General VOICE Meeting - 27 August 2005

Agenda
~~~~~~
1. Call the meeting to order.
2. Old Business
     a) VOICE forum (Walter Metcalf)
3) New Business.
     a) Treasurer's Report (Gordon)
     b) New subjects/people for VOICE speakups (Roderick)
     c)status and way forward for the news system
     d)For september speakup suggestions (on meeting)
     e)Financial report, amount of members
4. Adjournment
Other agenda points maybe added during the meeting.

Summary - Decisions/Announcements Made
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. A Discussion on SpeakUps topics was held.
2. The Treasurer reported on the financial and membership status.
3. VOICE to purchase 33 licenses for Papyrus to be given away at Warpstock. An amount of $1,500 was approved with an additional $500 available upon review of anticipated expenditures.
4. A discussion was held on the status of the OS/2 news system.
5. Next meeting is the 24th of September 2005.

Meeting Log
~~~~~~~~~~~
Chairman of the meeting Roderick Klein called the meeting to order at 16:06:50 EDT
<eCSNL> OK I hereby declare this meeting VOICE meeting open.
<eCSNL> Chairman is Roderick Klein
<eCSNL> and JWE is the secretary.
<Hawklord> Good evening
<eCSNL> JWE can you start logging ?
<JWE> Logging has started
<Gord> Hi, Hawklord
<eCSNL> OK the meeting has opened thats point 1.
<eCSNL> 2a) VOICE Forum.
<eCSNL> Has to be moved.
<eCSNL> Walter is not here.
<eCSNL> Unless he drops in later.
<eCSNL> So I mov the microphone over to Gordon for a short update on the financial
<eCSNL> numbers
<eCSNL> and
<eCSNL> the amount of members we have.
<Gord> Treasurer's Report, 27 August, 2005
<Gord> Ken Kirchner has fixed up the online member database for me
<Gord> to make it easier to administer remotely.
<Gord> It now has a record for each paid up member.
<Gord> There are also some, but not all, former members in the database.
<Gord> That database has gone 'live'.
<Gord> We have 137 paid up members.
* Hawklord will pay real soon now
<Gord> Ken has also fixed up the administration
<Gord> of the Members mailing list. It is much easier to work with now.
<Gord> The Members mailing list is up to date.
<Gord> That data has been 'live' for a while.
<Gord> The next step is the accounts data to be updated.
<Gord> As of 31 July, 2005, the balances in our accounts are:
<Gord> Canadian dollar account $9,572.05
<Gord> American dollar account $577.50
<Gord> end of report
<Gord> Thanks Hawklord
<Gord> The last major expense was a $2000US donation to Warpstock.
<Gord> The next step is the accounts data on the website to be updated.
<Gord> That's all
<eCSNL> OK Gordon, thanks for the update.
<eCSNL> I would just like for the record refer back to the agenda that was send out to the VOICE members and the VOICE news mailing list in which this agenda point about the approvel of this 2000 dollar sponsorship WAS mentioned.
<eCSNL> Ooops point has been done.
<eCSNL> E)Financial report, amount of members
<eCSNL> My mistake :-)
<eCSNL> I will do speakups next.
<eCSNL> I would as the next topic like to give everybody an update on the os2news system.
<eCSNL> I mentioned
<eCSNL> that os2news.com is up.
<eCSNL> If you goto the news that page you will just be redirected to www.ecomstation.com
<eCSNL> Have a look at www.os2.org
<eCSNL> and see that on the English page two news items are have fresh news.
<eCSNL> The news is being fetched
<eCSNL> from os2warp.be
<eCSNL> The script is not perfect yet on there side.
<eCSNL> But os2.org is now getting news.
<eCSNL> So what is such good news about this ?
<eCSNL> Well English is being translated into German and os2.org is also fetching this.
<eCSNL> for de.os2.org
<eCSNL> But the Dresden OS/2 user group will also start using the news system.
<eCSNL> VOICE should get hooked up to this RSS feed (Mark ?).
<eCSNL> ecomstation.com, ecomstation.ru and ecomstation.it will also get hooked up to this system.
<eCSNL> os2world.com has indcated some months ago they are willing to join.
<eCSNL> So how is the loop closed ?
<eCSNL> Well look at ecomstationnews.com/submit
<eCSNL> (Please do not distribute this link).
<eCSNL> People can from all websites insert news.
<eCSNL> And it can be translated.
<eCSNL> More websites will join.
<eCSNL> So basicly the system is up and running and we can distribute news much better.
