[wplug-board] Draft Minutes for Board Meeting, 12/3/2005

[David Ostroske]

Here are the draft minutes of the WPLUG Board Meeting on Saturday,
December 3, 2005.

WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA LINUX USERS GROUP
Scheduled Board Meeting, December 3, 2005, 1:30pm
1505 Newell-Simon Hall, Carnegie Mellon University

CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 1:54pm.

All 5 Directors were present at the meeting:
* Chris Teodorski, Director-at-Large
* Patrick Wagstrom, Treasurer
* Beth Lynn Eicher, Vice-Chair
* David Ostroske, Secretary
* Bill Moran, Chair

MINUTES
The minutes for November 9th, 2005 were adopted as posted.

COMMITTEE REPORTS
* Internet Committee
James O'Kane has agreed to join the Internet Committee, and Jonathan
Billings has opted out of joining the committee.

Beth Lynn reported that Jonathan Billings is still the channel op for
the IRC channel. He can continue, and if the Internet Committee wants
to delegate some tasks to him, then they can.

Beth and Chris also discussed moving the Penguin server to a more
powerful computer.

* Program Committee
The Program Committee has not met yet. Beth is still doing most of the
work for now. Mike O'Connor had expressed interest in serving on the
Program Committee.

The Board agreed to add Mike O'Connor to the Program Committee.

Beth Lynn reported that the Program Committee's mailing list has yet
to be created. She will do that.

* Investigating Committee
Nothing to report.

* Newsletter Committee
Bill reported that Elwin Green will not be part of the committee.

The committee will meet sometime in January.

* ErieLUG Revival Committee
Chris reported that Bill Bukowski is willing to work on the ErieLUG
Revival committee.

Beth reported that Brint needs to be contacted regarding transferring
erielug.org to Penguin.

They will consider booking a date in Erie sometime in February.

NEXT AND FUTURE MEETINGS
We meet on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at 6:30pm, with meeting
places to be announced. The next regular board meeting will be held on
December 14th, 2005. We will tentatively meet at the Outback
Restaurant at PNC Park.

After that, the next meeting is January 11th, 2006.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS
None.

NEW BUSINESS

# Sign the bank account signature card
The bank asks that the Chair, Vice Chair, and Treasurer sign the bank
account signature card and provide their social security numbers.
Currently, the account is in Beth Lynn's name, so Bill and Patrick
need to sign it. That will be taken care of today.

# Refreshment fund
Beth Lynn moved that we form a Refreshment Fund out of the funds
recovered last month:

--BEGIN
A Refreshments Fund, which will be used for the purchase of meeting
refreshments and sundries, shall be established. It will be
administered by the Program Committee, which will report fund income
and expenses to the Treasurer. The fund will be capped at $50.00, and
any overage will be returned to the general treasury.
--END

After debate and amendment, the motion carried.

#PR Committee

Bill moved that we recommend the following language to the Membership
for approval as a special rule of order:
--BEGIN
WPLUG PR committee
A Public Relations Committee shall be appointed by the Board, and
shall be renewed promptly after a new Board takes office. Its duties
shall include:
1. To swell the ranks of WPLUG membership.
2. To establish and maintain WPLUG's reputation as a key organization
for Open Source in western Pennsylvania.
3. To maintain a high level of awareness of WPLUG activities with the
general public.
4. To obtain favorable publicity for WPLUG.
5. To establish and maintain contact with other Open Source
organizations to coordinate efforts to further the cause of Open
Source.
The committee shall provide regular reports to the Board and to the membership.
--END

After debate and amendment, the motion carried. This will be announced
for the next membership business meeting.

Dave moved that we establish guidelines for how monetary disbursements
can be made to the standing committees. After debate and amendment,
Patrick moved to postpone this matter until the next meeting, in order
to provide language that can handle reimbursements and other matters.

The language as amended, which will be taken up as unfinished business
at the next meeting, is as follows:
--BEGIN
Any standing Committee of WPLUG may acquire funds directly from the
Treasurer, without other approval, subject to the following
conditions:
1. Funds disbursed to the Committee are only authorized to be spend on
activities included in the Committee's charter.
2. Disbursement is contingent on approval of the Treasurer. The
Treasurer may deny funds if the situation warrants.
3. The Committee may not spend more than $100 in any 30 day period.
The Committee may request larger funds by presenting a detailed
spending proposal to the Board, who must approve the program prior to
fund disbursement.
4. The Committee must present receipts for all monies spent in a timely manner.
5. The Committee must return unused funds at the request of the Treasurer.
--END

#Passing the Penguin
Dave moved to recommend language to codify the Passing the Penguin
procedure used at the membership meetings. After debate and amendment,
Bill moved that the motion be postponed until March, and until then,
we test the procedure (given permission to suspend the rules by the
Membership) at the membership meetings. Bill's motion carried.

The language as amended, which will be taken up as unfinished business
at the March meeting, is as follows:
--BEGIN
PASSING THE PENGUIN
A Special Rule of Order for less formal debate at membership meetings

1. The chair shall bring to each membership meeting a "penguin," which
can be any physical item that can be recognized and potentially
handled by any of the members present at the meeting. While the chair
holds the penguin, all regularly established rules of debate are in
full effect.
2. When recognizing a member during debate, the chair, at his
discretion and without objection from the membership, may pass the
penguin to that member. It is recommended, but not required, that the
chair pass the penguin to whoever first made the motion, instead of
introducing the penguin in the middle of a debate.
3. While the penguin is on the floor, the member holding the penguin
has the floor and may speak on the subject being debated.
4. When the member has finished speaking, he may pass the penguin to
another member who has signaled a desire to speak. When the other
member receives the penguin, then that member has the floor. There is
no limit to the number of times that a member may speak while the
penguin is on the floor. However, if more than one person wishes to
speak, the penguin should be passed to the person who has spoken the
least often; and it is recommended that the penguin be passed to a
member who holds an opposing point of view on the pending motion.
5. The chair may take back the penguin whenever a member finishes
speaking. The chair may also take back the penguin while a member
speaks if the member is in violation of the regularly established
rules of debate, or if the penguin is passed to a member who would
normally be ineligible to attain the floor.
6. While the penguin is on the floor, only the member holding the
penguin may make a subsidiary motion. If the motion is in order, then
the chair may either take back the penguin and enforce normal rules of
debate, or start debate on the new motion with the maker of the motion
holding the penguin.
7. When the debate on a pending motion comes to an end, the chair
shall take back the penguin before the motion is disposed of.
--END

ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 2:54pm.


--
David Ostroske <eksortso at gmail.com>