VOICE - General Meeting for 2004-07-31
15:13:58 <eCSNL> I hereby declaire this meeting opened for this special voice meeting. [in session]
* eCSNL knocks on the virtual meeting table with the virtual chairmans hammer
<eCSNL> Welcome everybody to this special VOICE election meeting.
<eCSNL> I hereby want to first make the following annouchments
<eCSNL> First of all Mr Loughman (aka as Bill)
<eCSNL> has resigned as VOICE secretary.
<eCSNL> Walter Metcalf asked John Edwards if he would like to become secretary for VOICE.
<eCSNL> Well as you can see he has said yes.
<eCSNL> The proper title for your function as this momen John is acting.
<eCSNL> Since first we need have elections for VOICE.
<eCSNL> And John thanks for saying yes and wanting to support VOICE!!
<eCSNL> Now I want within a couple of minutes send out the annouchment
<eCSNL> for the VOICE elections.
<eCSNL> Dear people there is a break for now of 5 minutes.
<Gord> Hi digithaly
<eCSNL> I just spoke on the phone
<eCSNL> to an consultant
<eCSNL> (Thanks MaDodel :-) ).
<eCSNL> I'm working on the text to be send out for the VOICE elections.
<eCSNL> I made the following dessision.
<eCSNL> People can step forward and nominate them selfs for the election
<eCSNL> or somebody else can nominate a person if he or she approves that he is nominated for that function.
<Gord> Isn't that standard procedure?
<eCSNL> If somebody gets elected then you need to become a VOICE member.
<eCSNL> Thats the new part.
<MADodel> Actually the Bylaws have a convoluted process for nominating. Roderick's procedure is what has actually been done in the past.
<eCSNL> And thats thing I would like to discuss with everbody.
<eCSNL> In my personal opion
<eCSNL> every BOD member should be a member of VOICE as well and pay a contribution.
<eCSNL> I understood that is not always the case.
<MADodel> It was rare, but I think it happened.
<eCSNL> I just spoke to Walter.
<eCSNL> Another note. Walter is not online. He is very tired and this meeting was not realy annouched in advance.
<eCSNL> Gord and JWE
<eCSNL> You are the other people who are acting members of the BOD.
<eCSNL> Would be against this policy that VOICE BOD members also need to pay there yearly contribution ?
<Gord> In favor.
<eCSNL> I talked to Walter and he said that in a motion this was scrapped in motion sometime ago.
<eCSNL> Walter also confirmed to me on the phone he is favor as well.
<eCSNL> JWE are you also in favor ?
<Gord> On the other hand, it is about the only perquisite for doing this.
<JWE> It would be my understanding that in order to hold office on the BOD a person would have to be a member. As far as I can see the only way to be a member is to pay your annual dues and not be rejected by the BOD.
<JWE> Therefore all members including Board members should pay their annual fee.
<eCSNL> Oke.
<Gord> That is so. But if a membership expired during the term of office the member was considered to be paid up for the duration of holding office.
<eCSNL> Well this was somehow bypassed.
<eCSNL> Putting in a nutshell
<eCSNL> the present full BOD supports to make this also an official policy.
<eCSNL> For these elections
<eCSNL> I will also scrap the function
<eCSNL> For Marketing/Liaison officer
<eCSNL> and combine them into one.
<eCSNL> Since we have never had Markteting officer for VOICE I understood from MaDodel
<Gord> eCSNL: Are you assuming the job of updating the bylaws?
<eCSNL> I gues I will do that.
<eCSNL> :-)
<eCSNL> Oke the elections will be annouched after this meeting.
<eCSNL> I organized this meeting because I wanted your opion on these topics!
<eCSNL> And I want to discuss things in public.
<eCSNL> The procedure is that people can step forward/nominate
<eCSNL> people until the news VOICE meeting
<eCSNL> on the 14th of August
<eCSNL> 2004
<eCSNL> 15:00 New York time.
<eCSNL> There are two other agenda points.
<eCSNL> Does anybody know how we can attracked
<eCSNL> new young members to VOICE ?
<eCSNL> Or is there anybody else who is
<eCSNL> willing to comment on the election
<eCSNL> stuff ?
<MADodel> switch to Linux? ;-P
* eCSNL pushed the quizmasterbutton
<eCSNL> Wieeeep
<Gord> The question of attracting new young members to VOICE is very close to the question of attracting new young users to OS/2.
<eCSNL> wrong answer :-)
<eCSNL> I don't realy know except for games
<eCSNL> what OS/2 is lacking for young people.