<eCSNL> We can also offer this newsfeed to websites outside of the OS/2 community.
<eCSNL> The Baywarp usergroup
<eCSNL> and scoug have also indicated they want to join.
<eCSNL> In other words this news system will break away the communitcation barriers in the OS/2 communication.
<eCSNL> community.
<eCSNL> Which I hope you all agree are there.
<eCSNL> Also I'm in touch with the people of os2.jp.
<Gord> That is good to hear.
<eCSNL> and ecomstation.org
<eCSNL> Hook up the community ?
<eCSNL> And people saying "Well then all websites have all the same news".
<eCSNL> Well then I have simple answer.
<eCSNL> The people who come up with that question are power users
<eCSNL> of OS/2.
<eCSNL> They visit multiple websites a week for OS/2 news.
<eCSNL> Most of the other users don't do it.
<eCSNL> I hope this news system will help to bring in a chance in communication in the community.
<eCSNL> And that the software vendors that remain reach more people.
<eCSNL> Individual developers reach end users to test software.
<eCSNL> For example Paul Smedley with the SANE USB scanner builds.
<eCSNL> And user groups reach large groups of people.
<eCSNL> This news system will become the central marshalling yard for news.
<eCSNL> To wrap up this agenda point.
<eCSNL> A thanks goes to Robert Henschel who implemented the system and is hooking up the other websites.
<eCSNL> I will get back later to the speakups.
<eCSNL> First I will go to everybody here.
<eCSNL> Are there other topic points people want to suggest ?
<Hawklord> Sundial
<eCSNL> OK thats for speakup.
<eCSNL> Noted
<Gord> How to use some of VOICE's money to support OS/2.
<eCSNL> But I was rather meaning other agenda points.
<eCSNL> (speakups are later).
<Hawklord> Sorry :-)
<Gord> I am still looking for discussion on my idea of offering to buy 3 Papyrus licences as Warpstock door prizes.
<Gord> I have heard only from Roderick
<Gord> who was in favour.
<wdl> Gord: Is Papyrus available in English ...yet?
<Gord> The Papyrus company is determining if the will produce an English version. They say it depends on the number of hard orders they get.
<wdl> Gord: Well, they got mine. No word at all - not even acknowledgement.
<Gord> I suggest we place a firm order for 3 licences to help things along.
<Gord> They got mine, too.
<wdl> ...Just like the last time(S) I ordered.
<Gord> If they decide 'No', then we don't pay.
<Gord> But if they decide 'Yes' then we can give the licenses away at Warpstock.
<eCSNL> Well you have my go ahead to do the 3 licenses.
<Gord> Thank you. What about the rest of you?
<Gord> It is $99.00 per license, I think....
<wdl> Gord: Go for it.
<JWE> Go ahead with the three
<Gord> OK. Will do.
<eCSNL> VOICe money to support Os/2.
<eCSNL> I'm still waiting for a response from Adrian.
<Gord> eCSNL, do you want to comment on OS/2 eZine writers here?
<Gord> How they might be invited to write for VOICE?
<eCSNL> I still need to talk BMT Micro.
<eCSNL> I will contact peter sky
<eCSNL> Just put a short email in my draft folder.
<eCSNL> OK for a speakup I will talk to sundial systems.
<eCSNL> Hmm looking at this I think that wraps ups this agenda.
* eCSNL checks email.
<eCSNL> Hmmm we had all points.
<eCSNL> Is there anybody who has anything else to add ?
<eCSNL> Going once
<eCSNL> going twice
<eCSNL> ?
<JWE> I move that this meeting be adjourned.
<eCSNL> Who is favour of joining the meeting ?
<eCSNL> Say aye.
<JWE> aye
<eCSNL> closing this meeting
<eCSNL> sorry typo.
<Gord> Aye
<Hawklord> Aye
<wdl> aye
<eCSNL> aye
<eCSNL> Well we have a mayority to the close the meeting.
<eCSNL> I hereby declare this meeting closed.
<eCSNL> After the summer break
<eCSNL> VOICE meetings will resume there montly schedule again.
<Hawklord> From now?
<eCSNL> yes
<eCSNL> That is a meeting every month
<JWE> Next meeting date?
<eCSNL> Somewhere at the end of september.
<JWE> September 24th is last Saturday of the month.
<eCSNL> That that will be the date :-)
<eCSNL> OK thanks for dropping in.
<eCSNL> Thanks JWE for logging.
Meeting adjourned 27 August 2005 at 17:23:43 EDT