Board Members Present: Jene Crook, Jeff Maddy, Tim Nadeau, Art Schneider, Darin Starr, Harry Stone, Bill Sullivan and William Wood.

New Members Present: Marty Tichenor and Eva Weston.

Bill Wood called the meeting to order at 10:33 a.m. Special thanks to Southwestern Bell TCC for hosting the meeting.

Minutes: Approved with modification that there were 19 members.

Treasurer’s Report: Art reported income of $10 from two new memberships and expenses of $40. This leaves a balance of $417.87. There are 21 members and four corporate sponsors. Tim moved and Bill Sullivan seconded the report be accepted. Approved.

Policy for Pages on Mo-River.Net: Art reported that he contacted Community Information Networks (CIN) in Missouri on policies. He received three responses: one had no policy, one used the MORENET policy and LLION (Lebanon-Laclede On-line Information Network) provided a basic policy. Board members reviewed and Nick Clark will be sent copy for further review.

URLs: Bill Wood discussed the importance of business and others with web pages including Mo-River.Net URLs on their home page. He requested that as members come in contact with those having web pages that they be asked to include the Mo-River.Net URL..

Chat: No activity. Jeff noted one reason for suggesting chat groups was to broaden exposure. Eva Weston noted she learned of Mo-River.Net at Browning Hardware through a flyer delivered by Bill Wood paid for by Tim Nadeau.

Harry noted that he has participated in chats and that recently a woman from Australia was asking about this area and he gave her the Mo-River.Net URL to acquaint her with this area.

County Committees: Bill appointed Marty, Jene and Darin to form a Saline Committee and Eva and Jeff a Howard County Committee to recruit members and volunteers to develop web pages for their counties. Committees also were asked to arrange site and social to invite potential members to a "showing" of Mo-River.Net. This probably would be in September.

New Members: New member Eva Weston was introduced to the board and Marty Tichenor’s membership as a new member was accepted.

Board Members: Art noted that the by-laws provide for the board to amend the by-laws. At this time there is no limit to the board membership or allocation of board members. Nine members’ terms expire in 1999 and seven in 1998. The by-laws provide for the membership to elect the board and the board to elect officers.

Considerable discussion was directed toward whether the board should be enlarged, reduced, stay the same size and whether representation from each county should be specified. As a result of the discussions, Jene moved and Tim seconded that the board be reduced to 12 members, that by the end of 1999 the board have four representatives from each of the three counties, and that this be accomplished through board attrition. Motion approved. Therefore three new members will be elected August.

All members of Mo-River.Net may nominate a member for the board. To facilitate the change to a board with equal representation from each of the three counties -- Cooper, Howard and Saline -- the board accepted the following recommendations:

Marty Tichenor (Saline) nominated by Tim

Jeff Maddy (Howard) nominated by Jene

Eva Weston (Howard) nominated by Bill Sullivan.

In the voting, members may nominate or write-in any member they wish for the board.

Art noted that the by-laws provide for board members to elect officers. All officer positions are for one year. They will take office in September.

Considerable discussion also was given to significant importance of county committees to bring about substantial involvement of people in developing local information. It is hoped that those not on the board will (as well as board members) initiate leadership efforts to develop these county committees.

Membership Committee: Bill Wood will be leaving the presidency of the board. Tim moved and Jene seconded that Bill serve as membership chairman concurrent with his leaving the board. Motion carried.

Front Page 98:Art has contacted Microsoft on purchasing Front Page 98, a web-page design program. As an educational organization, Mo-River.Net is eligible for discount prices on Mo-River.Net. This would require the purchase of at least five copies. Cost would be between $45 and $50. Mo-River.Net could purchase the copies and provide them at cost to members who agree to use them to develop for Mo-River.Net. The purchase would not allow the members to resell the programs.

At the meeting the following requested Front Page 98 programs: Bill Wood, Tim Nadeau, Harry Stone, Jene Crook and Eva Weston. Members also will be given the opportunity to order a copy through Mo-River.Net.

Front Page Training:The board expressed interest in members receiving training on Front Page 98. Jeff Maddy said the TCC could handle up to 14 participants at a time and would be made available on a Monday or Wednesday evening. Art is to look into training arrangements. The board would like to arrange at least one training night and perhaps have three other nights for those trained to have the opportunity to develop pages together

Banner:  Bill Sullivan reported the banner was displayed at Heritage Days. It will be available for other events. Currently the banner having the URL included.

Heritage Days:  Harry, Betty and Bill Sullivan worked the Mo-River.Net booth on Heritage Days. Noted there was much pedestrian traffic for the event.

Next Meeting: In accordance with the by-laws, the board announced the next meeting will be THURSDAY, AUGUST 20 IN MARSHALL. Location in Marshall to be set. Time will still be 10:30 a.m.

Meeting adjourned at 12:17 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Art Schneider