Summary of July 1997 APC online Council Meeting =============================================== Mission statement ----------------- The last few words were finalized and APC's Mission Statement is: The APC's mission is to empower and support organisations, social movements and individuals in and through the use of information and communication technologies to build strategic communities and initiatives for the purpose of making meaningful contributions to equitable human development, social justice, participatory political processes and environmental sustainability. The spanish version will be updated soon, and both will be posted in apc.documents. Membership ---------- Very sadly, NordNet is resigning their membership in APC, due to financial and organizational difficulties. This is the first APC member to resign. NordNet was a founding member of APC. Some NordNet users are already at IGC. Others may move to Inform in Denmark. Green Spider has been recommended by their sponsor node GreenNet to move from conditional to full member status. Final votes on this are still being collected. IPANEX has submitted their report to move from conditional to full member status. As soon as the report is translated into English, it will be circulated for all to vote on. All the current membership documents were posted by Amalia in the "New Membership Criteria" topic with suggested modifications to reflect better the openness to new types of membership that were discussed and agreed in principle in Itala. Amalia will continue to work on these with Secretariat, EB and Council input as needed. Basque WWW site Mail Bombing ---------------------------- IGC, Planet and some other nodes were severely hit by mail bombs protesting IGC's hosting of a Web site by Euskal Herria Journal (EHJ), which contained texts by Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA). After much discussion, IGC felt pressured into taking down the EHJ page - in protest - in order to keep services running for their users. IGC issued a press release stating why they took the site down and how they are opposed to the tactic of mail-bombing. APC issued a press release shortly thereafter making the same points. All nodes are requested to distribute this press release as appropriate. The statements are in the topic "Offical Statements: mail bombing" 1. Official statement from APC 2. Press Release from IGC 3. Letter of Support from IBASE Programmes ---------- Amalia is the new SEN 1 Coordinator. (Supporting Electronic Networks) Karin is the new PSU Coordinator. (Promoting Strategic Uses) Karin and Amalia will meet in early August in Brasil to further define the programmes, set budgets, outline first year priorities, list curent tasks they do that do not fall into either programme, and develop a transition plan as to how these tasks will be done. The coordination and structure of how the Programmes will be overseen has been flagged as
an area that is not yet smoothly worked out. Anriette posted a proposal to discuss this further in the "Discussion on program coordination" topic. This issue will be moved to the EB for further discussion and development of a workable system. Management Systems ------------------ The Management Systems were posted and reviewed. Comments will be incorporated and the set of Management Systems descriptions will constitute the basis of APC's Management Systems portfolio. Nodes are welcome to adapt these to their own needs if useful. The posted Job Descriptions format will be used for Secretariat and Programme positions. The posted Job Announcement format will be used for Secretariat and Programme positions, though may be shortened for some jobs as needed. The posted Evaluation formats will be used in conjunction with the job descriptions. The Challenges and Solutions letter from consultant Karie Brown was read with few comments, and will be discussed in further depth by the EB. Edie will work with a consultant to develop a salary formula and level to systematize salaries for current and new staff that takes into account location, levels of experience, affordable rates for APC, etc. New Secretariat Staff --------------------- The Job Announcement for the Fundraising and Promotions Manager will be circulated globally and publicly immediately. A position for a half-time Financial Manager has been approved. The Job Announcement for a half-time Financial Manager will be circulated immediately, both globally online, and in print in the San Francisco area. A hiring committee of the General Manager, Chair and one Council member will determine new Secretariat hires, with input from all staff and council interested to make comments. Digitial Island --------------- A small, start-up, US company based in Hawaii and serving the international community, is likely to offer Pro Bono (free) services to APC as its one Pro Bono client. These services will include: internet backbone, email consultancies and advice, some possible on-site consultancies, beta testing of multi-media services, possible installations at conferences such as United Nation or other conferences and events, and possibly disk space. The initial contract will last one year, with possibility of renewal after a one year evaluation. APC members will need to give Digital Island (DI) an email account at each member. APC Secretariat will need to work with DI to issue joint press releases. Doug Matthews will be the DI contact and Edie will be the APC contact. A proposal from Doug Matthews to DI's decision-makers has been posted and will be presented this week to DI. A draft of a contract will then be posted when Doug sends it to Edie for all to give input to. Drafts of the contract will go back and forth until all parties agree on the wording. APC will then sign the contract if Council agrees.
