From: sjackson@tic.com (Steve Jackson)
Subject: Minutes of September Meeting
Originator: riddle@aahsa.tic.com
X-Submissions: eff-austin@tic.com
Organization: none
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 03:53:17 GMT

MINUTES OF AUSTIN EFF DIRECTORS' MEETING - September 8, 1992
    Prepared by Steve Jackson.
    Held at Martin Brothers Cafe. Called to order at 8 pm. Board members
present: John Quarterman (presiding), Smoot Carl-Mitchell, Steve
Jackson, Ed Cavazos. Observing: Bruce Sterling, Dick Anderson, Dave
Smith, Susan Cisco.
 
CALL ROLL: The only absent director was Matt Lawrence.
 
APPROVE MINUTES - the minutes of the last meeting were approved
with various corrections; the version which will appear in the
archives is the correct one.
 
OFFICERS' REPORTS
   PRESIDENT - Matt Lawrence did indeed tell several people that he
was going to take a job in Maryland. He did not turn over any notes
or records before leaving.
   VP - We are incorporated. We do not yet have a sales tax permit.
Ed will look into both kinds of sales tax exemption: can we be
exempted from paying sales tax on our purchases, and can we sell
books, shirts, etc., without having to collect tax?
   SECRETARY  - All promotional materials in SJ's possession have been
given to Ed Cavazos, who will keep them for the time being, Donna
being short of room. The new materials from Cambridge include some
large bumper stickers. It was decided that each member may have one
free, but that extras, or stickers for non-members, will have a
suggested donation of $2. The EFF booklets also include a perfect 
place to rubber-stamp our group's mail and netmail addresses; Bruce
will prepare an appropriate stamp. Copies of all membership forms in SJ's
possession have also been given to Ed to give to Donna.
   TREASURER - We do not yet have a Texas CPA or a bank account. We
do have money and a number of checks to cash. Smoot will now proceed
to get a bank account. SJ will find Joan Giglione's phone or net
number and provide it to Smoot, since she has volunteered to help.
 
ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION AND BYLAWS
    John Quarterman reports that the official digital version of our
articles of incorporation can be found as ~eff-a/directors/articles
(that's a tilde before eff-a) on the TIC guest machine aahsa,
or by anonymous FTP from tic.com as eff-austin/members.ftp/articles.
    Bruce Sterling will draft a press release announcing our incorpora-
tion and formal existence.
    Appointment of the initial Advisory Board was not discussed.
        By-law changes were discussed. Several proposed changes were gone
over at greater or lesser length and passed by consensus.
        The meaning of Section II(A)(2) was discussed, and this section
was amended to place the "roll call" of directors, and discussion
of "excused" absences, at the end of each meeting.
        Steve Jackson's new draft eliminated II(E); this met with
objection. SJ then presented an alternate draft for II(E), which died for
lack of a second. The question was then called on the by-laws. On a roll
call vote, John Quarterman, Smoot Carl-Mitchell and Ed Cavazos voted
aye, and Steve Jackson voted nay. The by-laws passed. The final version
will be filed as Version 2.4 (bylaws.24).
        Our By-law II.A.5 require definition of a Constructive Notice
procedure. The Board set "constructive notice" of meetings as a
posting, at least four full days in advance, to the eff-austin-
directors mailing list.
    Our By-law II.A.9 requires us to accept telephonic presence at
a meeting. This was discussed at some length; no vote was taken. The
apparent consensus was that no particular effort need be made to hold
meetings at a site with a telephone unless a director specifically
requested it in advance, and to move the meeting if necessary on such
request.
 
CYBERTEX
   The convention is still dormant due to the lack of a volunteer,
qualified or otherwise, to chair it. It was suggested, and agreed by
consensus, that references to Cybertex be deleted from our information
leaflet, membership form and so on.
 
