Minutes of the 27th ISUS Annual Business Meeting of the Board of Trustees
05 November 2005
ISUS headquarters, 1680 Atkin Ave, Salt Lake City, USA.
Persons in attendance in SLC:
- Phil Porter, ISUS Chairman of the Board
- Doug Bundy, ISUS President
- David Faust
- Moray King
- Robin Sims, ISUS VP (and Acting Secretary)
- Rainer Huck, ISUS Treasurer
And on the web:
- Bill Mitchell
- Hoyt Stearns
- Ron Satz
- Colin Hayhurst
- Mike Wells
- Jim Paulter
Because the ISUS Secretary was not present, Phil appointed Robin as Acting Secretary.
Secretary's Note: For these minutes these abbreviations are used: RMS = "It is regularly moved and seconded by" (followed by the names of the mover and seconding person) UNAM = unanimously.
Phil called the meeting to order at 10:13 am, and introduced the persons present. Phil stated a quorum of the Board was present.
Rainer presented the treasurers report. Bank balance is $7200.
- Book sales are around $500 per year.
- Ron asked to see the bank balance.
- Doug asked to see the membership dues.
- Rainer said there are roughly 15 members.
- Rainer said there are no liabilities.
RMS Doug, Dave to accept the Treasurer's report as given. Passed unanimously.
Doug presented the President's report.
- LRC project
- Library project
- Scanner project
- Quarterly seminars
RMS Rainer, Robin that the President's report be accepted as given. Passed unanimously
5 minute break declared by Phil at 10:36 am. Meeting reconvened 10:50 am.
Phil said Frank Meyers papers are ready to be shipped Rainer said it was important to receive the papers and we are lucky to have them and should have them sent here to the archives in SLC. Phil said they would cost about $100 to have them shipped and we would have them sent as soon as possible. There are about 7 or 8 boxes.
RMS Robin, Rainer to have the papers sent to SLC. Passed UNAM.
Ron asked a question about Amazon. Rainer answered that Amazon wants to have SLC do all the shipping and collection of payments, thus we need a person to handle the Amazon account.
Phil asked for discussion about Amazon.
Ron said it was trivial to list every 60 days, and he would not mind doing that.
Ron got logged off.
Phil said we would revisit the issue later.
Doug said he felt the Amazon listing was important.
Rainer spoke about the copyrights. They are now held by Linda Reilly, Dewey's daughter. She is willing to reassign the rights to ISUS.
Doug said we need to have the right legally transferred and we need to have the rights protected. That we need to look at the web legalities for downloads, that the books need to made available freely. We need to resolve the membership and the books available on our own website.
Rainer asked if copyrights require maintenance. Phil said they do require maintenance and the rights last for 30 years if transferred but 75 years in the hands of the original holder. He added that the copyright notice info should be on the web books.
Rainer said we should determine the proper law regarding the rights.
RMS Rainer, Robin, that we find a volunteer to research the legalities about the copyright law. Passed UNAM.
Ron said the copyright remains with the holder for 50 years after the death. He said he thought we had a lawyer working on that years ago.
Rainer said Linda was willing to transfer the rights to ISUS.
Phil said last time he saw Dorothy Larson in Portland they discussed the copyright issues. Dorothy found a copy of the agreement between North Pacific Publishers and ISUS that gave ISUS the right to electronically publish Mr. Larson's books and retained the hard copy copyrights to her.
Ron said he would like to see Linda's agreement in writing.
Rainer said Dorothy was very protective but Linda was friendly to transferring to ISUS.
Ron said again to get a letter from Linda, notarized.
Rainer asked Ron to work with Phil to get the letter prepared.
Ron said the form might be on the internet.
RMS Rainer, Doug that Ron and Phil prepare the forms and Rainer will arrange to have the letter signed by Linda. Passed UNAM.
Phil asked for any more old business.
Doug talked about the website issue. That the site at the moment belongs to Dan McCann. That Jan Sammer site is problematic. That we need our own ISUS site, under our control. That we should have a mirror site of Dan's. That Jan's site has a lot of material that is not on Dan's site.
RMS Doug, Rainer, that we establish a mirror site of Dan's at ISUS headquarters.
Moray said free access is the way to go.
Doug said we don't offer free access at the moment because of the copyright issue.
Ron said we should be careful not to upset Jan. Ron said he has not heard from Jan for 2 years, that he would try to reach him again.
Phil asked for more discussion.
Voted: passed UNAM.
Phil asked for further old business. None.
Phil asked for new business.
Doug said he wants to set up a membership committee to gather new members, communicate with members, get them onto the website, focus on youth, expose the RS message, requires a person to head it up.
Phil asked for discussion.
RMS Doug, Rainer, that the President establish a membership chairman position to recruit new membership of the society.
Ron asked to amend the motion to reflect that a committee should be established. Doug and Rainer accepted that as a friendly amendment.
Amended motion: that we establish a membership committee and the President appoint a chairman of that committee.
Phil asked the question: Passed UNAM.
Phil talked about KVK Nehru coming to the USA. About immigration capability, scholar appointment, room and board, financial support, medical insurance. Phil said KVK is about 72, Ron said he in his late 60's. Phil said he would come with his wife, that he has a sister in DC somewhere. Phil asked for ideas to help, that Phil would coordinate help.
Phil asked for info about Paul DeLespinasse.
Doug had some contact a while back and thinks he is retired in Corvalis, OR.
Phil asked for any other new business. Phil said he likes the tech aspects of the current web conference software.
Hoyt commented about the microphone of the system. "[Hoyt Stearns] It would be nice to have video. I'd also like to have a room-wide microphone that's open during the entire meeting so we don't feel left out. Not much, I know those expensive machines use digital signal processors to cancel feedback and echos. NetMeeting may be able to handle video."
Comments from the web attendees RE: software.
- [bmitch] Good
- Mike said good.
- Ron said system is good.
Ron asked to revisit the Amazon topic.
[Transpower Ron Satz] I move that Rainer and Ron work together to handle sales of Larson's books on Amazon.com. Ron will handle re listing of the books every 60 days, as Amazon requests.
Seconded by Rainer. Passed UNAM.
Phil asked for election of Officers
RMS Doug, Rainer, that we reconvene later to have the board elect the officers during the membership meeting tonight.
Phil asked for discussion. Passed UNAM.
Phil adjourned the meeting 12:25 pm for lunch. It was announced that meetings will begin again at 2 pm for the technical session and at 7 pm for membership meeting.