Minutes of Board Meeting of August 25, 1999

Location: IRC server irc.chatnet.org, channel #asfar

Time: 7:30 pm central time, 8:30 pm eastern time

Board Members Present: Eric Anderson, Jason Gerber, Justin Mallone, Arthur Traldi, Susan Wishnetsky (Note: Alex Thiele was unable to attend due to computer failure.)

Members Present: None.

Visitors Present: None.

Old Business

The minutes of the August 11, 1999 meeting of the Board of Directors were approved.

Officers' Reports

The President, Eric Anderson, reported that a member had sent a message to the Board of Directors announcing his candidacy for the Board along with a statement of his beliefs. He further reported that there had been three break-in attempts against ASFAR's web server in the past two weeks, in which someone attempted to gain access to the server via ASFAR's web site; he filed complaints in all cases. Finally, he reported that Board Member Jason Gerber would be interviewed on August 26 and that this interview would be broadcast on a public television program in Maryland.

The Secretary, Susan Wishnetsky, reported that the P.O. Box has remained inactive.

Board Member Jason Gerber, ASFAR's Research Coordinator, reported that he had researched Texas Emancipation Law at the request of a member. He added that his interview was to be on the subject of the curfew in Washington, D.C. and that the program on which it would appear was "Newsnight Maryland".

New Business

The agenda for the annual general meeting scheduled for September 15, 1999 at 7:30 pm central time (8:30 pm eastern time) was discussed. Eric Anderson proposed that the agenda include: -officers' annual reports (which will be compiled into ASFAR's annual report) -election of board members -sanctioning of the bylaw changes approved at the August 11, 1999 board meeting -consideration of Avi Hein's proposal on ASFAR's age of consent position.
Susan Wishnetsky formally proposed adding to the agenda the consideration of changes to ASFAR's Declaration of Principles proposed by Daniel McGuire on the discussion list. Justin Mallone and Susan Wishnetsky raised additional changes to the Declaration of Principles that they were considering presenting to the Board for addition to the agenda, but made no formal proposals. Eric Anderson stated that notice of the meeting with the final agenda should be posted one week prior to the meeting (September 8).

The position paper on education was discussed and approval of the paper was tabled until all members were able to read the final version.

The 'zine was discussed. Jason Gerber presented an idea for the online version to contain links to the emancipation laws of states for which these laws are online and volunteered to find and create these links.

Susan Wishnetsky reported that she had submitted a book review, had found the site with the application for an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number), and had begun compiling a list of librarians to notify about the 'zine.

The name of the 'zine was discussed. Jason Gerber proposed that the issue of the 'zine title be placed on the agenda of the general annual meeting.

The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted, Susan Wishnetsky Secretary, ASFAR