Minutes of Directors' Meeting, 11 December 2000

Internet Society of Australia
A Chapter of the Internet Society
ABN 36 076 406 801

 


Minutes of Directors' Meeting, 11 December 2000


The meeting started at 5:55pm AEDT on 11th December 2000 and took place by way of teleconference in accordance with the Articles of Association of the Society.

1. Attendance

Attendance: Tony Hill, Tamzin Taylor, Gunela Asbrink, David Thompson, Greg Watson, Leni Mayo, Anne Greiner, Kate Lance, Andrew McRae, George Michaelson, George Fong..

  Apologies: Simon Hackett

2. Election of President

Greg Watson nominated by Kate Lance and seconded by George Fong. Accepted by Greg. No other nominations. Greg Watson declared elected President.

3. Election of Vice-President

Andrew McRae nominated by Greg Watson and seconded by Leni Mayo. Accepted by Andrew McRae. No other nominations. Andrew McRae declared elected Vice-President.

4. Election of Honorary Treasurer

Anne Greiner nominated by Kate Lance. Accepted by Anne and seconded by Greg Watson. No other nominations. Anne declared elected Honorary Treasurer.

5. Election of Honorary Secretary

George Fong nominated by Leni Mayo and seconded by David Thompson. Accepted by George. No other nominations. George Fong declared elected Honorary Secretary.

The new President, Greg Watson took the Chair and gave thanks to Kate Lance for her enormous efforts and the contributions she made as President.

  The Executive Director also expressed his gratitude for all that Kate had done.

  Action: Tony Hill to prepare a Press Release with regard to the AGM and the new Board. 

6. Audit Committee

Greg Watson put a motion that an Audit Committee, headed up by the Treasurer, be set up. The motion was seconded by Leni Mayo. Passed unanimously.

8. Minutes from the previous meeting

Proposal to accept the draft minutes for November as a true and correct record.  Proposed: Kate Lance, Seconded: George Fong, motion passed unanimously.

9. Actions arising from the Previous Minutes

 Erica – article – postponed to next year.

 David Thompson – Academy – role for ISOC-AU – keeping a watch and look on it – to be removed from the Action List

 George Fong – Approach to Vice Chancellors Ballarat and Bendigo. This has been done and it will now be necessary to tee up times with Tony (ongoing).

 George Fong – Contact with the Age for articles (done) and follow up with the Age for a regular monthly spot.

 George Fong – Privacy Policy (ongoing). A fresh draft should be available for the next Board Meeting.

 Kate Lance – organisational matters for the AGM: done.

 Leni Mayo – the Internet Pioneer awards – (ongoing). Len explained to the new board what it was all about. Tamzin Taylor volunteered to assist.

 George Fong -  Advanced Network Program George F and Simon now. George Fong to discuss this with Simon.

 Tony Hill/Anne Greiner – follow up on membership

 George Fong – to write up the minutes in HTML.

10. Acceptance of Financial Year 2000 accounts.

A motion was put to accept the audited 1999/2000 results and the Financial report thereof.

Proposed by Kate Lance, seconded by David Thompson. The motion was passed unanimously.

There was some discussion about GST Status. and whether the Society was making a 'supply' as defined under the legislation. 

11. Executive Director’s Report

A written report was provided for period ending 20 December 2000.

Tony Hill indicated that there had been a number of activities related to the organisation of the ICANN meeting in March 2001. Tony also indicated that our inaugural industry advisory council meeting had taken place. Other activities included discussions with existing and potential sponsors, the ISOC-AU Directors' Strategy Day and members events in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. In terms of sponsors, Tony pointed out that 8 new sponsors had signed up and some others had increased their levels of sponsorship.

 Action: Jobs Mailing List

Tony reported that  four companies have taken organisational membership and that SAIA, Melbourne PCUG had joined.

Tony reported that he had successfully had an article published in the Platform section of the Age thanks to assistance from George F.

Membership and Renewals: As far as memberships were concerned, Tony reported that the processing of the same was now up to date. A number of members had yet to renew and a second reminder had been sent. Tony led some discussion with regard to expanding the membership. 