Carnegie Mellon --------------- Carnegie Mellon University and Monterey Tech have made a proposal to Ford to host a series of seminars on tehcnical solutions for higher education and related needs. Norman Collins at Ford Mexico convinced Carnegie Mellon to include an NGO voice, and have that voice be APC.It is likely that the directors of the Latin American members will be invited to one or more of these seminars. This is useful to attend if invited to: further relations with Carnegie Mellon - a possible future funder, ensure that they hear NGO needs and perspectives, have a forum in which APC members and others can discuss some big picture issues, learn and teach tech solutions and developments. WWW Development Proposal ------------------------ Nina Luttinger in San Francisco submitted a proposal to APC to build WWW pages for NGOs that would not otherwise be able to afford WWW pages. There was a lot of concern about this proposal. The concerns were summarized and sent to Nina by Edie. Nina will meet with IGC to discuss if IGC is interested in housing the WWW page builders as Nina has requested, and will re-draft the proposal to see if she can address the concerns. One person in APC did not want to pursue this proposal. Others were concerned but wanted to see if something workable could come from it. A few thought that it could be made workable without too much effort and want to encourage it. At this point, it is up to Nina and her team to get back to APC with another proposal that addresses the concerns. Then we can discuss further whether this is worth pursuing or not. 1998 Council Meeting -------------------- The 1998 Council Meeting will be held the first week in October, 1998,in Mexico. Hosted by LaNeta. Full funding for this meeting is already secured by the Ford grant. IPS --- Nine nodes want IPS for October 1, 1997 - September 30, 1998. They are: IGC ComLink Web Inform AlterNex Chasque GreenNet (wants re-negotiated contract) Ecuanex (if fees don't increase) SangoNet (if can get a ready made user friendly WWW database interface to IPS English) Edie needs to develop a new pricing chart for IPS, based on 1996 revenue figures rather than number of users as the old chart was based on. There is also a request to re-negotiate the IPS contract. Edie will work on this in September. (The current contract stays in effect until a new contract sublants it.) Organizational Partnerships --------------------------- Approval was given to Mark Surman (Web) to pursue a partnership with AMARC and Videazimut, as per his report from a meeting with all three. - Representatives of AMARC, APC and Videazimut began discussions about a strategic alliance. A coalition between these groups and possibly others would create a strong platform for NGO
'multimedia' and an excellent channel through which to seek group funding. An alliance of this nature would also act as an excellent foundation for the development of the DICCAT program. Approval was given to Mark to pursue a partnership with One World, based in the UK, in conjunction with GreenNet. Mark will draft an initial proposal. It was agreed that APC needs to relate to One World on 3 levels: at an APC level (Mark's proposal); member level (e.g. SANGONeT's proposal) and at an issue level. Anriette posted a proposal from SangoNet for the member level Mark's basic idea for a partnership at the APC level includes: - they crawl participating APC sites with their database software and post links to APC pages as a part of the One World 'SuperSite' - we get access to this crawling software for our own purposes and to feeds of content they have indexed - they give us hosting and WWW development referrals as they are not longer in that business Funding ------- The Ford grant was approved for $300,000, to start September 1, 1997, for 18 months. Other sources for additional funding have been identified and will be pursued. Budgets ------- - Ford - The Ford budget allocation has been discussed with the main principles outlined. Several variations on the budget were posted for comparison. A 4th draft was posted that incorporates all the comments and principles to date. Finalizing the budget allocation will be done by Secretariat and the Executive Board (EB). - 1997 Core - A post-itala 1997 Core budget was posted and several comments and requests for different categories of reporting posted. Edie will take these requests and rework a new style and version of budget which the EB will discuss in their online meeting starting July 28. - 1998 and 1999-1998 and 1999 budget drafts were posted to get an idea of future revenue and expenses. These only included information that is currently available and does not project other revenue and expenses that may arise between now and then. APC.ORG Domain -------------- There was email discussion and then a posting by Paul a to uses of the apc.org domain. Ago questioned the need to have so many. The idea is to have these available should they be needed. Not that everyone has to use all of them. Uses of "apc.org" include: <member>.apc.org -- for member networks/organisations; <program>.apc.org -- for APC programs; <service>.apc.org -- for special APC services; <partner>.<member>.apc.org -- for partner networks; <other>.<member>.apc.org -- according to member needs; Also, in relation to APC domains registered locally, APC members are requested to register the
following in their country where possible: apc.org.<country> apc.net.<country> apc.<country> Logo ---- Xabier, a Eusnet user, submitted several verisons of a logo he submitted in Itala. The general style was not supported by Council. Edie will clean up the current logo and continue to use that.