1990.03.07 WiscNet Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
The meeting was called to order at 10:00 am in the Learning Resource Center, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point by Tad Pinkerton, chair. The attendees of the meeting are listed in an attachment to the minutes.
(I) Approval of Minutes
M/S/P approve minutes of December 12, 1989 meeting as distributed.
(II) Status of the NSF Proposal
Tad Pinkerton updated the Board on his meeting with the NSF reviewers and budget committee. NSF recommended that WiscNet be funded for four years at $577,000: $237,000, $120,000, $120,000, and $100,000 respectively. This is a reduction of 2% from the requested amount. Noting the comments of the reviewers, Tad indicated that there will need to be action taken on some of the items.
(III) By-Laws
The Board discussed the draft By-Laws distributed with the meeting agenda.
M/S/P amend the By-Laws to require two-thirds majority of the Board of Directors (change from 70%) for actions described in sections 2.2, 5.1, and 6.3.
M/S to establish a By-Laws Committee to solicit written input from the membership and re-write the By-Laws for a subsequent meeting. The motion was tabled until after discussion of the By-Laws.
A number of wording changes were suggested and accepted by consensus. They are reflected in the modified By-Laws distributed with these minutes.
Discussion raised the question of whether WiscNet can incur debt. This issue is complicated by the fact that if UW-Madison/MACC is made the fiscal agent (see item (VII) below), WiscNet funds will be managed in a state program revenue (128) account. The question of to what degree WiscNet is independent of the University of Wisconsin System and the State of Wisconsin was also raised. Tad Pinkerton will pursue this will UW legal counsel.
It was announced that the open meetings portions of state law apply only to governmental bodies, and thus are not applicable to WiscNet.
M/S/F to establish a By-Laws Committee to solicit written input from the membership and re-write the By-Laws for a subsequent meeting. The motion was retrieved from the table. The motion failed.
M/S/P to approve the By-Laws as amended and changed by discussion.
The By-Laws are now considered to be the operative rules of WiscNet.
(IV) Officers
M/S/P to formally name WiscNet officers through June 30, 1991. The officers are:
Tad Pinkerton, UW-Madison, Chair Ed Mathay, Marquette, Vice-Chair John Beck, UW-La Crosse, Secretary Randy Williams, Beloit, Treasurer
M/S/P to formally define the Executive Committee and its members. The members are:
Tad Pinkerton, UW-Madison, Chair Ed Mathay, Marquette, Vice-Chair John Beck, UW-La Crosse, Secretary Randy Williams, Beloit, Treasurer Roger Hodek, UW-Green Bay, Member-at-Large Elwin Cammack, UW-System Representative
(V) MACC Network Management Agreement
Manly Draper discussed the most recent version of the proposal, which incorporates changes suggested by the Executive Committee. The funding management will consist of one account for the NSF funding and a state program revenue (128) account for WiscNet revenue. The issue of ownership of equipment purchased with NSF funding was raised; it is assumed that title of such equipment will fall to the holder of the grant: UW-Madison.
The contract term is defined to be in effect through June 30, 1992, providing for the start-up period and two fiscal years thereafter. The contract will be reviewed and may be renewed annually, resulting in a rolling two year contract.
M/ to set the termination date of the contract to June 30, 1991. The motion died for lack of a second.
A number of wording changes were suggested and accepted by consensus. They are reflected in the modified contract distributed with these minutes.
M/S/P to approve the WiscNet/MACC Network Management Agreement as changed by discussion.
(VI) WiscNet Budget and Membership Fees
Randy Williams presented an updated set of fee allocation models and described the discussions that took place at the February 21 Executive Committee meeting.
M/S/P to adopt the membership fee allocation model on page 4 of the budget information dated March 6, 1990.
Start-up is defined as being the remainder of the 1989-90 fiscal year, with the understanding that the actual payment of the start-up and first year fees could cross fiscal year boundaries. The Executive Committee recommended the establishment of a contingency fund, whose revenue would be $15,000 during each of the start- up and first year periods.
M/S/P to approve the 1990 start-up budget.
The first fiscal year will consist of a ten-month period, assuming the network is made operational in October, 1990.
