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Table of Contents
1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1
August 1989 IFNA Board Meetings .......................... 1
SPA Installs 800 Number to Track Software Piracy ......... 8
NCLM Sweepstakes ......................................... 9
The Life and Times of HEX ................................ 11
OASIS: The Echo for Recovering Overeaters ................ 13
The President's Report ................................... 15
2. LATEST VERSIONS .......................................... 20
Latest Software Versions ................................. 20
3. NOTICES .................................................. 23
The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 23
FidoNews 6-38 Page 1 18 Sep 1989
Seems I've been down this road before. The official minutes of
the IFNA board meeting are late, but I do have my own notes taken
at the time. As before, they were taken using PC Outline on my
laptop (a very nice program, if you haven't tried it), and I'm
interspersing comments now to "fill in the gaps."
I. 25 Aug 89 17:00 Outgoing IFNA board meeting
A. Roll call
1) Bill Bird vice Courtney Harris
2) Matt Whelan
3) Matt Whelan vice Bill Bolton
4) Thom Henderson vice Irene Henderson
5) Jim Channel vice Scott Miller
6) Stephen Barnes
7) John Knox
8) Don Daniels
9) Mort Sternheim (chairman)
10) Tony Davis vice Ted Polczynski
11) Steve Jordan
12) Phil Buonomo vice David Melnik
13) Four vacancies from 24 seats leaves 20, we have a
quorum
"Vice" in this context means "in place of", so that "Bill Bird
vice Courtney Harris" means "Bill Bird sitting as alternate for
Courtney Harris." Note that Matt Whelan holds two votes -- this
crops up again later.
B. Old business
1) Accepting minutes of last meeting, but we don't like
them.
I don't think the official minutes for the February meeting ever
did get published. Time will tell if the official minutes of
THIS meeting ever get published.
C. New business
1) Agenda for meeting
a) Election of officers
b) Appoint group to look into the BIX deal
c) Appoint group to look into OPCN nodelist
d) Funding expenses of the IC
FidoNews 6-38 Page 2 18 Sep 1989
e) FidoNews editor
f) Bolton's five motions
g) Feedback from the floor
This is the old board setting the agenda for the new board's
meeting the next day. Standard stuff, and the new board can
change it (and does).
D. Motions of thanks
1) Thank San Jose sysops for a nice con
a) passed
2) Thank Vince Perriello for doing FidoNews
a) passed
Standard stuff. Vince in particular was thanked because he had
already tendered his resignation.
E. Report of the elections
1) 180 ballots mailed
2) 62 valid ballots received
3) Tie in R19, Vietch and Roberts
a) Amended report to give divisional to guy with more
overall votes and other guy as a one-year at large
b) Accepted report as amended
The Elections Committee wound up with a tie for the Division 19
seat, so they referred that back to the Board. Since there were
vacancies in the At-Large seats, the Board decided to give one of
them the Divisional seat and the other an At-Large seat.
F. Informal discussion of officers for next year
G. Adjorn until circa 21:00
Durned if I remember what the informal discussion was about. I
think we just tossed around some names of likely people for the
officer positions. Then the outgoing Board adjorned for dinner,
with the meeting to resume as the new Board after dinner.
II. 25 Aug 89 22:00 First meeting of the new IFNA board
Unfortunately, I didn't take down the roll of who all was at any
of the other meetings. John Knox was supposed to be doing that.
Foolish me, I didn't think anyone but me would ever see these
notes, so I skimped on some of the grunt work.
A. Motion to allow proxies
1) passed
What this is referring to is the business of allowing one person
to represent more than one Board member. For example, in the
earlier meeting Matt Whelan sat both on his own behalf and as
alternate for Bill Bolton, and hence had two votes. This cropped
up again because several members of the newly elected Board had
been unable to attend and had made overlapping assignments in
their alternates. I don't remember for sure how Mort handled the
vote, but I think he did it by a show of hands of those
FidoNews 6-38 Page 3 18 Sep 1989
physically present.
