1991.01.17 WiscNet Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
The meeting was called to order at 10:05 am in the Board Room at the Medical College of Wisconsin by Tad Pinkerton, Chair. The attendees of the meeting are listed in an attachment to the minutes.
(I) Welcome
The Board was welcomed by President T. Michael Bolger of the Medical College of Wisconsin.
(II) Approval of Minutes of November 14, 1990 Meeting
M/S/P to approve minutes of November 14, 1990 WiscNet Board of Directors meeting.
(III) Report from MACC
A report dated January 17, 1991 was distributed at the meeting.
Network Status. Circuits were not complete, but were going well, and the last circuit was scheduled for installation on January 28. A February 1 date for network completion was still anticipated. A March 1 date for reliable operation is contemplated. CentersNet is expected to begin operation within two weeks of WiscNet operation. Mike Ford of CDN indicated that he thought everything was coming together well.
Financial Report. Three members had not yet paid the 90- 91 fees. The NSF balance was projected to spent appropriately within the federal fiscal year.
A electronic mailing list for the Board of Directors has been established; a printed copy of the list was distributed at the meeting. The address of the list is
Sending a message to that address will send it to all Directors. It was suggested that MACC establish an email address for the Network Operations Center (NOC) to receive and send WiscNet operational messages.
The WiscNet Executive Committee asked Norman Stoner of UW-Whitewater to serve on the CDN rate review committee. Bruce Staal of UW-Stevens Point will serve on behalf of CentersNet.
(IV) Membership Committee
Roger Hodek discussed the minutes of the joint Membership/Finance Committee meeting that took place on December 10. The minutes were distributed at the meeting. Four recommendations were submitted by the joint committees.
Recommendation #1. Establish the commercial membership rates at a $17,000 one-time fee and a $22,400 annual fee. Add a $5,000 surcharge to the annual fee for any commercial member who does not have a research or educational relationship with a WiscNet academic member.
M/S/P to approve the first recommendation.
Recommendation #2. The Treasurer should create an informational membership cost worksheet that spreads the UW-System grant amounts among the UW institutions, highlighting that amount in a separate column. The purpose of this worksheet is to emphasize to the respective UW administrations what the impact of the loss of the UW-System contribution will be. An error in the joint committee minutes was pointed out in the discussion of this recommendation. The years for which the UW- System contributions were proposed are 1992 for $90,000 and 1993 for $110,000. The Board agreed by consensus that the worksheet should be formulated.
Recommendation #3. Remove the non-node membership category. Any non-node member should be treated as a backdoor member, and WiscNet needs provide no direct support. No member is required to provide backdoor service, but the position of the Board is that backdoor members are permitted.
M/S/P to approve the third recommendation.
Recommendation #4. Out-of-state membership fees are defined to be the same as the normal one-time and annual membership fees for the appropriate membership category (academic or commercial). In addition to the normal annual fees, out-of-state members will be billed by WiscNet for the cost of their communication lines from the site to the appropriate connection point.
M/S/P to approve the fourth recommendation.
(V) Proposed Sharing of Hub Site Wiring Costs
There is a potential higher cost for the local demarc-to- router wiring at hub site campuses. UW-Milwaukee is anticipating an increased wiring cost, totalling approximately $3,000.
M/S/ that WiscNet should share the cost of the demarc wiring at hub sites with the hub site campus and CentersNet (if appropriate).
M/S/P to table the motion until the next meeting.
(VI) User Services Committee
John Beck described the activities of the ad-hoc User Services Committee. The committee conceived a collection of user documentation that will be made available for anonymous FTP access over WiscNet. The user documentation is designed to permit each institution to customize it to fit their local configurations and documentation standards. It is planned that the documents would be available sometime in mid to late February.
Because the committee considered itself to be focused on the particular responsibility of preparing the documentation, it did not consider itself to be a permanent committee. However, the committee felt that the ongoing user support needs of WiscNet member institutions required continuing communication among the user support professionals and with the Network Information Center (NIC) staff. The committee made two recommendations to the Board.
