on the appropriate line.
<Walter I agree__________ disagree______________ that VOICE should
<Walter license the
<Walter 5-forum Professional version of Ceilidh for $149 US, and hereby
<Walter authorize the
<Walter Directors to expend the necessary funds from the VOICE treasury
<Walter for this purpose.
<Walter
<Walter -----------------------------------------------------------------
<Walter ----------------------------------------------
<Walter Motion
<Walter nce all members have voted or
<Walter by the next general chat and if the vote is positive.
<Walter Status of Warpstock Registration support.
<Walter At one point VOICE was going to provide Warpstock online
<Walter registration on the new VOICE secure site. Is this completely
<Walter dead?
<Walter I'd like to know because PayPal is causing real headaches, not
<Walter only for Warpstock, Inc, but for would-be registrants who are
<Walter not US residents, incl. Canadians. Sort of ironic, since the
<Walter event is being held in Canada. :-)
<Walter Status
<Walter tion
<Walter Where do we stand on making a contribution toward the social
<Walter event?
<Walter Where do we stand regard the rental of a booth?
<Walter New Business
<Walter Adjournment
<Walter Unfortunately, apparently because some of the lines are too long, some of the words are chopped off.
<Walter If you have trouble making sense of a portion, let me know. I have the original in front of me. Again, let me apologize for this inconvenience.
<Walter $4705.32 CDN, with another $597.80 US in cheques recieved in today's
<Walter mail, yet to be deposited.
<Walter peter
<Walter At current exchange rates, $4705.32 CDN = 3060.25 US
<Walter Item E:
<Walter Status report on Ceilidh:
<Walter 1. Memo and ballot documents have been completed and emailed to the members.
<Walter 2. Awaiting Results.
<Walter Note Ballot was emailed to members@os2voice.org using ListServe and has been seen or heard from since I sent it at
<Walter 2:21 EDT.
<Walter Please the see the URL: http://www.os2voice.org/agenda/07162001.htm to see a copy of the Ballot document.
<Walter I have also written a short "article" at http://www.warpdoctor.org/ceilidh_survey.html, explaining in more detail
<Walter what Ceilidh is, and we will do with it if the members agree to licence the software.
<Walter I was hoping to have this out to the members using email by the time of this meeting. :-(
<madodel0 Oh well there is always tomorrow. :-)
<Swanee I just went through my mail and didn't see anything unless the agenda note was one and the same as what tyou are speakiung of.
<Walter 4. I would like to make a motion that we proceed with the purchase/licence once all members have voted or
<Walter by the next general chat and if the vote is positive.
<madodel0 Sounds good to me
<Walter Do we have a second?
<Swanee If the vote is positive then the motion will be redundant won't it. I have no problem going along with that but I think that it is a given if the members say yes to it.
<Swanee And we certainly seem to have the resouirces for it also.
<madodel0 Has any thought been given to finding someone to administer Ceilidh? My only qualm is I'm not looking for any more work then I already have.
<Swanee Is there someone familiar with it?
<madodel0 Is there much work involved in ongoing maintenance of it?
<Walter Actually, Abel is quite familiar with it, and has used it a lot.
*  Swanee doesn't know what it is other trhan a discussion forum setup (I think)
<Walter I'll probably be sorry, but at this point I've been assuming I'll be responsibile for administering, since it is my idea.
<Swanee Does Abel have time for that too? It sounded like he is pretty pressed for time. I sure can't speak for him but we'd better run it past him first.
<Chrissy I dont think you should be expecting Abel to do anymore than he already is...
<Swanee Will it be very tough to administer?
<Swanee and are you familiar with it Walter?
<Walter As you can see, we're not. All I'll need from Abel is some help from time to time?
<Swanee :-)
<Swanee We all need to quit our jobs so we can do more of this stuff. :-)
<Chrissy all Im saying is that right now with all that is going on with the renovations of the house, Abel is not very available...
<Walter Not yet, but Abel is going to set me up with a directory on Server1 where I can learn and test to my heart's content.
<Swanee That should be helpful.
<Walter This is the kind of thing I love to do.
<Swanee Great!