B. Motion to thank Mort for being chairman
1) passed
C. Election of officers.
1) Chairman of the board
a) Thom Henderson (elected)
b) John Knox
First let me repeat the thanks to Mort Sternheim. The only
reason he isn't still the Chairman of the Board is that he turned
it down in no uncertain terms. I'm beginning to understand
why...
2) President
a) Motion to table, passed
3) Vice President, tabled
4) VP-TC, tabled
You'll notice a few things got tabled here. Mostly nobody wanted
to nominate anybody without having some time to think about it
and talk to the nominees. We figured we'd hold off on electing
officers until we could find people who were willing and
qualified.
5) Secretary
a) Chris Vietch, by acclaimation
6) Treasurer
a) Chris Vietch, by acclaimation
7) Acting secretary
a) John Knox by acclaimation
In retrospect I'm kind of wondering about these. We didn't have
official minutes from Chris for the February meeting, after all.
John got elected because he was there and doing it at the time,
but I still haven't gotten the minutes.
D. Motion to recess, passed.
It was starting to get late at this point, so we called it a
night. Besides, most of the new Board wanted a chance to go talk
to the people at FidoCon and get their input on some upcoming
agenda items.
III. 26 Aug 89 20:30 Second meeting of the new board
A. Call to Order
B. Roll call
C. Election of IFNA President and Vice-President and
filling of vacant positions on Board of Directors
1) Div 3 vacancy
a) Matt Whelan - by acclaimation
FidoNews 6-38 Page 4 18 Sep 1989
b) Appoints Randy Bush as Bill Bolton's alternate
2) Interruption while Kaplan phones to make Mort
Sternheim his alternate
3) At large vacancy
a) Tony Davis
b) Tom Jennings - winner
4) President
a) Les Koyman - winner
b) Fabain Gordon
5) Vice President
a) Fabian Gordon - by acclaimation
6) VP-TC
a) Bill Bolton - winner
b) Ben Baker
Some other last-minute appointments happened that didn't make it
into my notes (remember, I was supposed to be chairing the
meeting while all this was going on), but the end result is that
we had 23 out of 24 seats represented, which is the best the IFNA
board has ever done.
Now we get to the dull stuff.
D. Reports from Officers
1) President, no report
2) Vice President, no report
3) Vice President - TC, tabled
4) Secretary, tabled
5) Treasurer, tabled
E. Standing Committee Reports
1) Executive Committee, no report
2) Administrative & Finance, tabled
3) Nomination & Elections
a) already been done
4) Technical Standards, no report
5) Publications, no report
6) International Affairs, tabled
7) Membership Services, no report
8) Membership Data Base, no report
9) By Laws & Rules Committee
a) Report filed. No activity to speak of.
F. Divisional Director Reports
1) 10 Courtney Harris, no report
2) 11 Bill Allbritten, no report
3) 12 Bill Bolton, tabled
4) 13 Irene Henderson, no report
5) 14 Ken Kaplan, no report
6) 15 Scott Miller, no report
7) 16 Ivan Schaffel, no report
8) 17 Neal Curtin, no report
9) 18 Andrew Adler, no report
FidoNews 6-38 Page 5 18 Sep 1989
10) 19 John Knox, no report
11) 2 Henk Wevers, no report
G. Other committee reports
1) Ethics Committee
a) Ethics document submitted, but no report.
2) Public Affairs, no report
Do you begin to sense a pattern here?
H. Old Business
1) Bill from Tom Marshall
a) Referred to Executive Committee for action
The bill, as I recall, was for work Tom Marshall did related to
the IFNA logo. The Executive Committee was told to look into it
and do whatever was appropriate.
2) Tabled items
a) VPTC report tabled again
b) Secretary, no report
c) Treasurers report, tabled
- Insufficient, no balance sheet
- Referred to exec comm for high priority action
d) Admin & Finance, tabled
The pattern continues.
I. Exception -- Vince Periello appointed as proxy by Ivan
Schaffel by phone.
