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Posted juin 23, 2021 | Minutes

2020-09-22-Minutes

NCF Board of Directors
Minutes of Meeting
September 22, 2020 

SOME HIGHLIGHTS

Minutes of a meeting of the Board of Directors

The meeting was called to order at 7:08 p.m. with Peter MacKinnon as Chair and Lindsay Carreau as Secretary for the meeting.

INTRODUCTIONS

Board members present:
Peter MacKinnon (fr198) 2nd Vice-Chair
Andrea Holland (es170)
Martin Dubois (al432)
Michael Chan (ga869)
Anis Hanna (gb499)
Lauren Gardner (fy923)
Lindsay Carreau (gc034)
Majd Karam (gc029)

Regrets:
Christopher Cope (bz787)
Graeme Beckett (aw958)

NCF Management/Staff present:
Executive Director: Shelley Robinson
Andrew Martey Astare

Guests:
None

Once around the table.
Informal pre-meeting conversation, with Directors taking turn offering personal views and commentary on interesting things that might not make it to the Agenda.

  1. Confirmation of Quorum

    Quorum was confirmed.
  2. Review of the Agenda

    Motion: To adopt the agenda as circulated.
    Proposer: Anis Hanna (gb499)
    Seconder:  Andrea Holland (es170)
    The motion was carried.
  3. Community mesh presentation (Andrew Martey Asare)

    Andrew did a thorough presentation of the variety of options available for a mesh network including point to multi point and mixed approaches. These offerings could provide an easier way for NCF and Ottawa community housing and other similar groups to affordably connect to the internet.

    Andrea asked what are the next steps? Andrew is working on feasibility study until the end of March. He is laying out some possible pilots. Medium term is leverage the research to get money and start a pilot.
  4. Review of the Minutes of the Previous Meeting

    Motion: To defer the minutes of the July 28, 2020 meeting at the next meeting.
    Proposer: Andrea Holland (es170)
    Seconder: Martin Dubois (al432)
    The motion was carried.
  5. Reports  
    1. Executive Director's Report (Shelley Robinson)

      Shelley distributed her ED report in advance of the meeting for both the open and in-camera sessions of the meeting.

      Select Highlights from the public portion of the Executive Director's Report

      DSL MEMBERS:
      Jul 1/20: 3204/2904 without CAF
      Aug 1/20: 3186/2889 without CAF
      Sept 1/20: 3167/2866 without CAF
      Sept 20/20: 301 CAF

      Sept 1/19: 3310/ 3025 without CAF
      Sept 1/18: 3333/ 3088 without CAF
      Sept 1/17: 3233/ 3080 without CAF
      Sept 1/16: 3071
      Sept 1/15: 2972

      Operations:
      ●  In August we had a Bell network outage for about an hour and a Carleton hydro outage for about an hour
      ●  The webserver had some issues with overheating, so we migrated it to a container in a proxmox
      ●  server cluster for increased resilience, updated the software and enabled https and SFTP, so websites can be updated with a secure connection
      ●  We have started testing cable services and are developing a plan to start to offer them in the new year
      ●  Sophie Vu ended her time as a Summer HelpDesk Analyst and Younes has switched to part-time. We hired and are training two new Bilingual HelpDesk Analysts: Sully Beauplan and Denis Bedard Charette
      ●  Increased number of HelpDesk volunteers: still need policy on remote access
      ● We have a lot more tickets than usual and they often take longer to troubleshoot as they can be complex and everyone needs optimal performance from their connections.
      ● Planned service window starting Wednesday, September 23rd at midnight until 4am to install a second network gateway
      ● Many loaner modems have been out for more than a month instead of the usual two weeks, due to the pandemic. We are following up to get them bought or returned.

      Communications and Advocacy:
      ● Sent message to DSL members after the Bell and Carleton outages, good response: we need to continue to work with our partners to ensure reliable connectivity
      ● Sent September newsletter, attached
      ● Working on letter to Minister Bains et al re: affordable internet and the wholesale decision
      ● Working on grant-funded workshops for Fall and Winter
      ● Working on member Town Hall for February 1st if timing permits.
      ● CSJ funded Public Education Supports Rami Hilan and Katie Llorens are working on 3-month social media campaign for Internet safety and digital privacy: launching end of October

      Covid 19
      Communications:
      ●  NCF COVID-19 response: www.ncf.ca/coronavirus
      ●  HelpDesk hours: Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm.
      ● Office hours: Monday-Friday: 10am-5pm
      ●  Masks must be worn in the office at all times.
      ●  Only one member/member group in the office at a time, chairs are in the hallway spaced more than 2m apart
      ●  many staff are still working remotely to ensure staff can maintain appropriate social distance in the office.
      ● We have a daily office cleaning checklist.
      ●  We have a plexiglass shield for the front desk and a washable plastic cover for the debit machine.
      ●  We now have hand sanitizer, gloves, lots of cleaning fluid, hand soap and face masks.
      ●  Some members are using the lockbox (during and outside of office hours)
      ● We continue to encourage members with no payment method on file to use forms of payment that don’t require them to come to the office in person. As recommended by the Bank of Canada, we still accept cash.

      Motion: To move in-camera.
      Proposer: Michael Chan (ga869)
      Seconder:  Lindsay Carreau (gc034)
      The motion was carried.

      Motion: To receive the Executive Director's report..
      Proposer: Lindsay Carreau (gc034)
      Seconder: Majd Karam (gc029)
      The motion was carried.
  6. Ongoing Business
    1. July YTD Financial Statement (Shelley Robinson) in-Camera

      This item was conducted in-camera.
    2. Nominations committee update (Anis Hanna) in-Camera

      This item was conducted in-camera.
    3. Draft, equity, anti-racism and reconciliation  (Shelley Robinson) in-CameraThis item was conducted in-camera and will continue next meeting.

      Motion: To move out of camera.
      Proposer: Anis Hanna (gb499)
      Seconder:  Majd Karam (gc029)
      The motion was carried.
  7. New Business 
    1. Schedule for upcoming Board meetings (orientation, budget, Q3 review) (Shelley Robinson)
      Shelley wondered about having a strategic meeting. Found online all day to be difficult. Suggested incorporating things into part of regular board meetings. Suggested to spread out to the remainder of the calendar year. Suggested doing orientation and KPI’s at the next meeting. Budget & Q3 review in November.
  8. Announcements

    NCF 28th birthday on September 29th. There was a plan to hold a town hall but that was before outages etc. Shelley is thinking of Monday February 1, 2021 which was the go live date.
  9. Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting was scheduled to be October 27th, 2020 at 7 pm.
Location: Electronic meeting.
NCF Offices are located at Suite 206 Richmond Square, 1305 Richmond Rd.

  1. Adjournment

    The meeting adjourned at 9:07 p.m.

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