11 January 2000 Waynet Board Meeting Minutes

Waynet Board Meeting
January 11, 2000

Draft Copy: Unapproved

Members Present: Pam Frantz, Misty Dees Hollis, Jane Holman, Ross Josephson, Thomas G. Kirk, Jr., Ron Lind, Renee Oldham, Steve Reynolds, Rodger Smith, and John Weber

Meeting Called to Order: John Weber called the meeting to order at 12:00 p.m., January 11, 2000.

There was one correction to the minutes of the December 14th meeting. Under Old Business, first paragraph, Jane suggested changing the word "problem" to "challenge". Misty Dees Hollis made a motion to approve the minutes as amended and Tom Kirk seconded the motion. All were in favor; motion passed.

Renee Oldham asked Jane if it might be wise for WayNet to have a booth at the Lion's Club home show. WayNet should be given a not-for-profit rate and coverage is only necessary in the evening. Jane will investigate this endeavor.

Jane presented the Executive Director's Report, with the following major items reported:

New Basic Members:

Goss, Doug, Realtor Ž
Bailey, Bob, RealtorŽ

Existing Basic Members Invoiced:

David Fulton

Existing Sponsoring Members Invoiced:

Tom Raper, Inc. - Jane spoke with David Bane. He said he would check with the Advertising Manager (in Florida). If we do not receive a check by the end of January, we will remove them.
WQLK/WHON - We should receive a check at the end of this week per Dave Strycker.

Advertising/Marketing:

Created ad for the Chamber's Community Profile insert. v
Worked with the Pal-Item on a weekly ad run (1" x 1" column, twice a week) and a business card ad for the Chamber's insert in January.
Ran a "Thank you" type ad on 101.3 and WKBV on Christmas Eve/Christmas. v Set up ad for 101.3/WKBV for January and February (twice a day, twice a week).
Running "WEATHER mentions" once a week, 6 times a day on KICKS96.
Reviewed article written by John Weber for inclusion in the Chamber's upcoming Pal-Item insert in January. It was suggested that WayNet run an article periodically in the Pal-Item regarding technological issues.

Log Analysis for December, 4th Quarter, and 1999 Year

Ran weekly and posted on the "Members Only" page. Weekly averages for the past four weeks are 2,868 visitors and 7,954 hits, a small increase in usage from the past reported month, encouraging as two weeks of that were busy holiday times. December figures reflect a 206% increase over the same time last year.
Fourth quarter figures rose 32% from third quarter '99 figures, reflecting a positive response to our redesigned web site. Jane expects another jump as January descends upon us, although not as measurable as last year's percentage because of a greater depth of penetration over last year.
1999 yearly figures show an outstanding 100,426 users requesting 310,586 pages. A true comparison is difficult because the logging software was not purchased until mid-February '99, but a rough estimate is that we nearly tripled our visitors/hits from the previous year.

Achievements for December/January

Ran invoices and followed up on late payments.
Researched software, downloaded and installed necessary updates to be Y2K compliant.
Purchased, installed, and debugged and updated version of WebTrends, our logging software. (a $50 savings by doing prior to the first of the year.)
Created new "suggestion box" form feature to encourage feedback from visitors.
Ran weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly log analysis. Yearly log was run on Pentium III, 500 MHz system and took more than 12 hours. Steve Reynolds stated that he would see about getting a PC for WayNet.
Changed the "featured link" and welcome message regularly.
Researched way to archive current discussion list, due to other concerns, switched to researching new discussion software. Jane has investigated the Discuss Pro software which might alleviate some of the problems with derogatory remarks being posted on the web site. There were questions among board members regarding legal issues and whether the disclaimer which is posted would be enough to protect WayNet. Steve Reynolds suggested checking to see how other web sites deal with this issue. Ross Josephson made a motion to buy the Discuss Pro software and Ron Lind seconded the motion. All board members were in favor of buying the software. Motion carried. In the meantime, Jane will check with other organizations to see how they deal with this situation.
Took pictures around the community to keep the photos fresh.
Followed up on web site outage over the Christmas holiday by staying in touch daily with INFOCOM regarding ongoing concerns.

On-going Projects for the Coming Month

Work on IRS designation with committee.
Continue to look at alternative funding sources. The Grant Committee is still awaiting news on the "C" status.
Further investigate streaming video needs and partnership possibilities. Steve Reynolds stated that the initiative in Bloomington is to develop a streaming video for the IU web site. He suggested getting WCTV involved in the process. We will have a representative on that task group which should help WayNet by default.
Continue to update older pages to reflect the newer design/font/sidebars of updated design.
Make sales calls v Prepare letter for distribution to restaurants and motels touting benefits of our Commerce package. Renee Oldham suggested the possibility of using coupons for restaurants or retail businesses.
There was a lengthy discussion regarding the cost for new and renewed memberships. It was decided that the cost for membership would be $400 regardless of whether it was a new or renewed membership. This cost will include one hour of maintenance to the web site per year.

Web Page Ideas

More recreation pages v Work with Jim Waecher at the museum to create pages on Richmond manufactured automobiles, local Tiffany windows and the history of the Railroad in Wayne County.
An FAQ for the city and county, i.e. where do I purchase a dog license? etc.
Review hyperlinks and make corrections as necessary.
Continue to promote participation in our "welcome" feature.
Keep the "featured link" fresh, aiming for a change every two days, minimum.

Next Meeting

It was decided that the next two meetings would be extended by one hour to review the mission, vision and direction of WayNet. The first meeting will include questions and brainstorming; the second to iron out key points. Ross, Renee and John will meet prior to these meetings to set up an agenda. The next two meetings (February 8 and March 14) will begin at 11:00 a.m. and end at 1:00 p.m.

The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Tricia Shrider for Steve Reynolds, Secretary

Home