Archive:2005-06-05

Conference call on 7 p.m. EST, June 5th, 2005.

T-shirts for Defcon
What has to be done in order to have t-shirts ready in time for Defcon? (July 29)
 * Design
 * Ask people you know
 * Should we do an open call for entries on the blog?
 * Printing
 * where does the money come from? will we have the AU grant in time?
 * Shipping? (presumably Elizabeth would use a local printer, so that she doesn't have to wait for shipping)

Other Defcon stuff
What other stuff do we need to do for Defcon?
 * I heard we have to submit some sort of paper?
 * We should have the usual collection of stuff from CC, EFF, PK if any of those organizations are not going to be there. I understand that EFF will be, but I doubt CC or PK are.
 * We should have our own pamphlets. Speaking of which, our pamphlets need updating...
 * Maybe the people going to Defcon can discuss this among themselves, rather than having this as part of the conference call? - Gavin 02:24, 5 Jun 2005 (EDT)
 * Well, if they need to submit a paper, they may need help writing it, or they may need help updating the pamphlets... we should make sure that everything is taken care of. -- Nelson 13:01, 5 Jun 2005 (EDT)

Criteria for board members
What are we looking for in our board of directors?
 * What does the board of directors do?
 * How many people do we want on the board?
 * What sort of people do we want on the board of directors?
 * Demographic:
 * Students OK?
 * Alumni OK?
 * "Grown-ups" OK?
 * "Youthful"?
 * Not someone who would necessarily show up on the board of CC or EFF?
 * Experience in grassroots organizing?
 * Racial/ethnic/gender diversity if possible?
 * Political diversity?
 * Non-Americans?

To-do for the week

 * Apply for Federal EIN: done (Gavin)
 * Get P.O. Box info: not done (Gavin)
 * Meet with Reed Hundt: done (Nelson)
 * Finish AU grant app: ? (Nelson)
 * Write FAQ: not done (Gavin)
 * Arrange conf. call w/ UK folks: ? (Nelson)
 * Discuss fiduciary agent w/ PK: done (Nelson)
 * PK needs to write up a letter that offically says that they will serve as our fiscal agent (this is probably my job)
 * We need a bank account.
 * Ideally, we would begin the filing for 501(c)3 status, because that's usually when PK works as a fiscal agent, while a client organization is in limbo between applying for 501(c)3 status and achieving it. However, this is not strictly necessary, although I will certainly be working on getting our application together.
 * Get bank info: ? (Abhay)
 * Arrange conf. call w/ lawyer: done (Gavin)

How can we distribute the workload more equitably?

Minutes
Attendance: Gavin, Nelson, Abhay, Stephen, Elizabeth, Andy, Fred

To-do for the Week

 * Bank Account
 * Will be a corporate
 * Ben will get the bank info
 * Bank account location?
 * Should it be in the state of the treasurer?
 * Shouldn't need a signature to make a deposit.
 * PK as a fiduciary agent
 * They won't hold any money for us, but when someone send money to Public Knowledge, they will forward to us
 * Paypal: either include a memo or get a separate paypal account (e.g. feeculture@publicknowledge.org) that would make it simple to send money to us
 * This allows people to give tax-deductible donations until we can get 501(c)3 status ourselves
 * Do we want an agent?
 * It doesn't cost us anything, it can only help us get donations.
 * Does the fact that donors are writing the checks to Public Knowledge suggest that we're not an independent organization?
 * It shouldn't be difficult to answer questions about our relationship to clear up any confusion
 * Consensus says that we want them as a fiduciary agent; once we get a bank account set up.
 * PO Box
 * Medium size should be fine
 * Fees depend on your location, but we would have to pay $13-$50
 * We still need to find out what fees and procedures we need to go though and then make our final decision based on that... Gavin will get in contact with the post office to do this

DEFCON

 * T-shirts?
 * DEFCON or not, t-shirts would be good, but to get them in time for DEFCON is important
 * Approx. $9.00-$13.00 per shirt
 * Selling or sporting?
 * If we have the money lined up (grant money?) and a good design, then we could print a large run so that we could wear and sell at DEFCON, and then use other places/sell later
 * Fundable.org could let us get a decent sized run
 * For this week: we need a design and a printer. Elizabeth will be in contact with a printer to use that could give us a decent price so that we could raise funds on $15 per shirt.
 * Student speaker
 * We have to turn in a "detailed outline" in advance (by Tuesday)
 * Topics/issues we want to cover
 * Students being actively involved in political issues
 * "Hacktivism to activism" was a previous speech, we should build upon it.
 * Hacking mindset of being able to re-invent technology applies to culture/art as well
 * Those who are going/will speak need to discuss what format they want the speech to be, but the whole organization should contribute to the speech

Advisory Board

 * How involved should these people be? Should they be actively advising our decisions and direction of our organization, or should we just have them as "resources" that we can pull from when we need them?
 * We should start talking to and building a relationship with people who we are interested in being on the board

Next Call
Sunday, June 12, 2005 3 PM EST
 * Post Criteria for board members questions on the mailing list and then discuss those questions next week.