M/S/P to approve the 1990-91 budget.
M/S/P to require that the start-up fee be paid by August 31, 1990.
The approved membership fee allocation model and budgets are included with these minutes.
The issue of Bitnet membership was raised. It will be possible to carry Bitnet traffic over WiscNet; CREN, the Bitnet governing organization, has adopted rules changes that permit this alternative. Thus, Bitnet members may retain Bitnet membership but drop their dedicated communications line(s), saving the line rental fees. This solution is limited to VAX/VMS environments only for WiscNet.
The question of whether to continue Bitnet membership was raised. Subsequent discussion mentioned that it is a moral issue to continue supporting the cooperative spirit of Bitnet and to continue the support for small schools that are not linked to the Internet. Retaining Bitnet membership also permits continued access to Bitnet-only sites and Bitnet-supported resources such as mailing lists and databases. Bitnet membership can be retained for now and subsequently reevaluated after experience has been gained as to its need.
(VII) Fiscal Agent
M/S/P to designate MACC as the WiscNet fiscal agent.
MACC will manage the WiscNet budget and issue invoices directly to the WiscNet Director of each member for the start-up and first year membership fees.
(VIII) Membership Committee
Roger Hodek presented a draft of proposed membership categories and asked for feedback from the Board. In the draft were errors relating to UW-Centers: UW-Centers is considered to be a single institution and is a charter WiscNet member.
Discussion centered around the issue of "back-door" members: those users who obtain access to WiscNet via a connection to an existing member without becoming a member. It is difficult to discourage back-door members, since a number of WiscNet members are already supporting external links to other institutions and it would be potentially improper to attempt to legislate the kinds of relationships member institutions may have with other institutions. However, back-door members could have a negative impact on network performance without paying for the use of the network resources.
It was suggested that the back-door member issue may be premature, since at CICnet there have been no problems and potential back-door members are requesting formal membership. There are a number of reasons that a back- door member might prefer formal membership, including participation on committees, direct support by the Network Information Operations Centers, and high- bandwidth peer connection to other members. A "reasonability test" was suggested: if the primary reason to become a back-door user was to gain access to WiscNet, than the institution should be encouraged to become a formal member.
The category definitions raised the concern of some Directors regarding the possible increased size of the Board.
The draft was accepted by consensus by the Board, and the Membership Committee was requested to continue addressing the issues raised.
(IX) Network Topology
Mike Dorl distributed a draft of Request for Bid for the leased communications lines. The four topological alternatives were discussed. It was suggested that the second topology was no longer appropriate now that WiscNet has received nearly full funding. It was recommended that the second topology be replaced in the bid request by a combination of the first and fourth topologies, incorporating an inner T1 loop and outer loops for extra redundancy.
The Principal Investigators were encouraged to expedite the issuance of the Request for Bid and that the results be forwarded to the Technical Committee and the Board.
(X) Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Board of Directors will take place on Wednesday, May 2, 1990 at UW-Eau Claire.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:45 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
John L. Beck Secretary
Attendees - WiscNet Board of Directors Meeting - March 7, 1989
John Beck, UW-La Crosse
Elwin Cammack, UW-System Administration
Philip Charest, UW-Parkside
Michael Dorl, UW-Madison
Manly Draper, UW-Madison
James Evans, Lawrence University
Lee Goldesberry, UW-Parkside
Bradley Gottfried, UWC-Fond du Lac
Thomas Gustafson, UW-Superior
Chris Hackbart, Edgewood College
Harry Herbert, UW-Stout
Roger Hodek, UW-Green Bay
Richard Holtzman, UW-Oshkosh
Gerald Isaacs, Carroll College
Anne Iwata, UW-System Administration
James Johnson, UW-Platteville
George Kuelks, UW-Milwaukee
C. Edward Mathay, Marquette University
William Meyer, UW-Extension
John Nierengarten, UW-River Falls
Tad Pinkerton, UW-Madison
Roi Prueher, UW-Eau Claire
James Schurter, UW-Stevens Point
Norman Stoner, UW-Whitewater
John Sutton, St. Norbert College
Robert Taylor, Ripon College
Charles R. Williams, Beloit College