[MLB-WIRELESS] some short notes on meeting 12-Apr-2002

[Tyson.Clugg at csiro.au]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Arnold [mailto:arnold at dstc.monash.edu.au]
> Sent: Saturday, 13 April 2002 9:13 AM
> To: melbwireless at www.wireless.org.au
> Subject: [MLB-WIRELESS] some short notes on meeting 12-Apr-2002
> 
> 
> for the benefit of those who weren't there, i thought i'd bang out a
> quick set of notes on what went on at the meeting last night ...
> 
> according to the official count, 68 people showed up.  there was
> probably a few extras as well.

This is a side effect of having a door prize with tickets.  68 tickets were
distributed.

> everyone milled around for a while, getting their Enterasys cards
> (thanks!), checking out various antenna samples, playing with their
> laptops to get the LAN running, etc.  there was a Galaxy mod video
> running, and a bunch of people helping those who'd brought one along
> to convert it.

A big thankyou to the RP boys (Shane and Shaun), you have done a fantastic
job of organising the sale.  Hip-hip-hooray!

> events weren't really constrained by the agenda ;-)  there was no node
> roll call (that i was aware of), and the door-prize drawing was the
> last item.  

The Node roll call was integrated with the attendance roll.  The idea of the
*node* roll call is to find what obstacles people face when setting up their
nodes.  For example: Is equipment too expensive?  Do people have the skills
required to set up a node?  etc...

> Tyson started off the more formal stuff: firstly a presentation from
> Graham (i think it was graham?) on terminating N-type connectors (i
> think this replaced the soldering demo?).  highlight for me was the
> use of decibels to report footy results ;-)

Graham Sutherland was indeed the TAFE lecturer who did the demo.  I will be
making more copies of the handouts, and distributing them at the next
meeting.

> we then moved to the Q&A, which focussed on the issue of structure.
> 
> Tyson and Nick described the outcomes of the meeting thursday night,
> which boiled down to a general disagreement about details, but general
> agreement on some basic principles.  the concrete suggestions were
>
>    we elect an interim leader
>    we form a working group to hash out the structural issues
> 
> they also came up with guiding principles for the operation of the
> group, which were something like a) aim is to build a community
> network, b) processes should be democratic, and i can't remember the
> third (oops).  they seemed sensible, and got general support.

1. To build a community network
2. To involve the community in building the network
3. To develop a set of rules on how the network should be run

> after a bit of discussion, there were a number of votes held, which
> decided that
> 
>    there was overwhelming support for greater structure of the group
> 
>    we should call the interim leader "President" (after some
>    discussion of various other terms)
> 
>    the initial term of the president should be limited to 6 months
>    (after which the structure working group should have come up with
>    something)
> 
>    the president's role is to represent the group, both externally and
>    also internally (between sub-groups)
> 
>    the president serves the interests of the group, and should consult
>    the group as much as possible before making decisions on its behalf
> 
>    Steven Haigh should be the initial president
> 
> Tyson took notes of all these votes, and has a record of exactly the
> wording agreed, etc, which i imagine will be posted out and/or wiki'ed
> shortly.  there was some good back and forth on the wording, which
> ended up being quite good, i think.

The unedited copy (exactly as seen on screen, large font, spelling mistakes
and all) can be found at:
http://www.wireless.org.au/~tyson/Meeting%2012%20April%202002.rtf

> everyone seemed pretty happy about these outcomes.  the meeting closed
> with thanks to various contributors, and the drawing of the door
> prizes.  people started to drift off after standing around talking,
> etc etc
> 
> there was a move to adjourn to the pub, but i bailed at that stage, so
> i'll leave further notes to someone who was there (if there was
> anything worth noting ;-)

Nothing notable occured, it was simply a few like minded people socialising,
much like at the meetings.  =)

> d

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