2008/12/12 USAAC BOD MEETING AGENDA

[JoKeR]

AGENDA

USAAC BOD MEETING

DECEMBER 12, 2008


AGENDA ITEM 1: THE DIRECTOR WAS MAKE A POST FOR VOLUNTEERS FOR A WEBSITE CONTENT COMMITTEE.
   
(VOLUNTEERS AS OF DECEMBER 8, 2008: AEGLE, TKFM_VIPOR, WS_FIRESTORM, USHA_ACTION, BSS_TBAR.)


AGENDA ITEM 2: (AGENDA ITEM 4 TABLED FORM LAST MEETING.) FORUMS - ORGANIZATION, CATEGORIES AND SUB-FORUMS, ECT. WHO HAS ACCESS
SUB-ITEM: POSTING RIGHTS, EDITING RIGHTS, ECT.
(MODERATORS OF THESE ITEMS WILL BE ASKED TO ATTEND THIS MEETING.)




AGENDA ITEM 3: L.M. SKYDANCER TO REPORT ANY FINDING ABOUT HOW TO DEAL WITH LAG ISSUES DURING LEAGUE PLAY. 




AGENDA ITEM 4: (REQUESTED BY USHA_KID) I'M REQUESTING A QUICK REVIEW OF OUR FORUM RULES CONCERNING THE CO/XO ROOM AND ALSO THE ATTACKING OF ANOTHER POSTER WHEN YOU DISAGREE WITH THEM.
WHAT CONSTITUTES GOING OVER THE LINE??




AGENDA ITEM 5: (REQUESTED BY TS_HAWK) I REQUEST A QUICK DECISION ON OUR DOMAIN NAME OR CHANGING IT .



AGENDA ITEM 6: (REQUESTED BY TS_HAWK) I REQUEST THAT A FULL REVIEW OF THE CHARTER AND PROTOCOLS BE UNDERTAKEN BY THE DIRECTOR, FORUM MANAGER, AND SECRETARY AND A REVISED DRAFT BE SUBMITTED TO THE NEXT MEETING FOR THE BOD'S APPROVAL. THE EXISTING CHARTER AND PROTOCOLS WERE BROUGHT OVER FROM THE PREVIOUS SITE AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE CURRENT VIEWS.



AGENDA ITEM 7: (REQUESTED BY FIRESTORM AND DERF) REQUEST THAT ALL USAAC BOD MEETINGS BE RECORDED AND POSTED FOR THE GENERAL PUBLICS USE.

 

[derf]

I suggest the TS session from the meeting be recorded and posted for users to download.

[Firestorm]

That's a very good idea and something we should think about on a regular basis.

[Tbar]

Every BoD meeting is supposed to be recorded via TS and uploaded for download by all by my recollection .. What happened to that procedure I don't know, and I'm not aware of that procedure being changed or dropped.

Its a good idea regardless.

[JoKeR]

I have all the recordings ( some may be partial ) from June 08 to November 08.

Since I do not know how or where to post them I just keep them stored in my USAAC files on my PC.  I assume that there may be a way of accessing "City Hall" in some way and posting them there, but I'm not sure.

All recordings previous to these where lost when my old PC crashed, although they may still be on the hard drives.


JokeR

[Tbar]

Ok joker.. good reason to get with the USAAC WebMaster and get some sort of routine set up for you or anyone that needs to upload to the USAAC site for official records and storing info... especially the TS BoD Recordings.

/tbar

[Firestorm]

Hi Joker,

I guess I will need to find out the approximate size of each file once zipped. That will tell me how many we can upload to the server at one time.

I can then put a file remository on the site for downloads.

Fire

[JoKeR]

What I have so far is recordings 56 mb to 188 mb all zipped.  If that will help you Firestorm.

I say we could probably top it out at 200mb   The 188MB file is 259 mb unzipped.

[Firestorm]

I think we need to work out how many we want to keep on the live site at any given time. I would suggest 3-6 months of recordings otherwise we could end up with Gigs of past recordings that may never get listened to.

I will PM you regarding uploading to the server,

Fire

[Aegle]

These recordings must take up a lot of space. I understand their immediate usefulness as a tool for the secretary to write up the minutes but, since there are minutes, is it really necessary to keep the recordings for any length of time?

[Tbar]

Yes.. for voting meetings. Major issues.
Rest could probably be just 6 months.

[Firestorm]

We have over 800MB in 6 meetings, so we might want to change the format. I took one file that was 43.63MB zipped, opened it and converted it to mp3, then rezipped it. This brought the file size down to less than half with no loss of quality.

If we used this same method on the remaining files I am sure we could get it to around 400MB.

If you go to the website now you can see the file link on the left hand side, and by clicking the details button you will see the file size. The largest is around 180MB and to be honest I doubt anyone will want to download files that size.

[Tbar]

I suggest the TS session from the meeting be recorded and posted for users to download.

Maybe Joker should just send a copy to Derf .. then we don't need to worry about uploading them etc.. hehe

Actually Hawk, converting them to MP3 was not a bad idea .. if there is no quality loss.. who cares if you listen to them in TS or via your MP3 player.

[Tbar]

I downloaded the November TS meeting .. it was a wav file. Quality was good.. no problem. I thought it would be a MP3 file.. but no matter it works.


PS: The whole meeting is not there. I think the last 5-10 minutes are missing.

[Aegle]

Of late there has been some discussion about simplifying the affairs of our community. Does it need to be elaborately structured with procedures, organization charts, titles etc? This regulated need to have voice recordings from meetings, in my mind, is just another example of needless procedural clutter.

If it is considered necessary to have a record of meetings (assuming that structured meetings are needed in the first place) isn’t it sufficient to have a simple written record of subjects discussed and decisions reached?
I have attended many meetings of organizations dealing with affairs much more important than anything arising in our community.  Voice recordings were never a feature so why do we need them?

Stop getting poor Fire in a tizzy over disk space and tell Derf to attend the meetings if he is really interested in the affairs of his community. If anyone misses a meeting they can catch up on what was discussed and what decisions were reached by reading the minutes. They do not need to know that a particular member talked incessantly but said nothing. They do not need to know that another member had a bad cough or that someone's children were causing a ruckus in the background.

By the way is it coincidence that, since Fire inserted that link to voice recordings, the site has become very slow to load?