[RTC List] RTC September Meeting Minutes

[McBrearty, John]

RTC Membership Meeting
14 September 2006, 5:30 - 7 p.m.
Humboldt County Office of Education Sequoia Room
901 Myrtle Ave., Eureka CA 
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IN ATTENDANCE
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Twenty-eight attendees were recorded on sign-up sheets.

INTRODUCTIONS
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RTC President Bob Morse called the meeting to order.  Attendees briefly
introduced themselves by name and company or institutional affiliation.

BOARD ANNOUNCEMENTS
-------------------

The following items were noted by Bob Morse or other board members:

- RTC welcomes Daria Topousis (tonight's guest speaker) as our newest
Board member.

- Rhonda Wiedenbeck has taken a full-time job at Girls, Inc. of the
Redwood Coast, so RTC is looking for a new part-time staff person for 20
to 40 hours per month.  Job inquiries can be directed to Board's mailing
list, board at redwoodtech.org. The job description can be found on the web
site while the position is still open.

- The October RTC meeting will be held at a special date and place, the
Wharfinger Building in Eureka at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday October 25th.
In cooperation with HSU, this will include a special teleconference
presentation featuring Joaquin Alvarado, the Founding Director of the
Institute for Next Generation Internet at San Francisco State
University. Refer to the web site calendar for more information and
links.

- The November meeting will be back to the second Thursday of the month
(Nov. 9) at the Humboldt County Office of Education.  Featured speaker
will be Sean McLaughlin of Access Humboldt, the community media board
created as a result of the recently completed cable franchise
renegotiation process.

- The December meeting will be RTC's traditional no-host social
gathering at the Plaza Grill, Thursday Dec. 7, starting at 5:30.

- The new RTC Tech Directories are published; members are encouraged to
take copies to distribute where they work.

- RTC is financially in the black and there are no plans to raise
memberships fees for next year.

- RTC has been working with the Arcata-Eureka Airport and SuddenLink to
help broker a plan for free wireless connectivity for travelers at the
airport. The project is targeted for completion by the Thanksgiving
travel season. 


GUEST SPEAKER:  DARIA TOPOUSIS, JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
---------------------------------------------------------

Daria recounted the history of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the
early proponents of rocketry in the U.S.  Using slides and anecdotes,
she described how passionate personal commitments, widely varied skill
sets and occasional coincidence led to the founding of a team that set
the pattern for the successful research and development of rocketry over
the multi-decade history of the JPL.  

In response to questions Daria also discussed her status as a
telecommuter living on the North Coast and some suggestions for current
employees looking to convince their organizations that they too could
work productively in such a fashion.


DISCUSSION OF RTC DIRECTION PER RECENT LISTSERV COMMENTS
--------------------------------------------------------

An item was placed on the agenda for an open discussion item on RTC's
activities and direction, following an active series of comments on the
topic on the listserv recently.  

A few members commented that such discussions were not unusual on lists
and so should not be the subject of undue concern.  However Bob Morse
said that he wanted to use the discussion time set on the agenda to
address, as much as possible, the substantive issues raised by the
posters.  

There was some discussion of the proper role of the RTC and whether it
was properly constituted as a 501(c)3 (educational, non-profit, public
benefit corporation) or should be recast as a 501(c)6  trade/lobbying
organization.  Larry Goldberg and others commented that the same debate
had been entertained by the organization almost all the way from the
beginning.  Jason Woods said that he thought it was important to focus
on topics of interest to small businesses in the region, and the group
should consider assigning different people to research topics for
presentation.

Other comments noted the good publicity garnered by Tech Expo and
wondered if some of the more popular workshops from that venue could be
mined for future membership meetings or set up as standalone programs on
a smaller scale.  

A suggestion was made by Mark Chaton that we provide a period during
meetings where individuals can talk for 5 or 10 minutes about what they
are doing in their business (or other organization) in technology
especially as it may affect the community.

Other attendees suggested a panel on intellectual property (possibly
moderated by attorney and RTC member Nancy Streufert) or a round-table
talk on technical activities in the region (including "what's missing"
in terms of the region's technical needs).  It was also suggested that
RTC engage the issue of "net neutrality," since that topic would
probably elicit a range of opinion within the membership and might
provide the opportunity for a diverse panel discussion.  It was also
noted that, as an almost exclusively volunteer organization, RTC had to
rely on its members for the bulk of its meeting programs.


GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
---------------------

Larry Goldberg said that Don Wolski continues to recover his health and
sends his regards to the group.  (Don, like Larry, was one of the
original founders of RTC in the 1990s).)

The next RTC meeting will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 25, from 5:30 to
6:00 p.m. in the Wharfinger Building at the Eureka Public Marina. This
will be followed by a teleconference with Joaquin Alvarado that will
last approximately an hour and a half.
 
Respectfully submitted,
John McBrearty, RTC Board Member
September 19, 2006