Summary of Board of Directors Meeting

[Ellie Young]

Summary of Board of Directors' Meeting
Dallas, TX, January 20-21, 1991

The regular quarterly meeting of the USENIX Board of Directors was
convened in Dallas, Texas on January 20, 1991.

Attendance: Rick Adams, Ed Gould, Rob Kolstad, Marshall Kirk McKusick,
Sharon Murrel, Evi Nemeth, Michael D. O'Dell, Barry Shein, Alan Nemeth,
Deborah Scherrer, Ellie Young, Judith DesHarnais, Cynthia Deno, Daniel
Klein, Dan Appelman, Ralph Barker, Peter Collinson, Dominic Dunlop,
Michel Gien, Lori Grob, Andrew Hume, Jim Lipkis, Peter Salus

Standards Newsletter Proposal

Ralph Barker of UniForum presented a proposal for funding a standards
publication which would be jointly sponsored by  UniForum, JUS, EurOpen
and USENIX.  There as a lengthy discussion concerning the publication's
organizational structure, production costs, scope, pricing, legal
ownership, and audience.  It was decided that USENIX could provide the
snitch reports as its contribution, with full credit given; and that
USENIX will continue to publish full text of the snitch reports on the
net and summaries in ;login:.

Dallas '91 Winter Conference

Grob suggested that future program chairs need to decide if it is
practical to have all committee members read each paper/abstract, and
that the Association might provide a list of potential readers for the
committee.   Grob and Kolstad volunteered to do a proposed form for
authors which would incorporate the program committee's comments.

DesHarnais reported that 1200 had pre-registered as of January 20, and
at the 1990 Winter conference, 1253 were registered at this time.
Despite the declaration of War in the Gulf, only 42 cancellations had
been received (with 35 cancelling before the deadline, which is within
the norm.)
Klein reported that the system administration and network security
tutorials were very popular, and that overall enrollment numbers in
the tutorial program matched previous winter conferences.

Nashville '91 Summer Conference

Scherrer requested assistance with attracting papers and presentations
with a multimedia emphasis.  Slots are available for highly technical
multimedia presentations. She has a commitment from Paul Lanksy as
keynote. Murrel and Scherrer are working together on integrating
and merging invited talks, presentations, and the refereed track.

Deno reported on the exhibition, and asked for the Board's
assistance in identifying companies to contact.  She is working on
a special promotion to attract companies that are relatively new to
UNIX and USENIX.

Fall '90 workshops/mini-conferences

Young gave a brief summary of each meeting, and reported that
attendance at all three meetings was higher than projected:  Security:
259; Mach:  195; LISA IV: 268.  All three events had been well
received by the attendees.  Young was working on plans for having a
mini-conference on Security, another Mach workshop; and a subcommittee
to select the chair for the next LISA conference was reviewing the
proposals.

Software Development Environments in UNIX Workshop

McKusick reported that the workshop was very lively and successful.
Stu Feldman, the chair,  was thinking of submitting a proposal for
another workshop analyzing the effectiveness of software debugging
methodologies.

Symp. on Distributed & Multiprocessor Systems

Young reported that everything was on-track, and the program had just
been set.  There was a brief discussion which was very positive on
Spafford and Leach's handling of the previous meetings on this topic
and it was agreed to approve their proposal to cosponsor a third
symposium next year.

Proposals to Chair the Winter 1993 Conference

Proposals were received from Dan Geer and Rob Kolstad.  It was decided
to accept Kolstad's proposal, and that Geer should be encouraged
to participate and submit another proposal in the future.
Long-Term Conference Planning

DesHarnais went over her written site proposals report for 1995.  For
Winter 7 were in favor of New Orleans, with Kolstad favoring San Diego
because of its warm locale.  For the Summer, most favored Seattle
slightly over Denver.  DesHarnais would go back to these two sites and
choose the most attractive proposal.

Bylaw Discussion

The USENIX attorney, Dan Appelman, said he had reviewed the
Association's bylaws and had suggestions pertaining to the issues raised
by the Board at its last meeting.  Appelman reminded the Board that
the Bylaws require a two-thirds vote of directors to amend them, after
notice to the membership has been given.  He then went over the plan:
the Board should decide its intention; publish the intention in
;login:, and if there are not a lot of objections from the membership,
the Board can pass them at its next meeting. [Note: these proposed
changes will be published in the March/April issue of ;login: - EY] 

It was decided that we designate the open meeting with the Board of
Directors at the Summer conference to be the Annual Meeting of the
Association and the Executive Director should notify the membership as
required by the Bylaws.

Proposal for Reallocation of Scholarship Funds

Kolstad's proposal was in response to the Board's desire to gain
better leverage of its goals.  In lieu of an annual scholarship, funds
would be allocated for cash prizes for both the best paper and best
presentation at the conferences.  Full-time students would have their
own division in these competitions.  His proposal was adopted.

Other Business

It was decided that to make UUNET a Supporting member.
Young reported that the book program's editorial board would be
holding its first meeting in Dallas.

Institutional Representative to IEEE TCOS

Salus said the proposal received from Susanne Smith to reinstate funding
for a USENIX IR represented the discussions of Barker, Dunlop, Haemer,
McKusick, Quarterman and himself.  Salus said that USENIX having an IR
to IEEE TCOS is important because there are five other organizations
that have IRs to TCOS.  These have vested interests, and USENIX's IR is
seen as standing above this.  He suggested:  1) vote for some
financially viable level of support for a USENIX IR to TCOS and
2) ask some group to select a name and approach someone to be that IR.
Michel Gien said that EurOpen has just appointed Dominic Dunlop as its
IR to SEC.  Everyone present favored the principal of a having an IR.

It was decided to fund an IR position for this fiscal year, and a
search committee was appointed to fill the position by March 1.
[Note:  An IR has since been selected - Peter Collinson - EY]

Budget - FY 1990

The reports reflecting preliminary year-end figures were discussed.
A deficit of at least $60,000 was anticipated.  Kolstad congratulated 
Young on her efforts in reducing the projected net deficit in the 
membership category.  Final statements to the Board and membership 
would be ready in the Spring.

Budget - FY 1991

Young presented the revised budget for FY 1991 which reflected
adjustments made during the previous meeting.  She also congratulated
the Board on its efforts at that meeting which reduced the projected
deficit by more than two-thirds.

Press Relations Proposal

It was agreed to fund Frey's proposal to provide services for 
press relations at the Summer Conference.

Tutorial Fees

Young's report contained comparative figures of tutorial fees charged
by other organizations.  Since USENIX tutorial fees were last increased
at the Winter 1988 conference and costs for this program have increased,
it was decided to raise tutorials fees from $225 to $245 for one day
tutorial, and from $395 to $445 for two days.

			        -EY