[affs-project] AFFS Committee Phone Meeting Minutes for 20050907

[Mark Hymers]

Hi all,
Here are the minutes from the AFFS Committee phone meeting on Wednesday
7th September at 8pm.
Affs Ctte Phone Meeting: 20050907; 8pm
======================================
Present:
 Chair: Brian Gough,
 Adam Bower,
 Chris Croughton,
 Mark Hymers
Apologies:
 Alex Hudson,
 Ian Lynch
(1) Newsletter
--------------
Brian covered the draft newsletter which had been circulated to
committee members.  He read out a late addition submitted by Alex
regarding the Microsoft EU legal case.  Committee agreed that the
newsletter was fine and and it is to be sent to Alex for publication to
members.
(2) Introduction for new committee members
------------------------------------------
An introduction to the AFFS server services was provided by Adam and
Brian.  They covered MailManager (the ticketing system used to track
frontdesk and other enquiries), the web site in CVS, getting shell
accounts on the server and the location of the server (hosted by
Positive Internet).  Sysadmins of the server are Adam and Alex.
Chris had not yet been given a MailManager account.  Brian said that he
would do this.  It was noted that people can remove themselves from
frontdesk if they will be away for a period of time.  MailManager can
also be used for system administration requests.  The issue of spam
filtering mail coming into MailManager was raised but there have been
objections to this in the past.  The MailManager administrators are
Brian and Alex.
Chris and Mark are to organise getting shell accounts on the server
through contact with Alex.  This will involve providing an SSH key in a
GPG signed email.  .forward files can be used on the AFFS server so that
email can be recieved @affs.org.uk
Membership information is stored in an encrypted csv file and only used
for sending out newsletters at present.
Committee rules were covered.  The main rule was that public
announcements of affs policy, decisions or procedures should be cleared
by the committee as a whole first.  This applies especially to items
which are still in discussion.
(3) Quarterly Committee Meeting
-------------------------------
A general agreement was reached that this should take place at LinuxExpo
in Olympia, London.  The question of which day and time will be raised
on affs-ctte so that those not present can also have input into this
decision.
(4) LinuxExpo arrangements
--------------------------
Adam reported that no fixed details about the stand etc. have been supplied
yet.  It is intended to ask Alex what stock exists of AFFS T-Shirts and
mugs.  Adam will liase with Nick Hill about selling GNU/FSF books as
happened at last years' expo.  A request for volunteers to help man the
stand has been made in the newsletter.
The AFFS leaflets are now out of date and it is now urgent that new ones
be written.  Adam and Mark are to liase on this and will contact Alex to
see if he has the original file.  It was also agreed that smaller print runs
should be used in future.
(5) Any Other Business
----------------------
a. Grants
 Mark suggested that publicity material should be written for the grant
 process.  It was also suggested that this should be publicised at
 LinuxExpo.  Mark is to write a draft press release and leaflet for
 review by committee.
b. AFFS mailing lists
 Alex had suggested by email that more business should be conducted on
 affs-project.  Brian suggested that an affs-discuss mailing list should
 be set up for members to provide a general discussion area.  It was
 also generally accepted that AFFS business should be conducted (as far
 as possible) on AFFS mailing lists with the following breakdown:
  affs-ctte:    Internal or private committee discussion (closed list)
  affs-project: About running AFFS itself
  affs-discuss: General membership discussions
c. Website Portal
 Adam suggested that the website should have a portal page to other UK
 Free Software organisations.  It was commented that this could be part
 of a larger website reorganisation.
Brian declared the meeting closed.