[wplug-board] WPLUG Board Meeting May 1

[Joseph Prostko]

The regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the Western
Pennsylvania Linux Users Group will be held tonight, Tuesday, May 1,
2012 at 6:00 PM at The Coffee Tree Roasters at 5524 Walnut Street in
Shadyside.

For more details or to add your own topics for discussion, see the
wiki page at <http://www.wplug.org/wiki/WPLUGBoard/Meeting-20120501>.

A draft of last month's minutes to be read and approved at this
meeting is provided below for your reference.

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DRAFT Minutes for April 3, 2012

The regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the Western
Pennsylvania Linux Users Group was held on Tuesday, April 3, 2012, at
6:11 PM, at Coffee Tree Roasters in Shadyside. The regular presiding
officer was in the Chair and the Secretary was present. The minutes of
the March 6, 2012 meeting were approved as read.

The Chair reported the he did get in touch with Brian Seklecki and
that he will arrange with his former boss to evaluate the Wilkins
School networking situation.  Also, the upcoming WPLUG general meeting
will feature Pat Barron speaking about KVM.  Perhaps in the future,
Ted Rodgers could give a sysadmin talk, and maybe somebody from LOPSA
could explain the basics of firewalling.  A general talk like the
basics of Linux security would make a great topic.

The Vice Chair has nothing to report.

The Secretary reported that there is currently 17 dues-paying members.
 He also mentioned that nothing was new on the O'Reilly front, as they
never sent correspondence about acceptance into their program.  The
Secretary will follow up with them to see where the state of the
application review is.  Discussion then followed about ways to
increase membership and help promote the group.  WPLUG needs to talk
to Martin from SNAP Pittsburgh and to Nick Pinkston of the Pittsburgh
Tech to make sure events get published on those sites.  The group
should also write a press release and look into getting that put into
the local papers, as well as having a PSA sent out to local radio
stations.  The Vice Chair will take on this responsibility and report
back.

The Treasurer reported that he checked the WPLUG PO Box, but there was
no new bank statement.  The bank balance is the same as reported at
the last board meeting, minus 94 dollars for the PO Box renewal.  Due
to there being a new member of WPLUG, 20 dollars was deposited into
the account.  The Treasurer also mentioned the financial projections
he sent out to the board, and said that the board needs to seriously
consider the implications and try to find a way to increase incoming
money, whether that is by increased membership, or by other avenues
such as donations.  The Treasurer also mentioned that some feedback he
got about declining membership numbers was that there definitely needs
to be advanced topics done for presentations to the group.  The
Treasurer mentioned that his upcoming KVM talk will be advanced, as
will Vance Kochenderfer upcoming follow-up talk about secure shell.
On the non-financial front, there was an invitation from the Ubuntu
Pennsylvania team to use their forum to promote our events.  Their
website is http://ubuntupennsylvania.org.  Lastly, the Treasurer
mentioned that the group probably shouldn't have a business meeting at
every general meeting, which resulted in the following motion:

MOTION to have the next WPLUG business meeting at the May meeting;
seconded and passed.

The Director-at-Large reported back about the book she was reviewing,
called "Design in Nature" by Adrian Bejan.  She reported that the book
was not very well written, nor did it provide much value.  Therefore,
she suggested that no further action be taken regarding this book and
its principles.  She also wrote Johnny Q. congratulating Goodwill on
the grant they received.  She then reported that she would be
attending a Sprout Fund meeting on Thursday, April 5th to gather more
information about the process involved.  She would like to decide on
what size and how many banners to get, as well as anything else WPLUG
could ask for via the proposal.  Other things to consider at this time
are getting a projector and sound system that can be utilized by
Wilkins School.  The Chair mentioned that he would get in touch with
Patty from Wilkins School and get feedback from her.  The banner(s)
would be great to have if WPLUG was a part of an event like the
Pittsburgh Arts Festival in June.  The banner would also help
attendees at events like Software Freedom Day much easier find the
WPLUG table.  She mentioned that she would like to get pricing done
for designing and printing vinyl banners for WPLUG, which resulted in
the following motion:

MOTION to have the Director at Large explore costs for banner design
and printing; seconded and passed.

The Internet Committee had nothing to report.

The Program Committee reported that Pat Barron will speak in April on
the topic of KVM, yet there is no speaker currently lined up for May.
Perhaps a topic like open source software in the classroom could be a
potential topic.  Another idea would be discussion about the Raspberry
Pi.

The Investigating Committee had nothing to report.

The Newsletter Committee had nothing to report.

The Public Relations Committee had nothing to report.

The Wilkins School Networking Committee reports that Brian Seklecki
and the electrician will be meeting at the Wilkins School shortly to
evaluate the wiring situation and give guidance.

There are no Special Orders that need to be addressed.

There is no unfinished Business that needs to be addressed.

With respect to new business, The Treasurer brought up the need for a
membership credential such as plastic membership cards.  Not only can
this be used to easily identify members, but if WPLUG partners with
retailers, this can be utilized for discounts and the like.  The Chair
suggested this option be explored for feasibility based on cost.
Membership cards should also be put into theo Sprout Fund proposal,
alongside the banner and other items.

In the last piece of new business, the Chair mentioned that due to
Ubuntu apparently not giving out free, official live DVDs anymore,
perhaps making DVDs for WPLUG events utilizing a technology such as
Lightscribe should be explored.  This would be much cleaner than
hand-writing labels, and also more cost-effective than printing and
applying labels to the media directly.

The meeting adjourned at 7:57 PM.

Joseph Prostko
Secretary, Western Pennsylvania Linux Users Group

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