Action: Smart Internet Technology CRC - arrange discussion with John Fick

 Tony pointed out that in the short term, administrative arrangements were adequate but longer term solutions needed to be developed. Anne Greiner has agreed to assist

Joint Action Items:   Operational Plan for strategy meeting - Tony Hill, Kate Lance, Greg Watson (Tony to draft items)

 

12. Guest Speaker: Derek Whitehead from Vicnet

Derek Whitehead – talking about the Digital Divide Conference.  Gary Hardy is an apology.

Derek Whitehead is an ISOC-AU member and is engaged in a number of notable activities including chairing of auDA Names Panel. He is also a board member for Net Alert. Derek’s background included senior roles in the State Library and Vicnet; he is currently at Swinburne University of Technology.

Derek made the following points in relation a proposal for ISOC-AU to auspice the 2001 Community Conference.

The annual Community Conference in Ballarat one was one of the most successful. Some of the inputs are that Gary Hardy and Larry Stillman spoke at a conference in Barcelona. Ideas of a civil society etc seemed to be a good one. ISOC-AU involvement seemed natural to them.

Gary proposed some of the structures, funding etc. and has built a financial model.

Tony was keen to put forward something for minimum risk relationship like the ICANN model.

The building blocks of the conference include Vicnet-Skillsnet, other close to the ground community networking bodies. Skillsnet roadshow. Migrant resource centres. Vicnet has had strong emphasis on disability, and also
using the Internet in a multilingual context. Conferences have drawn on the unis, who have had a different experience. Also regional centres and regional conferences, the industry, training especially ACFE.

The last community conference was auspiced by CIVIC, which used to be the Citizens Advice Bureaux.   ISOC-AU would represent another building block. A blend of technical and social backgrounds has been the order of the day for these conferences.

  The last community conference was auspiced by CIVIC, which used to be the Citizens Advice Bureaux.   ISOC-AU would represent another building block. A blend of technical and social backgrounds has been the order of the day.

Derek was thanked by Tony Hill for his presentation.

  Some discussion thereafter took place about the potential nature and extent of our involvement in the conference.

 Action: Tony to prepare a proposal for ISOC-AU to auspice the 2001 community conference.

 

13. Publication of Articles

There was a brief discussion on the publication of articles for ISOC-AU

  Action: George Fong to formalise the process and see if it was possible to get a commitment from Glenn Mulcaster with regard to a regular column.

  ISOC-AU sponsored articles to be sanctioned by the Board.

 

14. Treasurer's Report

A few bills had come in:

Ψ    Zurich Insurance – work cover

Ψ    Bill for the ISOC-AU T-shirts

Ψ    Bill from Tony Hill for the ACTCOSS conference.

  A letter needs to be signed by the directors acknowledging approval of the audited accounts. This is a standard letter of disclosure. Greg Watson indicated that this letter needs sign off by all directors.

  Action: George M will circulate the same

  A motion was put that, subject to sign off by all board members, we adopt this letter and get a sign off by directors.

  Proposed by George Fong Seconded Ann Greiner, motion carried unanimously

  Tax liability will be reviewed by John Howard (Accountant).

 We need to get a NAB change of signature form .

  Action: Anne Greiner to get hold of the form.

  Action Items for Treasurer:

  Interest bearing account – people from Westpac will be contacted.

  Audit done but some closure to be done.

  Tax position has to be progressed.

  BAS in progress

  Membership and directors detail – done

  Operating address for ATO – done.

15. Membership

  Three reminders to renew have been sent to members. 

16. auDA

  Had the AGM on day after ISOC-AU one. Leni and Tony were there. Went smoothly. No surprises in the elections. 4 – 5 directors resigned and all were re-elected. Good endorsement. There were couple of new faces including Patrick Corliss (elected in membership class for the community) and Liz Williams (elected by members voting as a whole). Both have resigned from the competition panel. auDA Board has asked competition chair for nominees.

  A board meeting the following day. All exec positions became vacant. Tony Staley and Greg Watson were elected co-chairs. David Thompson elected deputy chair. David Keegel will remain secretary until end of the year. An auDA employee will take over. A treasurer was not appointed – Audit committee is sitting on this instead.

  Some discussion then took place with regard to ISOC-AU's instrumental role in the development and establishment of auDA.

17. Next Meeting

The meeting closed at 7:40pm. Next meeting is on 29th January 2001.

18. Confirmation

Signed as a correct and complete record of the above meeting.

Greg Watson
President, ISOC-AU