WPLUGBoard/Meeting-20151215

Venue Info

Meeting to be held at Pittsburgh Filmmakers at 7:30pm, Tuesday, December 15, 2015.

Agenda

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Minutes

DRAFT

The regularly scheduled meeting of the WPLUG Board of Directors was convened on Tuedsay, December 15th, 2015, at Pittsburgh Filmmakers. In attendance were:

• Vance Kochenderfer (Chair)
• Joseph Prostko (Vice Chair)
• Pat Barron (Secretary)

Absent board members Terry Golightly (Treasurer) and Justin Smith (Director at Large) were both reached by telephone. The Treasurer was not able to be physically present, but requested to participate by conference call. The Director at Large was not able to be physically present and was unable to participate in the meeting.

It was noted that a quorum was present and that the meeting could begin.

In view of the absence of the Director at Large, it was determined that we would not have access to the planned meeting venue. It was moved to recess the meeting, and to reconvene at Panera Bread, 5430 Centre Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15232. The meeting recessed at 7:45pm.

The meeting reconvened at Panera Bread at 8:13pm, after the arrival of the Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary, and after calling the Treasurer by speakerphone. The Chair called the meeting to order at 8:13pm.

It was moved to approve the draft minutes of the November 19th, 2015 WPLUG Board of Directors meeting as published on the wiki. The motion was adopted.

Reports of officers:

The Chair had nothing to report.

The Vice Chair reported that he was contacted by someone looking for more info about WPLUG and mentoring, and that he will send a response to that person.

The Secretary reported that WPLUG currently has 19 WPLUG members, with 4 members due for renewal in January. The members pending renewal have been contacted; response from 3 still pending, 1 member due for renewal has responded to indicate that he will not be renewing.

The Treasurer reported that WPLUG currently has $446.47 in the checking account. There has been one deposit of $60.00, and one debit of $12.50 (Linode fees), as of November 30th, 2015.

Reports of committees:

The Technology Committee had nothing to report.

The Event Committee reported that the committee chair is working to line people up for 2016 meetings. Robert Blackwell will be working on an IoT talk probably in March at earliest. Nick Schembri wants to talk about ProxMox, earliest availability projected to be February or March. The committee chair has been rying to get in touch with Roland Hess about doing a presentation on Android app development, but has not had any contact for the last few weeks, will keep following up - the potential speaker, if available, is not expected to be available in the very near future. A response was received from Dave McGuire in New Kennsington who has a collectio of old systems that we could arrange a field trip to; it is planned to try to arrange this trip for the originally planned date for the January GUM, but can reschedule if necessary. Charles Butler was also contacted to inquire about his availability to do a presentation, but no response has been received yet. The Event Committee's strategy for the upcoming year will be to work to fill up all of the available presentation slots in advance.

The Investigating Committee had nothing to report.

The Marketing and Communications Committee reported that there was the contact that the Vice Chair had previously noted, but has no other report.

New Business:

The Secretary suggested that it would be useful to contact the traditional press with regard to future events that we would like to especially call attention to. The Chair noted that some care must be used to drive the topic in a way that would be of interest to the mainstream press and the general public. It was noted that Robert Blackwell has been on the radio before, discussing an IoT project involving ALCOSAN - this is an example of something that catches the attention of the general media. The Vice Chair (in his role at Burgh Bees) had some press contacts, and will attempt to retrieve them. The Treasurer indicated that Dave Sevick at some point mentioned working with a person at NPR, in the context of a local noon show that focuses on happenings in Pittsburgh.

The Chair raised the issue that our continued ability to use Hack Pittsburgh as a venue is uncertain, and that we had not been able to discuss this with John Lewis (our sponsor at Hack Pittsburgh) recently. The Chair suggested to look towards using the IBM Squirrel Hill location as our primary alternative in the event that the Hack Pittsburgh venue is unavailable or if the use of it is not feasible. The chair also suggested that the use of WSCC as a venue could be a possibility. The Chair requested that the board members keep an eye out for any other potential meeting venues.

Old Business:

There was no old business to discuss.

It was moved to adjourn the meeting; the motion was adopted and the meeting was adjourned at 8:35pm.

The Chair suggested to reconvene the meeting briefly at 8:36pm - as all of the attendees were still present, the meeting was reconvened.

It was moved to change the location of the regularly scheduled January WPLUG Board of Directors meeting to IBM Squirrel Hill. The motion was adopted. It was moved to make the same location change for all future WPLUG Board of Directors meetings for the current Board term. The motion was adopted.

It was moved to again adjourn the meeting; the motion was adopted and the meeting was adjourned at 8:43pm.

DRAFT