January 15 2001 Nat Minutes

Date 15th January 2001
Location 92 Rosslyn Street, West Melbourne
Time 6:45 pm
Agenda General Business
Item 1
- Work for the Dole
Item 2
- Security System
Item 3
- Insurance
Item 4
- Network cabling
Item 5
- Training room
Item 6
- Business plan
Item 7
- Policy manual
Item 8
- Slogan
Item 9
- IYV grant
Item 10
- Employing CBV members / committee members
Item 11
- Referral agencies
Item 12
- Tech report
Item 13
- Word Processors
Item 14
- Roster
Item 15
- BP Volunteers
Item 16
- East Timor
Next Meeting: TBA
Minutes
Present: Kylie Davies, Grant Diffey, Patricia Fraser, David Hatton, Bill McPherson, Steve Williams, Alex Rowsell, Peter Eckersley, Frank Coleman, Rodney Brown, David Totterdell, Penni Diffey. Apologies: Bob Mead, Jason Rolston.

Kylie welcomed Alex Rowsell to the meeting as a new full member of CBV.

Work for the Dole project

Kylie reported that we have 90% certainty of approval of the application, and should expect official notification in the next week.

The Community Work Co-ordinator is Kangan Batman TAFE. We should expect 25 participants to begin on 15th February, with a second group of 25 in March.

We need to finalist the information to go on the information sheet Kangan gives to participants to help them choose which project to join; Kylie showed a sample info sheet. In particular a name is needed for the project.

The meeting decided to go with Alex's suggestion of RecyclIT, and at Kylie's suggestion the name GNU RecyclIT was adopted by acclamation.

Security

Kylie and Grant reported that they have made enquiries and discovered that Chubb, who currently have the telephone line connected to the security system, will only come and examine/repair the system if we agree to take out a monitoring contract. Costs amount to around $1/day. Bill McPherson wanted to move that we take a 6-month contract with Chubb while we investigate options, but Kylie said that no time-frame had been discussed with Chubb and she wasn't aware of possible contract lengths. Grant would like to be sure that if we go ahead, such a contract would include a physical check of the premises if the alarm is triggered, or at least a telephone call from the monitor to the police. Peter Eckersley moved that we delegate this decision to Kylie, given that she knows the parameters required. Seconded Grant Diffey, carried.

Insurance for contents and fire insurance

Kylie reported that an OH&S requirement is that we have tested fire safety and should have the building inspected and fire extinguishers tested. The meeting approved and the inspection will take place.

The meeting discussed the need to insure the contents, and there was some dissent regarding the need to insure donated computers. Grant moved that the meeting vote to accept an insurance premium of up to $2000 to insure the contents, with David Totterdell to approve the policy. Seconded Frank Coleman, carried. It was also the feeling of the meeting that an audit of insurables is required as part of the process.

Bill McPherson suggests that we investigate methods of cost recovery for re-establishment of premises in the case of fire, which the meeting thought should be done.

Network Cabling

For OH&S reasons and to make a more stable network, the Tech committee feels that we should install Cat5 network cabling throughout the building. In particular, the training room must be ready for use by Feb 15th when the first group of WFTYD participants is due to start. The meeting agreed that this is necessary.

Quotations that Grant has for components currently show the equipment cost to be around $1,500. Kylie and Penni are following up possibilities for donation of the requirements, and Kylie has the possibility of purchasing on account. Installation will take around one day, and Kylie has a contact who will be able to do this.

Training room

The meeting discussed the urgent need for workstations in the training room. Patricia will approach her contacts to find out the possibilities of a free fitout.

Business Plan

Steve has been working on this and Patricia will begin assisting. Once the draft plan is in place, it needs a workshop with the whole committee to refine it properly. Since the WFTD project is a current priority, the deadline for the presentation of the draft is 6-8 weeks from the meeting; mid-March. Steve and Patricia will meet separately to work on the draft.

CBV Policy

Kylie showed the meeting the Policy Manual she has developed, which contains all CBV Policies developed to date. She mentioned an important policy we should adopt, regarding the preservation of the anonymity of recipients - not mentioning recipients by name on general mailing lists, for instance. Other policies under development include a harrassment policy and grievance procedure, a code of conduct, a health and safety policy, and a theft deterrence and handling policy. There will be a policy group meeting on Monday 22nd January at 2pm at Rosslyn Street, and all members are welcome.

