[H-ANNOUNCE] Minutes of Executive Meeting

[Raymond Smith]

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             MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE MEETING OF HUMBUG
                       HELD 25 NOVEMBER 2002

Executive present:
    Mark Suter (President)
    Matthew Sellers (Treasurer)
    Raymond Smith (Secretary)
    David Makepeace (Librarian)

Other members:
    Bradley Marshall (Systems Administrator)

Apologies:
    Clinton Roy (Vice President)
    Ben Fowler (Talks Maintainer)

The meeting opened at 7:00pm.

Accounts
--------

Raymond and Brent had not met to get the Bank A/c authorities form
updated. As Bradley sees Brent more often than the rst of us it was
decided that Raymond should give the form to Bradley to get a
signature from Brent. Raymond will then take the form to the CBA.

caliburn
--------

The time is fast approaching when we have to either purchase our
temporary machine or seek other options. The IBM xSeries box would
cost the club roughly $2700. Ridge Technologies offer a comparable
box for $1430 [which was found when Brad Marshall went around for
best available quotes]. The Ridge Technologies box is full rack width but
only half rack depth. Indeed, Ridge has ceased to sell full length
units.

Raymond somewhat concerned that the boxes have all cables at the front.
Mark pointed out that we could place the box at the rear of the rack
if need be. Mark was concerned about the absence of a floppy or CD-ROM
drive. While none of those present had used Ridge technology, Brad
and Mark have received good reports from their SysAdmin colleagues.

The choice came down to paying $2700 to Miju, $1430 to Ridge, or
seeking more quotes.

Discussion moved on to the Sparc-Station offered to the club by
Tim Kent of Centrics. They are offering to provide the box and host
it on the condition that traffic is 'negligible'. There was some
discussion of security and privacy issues. Further discussion was put
off to a future meeting.

Overall the executive were happy with the Ridge Technology quote.
There was some thought that the price might be lowered by specifying
cheaper components.

Mark Suter moved, and Matthew Sellers seconded, that:
    "A sum no greater than $1500.00 be spent with Ridge Technologies
    for a replacement for caliburn".
The motion was passed unanimously.

There were no objections to the new machine being delivered to Mark's
home address.

Raymond Smith noted that if the new caliburn required its own rack-unit of
space then the cost of this ($66.00 / quarter) would be passed on.
Mark and Raymond will try their best fit the new caliburn into the
space used by the old.

On a related note, traffic statistics have been collected and are now
available at https://diadora.client.uq.net.au/.

    Sparc Station 5 continued
    -------------------------

The Sun box is sitting at Brad's place. We need a name for it. Initial
favourite was excalibur (sister sword of caliburn). Another suggestion
was Thor's hammer 'molmir'. General agreement to name future HUMBUG
machines after obscure instruments of war.

Mathew Sellers to look up correct spelling of Thor's Hammer's name to
Brad.

There was some discussion on the exact role for this machine. Given the
kind offer of machine and hosting it was decided to use this machine as
a backup for low-volume services. The stability of the machine is still
unknown. There was some discussion on exactly how mailman could be made
to work across to machines.

Raymond Smith moved, and Mark Suter seconded, that:
	"We accept Tim Kent's offer of machine and hosting for a
	backup HUMBUG server and add mention of him along with our
	other supporters"
The motion was passed unanimously.

Linux Journal
-------------

Matthew Sellers has been unable to subscribe (temporary cost on credit
card). Mark Suter pointed out that our subscription in the past had been
through the Co-Op book shop; although there were problems with address
changes through them. It was decided that Mark should subscribe using
LJ's web site and his credit card.

Matthew Sellers moved, and Raymond Smith seconded, that:
	"Mark Suter purchase direct from LJ a two year subscription
	of LJ at no more than $300.00"
The motion was passed unanimously.

At this point Mark Suter passed on a number of AUUGN cover CDs
donated by Raymond to the library including a Debian 3.0 CD and
an old distribution of Mandrake Linux.

DSIG
----

There was some discussion on the state of DSIG. Decided that we need
DSIG announcements put out to H-GEN. There is meant to be a meeting
every month but nothing appears to have happened. Raymond to hassle
DSIG coordinator and ensure appropriate emails to H-GEN and announce.

It was noted that talks are moving along well, eg AJ's talk. Some
thought that maybe these talks had taken over from DSIG (as many
of the talks have been developer related).

Exec
----

Brent Wesley (immediate past president) has asked to be removed from
the executive mailing lists. Raymond suggested holding out until
Brent had signed the change of authority form.

Close
-----

As there was no other business the meeting closed at 8:00pm.

-- 
Raymond Smith
Secretary of HUMBUG 2002/2003              mailto:secretary at humbug.org.au
Home Unix Machine - Brisbane User Group    http://www.humbug.org.au/



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