Recommendation #1. Establish a permanent WiscNet User Services Committee, analogous to the Technical Committee. The permanent committee would consist of a user representative from each member institution and would establish a smaller working subcommittee.
M/S/P to approve the first recommendation.
Recommendation #2. The committee suggested five activities and responsibilities for the NIC during the initial stages of the network operations. These include training sessions for user services representatives, access to NIC-based consulting services, the establishment of a bulletin board and/or mail discussion list, publication of a WiscNet newsletter, and maintenance and distribution of user documentation.
M/S/P to approve the second recommendation.
John Beck was asked to chair the permanent User Services Committee.
(VII) Finance Committee Report
Updated budgets for 1991-92, and preliminary budgets for 1992-93 and 1993-94 were distributed at the meeting. Because of the delay in starting operation of the network, the NSF funds became out of synch with the WiscNet fiscal year budgets. Consequently, $48,000 of the NSF funds were carried forward to the 1991-92 budget, and $78,000 of membership fees were carried forward to the 1992-93 budget. Discussion took place regarding the establishment of a budget line for reserve for equipment replacement.
M/S/P to approve the 1991-92 budget as presented, amended to create an interest line in the income budget of $6,000 and to reduce the charter member fees by $6,000 to $206,106.56.
M/S/P to send 1991-92 membership bills on June 1, 1991, and to establish a due date of August 31, 1991.
The issue of penalties for late payments was referred to the Finance Committee.
(VIII) Next Meeting
The preliminary date for the next Board of Directors meeting is April 24 in conjunction with the UW Computing Directors meeting in Oshkosh.
(IX) Regional and National Developments
CICNet is searching for a new executive director. CICNet has submitted an NSF proposal for continued funding at a substantial level: two years at 80% of the first two years. NSF is likely to support such a request. CICNet is also performing a preliminary study of converting to T3 links to support such high-bandwidth applications as scientific imaging. WiscNet is anticipated to receive an NSF review and audit after April 1, and should be well prepared for the audit.
(X) Startup Publicity
The initiation of the operation of WiscNet is an opportunity for publicity, highlighting the fact that it is running. A committee to look into publicity was established consisting of
Carla Garnham, Medical College of Wisconsin
Ed Mathay, Marquette University
Randy Williams, Beloit College
Jerry Isaacs, Carroll College
Barbara De Cleene, UW-Green Bay
(XI) Other Business
Manly Draper suggested the possibility of reduced NOC support costs and fees by eliminating second and third shift operations on Saturday and Sunday. Mike Dorl distributed draft documents for potential new members. One was an informational document, the other a proposed new membership agreement form. The membership agreement form was referred to the Membership Committee. Comments on the form should be referred to Roger Hodek.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:30 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
John L. Beck
Secretary
Attendees - WiscNet Board of Directors Meeting - January 17, 1991
Directors
Charles R. Williams, Beloit College
Gerald Isaacs, Carroll College
Chris J. Hackbart, Edgewood College
James S. Evans, Lawrence University
C. Edward Mathay, Marquette University
Carla Garnham, Medical College of Wisconsin
Robert Taylor, Ripon College
Thomas H. Schneider, UW Centers
Kenneth Ruhland, UW System Administration
Roi Prueher, UW-Eau Claire
William Meyer, UW-Extension
Roger Hodek, UW-Green Bay
John L. Beck, UW-La Crosse
Michael Dorl, UW-Madison
Tad Pinkerton, UW-Madison
Richard C. Holtzman, UW-Oshkosh
Philip G. Charest, UW-Parkside
James Johnson, UW-Platteville
John Nierengarten, UW-River Falls
James Schurter, UW-Stevens Point
Gordon Jones, UW-Stout
Norman Stoner, UW-Whitewater
Staff
Manly Draper, UW-Madison
Visitors and Guests
Carolyn Folke, Dept. of Public Instruction
Lee Goldesberry, UW-Stevens Point
Michael Ford, Dept. of Administration