An exception to the order of the day as Ivan Schaffel phones in.
J. New Business
1) Call for additions to New Business
2) Executive committee appointments
a) Don Daniels
b) Karl Schinke
c) Matt Whelan
d) Chris Vietch
3) Ethics document
a) Referred exec and ethics comm
More routine stuff.
4) Paying for IFNA meeting space
a) Delegated to treasurer
This is referring to the rent on the rooms where the IFNA general
membership meeting is to be held.
I didn't get the wording of the motion, and now I don't remember
what it was. The original motion was to radically simplify the
nodelist copyright statement, but I think it was amended to
having the executive committee look into it.
6) Motion to entertain proposals for FidoCon 90.
a) Rejected
8) Motion to defend copyright against OPCN Nodelist
a) Exec committee to look into it and do something
9) OPCN Nodelist - Theo Polczynski
a) Fails for lack of second
10) Motion to fund the International Coordinator
a) Tabled
11) Motions to entertain ammendments to bylaws
a) 02:00 Recess to resume at 08:00 Sunday, passed
It was that last item that took most of the time. We finally
broke up at 2 AM with the issue still unresolved.
IV. 27 Aug 89 08:30 Final meeting / general membership meeting
A. New bylaws, passed
1) Recess to the meeting room, passed
At this point my notes started to suffer a bit from competing
demands. The New Bylaws motion (which passed) was the amendment
to clear up the definition of an "At-Large Member" to nail down
in no uncertain terms that all FidoNet sysops are voting members
of IFNA. Somewhere in here was the so-called "YPOP motion"
(yellow piece of paper) calling for the referendum.
B. Resignation of FidoNews Editor
1) Vince turns hat around
"Turning your hat around" is merchie slang for relieving
yourself. That is, turning a watch over to yourself, or standing
two watches in a row (I sense somehow that I'm not clearing this
up very much). It means that when Vince resigned, Vince took
over as editor of FidoNews.
C. Motion to accept Policy4 - Phil Buonomo
1) no second
D. Motion on BIX and FidoNet echomail - Don Daniels
1) rejected
E. Motion to rename IFNA - Bill Bolton
1) tabled
F. Motion for affirmation of IFNA's interests - Bill Bolton
1) referred to exec committee
G. IFNA FidoNet policy document - Don Daniels
H. Adjournment
FidoNews 6-38 Page 7 18 Sep 1989
Towards the end my note-taking REALLY suffered, for two reasons.
We were in the meeting room for the general membership meeting
and I couldn't put my laptop in a convenient location, and we
adjourned with only about five minutes left before checkout time
so I had to dash back up to my room. I remember that Bill
Bolton's motions got light treatment because they were mostly
rendered moot by the YPOP motion. I don't really remember what
Don's motions were about.
Anyway, there you have it. Those are the notes I have on what
happened at the Board meeting. I haven't given up hope yet on
getting official minutes, but I'm hopping mad about the delay.
September 11, 1989(Washington,D.C.)-The Software Publishers
Association announced today that it has installed a toll
free 800 number to track reports of software piracy. The
number is 1-800-388-PIR8.
The toll free line will enable users to report cases quickly
and easily of unauthorized duplication of software through
unauthorized sales, hard disk loading, internal corporate
copying and electronic bulletin boards.
"Until now, users and aggrieved individuals have had no
clear vehicle through which they could report serious
copyright violations" said SPA Executive Director Ken Wasch.
"Now the 800 number will make it easy for individuals to
report cases of software piracy. All reports to the SPA
will be followed up. Hopefully through 'cease and desist'
letters, litigation against copyright violators may be
avoided."
Through the SPA Copyright Protection Fund, the SPA has filed
over 20 lawsuits against dealers, mail order operations,
technical colleges and corporations who have sold or used
unlawful copies of software. The SPA's litigation efforts
are complemented by an ongoing public awareness campaign
that educates users about the lawful use of software through
the SPA publication, "Software Use and the Law", as well as
through anti-piracy advertisements that run in trade
journals and the general press.
