Motion: That the Board of Directors appoint Chris Cope President of NCF, effective immediately.

Moved by: Sandy Campbell
Seconded by: Mark Mielke

Why Chris is a good choice for President: He's is very familiar with NCF, having been Executive Director for more than three years. Chris is well-known and respected by many NCF partners, including Carleton University, OCRI, Mitel, Alcatel, and the City of Ottawa; he is Vice-President of Telecommunities Canada.

Chris exhibits well-developed interpersonal and meeting skills, and is well-regarded by many NCF volunteers and members (and he was top voter-getter at the recent AGM.) He is interested in the role and will make time to do it well. His job at OCRI gives him daily opportunities to advance NCF's interests.

Why appointing Chris now makes sense, instead of waiting to do it at the traditional May meeting: Chris has already volunteered to make the rounds of NCF's partners and sponsors to introduce Ian MacEachern as our new Executive Director. This experience will help Chris and Ian get to know each other and to know NCF's partners. It would strengthen the impact (to the benefit of NCF's members,) if Chris were also able to introduce himself as the new President of FreeNet.

The role of the President is to chair meetings and to represent the organization to partners and the community. Chris Cope has the depth of NCF background and the skills, experience, and judgment to fill this role well.

The combination seems a "natural" and a stroke of good luck for FreeNet-- the opportunity has fallen into our laps to give NCF the advantage of the complementary strengths and skills of a new Executive Director and a new President of the Board of Directors.