At the request of the Board, Michael Chui briefly explained how HoosierNet has provided training and free Internet accounts on public access terminals for former employees of the closed Thompson Electronics Plant.
$361.59 John Grimmer - APPROVED
$ 65.45 Mark Whitman - APPROVED
Board Meetings:
Future Board meetings have been scheduled by unanimous consensus of the Board for the first Tuesdays of August (August 5, 1997), November (November 4, 1997 - Election Day), February (February 3, 1998) and May (May 5, 1998 in conjunction with the general m embership meeting). The August, November and February meetings are scheduled 10-2 at the Central Indiana Education Service Center on the north side of Indianapolis, about one block from INCOLSA where previous Board meetings have been held. Pam Weaver of Indianapolis On-Line has volunteered to schedule the site and lunch for these meetings. The May meeting will be held at the Indiana State Library in downtown Indianapolis. ICNA staff will take care of site and lunch scheduling for this meeting.
It is intended these meetings may, according to ICNA by-laws, be augmented at the discretion of the President or a vote of a majority of the Board members by:
A number of other options were discussed. It was generally agreed that the Board needs to have regularly scheduled meetings, because on-line activity can become too informal, rules of order can be lost, discussions can be difficult to follow, and they do not provide the face-to-face contact the Board presently needs to keep ICNA moving forward.
General Membership Meetings:
The Board decided to stay with a single annual membership meeting on the first Tuesday of May of each year, but to augment this meeting with periodic special membership meetings focused on topics of immediate interest. For example, it was decided that th e Board cannot wait until May 1998 to promote the development of self-sufficiency strategies for the Round One community nets which are struggling to reach self-sufficiency by the end of the current calendar year.
Mark Whitman was asked to organize a special general membership meeting on self-sufficiency. The meeting is to be organized around topics identified by the membership, with opportunity for interaction among members. It is most likely that the meeting wil l be held in mid to late August, although it could be held earlier, if it is felt that an earlier meeting would be productive and well-attended.
A new programmer/webmaster has been hired by Indian@ Interactive, and his time will be dedicated to ICNA and community network support. His name is Matt Theobald. He is a graduate of Hanover College, and he has a Masters Degree in Library & Information Science from Indiana University. His personal web page is located at www.i-N.com.
Theobald will begin work at Indian@ Interactive, Tuesday, July 1, and among his initial tasks will be:
The Board agreed to establish a seven-member ICNA Web Oversight Team that will coordinate the content and design that Theobald will be expected to integrate into the ICNA website. The team will be comprised of the Board President, a second Board member, the Executive Director, and four representatives of the member community networks. The Board selected John Wallace to serve as the second Board member of the Oversight team, and will ask for volunteers from the membership.
Whitman also indicated that he has requested of AIIN that they merge their community network map and contact list to the ICNA site, so that all AIIN community network references can be maintained and coordinated by the ICNA programmer.
2.01 Board Meetings (Approved by consensus)
2.03 Communications
The Board agreed by consensus that the President will be the official voice of the Board with regard to all business of and communications from the Board, but no formal language was adopted. It was agreed that Board members Kathryn Clodfelter and Marti M iller will draft policy language for the Board's consideration.
3.01 Members in Good Standing (Approved 6-0)
Members in good standing shall be community networks that:
5.02 ICNA Website Maintenance (Approved by consensus)
The ICNA website shall be maintained by a programmer on the Indian@ Interactive staff.
6.1 ICNA Service Mark
By consensus the Board approved proceeding with registration of the ICNA logo as a service mark of ICNA.
Appendix A: The Board approved by consensus to modify this Appendix to reflect the Board's approved meeting schedule.
Appendix B: The Board agreed by consensus to make Appendix B current.
Appendix C: The Board agreed by consensus to add ISPs to the list of prospective Associate Members.
Appendix D: The Board agreed by consensus to re-title Appendix D:
"Suggested Resources for Providing Website Accessibility for Users with Disabilities",
and to replace the existing Appendix D with two ADA-related URLs, leaving the flexibility for future addition of other URLs as suitable. The initial two URLs are:
Designing Universal/Accessible Websites
U.S. Department of Justice, Americans with Disabilities Act ADA HOME PAGE
Mark Whitman was also requested to contact ICNA's attorney with regard to ICNA's legal obligation to require/recommend ADA compliance among members.
Considerable discussion was held regarding whether or not ICNA should sponsor AIIN's Growing Child site. A motion to sponsor the site passed on a vote of 4-1 with one abstention. John Wallace voted NO because he feels ICNA has more basic business to whi
ch it should be devoting its attention. Kathryn Clodfelter abstained.
Several Board members have examined the Growing Child content, and have talked to others about the content. Without exception, the comments about the quality and suitability of the content were positive. The motion passed with the following expectations
:
The Board discussed the self-sufficiency issues at length, and re-affirmed its commitment to this issue as a top priority. The Board's next step in supporting community network self-sufficiency efforts is to organize the Self-Sufficiency Meeting of the G
eneral Membership, as mentioned in Item 1. above.