Individuals wishing to report cases of software piracy
should contact the Piracy Hotline at 1-800-388-PIR8. Anyone
desiring copies of "Software Use and the Law" may contact
the SPA by sending a self addressed stamped envelope.
The Software Publishers Assocition is the principal trade
group of the PC software industry. It's over 525 members
include the leading publishers in the business, consumer,
education and vertical software markets.
National Computer Learning Month
COMPUTER LEARNING FOUNDATION 1989 SWEEPSTAKES
Computer Learning Month Certified School Sweepstakes
4 Grand prizes: Two schools in each category, drawn at random
from the entries recieved that meet the criteria as computer
learning month certified schools, will each recieve a computer
system.
10 Second prizes: Five computer learning month certified schools
in each category will be drawn at random to recieve software
programs.
All computer learning month certified schools: A computer
learning month certified school award certificate - level I
and/or level II, depending on the level(s) achieved, and a press
release for publicising your school's acomplishment in local
papers.
Description: The computer learning foundation wants to encourage
more teachers to get involved in using computers in thier
classroom, to try software programs they haven't used before and
to develop lesson plans that integrate computers and software
into the curriculum. We also want encourage state and county
departments of education and local schools to provide teachers
with in-service time for trying different software, developing
lesson plans and sharing thier knowledge with one another. Upon
reciepts of the entry form, the computer learning foundation will
verify eligability, automatically enter qualifying schools in the
Sweepstakes and send the school principal a computer learning
foudation certified school certificate for the appropriate
level(s) and a press release tosend to local papers to recieve
public recognition for the schools effort.
Rules: To be eligable to enter the sweepstakes, a school must be
a computer learning month certified school - Lvel I and/or Level
II. If your school qualifies for both levels, you will be entered
in both categories of the sweepstakes, so you will have two
chances of winning.
Computer learning month certified school - Lvel I:
Between July 1, and November 30, 1989, every teacher in the
school must try three sofware programs they have not tried
before. While many teachers can try the same programs, we
encourage teachers to each review different programs and share
thier knowledge with each other. To enter: (1) set up a teacher
participation form with the following headings: Teacher name(s)
that developed the plan, grade, title of leson plan, the
signature of the teacher(s) that developed the plan; (2) attach
one copy of each lesson plan to the teacher participation form;
and (3) complete the contest entry form, and have the principal
sign it. Remember, the individual teachers may also submit thier
lesson plans to the lesson plan contest if they meet the
FidoNews 6-38 Page 10 18 Sep 1989
criteria; however, each submission to the lesson plan contest
must include a seperate entry form.
For more information contact Butch Witherspoon, Fido 1:288/525 or
write to NCLM Echo, P.O. Box 8045, Granite City, IL 62040-8045.
A Windy City Yarn
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HEX
Copyright (c) 1989
James Zachary
I'd like to introduce y'all to Mr. Steve Bonine, ZONE 1
COORDINATOR of FIDONET. I'm proud to call Steve a personal
friend of mine. Judging by the blatant accusations and not so
subtle innuendo from a few folks, there is a need for me to
shed some true light as to what Steve is really like.
Steve and I first met in prison ... uh, noooooo, lessee here
...
Actually, Steve and I first met at the KScope Bar and Grill
during a get-together for members of the now defunct Computer
Guild Street Gang of Chicagoland. Steve came roaring up on his
Harley Davidson ... hmmmm, maybe that was Lady Mingette ...
anyway, in walks this 6'8'' hulk of a man with shoulder length
hair and railroad-spike earrings ...uh, noooo, that was Ingvar
Mike ...
I guess The Bruiser served up a few too many of Dr. Dick's
Oxide Bombers for me to really remember very much of that
night. However, the brawl did lead to sobriety, tolerance and
a sustained period of peace. (We all got 30 days).
