Minutes of BOD regular bi-weekly meeting, February 08, 1998
    
    Next meeting: 7:00 pm EST, Sunday, March 01, 1998
    
    Present:
    	Abdenour Achab   (scribe/moderator)
    	Ahmed Ahmed-Yahia
    	Ahmed Bouzid
    	Karim Diff
    
    Meeting started at 7:00 pm EST, and ended at 11:30 pm EST
    
    
    Agreed on the following:
    
    
    BOD:
    	- Add a 5th category of public statement: In depth Analysis articles
    	- React next week to the Congressional hearing about Algeria.
            - Everyone of us to build their own homepage
            - Think about ways of making our meetings shorter
                Idea 1: timing each of our reports.
                Idea 2: ask members of AWI to take on more work     
            - Long term: each BOD member writes down any information they feel
    	  is important in carrying out the tasks of their respective position.
    	  This includes technical information, basic data (e.g., bank account #,
              incorporation data, etc.,), advice on how best to manage work, list
              of contacts, etc., anything that will make filling a vacated
    	  position a smoother task.
    
    Karim:
    	- Write a letter to Senator Leahy ("we appreciate, applaud ..." urge them
    	to pursue their action). This will be our Public Statement for the week.
    	- Call for action (related to Leahy). Give a form letter to people,
    	  and put a copy on our web.
    	- Send a message to CBS to ask them for a transcript of 60 minutes
    	- Send a message to Miss Magazine to get an article from Salima Ghezali
    	- Send a statement to CBS incorporating Karim Boughida's feedback
    	- Send information to l'Humanite
    	- Respond to a few more inquiries
    	- Get agreement from the BOD on a general statement to send 
    	to people requesting information on who we are, what we do ...
    	- Call the Berkeley law school to:
    	   1 - Get basic info about asylum process, to be posted on our web page
    	   2 - Tell them about us
    	   Issue: they deal with human rights, but we need advise on copyright
    	   	and other practical things.
    	- Front web page: redesign it. Trim it down. With only 3 links:
    	   1 - Link to items of interest for the outside world (owned by Karim)
    	   2 - Link to an administrative page (bylaws, ... - owned by Abdenour)
    	   3 - Link to a Library page ( archives, scholars, ... - owned by Ahmed)
    	- Work on a new archives page (long term)
    	- Put together the first version of the administrative page
    	Abdenour will take it on from there
    	- Put a picture about Algeria in the background of web page
    	(Ahmed's suggestions: white background, no images)
    	- Send a list of links to Hammoudi about how to petition to the IRS to
    	receive a non profit status
    	- Test the AWI membership application form
    	- Send a response by the end of the week to Ali Hannat
    	     Idea: Ali to think about bylaws to add chapters structure
    	     No committment, no discouragement
            - Send Hammoudi the URL of the IRS ( tax exempt matter )
    	- Think about how to organise archives versus activities in the 
    	Library web page
    Abdenour:
    	- Fill the "to do" task list for every BOD member
    	- Long term: find out a way of making the sensitive pages 
    	(minutes, ...) accessible through login only
    	- Record Lamine's resignation, and update mailing list
    	- Long term: Start thinking about December 1998 elections
    	- Long term: Add an election page to the web site
    	- On going: scheduling of every activity
    	- Test the AWI membership application form
    	- Contact Myriam Nya:
    	   1 - Ask her whether she wants to become a member of AWI
    	   2 - Ask about forms/applet used on our site
    	- Update typical bi-weekly agenda:
    	   1 - Replace (C) (other issues) with "Memebers suggestions"
    	   1 - Add (D) = "other issues"
            - Add AWI to search engines other than AltaVista
    
    
    Hammoudi:
    	- Break down expected activities and think about the expenses
    	they represent (newsletter, travel expenses, ...
    	- Long term: come up with a budget for 1999
    	- Start thinking about a financial solution:
    	   1 - Explore other sources of money
    	   2 - Expore options on how to save money (mail bulk rate, ...)
    	- Using a list of links to be supplied by Karim, petition to the IRS
    	to receive a non profit status
    	- Test the AWI membership application form
    
    Ahmed:
    	- Ask M'hemmed Henniche to drop tanslating the Wednesday updates
    	and translate AWI public statements instead
    	- Write a draft analysis of the congressional hearing that aired on
    	C-Span. The final version will be used as our 1st Analysis statement
    	- Test the AWI membership application form
    	- Send an e-mail to AWI asking members to volunteer for tasks
    	In e-mail, request coordination of tasks, as well as simple 
    	contributions to tasks.
    	- Send an e-mail to Anet asking netters to volunteer for tasks
    	- Investigate chat room idea
    	- Contact Oumerzouk to take on the brochure project
    	- Ask Azzedine Mansour to go ahead with his task (accreditation).
    	- Add the brochure project to the list of tasks
    	- Add the accreditation project to the list of tasks
    
    
    Minutes recorded by Abdenour Achab