<Walter BTW, Abel is excited about having Ceilidh as part of VOICE.
<Swanee Good, his vote of confidence is good enough for me
<Walter Swanee: you asked about part of the motion being redundant.
<Hoss I'll second that motion.
<Walter Item F:
<Walter Status of Warpstock Registration Support.
<Walter Before we continue, I'd like to extend a special welcome to JWE. John is the Event Chair of the Warpstock 2001 event team.
<Swanee Hi JWE
<Walter I suggested that John might find tonight's meeting interesting.
<Swanee We'll hope to meet you in October
<JWE I look forward to seeing you in Toronto.
<Walter Subitem F1:
<Swanee I have no clue on the WS registration progress Walter. I know we started the process of a security cert etc but where we have gone from there I don't know
<Walter At one point VOICE was going to provide Warpstock online registration on the new VOICE secure site. Is this completely dead?
<madodel0 Walter: you have to ask the Warpstock Corporate for an answer on that. The last I heard the hold up was with their Incorporation papers not being completely switched over from IOTTA.
<Walter OK, I'll look into that. But from our end it looks like we have a love THAWTE certificate on the new site.
<Walter (https://os2voice.com/index1.html) Am I correct?
<Walter love=live
<Hoss https://os2voice.org is THAWTE secured.
<madodel0 Walter: that is correct. But WarpCharge requires a contract with a credit service and as part of the application, one has to prove they are a real existing business. It requires an address, photo of a building and Incorporation papers. From what I was told the holdup is the last item.
<Walter Mark: Holdup is which: building photo or Incorporation papers?
<Hoss I am just now aware of the list servre problems ... but I am not clear as to what is and isn't happening..
<Swanee The latter, Incorporation papers
<madodel0 Incorporation papers. They have them, but supposedly the name hasn't been changed by the lawyers yet
<Walter Swanee: Is it fruitless to ask why?
<madodel0 They assumed IOTTA's corporation when that faded away.
<Walter IOTTA?
<Swanee I don't have the answer but what Mark is saying is that they may have run into problems getting their corporate papers in order for it.
<Walter OK, I guess that's really all I need to know. :-)
<Swanee IOTTA was something like VOICE many moons ago.
<Hoss Walter: which list did you send a mail to?
<madodel0 Well it was for OS/2 ISV's. Since there are practically none of those left it folded
<Walter I know that the courts (and hence the lawyers) can be real sticklers about having a clean title to a name.
<Walter Hoss: members@os2voice.org AND admin@os2voice.org. It seems that admin did eventually come through, although very late.
<Walter members was sent at 2:21 pm EDT and still has not come through. :-(
<Hoss Walter: I will give you moderator privieliges for admin with your new address.
<madodel0 Walter: What address did you send it with to the members list?
<Walter walter.os2@home.com
<Hoss 2001-07-16 14:27:51 VOICE Ignored mail from walter.os2@home.com
<Walter Gee. thanks!
<Swanee Oh OH Walter, I've been ignored by my wife but NEVER a computer! :-)
<madodel0 Is that the same address on your membership? Was that ever changed? That list is for subscriber posts only
<Hoss member list is only postable by te secretary and the treasurer at the moment.
<Hoss (IIRc)
<Walter Again, gee thanks!
<madodel0 Ah now that you mention it I think it is moderated
<madodel0 I couldn't post to it either at one point
<Hoss It was not a matter of neglect per se.. but for 'continuity' reasons etc...
<Walter What's that supposed to mean?
<Hoss I removed 'president@os2ovoice.org' from mail server and the list server.
<Hoss in february of this year.
<Hoss when you took over as president... I never added "mail or list server respoonsibilty" ( ie admin privileges) for your walter.os@home.com address...
<Hoss walter.os2 even.
<Hoss I figured you had enough on your plate at the time.. to get used to..
<Walter Oh, I'm gradually getting used to things. :-)
<Hoss So now.. as president you can "administer" whicehver lists you so desire..
<Hoss If a post needs to go to the member's lkist it should be filtered through Peter. He wons that list because he is the guy that keeps the roster.
<Hoss wons=owns.