The Board asked Mark Whitman to draft a form for membership application that is consistent with the Board's policies for Membership in Good Standing. Once approved by the Board, the form and associated instructions for filing the request will be place
d at the ICNA website for public access and retrieval.
The Board postponed further consideration of the 1998 budget until it receives further word from ACCESS INDIANA and the Department of Education on their plans for the $500,000/year budgeted to the Department of Education during the current biennium for co
mmunity network support. Mark Whitman indicated that he had hoped to have this information to the Board by this time, but that final decisions regarding the use of the funds have not been made within the Department of Education.
Whitman indicated that the allocation of the $500,000/year is yet to be determined jointly by the Department of Education and ACCESS INDIANA, and Whitman cautioned that existing community networks should not base any future plans on the availability of mo
ney from this fund, until they have received definite word that money has been allocated for them. Whitman expects these decisions to be made in early July.
Whitman also pointed out that the Department of Education and ACCESS INDIANA have a responsibility to demonstrate to the Legislature that they are prudent administrators of the community network funding, and any steps ICNA and its members can take to show
that they are taking wise and responsible steps toward self-sufficiency helps to buoy their case for added support. Legislators and other governmental leaders monitor the icna-m list, and if they perceive from the list that ICNA is an organization in di
sarray, or that ICNA is not doing what it needs to do to establish its own self-sufficiency, it makes it more difficult for AI and DOE to provide ICNA much, if any, latitude in the use of the funds.
Considerable discussion was held regarding ACCESS INDIANA's plan for continued new community network development. There currently are 55 counties in Indiana which do not have an AI-sponsored community network present. Working in conjunction with the Ind
iana Rural Development Council (IRDC), ICNA and the ACCESS INDIANA Information Network (AIIN), AI is in the process of contacting members the County Councils of these 55 counties, and offering to assist them with development of community networks for thei
r counties.
Hallie Bourne, Allen Herzig and Mark Whitman have collaborated to develop 18 content information areas which provide state, national and global links to quality Internet sites and lists that can provide a generic content platform from which the 55 countie
s can develop local community networks. These generic pages are presently on-line at the ICNA website, and will be used by the ICNA programmer to develop the generic sites for the 55 counties.
The AI, IRDC, ICNA, AIIN team will seek from among those 55 counties a small number of counties (5-6?) with an interest in immediately personalizing their generic site by enriching it with local links and content, and they will be aided in their efforts b
y the ICNA liaisons. As the generic sites are placed on on-line, each of the 55 counties will have four options from which to choose:
In the discussion, it was also stated that the same four levels of support are available to existing community networks. If an existing network wishes to re-locate its content to AIIN and accept either an Option 2 or Option 3 level of involvement, it is
welcome to do so. This is not presented as being competitive with other alternatives available to the existing CNs, but it is offered as an option some existing community networks may find appealing.
Howard Rosenbaum and Kim Gregson, both of Indiana University, were present to explain the community network assessment study they will be conducting that has been funded with support from ACCESS INDIANA and the Indiana Department of Education. The study
will commence July 1, will require three months, and will assess a number of aspects of the community networks, to include self-sufficiency.
Rosenbaum requested, and received by unanimous vote, the endorsement of the Board which he and Gregson can use when approaching the community networks. The proposal is available for inspection at:
http://php.ucs.indiana.edu/~hrosenba/Papers/prop.html
Michael Ney Board President, Indianapolis On-Line
Mark Whitman, Interim Executive Director, ICNA
Michael Chui, HoosierNet
10-2, Tuesday, August 5
This meeting will be held for the purpose of providing opportunity for Board members to discuss items of business. The meeting is open to the public, and those in attendance will be given opportunity to address the Board at the beginning of the meeting.
For all other items of business, input from persons other than Board members will be at the request of the Board President.
Initial Agenda Items:
OLD BUSINESS:
NEW BUSINESS:
ITEM 6. GROWING CHILD
ITEM 7. ROUND-ONE COMMUNITY NETWORK SELF-SUFFICIENCY
ITEM 8. NEW COMMUNITY NETWORK MEMBERSHIP POLICIES
ITEM 9. 1998 BUDGET PREPARATION
ITEM 10. ACCESS INDIANA New Community Network Development
ITEM 11. ASSESSMENT STUDY OF AI-SUPPORT COMMUNITY NETWORKS
ADJOURNED AT 2:20 PM.
IN ATTENDANCE:
John Wallace Board Vice-President, Boone County Community Network
Roger Whaley Board Secretary, Falls Cities Community Network
Debby Beavin Board Member, Access Perry County
Kathryn Clodfelter Board member, Crawford County Community Network
Marti Miller Board Member, Carrollnet
Hallie Bourne, ICNA Liaison
Allen Herzig, ICNA Liaison
Kim Gregson, Indiana University
Kent Hiller, Indian@ Interactive
Darrel Potter SCICAN
Howard Rosenbaum, Indiana University
David Ross, SCICAN
Marilyn Scarpa, Crawford County Community Network
Kara Wagner, Indian@ Interactive
Pam Weaver, Indianapolis On-Line
NEXT MEETING:
Central Indiana Educational Service Center
Indianapolis
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