I think Steve made bail first since the police couldn't match
the bloodstains with any on his knife. Zappie was indicted for
drunken walking so, since they already had his driver's license
for speeding (in a stolen patrol car), his shoes were removed
for 36 months. Ingvar Mike and his cousin, Grudd, kicked
through the walls of Cook County Jail, grabbed the fair
Mingette and they haven't been heard from since.
I get the impression that many of y'all think Steve is not
sensitive to the feelings of others. I'm here to tell ya that
the man is so responsible that during the latest anti-gun and
animal-rights crusades, even though he is an avid hunter, he
gave up shooting deer. He now chases them down on foot and
eats them alive.
The rumor of Steve working in 'mainframe-security' is partially
correct. He isn't a programmer, he carries them from building
to building, chained to his wrist. His nickname, HEX, is not
derived from Hexadecimal --- he simply has this thing about
sticking Bowie knives into voodoo dolls while mumbling
incantations.
The man is an accomplished author with books like "Think and Go
Bitch","I'm OK, You're KO'd", "The Sixty Minute Mugger" and
"The Power of Positive Punching" to his credit.
FidoNews 6-38 Page 12 18 Sep 1989
He is really not as power hungry as y'all think. The title
'ZONE 1 COORDINATOR OF FIDONET' somehow gave him the idea that
he was to get that big-money job as the top dogcatcher for
Chicago's Humbolt Park area.
Since much of the old gang is out on parole, on Saturday,
September 23rd, we will be getting together over at Steve's for
a good-old-fashioned family barbecue (Steve is letting his wife
and kids burn his tattoos off). I'm sure he wouldn't mind me
inviting all 6000 Fidonet SysOps over to his place. It's BYOB
(Bring Your Own Bail). Find out for yourselves that he is more
evil than what you have ever imagined. If you are going to
sling mud, please learn to do it up right!
Formal 'leather and chains' attire is required. Steve's house
is easy to find. It's next to the El Rukn Temple; just look
for his black Hearse, license plate IKEELU, in the driveway.
OASIS: The Echo for Recovering Overeaters.
by Jim A. 1:125/32
My name is Jim and I have an eating disorder. I started
out as a fat kid, and went through all of the traumas that fat
kids go through in our society. I went on my first diet when I
was ten years old, and promptly lost about 30 pounds, which was
half of what I needed to lose at the time. However, in a short
time I gained it all back, plus a few additional pounds with
interest. That was the basic story of my life: I would go on
diets, lose some weight, and then gain back even more.
I tried lots of different diet and exercise schemes, but
none of them gave me any relief from my food addiction. Why
should they? The diets treated only the weight, which is only a
symptom of my eating disorder. I am just like an alcoholic with
food. I was never satisfied with one piece of candy because I
always wanted more. Although I always pretended to be on a diet,
secretly I would binge on Pounder Bags of M&M's. At my peak I
could finish a Pounder Bag in about ten minutes and then go for a
large Nestle's Crunch Bar for dessert.
Unfortunately, the laws of thermodynamics have not been
repealed in my case. My massive overeating led to morbid obesity.
At my peak I was 110 pounds heavier than I am now.
I found help in Overeaters Anonymous. OA makes use of the
successful principles of recovering from addictions that were
pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous. Overeaters Anonymous is not a
diet club, but a non profit fellowship of men and women with
eating disorders who help themselves by helping others like
themselves. There are no dues, fees, required diets, or weigh
ins. The ONLY requirement for membership is the desire to stop
overeating compulsively. OA has helped me to take those 110
pounds off and keep them off for over seven years.
Since I am also a bbs user, I started a bbs that has a
strong orientation to the OA program. It is called the OAsis and
it is very similar to the other Anonymous/Recovery bbs systems
such as those that were mentioned in the August 28, 1989 issue of
Newsweek. On the OAsis board, other people interested in
recovering from eating disorders share their experience in how to
live life without overeating.
There is now a backbone echo that allows users from all
over to share in this form of mutual support. It is called the
OASIS. If you think that some of your callers might be
interested in recovering from obesity, compulsive overeating, and
related eating disorders, then you might be interested in
carrying the OASIS echo. If you have any questions, please feel
free to check out the OASIS bbs at 415-658-5397, or net mail me
at 1:125/32.