<Hoss as president if you use the president address you too will be able to send to that list as sson as I can get around to adding you
<Hoss I have a bunch of catch up work to do and I will be getting 'a roun tuit' real soon.
<Hoss I guess I sort of spoiled everybody for about a year...
<Walter Hoss: thanks for all your help!
<Hoss and then due to circumstances had to back off some.
<Hoss It will get better.( I'll see to it.)
<madodel0 RIght now WS Inc has gone with PayPal because it was quick to setup. Is there another service similar, that might be firedlier to Canadians and other non-US folks?
<Walter There's really only one item of business left:
<Walter Item G:
<Hoss madodel0: my initial research into this was PayPal was it.... the best..
<Walter Status of Warpstock Contribution
<madodel0 Is there another option though?
<Hoss I never found one that was affordable.
<Walter We're going to be hit with extra charges for going to an event in our own country!
<Walter JWE had one all worked out. Care to summarize John?
<Hoss I don't even remeber the names... now because I dismissed the iea of 5%...
<madodel0 I think the WS BOD was under the impression that Canadians were getting the same treatment with PayPal as in the US. If they are not then someone needs to bring it to their attention
<Swanee As new as PayPal is, there might not be many copycats yet, especially Canadien ones.
<JWE Jacaranda Business Systems had offered to add the Warpstock charges to their page and not charge anything to Warpstock for this.
<JWE They use a system called InternetSecure.
<madodel0 Has the WS Board been told about that yet?
<JWE Yes, they wanted control of the registration and the offer was rejected.
<JWE I also provided information about InternetSecure which operates in 83 countries.
<Walter Thanks, John.
<Walter I noticed that we've gone past our scheduled quitting time. Let's see if we can wrap this meeting up quickly.
<Walter Item G:
<Walter Status of Warpstock Contribution.
<Walter 1. Where do we stand on making a contribution toward the social event?
<Walter At the last meeting, I believe someone was going to send out a poll. Has this been done?
<madodel0 Sector sent it to the members list a couple weeks ago. I don't belive he has received any responses. I know I haven't
<Swanee Weren't we still in discussion stages. It seems to me that there was a project or two that we were concerned about meeting financially but my memory isn't serving me well right now.
<Walter What does the absence of response tell us?
<madodel0 Swanee: That was what was sent out to the members. We asked for opinions on spending the money.
<Swanee Probably nothing... (OK, that was a bad joke)
<madodel0 Walter: That people don't care?
*  Sector hasn't gotten any
<Swanee Here is my response... I think we should try to support the social event again and also have a booth as we have always done to support WS
<Hoss I agree with swanee.
<Walter At last year's rate?
<madodel0 Swanee: I agree on the Social. the problem with the booth is finding people to staff it. That was also part of the member post.
<Walter Like Swanee, I don't remember getting it--and I checked through my email accounts.
<Swanee We should also but a new Lincoln Mark VIII for at least one member of the board that isn't a president, sec, treas, liaso etc. The board member should be a vp and preferably a vp that isn't very good.
<madodel0 If no one is willing to staff the booth, then it sits empty most of the event. that makes VOICE look bad.
<Hoss I fully expect to be at warpstock. I fully expect to spend time in the booth. I have done so for 2 years. I do_ want to attend more stuff though..
<madodel0 Hoss: Same here. But out of 200 or so members you'd think a couple would respond
<Hoss madodel0 u r correct about making us look bad if the booth is empty.
<Swanee True
<Hoss however it was a great thing to see the IBM 'boy wonder's selling VOICE memberships.
<Walter I'm willing to man a booth, some of the time, but not all the time.
<Swanee I may have to pull double duty at WS. If they help send me, I'll have to be their boy.
<madodel0 OK, that's three of us, Abel, Walter and me. But we have three days to cover. :-9
<Swanee Shall we have a WS evening again and give a motel room away again as incentive? We may get a few more vols
<madodel0 And Walter, will you have any responsibilities for the event team during the event? Last year I spent most of my time doing Warpstock stuff.
