Minutes/2020-05-15: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 11:46, 10 November 2020

Present: RL, JE, TM

General financial/organizational matters

The meeting discussed RL's e-mailed report on options to formally establish the Board as a charity or other body in the UK. The tax benefits to donors would seem to outweigh the financial cost in setting this up. RL to look into the amount of paperwork required for registration and accounting, and also whether there are any UK residency requirements. RL to look into where the Board might most easily keep its money (PayPal, bank, etc.) for the purposes of accepting donations and paying expenses. Agreed to defer the question of whether to accept donations from members of the public (as opposed to just members of the Board) pending RL's findings.

Panix/WebSTUMP

TM reported that he had logged into the billing system for the Board's Panix account (which runs the WebSTUMP instance), changed the billing details, and reimbursed Kathy Morgan $100 for the coming year's hosting fees. Bill Horne repaid TM $33.33 and JE will do likewise. TM to investigate use of WebSTUMP and to send the Panix credentials to JE and RL.

Wiki

TM hasn't had a reply to his e-mail to Roman Racine, who is hosting the Board's wiki on albasani.net. TM sent a follow-up letter by post. TM got the wiki credentials from Kathy Morgan and was able to log in and see the private pages. It is possible to use the MediaWiki web interface to export pages as XML, though this is a bit cumbersome and so it will be better to wait for Roman to get us shell access. Some of the wiki pages seem to be out of date with respect to the Kathy Morgan's static copy at <http://tokak.us/big8/>. TM to ask Kathy about this. TM to send the wiki credentials to JE and RL.

Canonical group list

JE started contacting news server admins to see whether/how they are using the canonical group list. It turns out that our instructions are out of date, and the place we are supposed to be publishing the group list is out of date too because the key to sign the lists is too old to use with modern GnuPG. So Russ will look into making sure the files are updated and migrate the PGP key. Once Russ is done with that, we need to update our instructions for news server admins. JE will hold off on contacting any more admins until all this is done.

Todd M. McComb

JE has been in contact with Todd M. McComb, who seemed upset that the Board hadn't kept him in the loop, though in reality we simply didn't know about his history and role with the Board. JE suggests inviting him to the next meeting so that we can all introduce ourselves and find out what he's been doing.

Public relations

The Board needs to make an announcement on news.announce.newgroups that RL has joined. JE to make some minimal changes to the wiki on albasani.net indicating that the Board has been reconstituted and listing its new members.

History

JE obtained two 1998 books on Usenet, and has been corresponding with someone who helped set up Usenet to begin with. JE downloaded a 2GB bulk list of messages from 1979–1991 with really early Usenet history; the Board should preserve this somewhere.

Next meeting

SUSE is getting rid of GoToMeeting. JE to look into a replacement service and to send a link/instructions for the next meeting.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Present: Rayner Lucas (RL), JE, TM
+Present: RL, JE, TM
-==Board membership==
+==General financial/organizational matters==
-RL introduced himself and TM and JE decided to formally appoint him to the Board.
+The meeting discussed RL's e-mailed report on options to formally establish the Board as a charity or other body in the UK.  The tax benefits to donors would seem to outweigh the financial cost in setting this up.  RL to look into the amount of paperwork required for registration and accounting, and also whether there are any UK residency requirements.  RL to look into where the Board might most easily keep its money (PayPal, bank, etc.) for the purposes of accepting donations and paying expenses.  Agreed to defer the question of whether to accept donations from members of the public (as opposed to just members of the Board) pending RL's findings.
-==Infrastructure==
+==Panix/WebSTUMP==
-JE suggested that in the near future we should test if the Board's infrastructure still works, and familiarize ourselves with it, by changing a moderation address and/or by processing a group deletion request.  JE to get in touch with news server operators to see whether/how they are using the Board's group list.
+TM reported that he had logged into the billing system for the Board's Panix account (which runs the WebSTUMP instance), changed the billing details, and reimbursed Kathy Morgan $100 for the coming year's hosting fees.  Bill Horne repaid TM $33.33 and JE will do likewise.  TM to investigate use of WebSTUMP and to send the Panix credentials to JE and RL.
-==Admin/legal issues==
+==Wiki==
+TM hasn't had a reply to his e-mail to Roman Racine, who is hosting the Board's wiki on albasani.net.  TM sent a follow-up letter by post.  TM got the wiki credentials from Kathy Morgan and was able to log in and see the private pages.  It is possible to use the MediaWiki web interface to export pages as XML, though this is a bit cumbersome and so it will be better to wait for Roman to get us shell access.  Some of the wiki pages seem to be out of date with respect to the Kathy Morgan's static copy at <http://tokak.us/big8/>.  TM to ask Kathy about this.  TM to send the wiki credentials to JE and RL.
+==Canonical group list==
+JE started contacting news server admins to see whether/how they are using the canonical group list.  It turns out that our instructions are out of date, and the place we are supposed to be publishing the group list is out of date too because the key to sign the lists is too old to use with modern GnuPG.  So Russ will look into making sure the files are updated and migrate the PGP key.  Once Russ is done with that, we need to update our instructions for news server admins.  JE will hold off on contacting any more admins until all this is done.
-TM reported that establishing an organization in Austria is not too difficult in terms of fees and paperwork (though it is required to submit a constitution in German).  At least one member of the organization must be resident in Austria, but there is no citizenship requirement.  However, for formal non-profit status (which may be necessary for donations to be tax-deductible) there may be significant initial and ongoing fees/paperwork.  Agreed to defer further consideration of organizing in Austria in favour of RL looking into the corresponding procedures in the UK.
+==Todd M. McComb==
-==Wiki==
+JE has been in contact with Todd M. McComb, who seemed upset that the Board hadn't kept him in the loop, though in reality we simply didn't know about his history and role with the Board.  JE suggests inviting him to the next meeting so that we can all introduce ourselves and find out what he's been doing.
+==Public relations==
+The Board needs to make an announcement on [news:news.announce.newgroups news.announce.newgroups] that RL has joined.  JE to make some minimal changes to the wiki on albasani.net indicating that the Board has been reconstituted and listing its new members.
+==History==
+JE obtained two 1998 books on Usenet, and has been corresponding with someone who helped set up Usenet to begin with.  JE downloaded a 2GB bulk list of messages from 1979–1991 with really early Usenet history; the Board should preserve this somewhere.
+==Next meeting==
+SUSE is getting rid of GoToMeeting. JE to look into a replacement service and to send a link/instructions for the next meeting.
-TM has not yet had a reply to his e-mail to Roman and so will look into other ways of contacting him.  TM to ask Kathy and Fred if they still have wiki credentials we can use, as we will need these to access the private sections of the wiki in the event that we need to scrape the site manually.
+[[Category:Meeting minutes for 2020]]