It's my pleasure to address you here in what I intend to be a
continuing series of reports on what's going on in IFNA from my
perspective. In this first report, there are a number of pressing
items that need to be discussed. In issues to come some of these
topics, particularly those relating to the upcoming IFNA plebi-
scite, will receive further attention. Feedback (comments, cor-
rections, curmudgeonly-advice, etc.) on what appears here is
always welcome. I've made mistakes before and I expect I will
make more; none of us is perfect. I'd appreciate a copy of your
comments at 1:204/501, but there's always the traditional method
of reply via FidoNews article. With the author's permission I'll
print excerpts of correspondence received if it is of general
interest. Please forgive the length of this first report, there
are some basic points this week that I only need to cover once.
Items this week
That said, I'd like to touch on the following items this week:
* What does the President of IFNA do?
* What's going on with the plebiscite?
What Does the President do?
Here are the sections of the Bylaws of IFNA and the Articles of
Association of IFNA which deal with the office of the President.
This list is, to my knowledge, complete and all-inclusive.
From the Articles of Association:
VI. During the intervals between meetings of the Board of
Directors, the affairs of the Corporation shall be
administered by an Executive Committee consisting of the
President, four Directors selected by the Board of
Directors, and, without vote, the Vice President and Vice
President - Technical Coordinator. The term of office for
the Executive Committee members shall be for one year or
until their successors are elected. The Executive
Committee shall meet at the call of the President, but no
less often than quarterly. The Executive Committee may in
its discretion submit for determination or decision by
members of the Board of Directors any proposal pending
before the Executive Committee. When such submission is
made, it shall be in precise terms embodying the text of
the proposed resolution. Such action shall be binding upon
the Executive Committee.
FidoNews 6-38 Page 16 18 Sep 1989
VIII. The officers of the Corporation shall be a
President, a Vice President, Vice President - Technical
Coordinator, a Secretary, and a Treasurer, who shall be
elected by a majority of the Directors at the Annual
Meeting.
From the Bylaws:
25. The President shall, subject to instruction from the
Board of Directors and with the assistance of the Vice
President, represent IFNA in its relationships with the
public and the various governments, governmental agencies
and officials with which IFNA may be concerned and shall be
the official spokesperson of IFNA in regard to all matters
of IFNA policy.
26. In the absence or disability of the President, the
Vice-President shall assume the duties of the President.
28. The Treasurer shall: b) sign checks drawn by the
President in payment of obligations known by him to be
proper and authorized;
30. Standing committees: a) The following standing
committees are established: Administration and Finance;
Executive Committee; Nominations and Elections; By-Laws and
Rules; Technical Standards; Publications; International
Affairs; Membership Services.
b) Each standing committee shall include among its members
at least one (1) Director. Additionally, the Treasurer
shall serve as a member of the Administration and Finance
Committee. Initial appointments of all standing committee
members shall be made by the President at the ANNUAL
MEMBERSHIP MEETING. Additional appointments may be made
periodically by the President or the President's designate.
The Chairman of the Board shall designate the chairman of
each committee. The terms of office for all Committee
Members shall extend only until the next ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP
MEETING. Standing committees shall make written reports
within thirty (30) days prior to each regular meeting of
the Board of Directors. Standing committees shall
originate studies in their fields and shall generate
recommendations to the Board on their own initiative.
31. The Administration and Finance Committee: f) Makes
recommendations to the Board and the President in areas of
staff management, procedures and renumeration.
32. The Membership Services Committee performs studies and
FidoNews 6-38 Page 17 18 Sep 1989
makes recommendations to the Board, and acts as advisor to
the President, with regard to services provided to
individual members, other than publications and including,
but not limited to the ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING.
33. The Publications Committee performs studies and makes
recommendations to the Board, and acts as advisor to the
President, with regard to IFNA's publications, including
FidoNews.
