all-

a collection of nots and such from this saturday.  hopefully i've
covered the items that were discussed.  i apologize for any errors or
omissions - if there are some - please bring them up.



meeting notes- (dunn bros. university location) - 19-oct-2002 @ 5:00pm
----------------------------------------------------------------------

we had some new faces.  notably some folks from the tc freenet and
some list lurkers who were interested in the activities of the group,
some of whom had a fair amount of nonprofit experience. the meeting
was fairly brief - about an 1-1/2 and provided folks with an
opportunity to suck down some coffee at the same time.  it's hoped
that we can have more of these informal meetings to discuss
outstanding issues.


group legal status
------------------
most of the discussion surrounded the creation of a legal entity for
the group - to facilitate donation, of hardware, time, money etc.  to
advance the group.  

we actually have a fair number of resources at our disposal to
facilitate the creation of a non-profit organization.  

- minnesota council of nonprofits (mncn)- these folks have some really good
  information available online. - [1] 
  i mention this one first because the quantity and quality of the
  content is first rate.

- MAP - management assistance program for nonprofits has a lot of
  information available online.  these folks also have legal services
  which can help the group through the legal hurdles for a nominal
  fee.

i also got the name of a recommended tax exemption attorney. i'll see
what i can get from them for information and suggestions. 

i would encourage folks interested in forming an entity to review the
information available at the link for the mncn since there's a lot of
good points that are brought up regarding whether or not you need to
form a legal entity, etc.

given several of the concerns that have been raised as of late
regarding the ability to partner with other groups, accept donations,
get access to rooftops, etc.  this is an item that bears speedy
resolution.

it was suggested that an organizing committee be set up to address
this matter in an expedited fashion.  this is likely a key topic for
discussion on our next formal meeting.


group activities
----------------
in addition to the discussion regarding the legal side of things there
was a fair amount of discussion surrounding the feasability of
creating an overlay network within the twin cities.  there are some
significant challenges associated with the the overlay network
creation.  these are not insurmountable just significant and it may
take some time for folks to get something appealing and useful.  

for this reason there was some interest in establishing a group to
work on the problem of coordinated hotspots to address the needs of
such a network.  i.e. - authentication, cookie cutter configurations,
documentation to support this. 

this gets back to our SIG discussion from a couple months back, but it
facilitates doing something of user value in the near term while
working on the infrastructure side of things.

mailing lists
------------- 
given some of the challenges that the list server has been
experiencing and as an outgrowth of the discussion at the meeting
there has been a mailing list setup to discuss network creation
specific matters (of the hotspot or overlay network ilk).  more
information and subscription information is available online.[2]

the lists are currently hosted on the tc-unwired.net domain which will
be turned over to whatever entity the group takes form in.

questions? drop a line.



references
----------

[1] - http://www.mncn.org/info_start.htm
[2] - http://lists.tc-unwired.net/mailman/listinfo




-- 
steve ulrich                       sulrich at botwerks.org
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