Minutes of Board Meeting of May 21, 2003

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

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

Members Present: Michael B.

Visitors Present: One

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

Approval of minutes

The minutes were approved 4-0 with one abstention.

Reports of Officers

The President, David Schneider-Joseph, reported that he had registered for all eight days of the International Democratic Education Conference (www.idec2003.com).

The Vice-President, Oliver Traldi, was not present.

The Secretary, Susan Wishnetsky, reported that the automated membership system was working, but still cumbersome, and she gave some details of how she felt it could be improved.

The Treasurer, David Schneider-Joseph, reported a receipt of $4.56 from book sales and a charge of $12.95 for hosting of yrfire.com. He had not yet withdrawn the $250 the board approved for his IDEC registration and travel; after that withdrawal, Paypal's balance would be $203.52.

The Webmaster, David Schneider-Joseph, reported on his progress on the membership database and minor changes to the web site in response to discussions at previous meetings. He received an e-mail from the administrator of the FusionChat IRC network expressing support for ASFAR and asking if he could use an ASFAR image as one of several rotating banners at <http://www.fusionchat.net/> (sometimes the page must be refreshed several times to see the banner). David Schneider-Joseph wondered if the new banner was better than the one we currently use on our home page. The board had mixed opinions after viewing the banner as it would look on the home page (at <http://www.asfar.org/?test=1>)

The Recruiting Officer, Winston Featherly-Bean, had no report. Susan Wishnetsky commented that the recruiting officer received no membership information, and that perhaps he should, as long as he agreed to keep it confidential. Winston Featherly-Bean said that he would appreciate having that information.

Reports of Committees:

For the Zine Committee, Susan Wishnetsky reported that she had written one book review and might write another. She urged those submitting anything to get them to her early; the absolute deadline for submissions is June 10, but anything received that late may not be included.

For the demonstrations committee, Susan Wishnetsky asked who would approve the minutes of the May 14 committee meeting, which she had written and sent to ASFAR's Board of Directors and one other person in attendance. David Schneider-Joseph proposed that the minutes did not need approval to be posted; Susan Wishnetsky said that she did not want the author of the minutes (in this case, herself) to be solely responsible for their accuracy. She moved that those ASFAR members present who attended the demonstration committee meeting, whether board members or not, be allowed to vote at this board meeting to approve them. The motion was seconded. After discussion, David Schneider-Joseph moved to appoint himself, Michael B., Oliver Traldi. and Susan Wishnetsky to be official members of the demonstrations committee, permitted to vote on committee matters; Susan Wishnetsky withdrew her earlier motion. After discussion, the motion was amended to include Tevi Abrams. The motion was seconded and passed 4-0. Susan Wishnetsky then directed a motion to those committee members who were present to approve the demonstration committee minutes. The motion was seconded and passed 4-0.

Old Business

David Schneider-Joseph moved that ASFAR announce a t-shirt design contest with a deadline in two weeks, so that a t-shirt could be approved at the next meeting. The motion was seconded and passed 3-0.

New Business

David Schneider-Joseph moved that Michael B. be appointed head of Fundraising and Public Relations. The motion was seconded. After questioning by the board about his ideas and qualifications, the motion passed 3-0.

The topics of fundraising and promotional ideas were briefly discussed and tabled until the next meeting.

Susan Wishnetsky expressed her desire to post only approved board meeting minutes to the announce list, but without waiting until the next meeting for approval. She moved that her tentative minutes sent to the board be approved by e-mail votes to the President, who would notify the Secretary of approval to post. The motion was seconded. There was discussion about whether this process could be carried out more easily on the Board of Director's posting board, instead of via e-mail; one board member said that he'd been unable to log in to that posting board. The motion passed 3-0, but this process may be changed in the future.

Michael B. proposed that all Board Members and Officer sign a non-disclosure prohibiting their unauthorized release of confidential ASFAR internal information or other confidential material, and preventing release of incorrect statements about ASFAR to the media or others. David Schneider-Joseph pointed out that confidentiality of membership information was already covered in ASFAR bylaws; Susan Wishnetsky commented that she couldn't think of what other information might be confidential. After discussion, Michael B. agreed to come up with a more detailed description of what kind of information might be covered.

The next meeting was scheduled for June 11, 2003 at 9 pm eastern time.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:27 pm eastern time.

Respectfully submitted,

Susan Wishnetsky
ASFAR Secretary