39. There shall be an official publication maintained by
IFNA, in the form of a weekly journal, the name of which
shall be FidoNews. A copy of this journal shall be
available each week to all listed nodes. The general
management of this journal shall be in the hands of the
President. The policy of the journal shall be to publish
all submitted articles of interest to the FidoNet
community, within the bounds of legality and good taste.
(End of Articles and Bylaws excerpts)
From the above you can see that the office of the President is
not a policy-making position; it is an executive position. The
greatest "power" is the ability and responsibility to appoint
members of IFNA's committees. This means that as President, I do
not set the policy, I implement it. This has consequences for the
following items I'd like to discuss.
What's going on with the Plebiscite?
Here's the resolution passed by the IFNA BoD at FidoCon '89 in
San Jose:
We, the representatives of the International FidoNet
Association, have heard a cry for democracy in the administration
of the network. As IFNA is supposed to represent the interests
of the sysops, and as such representation is deemed to have
failed, be it hereby resolved that:
Without a mandate from the sysops of FidoNet, IFNA has no purpose
or reason for existence.
THEREFORE, the board proposes the following action, of which
failure to pass will mean the dissolution of IFNA:
It is hereby resolved that a special election be held for
consideration by the Sysops of FidoNet of the following:
IFNA shall be empowered to re-draft the bylaws of IFNA and to
draft a Policy document for FidoNet. Such documents are to
FidoNews 6-38 Page 18 18 Sep 1989
include:
1. An independent judicial system.
2. A reduced size Board of Directors, to be completely
reseated in an election on or before FidoCon 1990.
3. Better representation from outside the United States.
4. Make each sysop in FidoNet a member in IFNA with all
rights and privileges of membership.
Voting for referendum of this document shall be completed on or
before December 1, 1989. The rules of the election shall make it
clear that failure of the election to approve the questions
presented shall result in the current Board of Directors acting
under Article XII to dissolve the corporation.
In addition, it shall be made clear that approval must be gained
from a majority of the eligible nodes in the nodelist in effect
at the time of the election.
(End of BoD resolution)
The Chairman of the BoD, Thom Henderson, has noted that the
following must be done by IFNA prior to December 1, 1989:
1) Run a net-wide vote of all sysops asking if IFNA should
manage FidoNet.
2) Win the vote by a clear majority of all sysops.
3) Draft new bylaws and a new policy document.
And by February 1, 1990:
4) Run another vote for approval/disapproval of the proposed
bylaws and policy.
5) Have the proposed bylaws and policy approved by the
membership (i.e. the sysops).
Even though this is the stated order, it has been commented by
several folks in the DEMOCRACY and SYSOP echo conferences that
there needs to be some indication of the direction of the new
bylaws and policy prior to the December 1, 1989 vote, or the vote
is likely to be "no" due to a lack of information. I agree. I am
making it a high priority to see that this effort goes on concur-
rently with the effort to organize the election itself. I believe
that the Sysops of FidoNet have the right to know what the direc-
tion of IFNA is going to be if they are going to cast an informed
vote.
FidoNews 6-38 Page 19 18 Sep 1989
The election procedure will be determined by the nominations and
elections committee of IFNA. As soon as that work is done, I will
publish it here. The bylaws and policy drafts will be done by the
bylaws and rules committee of IFNA. At this time, however, I
believe it would be a very good idea if the policy effort were
open for input from all in FidoNet who care to participate. To
this end, I am conducting discussions with Jason Steck and others
involved in the POLICY5.DEM effort, to see if that effort can be
folded in to the job of preparing a draft policy under IFNA's
name. The discussions to this point have not been conclusive, so
I cannot at this time make an announcement that there is an
agreement in principle to co-operate on this. However, I hope to
be able to bring this news to you soon.
In addition to all this, I understand that there is some question
as to whether or not proper policy has been followed in amending
the bylaws to make all FidoNet sysops members of IFNA. There is
reason to believe that a special election of the 200 or so paying
members of IFNA must be held prior to this bylaw change being
ratified. I am working on this as my highest priority, because
there is the possibility that without it no vote can be held in
December.
