Minutes of Board Meeting of April 30, 2003

Location: IRC server irc.webchat.org, channel #asfar
Time: 9:00 pm eastern time

Board Members Present: Tevi Abrams, Winston Featherly-Bean, Jacob Kafka, David Schneider-Joseph, Oliver Traldi, Susan Wishnetsky

Members Present: Woty F., Michael B.

Visitors Present: One

The meeting was called to order at 9:20 pm eastern time.

Approval of minutes

Susan Wishnetsky mentioned two changes she wanted to make in the minutes of the April 9, 2003 meeting (correcting a board member's report to say "March" instead of "February" and adding information about the demonstration committee meeting location), and moved to approve the minutes. The motion was seconded and passed 6-0.

Reports of Officers

The President, David Schneider-Joseph, reported that he had been invited to attend the International Democratic Education Conference (www.idec2003.com) and asked if the board might authorize money for his room and board. After some calculations and other discussion, Susan Wishnetsky moved to approve $250 from ASFAR's PayPal account for his expenses. The motion was seconded and passed 4-0 with 1 abstention. Susan Wishnetsky promised to send him printed ASFAR literature to take to the conference.

The Vice-President, Oliver Traldi, had no report. Susan Wishnetsky asked him if he would send an announcement about the Demonstration committee meeting, scheduled for May 7. Oliver Traldi indicated that he might have a scheduling conflict on that date. After discussion, David Schneider-Joseph moved that the meeting be rescheduled for May 14 at 9 pm eastern time. The motion was seconded and passed 4-0.

The Secretary, Susan Wishnetsky, again raised her problems with the automated member database. The Webmaster, David Schneider-Joseph said that he had already begun working on the database and would probably complete the changes in the coming weekend. Michael B raised the possibility of adding a birthdate field to ASFAR's join screen; there was discussion of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and whether ASFAR should openly challenge this law.

The Treasurer, David Schneider-Joseph, reported a $5 donation via PayPal and a withdrawal of $38.85 for three months of yrfire.com, leaving a balance of $466.47 in the PayPal account. He reported that he had transferred $250 from the BankOne account to PayPal and back again in order to qualify for a $5 bonus from PayPal. He reported that PayPal offers the option of an interest-bearing money market account and moved to transfer the PayPal funds into it. Michael B asked if the money would then be tied up and Susan Wishnetsky asked if there was a minimum balance; David Schneider-Joseph answered no to both questions. The motion was seconded and passed 6-0.

The Webmaster, David Schneider-Joseph, reported 35,413 pageviews in April. There were no new book sales. He reported that Commission Junction had deactivated ASFAR's account for lack of sales (the board had considered discontinuing it anyway in earlier 2003 meetings). He then reported that the March/April issue of Youth Truth had been posted. Michael B asked about the number of unique visitors; the Webmaster said that there had been 18,218 in April. There was some discussion about how people find the site, whether they explore the site beyond the page they find, and how many become members. Winston Featherly-Bean asked whether asfar.org usage statistics could be made accessible to board members; David Schneider-Joseph gave the URL where those statistics are posted.

The Recruiting Officer, Winston Featherly-Bean had no report. Michael B asked about ASFAR's recruiting methods and expressed interest in discussing this with the Recruiting Officer privately.

Reports of Committees:

For the Zine Committee, Susan Wishnetsky suggested combining the next two issues of Youth Truth, due to lack of submissions, lack of relevant news stories, and her own personal problems. Michael B suggested calling this the "summer issue". There was general consent; no vote was taken. The possibility of permanently changing Youth Truth's frequency from bimonthly to quarterly was discussed.

The demonstrations committee had no report.

Old Business

David Schneider-Joseph said that he had e-mailed the owners of the domain cyra.org asking if they would consider an amount lower than $400 and requesting usage statistics; he had received no response.

New Business

No new business was on the agenda, but several new topics were discussed, including how to run for a position on ASFAR's board of directors, ideas for advertising and promotional items (such as radio spots, bus signs, and t-shirts), and whether it would be permissible for ASFAR to give legal advice or information,

The next meeting was scheduled for May 21, 2003 at 9 pm eastern time.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:15 pm eastern time.

Respectfully submitted,

Susan Wishnetsky
ASFAR Secretary