<Walter Yes I imagaine I will, but they are not well-defined and John and I have agreed my responsibilies to WS must not
<Walter threaten my health. So it will be a bit of a balancing act, but there will be time for VOICE as well.
<Swanee How much are booths this year?
<JWE $500 USD
<Swanee Wow! It keeps a gittin higher... :-)
<madodel0 Ah, but it's for three days this year
<Walter Remember, this is for 3 days, not 2.
<Swanee Oh... I feel better... :-)
<Walter Everyone: I would like to do what Swanee originally suggested: support WS 2001 at the same levels as last year.
<Swanee Hoss: To late, if you have contractors working, you'll be lucky to come out of it with your shirt!
<Walter Specifically: Same amount of financial contribution + booth.
<Swanee Was is 500 for social + the booth?
<madodel0 Well Walter you have a quorom of the BOD here. Put it to a vote.
*  Hoss motions for VOICE to SPonsor the socail event (1) and pay for booth... whether we fill it or not.... (1) at $500 each that outta help WS and keep our visibility up..
*  Swanee seconds the motion
<Swanee and agrees with the sentiment
*  Hoss isn't an officiail BoD member buth thought this was a general meet.. of the minds...
<madodel0 There are still 3 "official" BOD members present.
*  Sector thinks that should be changed
<Walter what should be changed, Sector?
<Swanee Sector: Speak
<Sector Well, Sysadmin is a new position and we should decide someday if we should make it a BoD position or not (and then once upon a time editor was going to be made one as well)
*  madodel0 points out that it never was, and never will be. :-0
<Sector Well, I'll agree with the never was anyways
<madodel0 Can you three just vote on the motion so I can go to bed
<Walter All in favour of the motion, please type "Aye" No extraneous comments.
<Sector Affirmative
<Hoss Aye
<Swanee Aye
<Walter All opposed, type "Nay"
<madodel0 Walter: You didn't vote
<Walter Chair isn't permitted to vote except to break a tie.
<Walter Motion is carried.
<Walter I'll tell Peter to take the appropriate action.
<Sector Another little item: damn, that reminds me... Sector, could you make a note for the next
<Sector meeting about Sundials sponsorship ad? We promised them an ad on voice.org
<Sector in return for their kind donation of DBExpert
<madodel0 What's interesting is that our funds are in Canada, but will have to be converted to US dollars to pay for an event in Canada.
<Walter Weird.
<madodel0 We've never had an ad on the VOICE website. Where should it be put?
<Swanee I never thought about that Mark. I guess that's why you get the big bucks
<Swanee madodel0: Can we fit a banner ad like every other site uses across the top?
<Swanee 468x60
<Swanee or right above the WS logo
<madodel0 Argh, not on top
<Swanee beside it
<madodel0 I was just thinking a banner above or below Warpstock would probably be the right place.
<Swanee concur
<madodel0 I meant not at the top of the page.
<Swanee Yeah, I got ya. I said it before I looked at the page
<madodel0 Shouldn't they be listed on our sponsorship page/
<Swanee and I agree with you
<madodel0 ?
<Swanee "also" be listed on our sponsorship page
<madodel0 http://www.os2voice.org/sponsorinfo.html
<Hoss Ptackbar has promised an update../major overhaul once we get the DB installed..
<madodel0 Cool
<Hoss so for now I'd say we defer ad placement to his judgement..
<madodel0 We need a banner from Sundial first anyway
<Hoss he is webmaster...
<JWE I would suggest that someone should contact the Exhibits Coordinator, Steve Harris, steve@jbsinternational.com to make the arrangements for the booth at Warpstock 2001.
<Walter Good point John. Swanee, can you do that?
<Swanee I can contact him but I'll have to redirect him to Peter for most of it. No problem
<Walter Would it be better if I asked Peter to do it?
<Walter Swanee?
<Swanee Oops, I already sent an email off to him
<Walter OK, that's fine. Don't change anything now. :-)
<Walter I hereby move this meeting be adjourned.
<Hoss Swanee: hahaha, _NOW_ u tell me!!!
<Hoss I second that emotion.
<Swanee I have to do it now because I may not have time tomorrow. :-)
<Walter Meeting adjourned.