Location

• Time: Saturday, 3 October, 2009
• Space: Small Meeting Room, West Branch of the Manchester Public Library, 76 North Main Street, Manchester, NH

Attendees

Board Members

• MaddogHall
• TedRoche
• BenScott
• HeatherBrodeur
• MichaelKazin

Absent Board Members

• ShawnKOShea - Declined invitation
• BillSconce - No response to invitation

Others

• ArcRiley

Notes

Meta

• Meeting formally started at 1:40 PM
• All expected Board Members are in attendance
• Ben Scott acting as Secretary in absence of Bill Sconce
• Meeting formally ended at 2:41 PM

Regular meetings

Heather Brodeur reports on her experience as Nashua meeting coordinator

• Heather had work obligations for six months
• She asked for someone to take over during that period
• Nobody stepped forward
• Thus, meetings did not happen
• Nobody appeared to care
• After six of none months, she did not see point in trying to restart if no one cared
• Heather remarked some people may have fallen into the habit of expecting to be "catered to"

Ted Roche reports on Peterborough meeting status

• Charlie quits effective EOY 2009

Ted Roche reports on Concord meeting status

• Ted is trying to find help from attendees, but volunteers are not forthcoming
• Ted would like to retire from coordinator role
• Has remarked on this to attendees, but hasn't pushed hard

Ben Scott reports on discussion of possible new Manchester meeting

• Several people have inquired about such
• Ben asked Cole Tuininga if he would be interested in coordinating
  • Cole said no, but did say he would ask an associate
  • Ben was then contacted by one Chip Marshall (said associate)
  • Chip asked what to do
  • Ben responded with various suggestions, haven't heard back since
  • This was a little over a week ago
• Ben Scott will contact Chip Marshall, ask status
• Ted okay with folding Concord into a Manchester group

Brief discussion of how to hold meetings, how to secure speakers, etc.

Ted, in regards to timid coordinators (poss. paraphrase): "people hate having to ask speakers to drive a long way to meet that might only have a few people"

Maddog pointed out that if speakers are told ahead of time what to expect and that they may only have a few people, then it is their decision to speak or not. If the "timid coordinators" do not ask, then they are making the decision for the speakers.

Arc Riley reports PySIG has backlog of potential speakers due to coordinator overload

NH registration

GNHLUG must file to renew before EOY 2010

• Arc will submit proposed new articles to gnhlug-org discussion list before EOM Oct 2009
• To submit, we need 5 signatures; 6 is recommended
• We will submit come 2010

Board meeting frequency

• Formal proposal: Amend articles/bylaws, board only required to meet once per year
• Accepted without objection
• Additional meetings are still allowed

501(c)(3)

Ted reports:

• The IRS application has an "essay question" for justification
• It needs to be comprehensive and copious
• Believes GNHLUG mission should qualify as educational organization
• Previous plan to handle no money was a problem
• Tried to put together budget plan based on regular meetings
  • Time spent by coordinators organizing
  • Time spent by presenters preparing and speaking
  • However, this proved difficult to quantify, and nobody was interested

Discussion of budget and finance followed

• Ben asks if there is a minimum dollar amount
  • Basically, no
• Ben then proposes
  • Don't worry about meetings or stuff like that
  • Legal entity should be concerned with legal entity stuff
  • Server hardware ownership
  • Server hosting
  • Domain name ownership and renewal
  • This is sufficient for a small and straight-forward budget
• Arc remarks that books are property donations

Maddog reports:

• He knows of other similar LUGs which have successfully obtained 501(c)(3) status
• He will see if he can get a copy of their paperwork
• Will have a status report before EOM Oct 2009

Brief discussion of why are we bothering again?

• In short, many things want an official 501(c)(3)
• The difference between non-profit and tax-exempt is not well understood, even when it should be
• Arc gave example: Manchester city assembly permit, for Software Freedom Day
  • Non-profit org: Free
  • Commercial: $3000 insurance bond
  • Lack of 501(c)(3) confused process quite a bit

Arc volunteers to coordinate 501(c)(3)

Board membership

Current board membership has served 3 years

• Time to renew

Bill Sconce has had trouble making meetings

• Formal Proposal: Offer to release him from his obligations
• Emphasize no prejudice against him; we all understand about the demands of real life
• Agreed without objection
• Ted spoke with Bill on 11 Oct 2009 and Bill was pleased to hear the board has worked out a succession plan.
• Bill's willing to continue on with board if needed, and thinks that continuity is helpful, but will step down as Secretary.

Arc Riley volunteers as board member

• But he will only be in NH part-time for next year or three
• All others agree he can serve anyway
  • Most business can be done online
  • Only one meeting per year is plan

Seeking new blood

• Heather will ask Kenta
• Ben will ask Rob Anderson, Cole Tuininga
• Ted suggests Bill McGonigle

Some people would like to retire from Board

• Ted
• Heather

Officers

• Arc volunteers to be next Secretary
• Kazin volunteers to be next Treasurer
• Ben volunteers to be next Chair
• No formal appointments at this time

Misc

Ted remarked that books can be got for free from publisher if you promise to submit a review