COMMITTEE AND OTHER REPORTS
    BBS Activity Committee and BBS Study Committee: The Board voted
to merge these two into the "BBS Committee." Dave Smith agreed to chair
the combined committee. Members are Dave Smith, Donna McLaughlin, Matt
Lawrence, Loyd Blankenship. Dave reported that the committee is looking
for people who will help publicize EFF events by systematically posting
them to local boards. We have some volunteers, but need more. It was
also agreed that we should do everything possible to encourage BBSs,
Fido and similar nets, and so on, to pick up the austin.eff newsgroup.
There was no discussion of the computer the Robot Group has offered us.
    Incorporation Committee - Steve Jackson, Ed Cavazos, Steve Ryan.
This committee has completed its work and was dissolved with the
thanks of the Board.
    Network Committee - The Board voted to make this an official
committee with responsibility for the mailing lists and austin.eff
newsgroup. Members are John Quarterman, Smoot Carl-Mitchell, Prentiss
Riddle. No chair has been designated.
    Newsletter Committee: The Board voted to make this an official
committee. Dave Smith is the chair; he has no members but has the
authority to recruit some. A name for the newsletter was discussed
but no decision was made; Dave will offer a recommendation when he
circulates draft copies of the first issue, sometime very soon.
    Police Liaison Committee - Bruce Sterling, Dick Anderson,
Smoot Carl-Mitchell. Copies of Bruce's press release, along with the
EFF booklet explaining the organization, will be sent to the
various local law enforcement agencies.
    SPA Committee - Dave Smith, Bruce Sterling. This committee has completed its work and was dissolved with the thanks of the Board. 
        Volunteer Coordinator: Donna McLaughlin. No report.
    The question of whether Dave and Ed constitute a committee
for their Infodisk work was not discussed.
 
PROGRAM PLANNING
    Upcoming programs were discussed. The current schedule:
    September meeting: JSQ - program on networks. September 28, 7
to 9 p.m., at MCC. There will be refreshments. Speakers will include
jsq, Smoot, and Anna Couey.
    October meeting: Bruce Sterling will speak on "The Hacker
Crackdown." Organizer: Susan Cisco. This was originally set for
November but moved for logistical reasons, to 7-9pm, Thursday,
October 29. It will be at the Austin Technology Incubator. We can
buy books from Bantam and resell them to support EFF-Austin, and
Bruce will sign all copies sold; Ed and Dave will deal with this, and
SJ will loan his company's card imprinter. There will be buffet
refreshments which will not come out of the EFF-Austin budget. There
will be no charge to attend.
        November event: to be discussed next meeting. Might feature a
book signing by Tracy LaQuey Parker.
        December Cyberdawg: to be discussed next meeting.
    January: Ed Cavazos - panel on sysop issues.
 
COMMUNICATION
   The new newsgroup is up and running, with Prentiss Riddle as
moderator!! Discussion is slow but high-quality.
   David Smith and Ed Cavazos have completed version 1.0 of their
EFF-Austin Infodisk and sold a number of copies, for $2 each, at 
the August Cyberdawg. The Board agreed to reimburse them for the
cost of disks on presentation of receipts.
   As far as can be determined, Matt Lawrence did nothing with
the mailing list before he left Austin. Donna McLaughlin has been
asked to enter the information in simple ASCII form first, and
worry about a database later.
   No other communications issues were discussed.
 
LOCAL ACTIVITY SINCE LAST MEETING
   David Smith organized a Cyberdawg August 22 at Europa Books. It went
extremely well - there was lots of favorable e-comment about it. He
kept notes on the organizing process, and will pass copies to those
who volunteer to organize future Cyberdawgs and other events.
        The Sept. 3 screening of SNEAKERS also went very well. There was
favorable comment on both the movie and the fact that the screening
was held. The Secretary will write a letter of thanks to Universal.
 
NEW BUSINESS
   Bruce will ask Armadillocon if we can have a table again. Our
new Volunteer Coordinator will be asked to arrange members to staff
the table and answer questions. Mike Godwin will be coming down from
Cambridge and has already started to arrange panel discussions, etc.,
with the Armadillocon scheduling people.
 
NEXT MEETING
        The next meeting will be Tuesday, October 13, at 6:30 pm at
the office of Steve Jackson Games. The first hour of the meeting
will be a closed session for directors only, at which vacancies on
the Board and Advisory Board will be discussed. The open directors'
meeting will begin at 7:30 pm.
 
ROLL
   No roll was taken and the question of Matt Lawrence's absence
was not discussed.
 
        The meeting was adjourned at approximately 11 p.m.


Newsgroups: austin.eff