CBV Slogan

Kylie presented a CBV Slogan to the meeting: Computerbank, the Charity for the 21st Century. The meeting adopted the slogan by acclamation.

International Year of the Volunteer Grants

Kylie has applied on CBV's behalf for a grant from IYV for funds to develop a CBV howto manual. This is the first round of grant funding; if the application is successful and we develop this manual, the second round could be applied to for funds to assist other branches to implement our model using the manual. Notification of the successful applicants for this IYV Round 1 will be made during February.

Kylie thinks there are 3-4 new volunteers on Jason's roster; Jason being absent, the number remains unconfirmed.

Employing CBV members/committee members

it is necessary to have a WFTD supervisor appointed ASAP. The question arises as to whether CBV members can apply for this position, which must be advertised immediately. Information provided by David Totterdell suggests that it is lawful to employ a member so long as the position has been advertised, is a real position, and the member is only successful is they are demonstrably the best choice from the applicants.

Kylie reports that she is awaiting a position description from Gesie at Recruitnet, since he is doing a job similar to the one we wish to offer, and using this a s a starting point for developing our position description. The position should be advertised in LUV-jobs, since we require the supervisor to have GNU/Linux skills. Other suggested places to advertise are the Jobs Network and local papers; the Jobs Network maybe unsuitable because of the lack of time to go through the necessary process.

Patricia moved that we move towards appointing a person to manage the WFTD project, by advertising the position and developing the position description. Seconded Alex; carried.

The meeting discussed employing a second person to do the administrative requirements of the project; this may be necessary but no decision was taken. Potentially a contract or temporary employee may be used for this position, if one with suitable background can be found. Penni Diffey suggested a police check for the applicants.

Recipient Report

Bob Mead left a report for the meeting which notes that we received 5 applications in December, to add to the 7 outstanding applications. 10 of the total are finalised. We are awaiting 5 forms to be returned which have been sent out; 3 applications with no covering letters are still in limbo.

Kylie reports that of the people still waiting from the Pilot Project, only two would still like to participate and others will contact us as and when they would like to apply. Two Community Groups are on the list; Kylie's numbers show 20 outstanding applications, and 2 forms sent out today.

The meeting discussed the surge in applicants we expect when referral agenices begin to come online. In order to make sure that this works well, we will require referral agenices to send the main referring person to CBV for induction and training so that they understand just what it is their client will receive; problems have already arisen through referrers assuming that the client is using Microsoft software.

Technical Committee Report

David Hatton reports that the System Build form is ready to use; he has an equipment loan form for loans to CBV members, but is unable to present it since he had no printed copies; he will circulate it as soon as possible. 15 bas machines are ready to go.

There is to be a Tech Committee meeting on Thursday 19th at 7pm at Rosslyn Street.

Word Processors

The meeting discussed word processing packages for recipient machines; the consensus is that Ted and packages of that size, although lacking in some features, are better than large monolithic packages such as StarOffice, which run very poorly on low-end Pentium machines. Rodney raised the need for Microsoft Word document file viewers, a function .rtf file generators such as Ted do not cover, and the meeting agreed that these would be a good thing to include.

Rosslyn Street Roster

Patricia will complete the roster and put it on the website.

BP Volunteers

Steve Williams reports that he has a plan which is ready to roll. He needs CBV to vet a document for the BP Intranet and a BP internal publication, which he will use to get information out about CBv and the volunteer programme. He would like to set up a participation/demo day for potential volunteers some time in the next two weeks; he would like suggestions for volunteers. Some suggestions were made at the meeting, and it was discovered that there was a lot of crossover with the jobs and projects for the WFTD project; consideration will need to be given to this, so that WFTD participants do not get squeezed out of all the best projects, and that we don't fall down on the undertakings we have given to the CWC in our WFTD application.

East Timor

There is to be a meeting between CBV (Grant, Penni, Kylie) and BP (Steve, Maria) re the CBV/BP contribution to East Timor at 9:30 am on Tuesday 16th (tomorrow).

Next Meeting: Monday January 29th at 7pm at Rosslyn Street.