Monthly Meeting Tues 3 rd April 2007

Monthly Meeting Tues 3rd April 2007

PRESENT

• Acesabe
• Pete F
• Rich H
• Chris P
• Matt T
• Tom T
• Mike B
• Lloyd C
• Matt L
• Sam R
• Jim F
• Woodsy

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

• Jules
• Andy L
• Sean K
• Ian C

AGM It was decided by the meeting that the business of the AGM, due to be held today, according to the minutes of the January meeting, be postponed until it could be arranged on the list and proper notice given. Date is to be fixed within 7 days and the AGM must be held before 31/06/07 - 6 months after the end of the financial year.

MINUTES OF LAST MEETING One small correction was requested: in AOB, BMEX Light contract and Cube, i.e. delete words "_and replace with filesharing_" from the end of the fourth sentence.(Action Woodsy)

Following this, the minutes were approved nem con.

MATTERS ARISING

1. Cube event: Pete F read out an email from Sean K, one point of which was holding our 6th birthday party at the Cube featuring films/workshops/streaming/talks and food and beer. Sean suggested paying the Cube £150 plus VAT for hire for the evening, assuming a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday or Weds evening. Cube to provide staff and tech support and keep the bar take. BW can charge or ask for donations on the door and keep the door money. We both publicise the event. It will go into Cube's printed programme (approx. 4,000 copies), Cube website and Cube weekly mail-out (approx. 6,000 mails). Kate from the Cube will liaise regarding the date possibilities and the private hire arrangements. Possible discussed dates 19th May or 2nd June and Sean reports a wiki page is imminent. Sam suggested a budget of £400 be allocated to take this forward (Action: Sean). Lloyd thought it would be useful to have stocks of BW t-shirts and hoodies ready for sale at the event; a budget of £200 was assigned to obtaining fresh supplies of clothing.
2. Easton Cowboys Festival: Rich outlined that the Cowboys are holding their Alternative World Cup somewhere in the south of England later in the year and a BW posse will be in attendance with satellite dish and LTSP suite to support the event, as well as providing opportunities for streaming.
3. St Werburghs Project Server Purchasing: The purchase of the WCC server has now been amalgamated with that of the BW server. Technical spec. has now been worked out and each machine will have 1 TB of storage.
4. Publicity and stickers - amending the front page of the website: Rich updated the meeting on recent work with Jane Sheppard to produce publicity materials for conferences. With slight graphical changes, Rich believes we should now be looking to have a run of 1,000 leaflets printed in colour. Stickers would cost £150 for 1,000 vinyl or 5,000 paper. These could provide useful publicity. Sam noted the front page of the website didn't reflect current services on offer: we have several viable products, i.e. BMEX Light, migration, computer sales and network services. Woodsy pointed out the front page was a separate WordPress page and could be edited by those with admin. rights on WordPress. It was agreed Sam, Woodsy and Rich would take action on these matters (Action: Sam, Woodsy and Rich).
5. Relationship with Nixcom & KWW: In respect of Nixcom, Sam requested discussion of this item be deferred for one month. This was agreed. In respect of KWW, Lloyd reported that work was needed to bring the network up to date as the APs at The Park need replacement. Some new connections to the network were also planned. Lloyd pointed out that the infrastructure works represented the cost of 6 installs. Chris P stated his preparedness to negotiate re the number of installs and was happy with progress. Lloyd and Chris P to liaise on this matter (Action: Lloyd, Chris).
6. Feedback from Hub Conference: A BW posse attended the recent ICT Hub national conference in London. Good feedback was received. Sam, Rich and Mike H all contributed to Matthew Edmundson's open source workshop (the best attended part of the day). Publicity material and live Bristol Wireless CDs in attractive clam cases were given away and some return calls have been received at the lab.
7. Debian consultants network: Sam pointed out we have an 0906 support telephone number and suggested we try and organise some regional/national consultants network. An offering/joint marketing proposal needs development and a budget.

REPORTS

1. Recycling project: Sam reported this was proceeding well with UFI backlog now cleared. To date 7 machines have been sold at £50. In addition, the local student newspapers have been contacted to see if they will publicise. Other products on offer will be USB keys and speakers. Selling refurbished printers is also being researched and a sales page prepared.
2. St Werburghs UFI: A site survey with cherrypicker for the Malcolm X is planned for Saturday. On Horley Rd, 3 households are now connected with another 2 waiting. An antenna install is planned for the WCC old boilerhouse chimney to increase coverage. A centre no. has finally been provided by UFI.
3. Training funding: Discussion of training funding was deferred until next meeting. However, as regards training in general several points were raised. Pete F raised an email from Ed Mitchell of Bristol Skillswap inviting us to organise something for one of their future monthly events. Pete will forward the email to the list (Action: Pete F). Lloyd mentioned recent discussion of the desirability of skills sharing within Bristol Wireless: this had emerged from our C3 performance review work. Rich also mentioned the need to establish a networking 'playpen' for training and development.
4. Connecting Bristol: Sam has had a meeting with Kevin O'Malley in the wake of Sunderland's winning bid. Projects are now being prioritised and alternative funding sought, including European ER7 funding, although the latter will be a year-long process. Of particular interest are our LTSP and low power consumption offerings. Sam also reported that he will be writing a bid for lottery funding, for which he will be seeking the support of the Connecting Bristol team.

AOB

1. Seniors International: Rich stated we'd been approached by this pensioners' lobby group. They are holding their annual conference in Bristol on 28th April 2007 (details awaited). The contact is pro-Linux and they've been impressed by our sheltered accommodation work. Our LTSP suite will be attending the conference.
2. Calendar/Groupware: Ben G and Lloyd raised the need for a collaborative calendar and/or groupware for BW.

Date of next meeting: Tuesday, 1st May 2007 at St Werburghs Community Centre