Australian Public Access Network Association

                Annual General Meeting


The Annual General Meeting for 1993 was held at 2:30pm on 
Saturday, 10 July 1993 in Keilor, Victoria.  


Members attending:

  From Adelaide:

  Mike Bruins     (bruins@hal9000)
  Jamie Lovick    (jalovick@bkroom)
  James Pickering (james@asarte)
  Greg Robinson   (greg@arrakis)

  From Melbourne:

  Adonis Arletos  (aaa@dias)
  Kevin Burfitt   (zaph@torps)
  Andrew Cosgriff (andrew@bing)
  Mark Delany     (markd@bushwire)
  Paul Fyfe       (pfyfe@eurekast)
  James Gardiner  (hunter@phoenix)
  Daniel Harris   (daniel@reubio)
  Andrew Herbert  (andrew@werple)
  Felicity Jones  (sysop@guru)
  David Keegel    (djk@boombox)
  Nick Langmaid   (nick@brimbank)
  Gavan McCormack (tetragon@werple)
  Hamish Moffat   (hamish@cloud)
  Ian Rowlands    (ianr@gpark)

  From Sydney:

  Matthew Geier   (matthew@sleeper)
  Mark Purcell    (msp@pos)
  Anthony Rumble  (root@lsupoz)

Apologies were received from:

  Warwick Hockley
  Richard Lindner
  Arthur Marsh
  Mark Newton
  Zik Saleeba


The meeting was chaired by the outgoing President, 
Andrew Herbert, and these minutes were taken by 
Nick Langmaid.


Proceedings:

1.  The minutes of the last AGM were confirmed.

2.  The Secretary's Report and the Treasurer's Report
    were accepted in the form of a combined Annual
    Report.  (These have also been distributed
    electronically on apana.announce for people who
    were unable to attend the meeting.)

3.  The Management Committee was elected.

    The following positions had only one candidate,
    so that no vote was required:

        President       Andrew Herbert   (andrew@werple)
        Vice-President  David Keegel     (djk@boombox)
        Treasurer       Felicity Jones   (sysop@guru)
        Secretary       Nick Langmaid    (nick@brimbank)

    There were three candidates for the two ordinary
    positions on the committee, and the following 
    candidates were elected on a show of hands:

                        James Gardiner   (hunter@phoenix)
                        Warwick Hockley  (hock@adhoc)

    (A brief commercial: all members are welcome to 
     attend committee meetings, which are announced in
     apana.announce.)

4.  The Treasurer's Report was accepted as the statement
    submitted by APANA in accordance with section 30(3)
    of the Act.

5.  Mark Purcell gave an impromptu presentation on the
    latest changes in the Sydney network.

    Sydney and Canberra have just introduced a local 
    connection to AARNet, via the Australian Defence
    Forces Academy and the Department of the Navy.  The 
    arrangement is that APANA provides a newsfeed to the 
    Navy, and in return the Navy transfer email between 
    an APANA hub in Sydney and ADFA's system in Canberra.

    Physically, pmss.navy.gov.au in Sydney calls ADFA 
    over an internal network and also makes outgoing-only 
    local phone calls to lsupoz in Sydney.  Mail flows 
    over these links by uucp sessions.  News continues to 
    be picked up by lsupoz from other sources in Sydney, 
    and is fed to the Navy whenever they call.
    
    Each Sydney APANA member has an individual MX record
    pointing to sserve, which then directs traffic 
    through pmss and lsupoz.  The MX records are 
    maintained for APANA by Melbourne University.  New 
    sites will (briefly) lack an MX record, and their 
    mail will pass to werple, which will rewrite the
    addresses to force them through sserve, pmss, and 
    lsupoz.

6.  Andrew Herbert gave a short explanation of the 
    IP links which form the backbone of the Melbourne
    network.

    Physically, werple is "permanently" connected at 
    19.2 kbps via a telephone service to a NetBlazer at 
    Melbourne University, which allows it to talk SLIP 
    and communicate with two MU systems - muwayb for mail
    and ariel for news.

    Three other Melbourne sites (zikzak, bushwire, and
    silver) are "permanently" connected via telephone 
    service and SLIP link to werple.  Of these, silver 
    has another system (plasma) connected to it in turn.

    Actually the hub is not werple itself, but a separate
    PC acting as a router.  Werple is connected to this 
    router via Ethernet.  

    Most of these IP-connected systems provide uucp feeds
    to other Melbourne members.

7.  James Pickering, Mike Bruins, Jamie Lovick and 
    Greg Robinson gave a group presentation on the
    forthcoming changes in the Adelaide network.

    Adelaide are about to introduce a local connection to 
    AARNet, via the Disability Information Resource 
    Centre.  The arrangement is that DIRC will purchase 
    the equipment, and APANA members will provide system
    administration services and pay some running costs.

    Physically, there will be a 38.4 kbps leased line 
    from Adelaide University to a Unix box at DIRC.  
    Members (initially cleese, hal9000, and bkroom) will
    "rent" a serial port on DIRC's system and provide
    their own modem and telephone service so that they
    can connect via SLIP.  These members will then feed 
    other members, as at present.

    Arthur Marsh sent word that the NTU's for the line 
    from DIRC to Adelaide University have been     
    installed, and that the hardware and software should
    be delivered during the week.  He predicts a working 
    bee at DIRC next weekend.

8.  It was determined that a new class of membership 
    should be introduced to allow any general meeting of
    APANA (rather than the Management Committee) to grant
    honorary membership to individuals in recognition of
    exceptional contributions to APANA.  (16 votes in 
    favour, or 76%.)

    It was further determined that Mark Gregson's 
    exceptional role in the establishment of Pubnet, 
    which became APANA, should be recognized by making
    him the first Honorary member of APANA.  (Again, 
    16 votes in favour, or 76%.)

    There was general agreement that an official history
    should be developed to recognize other contributors.

9.  The proposal to create a formal regional 
    administrative structure within APANA was unanimously 
    rejected.  The AGM wishes to continue the current
    arrangements with centralized administration 
    performed by the management committee and wide 
    representation provided by the national committee.

    A number of areas were identified in which the 
    administration of APANA should be improved:

     o  Make the channels for communication with the 
        management committee and the national committee
        much clearer.

     o  Either:

        -  Improve the visibility and the decisiveness of
           the national committee, or

        -  Define the national committee's role as 
           identifying and researching issues, and 
           presenting options to the management committee 
           for decisions.

     o  Allow "electronic meetings" and e-mailed proxies.

     o  Make the accounting procedures explicitly show 
        the financial status of each region.

     o  Allow for regional variations in membership fee 
        (the immediate need being a small increase in Adelaide.)

The meeting ended at approximately 6pm.

Please address any questions or corrections of these 
minutes to the Secretary (nick@brimbank.apana.org.au).

Nick Langmaid
Secretary.

--
Nick Langmaid  nick@brimbank.apana.org.au  Melbourne, Australia  +61(3)336-3228