Telecommunities Canada

Annual General Meeting
2003-04

Friday,March 20, 2004
Georgia Hotel
Vancouver, B.C.

Present at the meeting:

Sam Coghan
Garth Graham
Mike Gurstein
Marita Moll
Peter Royce
Gary Shearman

Chair: Marita Moll

Agenda:

1 Approval of minutes of 2002 AGM 
2 Financial report
3. Appointment of auditor
4.President’s report
5. Director’s reports
6. Review and updating of bylaws
7. Issues and directions
8. Election of directors
9. Adjournment

1.	Approval of minutes of 2002 AGM (Montreal)

Minutes of 2002 AGM were tabled for approval

Recommendation 1: That the minutes of the 2002 AGM (Montreal) be approved

Moved by Peter Royce
Seconded by Sam Coghlan
Carried

2 Financial report

Gary Shearman provided a verbal report to the effect that there was approximately $8800 remaining in the bank account.
Recommendation 2: That the verbal report provided by Gary Shearman be received -- pending the receipt of the written statement

Moved Garth Graham
Seconded by Peter Royce
Carried

3.	Appointment of auditor

Recommendation 3: That TC continue to use the services of the present auditor – Stuart Boddy of Victoria

Moved by Peter Royce
Seconded by Garth Graham
Carried

4. President’s report (see appendix A)

Recommendation 4: That the President’s report be received and accepted as circulated

Moved by Garth Graham
Seconded by Sam Coghlan
Carried

5.	Director’s reports

CRACIN

Marita Moll, as TC representative to the Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN) reported that the CRACIN proposal to SSHRC for a 3-year study of community networking in 7 case study sites across Canada and various complementary broad-based studies (see http://www.cracin.ca ) as been approved and is underway.    

Garth Graham asked that the minutes note that the CRACIN proposal presented a definition of community networking as an institution and that TC defined community networking as a process. 

Participants agreed that community networking as a process was a crucial perspective that the TC representative should bring to the research work done under the CRACIN umbrella. 
 
Intervention on Lawful Access 
Peter Royce reported that TC’s submission to hearings on the Lawful Access Consultation Document (see http://www.tc.ca/lawfulaccess.txt) had been acknowledged as duly received as input to the process.
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
Gary Shearman reported that TC was still accredited to WSIS and still in a position to participate formally if it appeared the opportunity and resources became available to do so.
Garth Graham reported that TC had sent a letter to Department of Finance, Foreign Affairs and Industry Canada on the importance of community online to the development of an Information Society.  The letter seeks assurances of more open processes of dialogue on national socio-economic development planning related to information and communications technology use.  (see http://www.tc.ca/tcwsisltr.htm ) Departments have acknowledged receipt of the letter.
Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS)

Mike Gurstein reported that there was a CRIS group forming in the U.S.  as part of the ICT Task Force meeting.  He agreed to add TC observer to his roles in these meetings and report back as needed.

ICANN

Marita Moll reported that she attended an ICANN at-large meeting in Montreal in June 2003 when ICANN was looking for new members and had identified TC as a possibly interested party.  It did not appear that there were any resources available from ICANN to facilitate participation and she recommended that TC not become formally involved at the present time.

CANCAP

Gary Shearman reported that four TC directors had participated in the strategy meeting in Toronto (March, 2004) towards the formation of a National CAP association.  It was agreed that TC should continue to participate and provide input where ever possible to this attempt to form a national CAP group.  Once a formal structure emerges, TC might consider suggesting an exchange of directors so that both groups could keep each other informed of national and international initatives.

Recommendation 5: That the reports of directors be accepted as provided

Moved by Garth Graham
Seconded by Mike Gurstein
Carried

Recommendation 6: That the actions of the directors since the last meeting be ratified

Moved by Peter Royce
Seconded by Gary Shearman
Carried

6.	Review and updating of by-laws 

Marita Moll reported that a by-law amendment approved by the Board of Directors in 2001 had not been formally approved by the 2002 AGM.  

Recommendation 7: That By-law #1, conditions of membership, 1.1 be amended to read : 

Ordinary membership, with full privileges, is open to Canadian electronic community networking organizations, including public access sites, learning networks, community networks and other organizations that support the aims and objectives of Telecommunities Canada and that : (etc.)

Moved by Peter Royce
Seconded by Gary Shearman
Carried
 
7.	Issues and Directions for 2004-2005

Civil Society Task Force

It was suggested that there was a profound need for an alternative position on and definition of “civil society” especially with the ongoing WSIS discussions.  It was noted that TC had a particular perspective and expertise around the table to develop a new position.
  
Recommendation 8: That there be a TC task force struck to develop a new position on civil society to be posted on the TC website and sent to government departments working in this area (Industry Canada, Foreign Affairs, etc.)

Moved by Marita Moll 
Seconded  by Gary Shearman
Carried
Action: Task force members Garth Graham and Mike Gurstein will invite other particants to the dialogue and report progress to the list.  It is hoped that some work can be posted as early as June 2004.

 Communications Task Force

It was noted that we should be providing more leadership on using ICT’s in our own communications.  Various members have been experimenting with Ivisit, Ichat and Voice over IP.  

Recommendation 9: That TC have a task force formally exploring this area and actively engaging other members in providing trial runs.

Moved by Marita Moll
Seconded by Mike Gurstein
Carried

Action: Gary Shearman, Garth Graham and Fred Campbell have been active in this area and will continue working on this.

8. Election of directors

Gary Shearman reported that Sam Coglan and Ian Allen had asked that their names be withdrawn for the list of directors.  Ian Allen would continue to act as webmaster.  Sam agreed to stay on the electronic list and occasionally offer comments and directions.

Recommendation 10: That the remainder of the directors list (listed below) be left unchanged but that 2 positions remain vacant to be filled eventually with representatives from the new CANCAP organization. 

New list of directors:

Gareth Shearman
Chris Cope 
Marita Moll 
Alain Ambrosi 
Brian Beaton 
Fred Campbell 
Garth Graham 
Michael Gurstein, Ph.D 
David Murdoch 
Peter Royce 
Mark Surman
2 vacant positions 

Moved by Gary Shearman
Seconded by Garth Graham
Carried

9. Adjournment

Recommendation 11: That the 2003-2004 AGM be adjourned

Moved by Gary Shearman
Seconded by Marita Moll
Carried

Appendix A:

Telecommunities Canada
President's Report 2003/04
March 19, 2004

This has been a quiet year for us. After the culmination of the GCNP and WSIS events reported at our last AGM, we have not had much activity. 

We are still accredited to the WSIS process, but it was decided not to attend the rest of the Prepcoms or the summit itself in Geneva because our involvement was not being supported by the Canadian government and sending a representative would have seriously depleted our funds below the level of just over $8000 where they remain to-day.

Two of our Board members have continued to serve on the Board of the group formed to support GCN 2002.. We are also a partner in the CRACIN research proposal.

Your president has been involved in the still ongoing attempts to organize a national CAP organization or advisory committee.

Gareth R. Shearman
President
March 17, 2004