🚀 go-pugleaf

MINUTES OF EFF-AUSTIN DIRECTORS' MEETING - February 14, 1995

   Prepared by Steve Jackson.
   Held at the SJ Games office. Called to order at 7:00 pm on the dot,
(THIRD month in a row) following an executive session to discuss board
appointments. Board members present: Dave Smith (presiding), Steve
Jackson, Allen Graham. Bruce Sterling and Jim Robinson warned us in advance
they'd be absent. 
   The minutes of the January meeting were presented by the Secretary
and approved.

REPORT ON EXECUTIVE SESSION
   No actions.

OFFICERS' REPORTS
   PRESIDENT - pleased with our progress so far this year. Is now on the
board of the Central Texas Civil Liberties Union, and chairing their
Electronic Frontier Committee. Obvious network potential here.
   VP - no report.
   SECRETARY - Has heard nothing new from the San Antonio startup. Has
been talking with Holly Iles of the Robot Group. Was interviewed last
week on KVUE-TV for a program on privacy; not much air time, though,
and not much public reaction. The story was not groundbreaking.
   TREASURER - absent.


PROGRAM PLANNING
   Plans, dates and ad-hoc committees for each upcoming event:

   February 17: We're set up for a meeting during the Government and
Technology Conference: Friday the 17, at noon, in Mezzanine Room 11.

   February 20, 7 p.m., at La Madeleine. General meeting. Flap of 
the Month: discussion of the Jack Baker incident on Usenet. Flapmeister:
Dave Smith.

   March 3, 7 p.m. Dinner with Graham Greenleaf, Australian privacy
advocate (and editor of "Privacy Law & Policy Reporter), visiting Austin.
This is an open event, but please e-mail Dave Smith (bladex@bga.com) for
information about the location, so we can keep track of how many people
we expect. Most of the EFF-Austin board will be there.

   March 20, 7 p.m., at La Madeleine. General meeting. Flap of the Month:
We really don't know yet!

   March 28-31, San Francisco - Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference.
Dave is now officially part of the program, running an Online Activism
event. EFF-Austin members interested in attending should definitely talk
to Dave!

   April 1-2: Robofest. Organizational work continues. The event is
getting a lot more sponsorship this year, including the City of Austin
and Origin Systems. Brian Combs and Dave Smith have been working on
a joint EFF-Austin / WWW Users' Group demonstration. SJ will try to meet
with Holly Iles soon, too. Illuminati Online has given the Robot Group a
complimentary account.

   April 21: This year's John Henry Faulk conference is themed "The First
Amendment in Cyberspace." Dave Smith has been talking to Michael Burton,
one of the organizers. Bruce is now scheduled to speak there. 

   Far Future: Armadillocon. Allen is talking to the organizers. Freeside
Communications will do an Internet access demo there.

   Far, Far Future; Worldcon 1996 in San Antonio.

LOCAL ACTIVITY SINCE LAST MEETING
   January 16, 7 p.m., at La Madeleine. General meeting. Flap of the Month:
rumor control on the Compuserve/GIF situation, with Bruce Sterling and Brian
Combs, and Dave Smith discussing online hate speech. About 20 attendees.

   January 21 - Bruce Sterling signing, at Adventures in Crime and Space,
for "Heavy Weather." The store reported that this was one of their best
signings - they were very happy.

COMMITTEE AND OTHER REPORTS
   BBS Committee: Dave Smith, David Ellis (InfoSite manager),
Steve Jackson. Nothing new.
   Fund-Raising Committee: Still no chair, but Allen's hard work is still
keeping us funded. Potential responsibility for paid administrator. Bruce
has signed our remaining hardback copies of "Hacker Crackdown."
   Infodisk Committee: Jim Robinson. Jim is out. Dave has met with
Barb Denton to discuss library organization; work continues.
Jim Robinson may or may not have discussed crypto with Doug Barnes.
   Legal Committee: Jim Robinson (chair), Pete Kennedy. SJ Games case
Infodisk?
   Membership Committee: Jim Robinson (chair), Susan Cisco. Jim is still
reorganizing his records. Potential responsibility for paid administrator.
   Network Committee: Allan Bailey is now moderating the eff.austin
newsgroup. It's working much better, thanks to Zilker Internet Park
installing majordomo. Prentiss has suggested bringing in "guest moderators"
for short stints.
   Newsletter Committee: David Smith (chair), Kevin Kruzich, Monica
Stephens; Chris Curley, WORD editor. Chris seems to have dropped out of
sight. Dave Smith did a new WORD and will distribute it asap.
   Volunteer Coordinator: Still no chair. Potential responsibility for
paid administrator.
   Police Liaison Committee: There's now a majordomo mailing list set
up on io.com, and Dave reports that about 40 people are interested.
   Publicity Committee: Still no chair. Potential responsibility for
paid administrator. Jim Robinson's EFF-Austin Web page is still there,
at http://io.com/user/efaustin/, and is getting hit.
   Allen Graham is still going to talk to the XLent writer in hopes of
making a good press contact there. Hasn't done it yet, though.

NEW BUSINESS
   Dave raised the issue of when it's appropriate for him, or for
any officer or director, to write a letter concerning policy.
Consensus: no officer or director needs advance permission to articulate
EFF-Austin policy in a civil manner. If there's a question about whether
something really IS policy, or whether the phrasing is acceptable, take
the time to check. And advance checking is never a bad idea, no matter
what, because someone might suggest an improvement.

   Dave reports that the Internet Users' Group of Austin appears
to have become inactive.

OLD BUSINESS

   Dave will contact the Sun Users' Group and decline the offer
to work on their CD-ROM. We don't have the resources, and they've
never made a firm offer anyway.

   We discussed, again, the idea of sponsoring a seminar on electronic
cash. Not much response yet from the EFF. Dave will persist.

CHARTER, BYLAWS, INCORPORATION
   Jim being out, we still have no update on 501(c)(3). Dave will sit 
down with Jim, deliver some material, and discuss our nonprofit status.

CALL ROLL
   Jim Robinson and Bruce Sterling called in advance and were excused.
Brian Combs was absent without prior notice.

Adjourned at 8:50.

SET NEXT MEETING DATE AND TIME
   Next meeting: March 14; 6:30 for directors and 7:00 for general
meeting, at the SJ Games office.


** Steve Jackson - yes, of SJ Games - yes, we won the USSS case - fnord **
   yes, INWO is out - http://io.com/sjgames/ - dinosaurs, Lego, Kahlua!