Free Geek Michiana : Board Minutes 3/17/2009
FREE GEEK Michiana, Inc. - "Helping the Needy Get Nerdy"
Tom Brown, Board President, called the meeting to order at 6:45 PM in the Pokagon Room of the St. Joseph County Public Library, main branch downtown South Bend, IN, on March 17, 2009.
Board members present: Tom Brown, Mike Cook.
Volunteers present: Chuq Jackels, Imre Brassai and John Mansfield.
Unfortunately, Board Member and Treasurer Richard Zimmerman was absent so there was not a quorum for a Board of Directors meeting. Therefore, Tom opened the meeting as a business meeting in which recommendations to the Board could be proposed, but no binding decisions could be made.
Without a quorum the minutes of the previous meeting could not be approved.
No officer reports were made or submitted.
There is no change in our status.
Tom will ask Joann Fisher, the Muessel FACS person, who she coordinates the FreeBox classes with at the Near Northwest Neighborhood center (NNN). Then Tom will set up a meeting to discuss utilizing the former grocery store attached to the NNN building. The neighborhood is generally low income, and there are two off-street parking lots. The NNN may use the former grocery to store equipment and supplies for maintaining properties the NNN owns. Otherwise, the grocery has been empty for years.
The group briefly discussed people to invite to join the Board. At our last Board meeting we decided to recruit new board members from the education, government, business and religious communities. Two names were brought up tonight, one from business and one from government.
Since Richard was absent, we did not hear a report.
Penguincon officially declined to waive fees for our presenters or offset travel expenses. The consensus recommendation is to withdraw our offer to present at the conference.
The application is nearly finished, but no work has been done on it since the WNDU-TV coverage aired. Tom's time has been diverted to responding to callers after the news show. Jack O'Connell's CPA/attorney friend declined to help us complete the application pro bono.
Tom hopes to focus again on the application in the next week or two. He suggested that we submit the application without review by a third party when the application is complete. He believes the IRS will give us guidance if there are problems.
Tom has not had time to finish the web site update and conversion from HTML to Rivet code. The consensus was to ask Fr. Robert to design a basic Drupal site for us if he is interested. Otherwise, Tom will complete the current site conversion as time allows.
Phil had brought up adding a message board or forum to our web site. Phil was working at the warehouse and didn't attend the business meeting. The group discussed the proposal, and the consensus was to move ahead on it. If Fr. Robert agrees to try a Drupal site, it will be easy to have multiple forums.
The consensus recommendation was to establish a LUG as soon as possible to support FreeBox recipients.
Tom is hoping to find a meeting place which has all the requirements for a LUG. The consensus was to approach the St. Joseph County Library about holding the LUG in one of its branches, excluding the main branch. There are only two branches in South Bend with meeting rooms on the first floor and which are not closed for renovations: River Park and Western (LaSalle Square). The NNN meeting room is also worth pursuing.
Since the meeting room would not be permanent, the consensus recommendation is to construct a portable lab which could also be used at other events. The consensus is to recommend Board approval to purchase or seek donations of a dozen or so laptops, to buy a small portable server and find a road case to store the computers, network gear and cables.
The group consensus is to conduct as many FreeBox classes as we can during the summer to keep the momentum going and reduce our inventory of computers. We have a waiting list of 60 people who expressed interest in obtaining a FreeBox. If all of them take a class, we can hold 10 classes over the summer.
The meeting room will have to allow people from St. Joe, Elkhart, Marshall and Berrien counties to attend the classes. This may reduce the number of meeting rooms available as neighborhood centers tend to limit service to residents of a particular area. The public library system may be the best bet.
The media lab organizer for the FMC in Detroit has asked FGM to help with the conference. We can (1) donate hardware, (2) consult from a distance, and/or (3) attend the conference as mentors.
The consensus recommendation is to at least donate computer systems and consult. The conference is 4 days, July16-19. Tom said he might be able to schedule some vacation days at work to attend the conference if his family thought a trip to Detroit would be fun.
Chuq said he can supervise a volunteer session on Wednesday evenings. The consensus recommendation is to open another session if there are enough people on the waiting list to support it.
We also talked about opening a computer thrift store one day per week. The "store" could be a flea market at the warehouse or an actual store front. Imre revealed that he owns a small store front on Western Avenue which he is using for storage at the moment, and he is willing to let FGM sell computers from it.
The director of AOM is excited about FGM. He is offering to let us store material in a large storage shed, a converted HeadStart classroom in fact, as well as give us a home. AOM serves low income residents of the west side so there is a natural match in terms of our target clients.
AOM is pursuing a grant which would allow the organization to purchase a former K-Mart building or a former PNA club on Western Avenue. If the funding comes through, the AOM director will let us move our inventory to the building, refurbish computers in it and establish a community tech center there. I met with the director and a board member of AOM, and I think it is possible the director can follow through on his offer to help us.
AOM wants to create a vocational skills training center in which computers will be absolutely necessary.
It is too early to predict how the potential synergies will develop. But, the AOM director is supportive. Tom, as director of FGM, committed us to improving the network at the AOM food pantry and developing an OOo database for them to track statistics regarding their services. Tom already installed OOo on a P4 at the pantry and will refurb a computer for them to use at the food service counter.
Tom was unable to reserve a room for the April Board/business meeting during the meeting. He will submit a reservation request on March 18.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:00 PM.
Page last updated: Thu May 14 08:51:28 2009