May Cai-Vic Minutes 2003
MEETING OF COMPUTERBANK VICTORIAN BRANCH (CAI-Vic).
Held at 92 Rosslyn Street, West Melbourne on Tue 13 May 2003.
Present:
Rob Brittain, Owen Courtis, Kylie Davies, Greg Follett, Julien Goodwin,
Nick Hobden, Vic Koci, Tim McDonald (late), Hugh Orton, Steve Paynter,
Con Validas, Terry Van Heygen.
Apologies:
Grant Diffey.
Meeting commenced at 7:15pm.
WELCOMES, INTRODUCTIONS AND APOLOGIES.
MINUTES FROM LAST MEETING.
The minutes were accepted without amendment.
ACTIONS ARISING
1. Letter to Real Estate Agents about Back Lane Drainage.
Sent. A plumber came out last week and fixed the drains. Also replaced
tap spindles. A toilet is now leaking.
No word from agents about lease renewal.
Action: Kylie to notify agents tomorrow about leaking toilet.
2. Training Rosters.
Rosters were drawn up as follows:
* Sat 17 May: Kylie and Vic, and maybe Bob Parker.
* Sat 24 May: Con and Vic.
* Sat 31 May: Con and Vic.
* Sat 07 Jun: Nobody scheduled.
* Sat 14 Jun: Kylie.
Action: Kylie to ask Tony Coletti if he's available for 07 Jun session.
3. Memory Spec Meeting.
The technical specifications for CAI-Vic systems have been revised,
including memory. There was general agreement that a meeting is no longer
needed. Rob summarised the new specs, and reported that OpenOffice
running on a Pentium 133 with 64K EDO RAM was acceptable (not fast, but
ok). We currently have reasonable stocks of EDO RAM, and some SDRAM.
4. Networks for Community Groups.
All networks and computers to groups have been shipped.
Action: Rob to follow up on loaner network development computers.
5. Wireless Networking Report.
Rob reported that Grant may arrange a wireless node privately, ie, not
funded by Computerbank. Appropriate security will be attended to.
6. Management and Coordinator Roles.
Terry is our new Donations Coordinator.
A Coordinators Meeting has been scheduled for Thu 29 May at 7pm.
7. Key Holder Responsibilities and Security Checklist.
Done. Accepted at meeting.
8. Databases.
Owen has gathered database documents onto a web page. He summarised his
database design and requested feedback, particularly from Rob and Kylie.
Five or six people indicated firm interest in being involved in the project.
Rob noted that the WFTD people are creating spreadsheets, so more data
is becoming available.
A database meeting has been scheduled for Tue 20 May at 7pm. Owen asked
that participants write up and distribute material prior to the meeting.
9. Adopt-A-Geek Development Machine.
Definitely not happening. Rob says Jaymz is not currently wanting to be
involved.
10. Process Meeting Feedback.
Still waiting for report from Steve Davies.
11. Installation of Peripherals.
Rob says every single machine we ship has bugs in it.
There was discussion of client "bring-in" peripherals getting lost.
Owen suggested client peripherals could be tracked with the database.
Action: Terry will draft a Peripherals Policy by next meeting.
Action: Kylie and Terry will update the information sheets for clients;
intranet too.
AGENDA
1. Reports.
a) Victorian State Coordinators Report for March-April.
Kylie posted to cai-vic list several days ago.
b) WFTD Report.
Kylie gave an overview, and referred to the WFTD section of the State
Coordinators Report. She suggested that chances of extensions to WFTD
funding are quite good.
Action: Kylie to raise with Kangan Tafe in next week or two.
c) Finance Report.
Kylie referred to the Finance News section of State Coordinators Report.
Con reported that he has been busy on matters which should have been
submitted last year. These have now been sorted out. We have incurred
a $110 late fee for CAI-Vic superannuation.
There was discussion of CAI finances. We are $2000 in credit with the Tax
Office. Con has asked them to waive penalties, which could eat a
substantial chunk of our credit. Kylie suggested the Tax Office is often
generous in overlooking infringements by volunteer groups.
d) Client Services Report.
Kylie referred to items in the State Coordinators Report.
e) Documentation Report.
The next Documention Meeting will be 14 May at 3pm. The State
Coordinators Report has details of the development Zope setup.
2. Open Source Software Policy.
There was discussion of Julien's report. The policy was accepted.
Action: Danny Dagher to edit for grammar, etc.
3. Next Meeting Date.
Scheduled for Wed 11 Jun at 7pm.
Subsequent meetings to be held on the second Wednesday of each month.
4. Mailing List and Chat Channel Issues.
Julien said Jaymz' message on the Computerbank list was justified, but
sent to the wrong list. Opinion seemed to be mixed on how serious the
issue was. There was general agreement that the language was
unacceptable. Kylie said she didn't call the Techs lazy, but that she
has been disappointed that projects haven't been done by promised dates.
Action: Kylie will send recommendation for moderated list and new
cai-discussion list to national committee.
5. Shipping Equipment to CAISA.
Rob gave a brief report. In particular, decent monitors are needed.
6. Letter from Hancocks Victoria Plantation.
Kylie not happy about the business practices of the company. She has
delegated handling of the letter. Greg explained his objections to what
the company does.
Action: Terry to deal with the Hancocks letter.
Action: Kylie to draft an Ethical Business Dealings Policy for next
meeting.
7. Laptop Requests and Availability.
There was much discussion of how many working laptops we can build -
apparently, very few. Kylie is frustrated at delays in getting laptops
to people. There was discussion of stolen items, borrowed items, and
general security. Kylie stated that it is now CAI-Vic policy that
ANYTHING borrowed must be signed for, witnessed, etc. There was
discussion of limiting keys to lock-up areas. Rob suggested a general
loan-out book.
8. Upgrading of Training Room Computers.
Kylie agrees we should do this. Con suggested upgrading them all to
Pentium 233 or better. There was discussion of advantages and
disadvantages of this, and of related networking problems. Kylie
suggested a quick fix of adding extra memory to each machine. This might
be expected to shorten training courses by 15 minutes.
Action: Con to upgrade each machine to 64MB of memory.
9. Macintosh Report: Inventory and Recommendations.
Waiting for written report from Tim Norman.
OTHER BUSINESS
1. Sales of Surplus Equipment.
It is now CAI-Vic policy that surplus equipment must get committee
approval before being sold through E-Bay and other channels.
2. Hard Drive/RAM Pamphlets.
Example pamphlets were circulated at the meeting.
Action: Terry to circulate pamphlets to various places.
3. CAI-Vic Answering Machine.
There was much discussion on how to best employ an answering machine.
Meeting closed at 9:40pm.
