NCF Board of Directors
Minutes of Board Meeting
February 25, 2025
Minutes of a meeting of the Board of Directors
Board members present:
Anis Hanna (gb499) Chair
Majd Karam (gc029) 1st Vice Chair
Peter MacKinnon (fr198) 2nd Vice-Chair
Emmanuel Adenlolu (gc476) Treasurer
Graeme Beckett (aw958) Secretary
Stephen Fanjoy (gd782)
Spencer Callaghan
Len Fardella
Sean Geddes
Regrets:
Chris Cope (bz787)
Asiya Shams stepped down in January.
NCF Management/Staff present:
Executive Director: Shelley Robinson
Guests:
None
- Confirmation of Quorum
Quorum was confirmed
- Vacant Board seats (Anis Hanna)
Motion: To appoint Emmanuel Adenlolu to fill a vacant board seat effective Feb. 25th until
the next AGM.
Proposer: Majd Karam (gc029)
Seconder: Spencer Callaghan
The motion was carried.
Motion: To appoint Emmanuel Adenlolu as Treasurer.
Proposer: Peter MacKinnon (fr198)
Seconder: Stephen Fanjoy (gd782)
The motion was carried.
- Consent Agenda (45 minutes: questions & comments or corrections)
- Approval of minutes of previous board meeting November 19 2024
Motion: To move in-camera.
Proposer: Majd Karam (gc029)
Seconder: Stephen Fanjoy (gd782)
The motion was carried.
- Executive Director's Report
The Executive Director's report was submitted in advance of the Board meeting. Highlights of the open portion of the meeting are provided below.
NCF members at Apr. 1, 2024: 4860
NCF members at Aug. 1: 4581
NCF members at Sept. 1: 4523
NCF members at Oct. 1: 4472
NCF members at Dec 1/24: 4342
NCF members at Jan 1/25: 4297
NCF members at Feb 1/25: 4244
Updates since the last meeting:
• Shelley gave a talk about NCF’s Community WiFi project, known as CommuniFi, during CIRA’s Canadians Connected event at the end of November. Very positive feedback, including a follow-up meeting with local digital skills charity serving seniors, Connected Canadians. Andrew and I also tabled during the event in the .ca marketplace.
• On December 11th we held a launch for the CommuniFi project for the tenants at 251/255 Donald St, the project’s supernode and first connected sites. We continue our outreach work at the Donalds as we move into phase two, connecting at least 10 other community organizations.
CommuniFi Usage Update:
• Unique CommuniFi connections to date (Nov 24th to Feb
21st): 784
• Total Usage to date (Nov 24th to Feb 21st): 11.1TB
• Average Usage (Nov 24th to Feb 21st): 14GB
• Unique connections (Jan 1 - 31st): 417
• Total Usage (Jan 1 - 31st): 4.04TB
• Average Usage (Jan 1 - 3st): 9.7GB
• In early January NCF Director Asiya Shams resigned. Thanks for
her work on the Strat Planning and Finance Committees.
• NCF Executive Director Shelley Robinson was on a panel during Digital Access Day on Tues. Feb. 11th, entitled “A Vision for the Future: Ensuring Digital Access for All Canadians”. NCF co-founded Digital Access Day in 2018 thanks to funding from CIRA
and in partnership with CompuCorps and the Canadian Internet Society so was nice to be back! Here’s the Youtube recording of the event: https://www.youtube.com/live/FvbxS5DGOzE. Shelley’s panel starts around the 7:09 mark.
• Shelley and NCF’s Business and Community Development Manager Andrew. MarteyAsare will be co-presenting about the CommuniFi project at the next Ottawa Civic Tech meet-up this coming Wednesday, February 26th at 6pm at the Impact
Hub.
• NCF now has a Bluesky social media account:
https://bsky.app/profile/ncfottawa.bsky.social
We’re not posting on it yet but plan to soon.
- Revising the Nominations Committee: Additional member request (Anis Hanna)
Peter MacKinnon joined the Nominations committee with Sean Geddes as Chair.
- Strategic plan Update (Asiya Shams)
Discussion on updating Vision, Mission and Organizational Purpose
In November 2024 the Board proposed an updated mission statement and purpose for the NCF. The letters patent are also referred to as the purpose. These will need to be ratified by the members of the NCF at the Annual General Meeting.
Mission:
National Capital FreeNet is a not-for-profit internet provider committed to advancing digital equity. We believe everyone has a right to affordable, high-quality internet that they can understand how to use, while feeling safe online.
Purpose:
The Objects of the Corporation are:
To provide internet access, digital skills support, and advocate for
affordability and digital equity to help connect everyone in our
community, with the understanding that some groups are
disproportionately impacted by the digital divide.
Motion: To approve the consent agenda.
Proposer: Majd Karam (gc029)
Seconder: Stephen Fanjoy (gd782)
The motion was carried.
- 2025 Draft Budget: (60 minutes)
- This item was conducted in-camera and will continue at the next board meeting.
- Date of Next Meeting _________
The next Board meeting is proposed to be March 18th 2025: Hybrid, electronic and in-person at NCF office.
- Standing agenda item for discussion without staff and review (15 minutes)
- Discussion item (Anis Hanna)
This item is conducted in-camera.
Motion: To move out of camera.
Proposer: Peter MacKinnon (fr198)
Seconder: Majd Karam (gc029)
The motion was carried.