Summary
In sum, there are some procedural issues that must be dealt with
prior to the upcoming vote being held; there are organizational
matters to be dealt with in a very short time; and there is an
immense communication effort needed to get the word out to all
the nodes in the FidoNet nodelist. Sadly, a simple article in
FidoNews will not do this for us. Your help will be very valuable
in the near future in helping to get the word out. Please consid-
er seriously the difference you can make as an individual.
Next week we'll begin to deal with the substantive issues in more
detail, as well as look at some news and views regarding FidoCon
and future FidoCons.
Utility authors: Please help keep this list up to date by
reporting new versions to 1:1/1. It is not our intent to list
all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity.
5 Oct 1989
20th Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus"
11 Oct 1989
First International Modula-2 Conference at Bled, Yugoslavia
hosting Niklaus Wirth and the British Standards Institution.
Contact 1:106/8422 for more information.
11 Nov 1989
A new area code forms in northern Illinois at 12:01 am.
Chicago proper will remain area code 312; suburban areas
formerly served with that code will become area code 708.
23 Nov 1989
26th Anniversary of "Dr. Who" - and still going strong
30 Dec 1989
Telephone area codes (5, 3 and 0) are abolished in Hong Kong
If you have something which you would like to see on this
calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1.
Thom Henderson 1:107/1015 Chairman of the Board
Les Kooyman 1:204/501 President
Fabian Gordon 1:107/323 Vice President
Bill Bolton 3:3/0 Vice President-Technical Coordinator
Kris Veitch 1:147/30 Secretary
Kris Veitch 1:147/30 Treasurer
IFNA COMMITTEE AND BOARD CHAIRS
Administration and Finance *
Board of Directors (CoB) Thom Henderson 1:107/1015
By-laws and Rules *
Executive Committee (Pres) Les Kooyman 1:204/501
International Affairs *
Membership Services *
Nominations and Elections *
Public Affairs *
Publications Irene Henderson 1:107/9
Technical Standards Rick Moore 1:115/333
Ethics *
Security & Individual Rights *
Grievance Committee *
* Position waiting to be appointed/confirmed by IFNA Chairman
of the Board of Directors, Thom Henderson.
IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
DIVISION AT-LARGE
10 Courtney Harris 1:107/732 Don Daniels 1:107/210
11 John Rafuse 1:1/212 Phil Buonomo 1:107/583
12 Bill Bolton 3:3/0 Mark Hawthorne 1:107/238
13 Fabian Gordon 1:107/323 Tom Jennings 1:125/111
14 Ken Kaplan 1:100/22 Irene Henderson 1:107/9
15 Scott Miller 1:128/12 Steve Jordan 1:206/2871
16 Ivan Schaffel 1:141/390 Robert Rudolph 1:261/628
17 Kathi Crockett 1:134/30 Dave Melnik 1:107/233
18 Andrew Adler 1:135/47 Jim Hruby 1:107/536
19 Kris Veitch 1:147/30 Burt Juda 1:107/1
2 Henk Wevers 2:500/1 Karl Schinke 1:107/516
3 Matt Whelan 3:3/1 John Roberts 1:147/14
Membership for the International FidoNet Association
Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that
pays a specified annual membership fee. IFNA serves the
international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to
increase worldwide communications.
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Address _________________________________________________________
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Your Special Interests __________________________________________
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In what areas would you be willing to help in FidoNet? __________
_________________________________________________________________
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Send this membership form and a check or money order for $25 in
US Funds to:
International FidoNet Association
PO Box 41143
St Louis, Missouri 63141
USA
Thank you for your membership! Your participation will help to
insure the future of FidoNet.
Please NOTE that IFNA is a general not-for-profit organization
and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted by the
membership in January 1987. The second elected Board of Directors
was filled in August 1988. The IFNA Echomail Conference has been
established on FidoNet to assist the Board. We welcome your
input to this Conference.