<Gord> Get the web site going.
<MADodel> Media player for DVDs
<MADodel> SUpport for lots of peripheral stuff like printers, scanners, etc
<Gord> Device drivers in general.
<eCSNL> Well the first that is going to happen is that there is going to be an educational version of eComStation...
<MADodel> You did ask
<eCSNL> Hello IRCMonkey
<MADodel> that will help
<MADodel> wireless 802.11g support would be nice also.
<eCSNL> I think you will that change soon
<eCSNL> I'm not commeting on the details.
<MADodel> which change?
<eCSNL> But somebody has made a sollution
<eCSNL> to load Windows wireless NIC drivers under OS/2...
<eCSNL> Its experimental
<eCSNL> but its being worked on
<MADodel> So I might be able to use a wireless nic built into a new laptop. That would be nice.
<eCSNL> What I suggested to Walter on the phone is to try and get more communication
<eCSNL> to other OS/2 usergroups'
<eCSNL> in Europe and
<eCSNL> the American continent
<MADodel> What od those groups get out of it?
<MADodel> od = do
<eCSNL> Well first of all there is no up to date central where are OS/2 user groups are listed
<eCSNL> What do you mean "What do those groups get out of it" ?
<eCSNL> If there is one thing in the OS/2 community there is a lock of.
<eCSNL> Its that normal OS/2 user groups can't find information.
<eCSNL> Most important, a local OS/2 usergroup.
<eCSNL> Where "around the corner"
<eCSNL> can I find somebody who knows OS/2 ? Looking at how Dutch OS/2 user group are visited.
<eCSNL> It would be usefull.
<eCSNL> Thats a start to get more members
<eCSNL> and younger members also.
<MADodel> Well the current problem is that there is hardly ever anyone in #voice to offer help or to just talk.
<eCSNL> Well that can change if you can get more members ?
<eCSNL> Is Ken present ?
<eCSNL> He is here, but silent at the moment.
<eCSNL> After the elections
<eCSNL> I will come with some plans (suggestions)
<eCSNL> to get more people to VOICE.
<eCSNL> Another point that is related to
<MADodel> Ken has made a lot of progress with making the VOICE site an interesting point to draw people for a visit. Adding the consurrent news updates was a big plus.
<MADodel> consurrent = concurrent
<MADodel> I wish developers would send out announcements to the News list rather then having to keep hunting this stuff down.
<MADodel> Innotek, Serenity the Russians are particularly bad at announcing their updates and new products.
<Gord> Would it be possible to set up a service like the old WarpCast?
<eCSNL> We have that!
<eCSNL> VOICE cast
<eCSNL> however there are to many splintered up services.
<MADodel> The VOICE News list has been around for 6 years now.
<Gord> How can we broaden the list it is sent to?
<eCSNL> You are bringing up a problem all
<eCSNL> people have.
<MADodel> It goes out to almost 800 people. But there are still a lot of people that don't know it exists.
<Gord> 800!! I'm impressed!
<MADodel> Its also mirrored on a Yahoo group, and on os2world.com and other sites.
<eCSNL> Basicly OS/2 needs a Reuter press agency.
<eCSNL> All OS/2 sites
<eCSNL> like
<eCSNL> os2world.com
<eCSNL> ecomstation.ru
<eCSNL> and netlabs.org
<eCSNL> os2voice can keep there own service.
<eCSNL> But there should a be server that provides news feeds with a protocol
<eCSNL> So other news sources can also get news.
<eCSNL> Here is the problem!
<eCSNL> Some people submit news via website X
<eCSNL> and other only via website Y
<eCSNL> News gets lost.
<MADodel> The problem is that those sites take our feed, but they never send in announcements that we don't get.
<eCSNL> I will also come up with that.
<eCSNL> I mean I will get back on this as well.
<MADodel> eCSNL: We are basically providing that service now. Look at alot of the News posts on os2world.com and other sites to see where the y come from. Many if not most are from voice
<MADodel> Martin does send some stuff, but rarely does anyone else.
<Gord>
<KenKrchnr> Anybody still here? I just got in.
<eCSNL> Yes
<eCSNL> was just looking for you!!
<Gord> Yes
<eCSNL> :-)
<eCSNL> ANother thing I want to start doing is sticking to times...
<eCSNL> All in favor of closing this meeting say Aye ?
<Gord> I move we adjourn.
<Gord> Aye.
<JWE> Aye
<eCSNL> Aye
17:01:21 <eCSNL> I hereby declair this meeting closed [adjourned]