EARN DIRECTORS: Paul Bryant, U.K., EARN General Secretary Kurt Bauknecht, Switzerland Avi Cohen, Israel, EARN Executive LaszLo Csaba, Hungary (deputy) Jean-Loic Delhaye, France (deputy) Mohamed Elkotb, Egypt Lluis Ferrer, Spain Frode Greisen, Denmark, EARN President Michael Hebgen, Germany, EARN Executive Tomasz Hofmokl, Poland Matti Ihamuotila, Finland Dennis Jennings, Ireland, EARN Executive Petter Kongshaug, Norway Olivier Martin, CERN Oguz Manas, Turkey Wilfried Maschtera, Austria (deputy) Kees Neggers, Netherlands Jean Nuyens, Belgium Stelios Orphanoudakis, Greece Constantinos Papanstasiou, Cyprus Yagos Puric, Yugoslavia Arne Sundstrom, Sweden Stefano Trumpy, Italy, EARN Executive EARN STAFF: Hans Deckers, Manager, Paris Office OBSERVERS: Kiril Boyanov, Bulgaria Rene Florizoone, Belgium (deputy) Mokhlar Sellami, Algeria Marco Sommani, Italy Mirzana Tasic, Yugoslavia APOLOGIES: Jan Gruntorad, Czechoslovakia Pedro Amorim, Portugal ABSENT: Iceland, Ivory Coast, Luxembourg, Portugal, Tunisia
The president thanked the local organisers of the meeting. The hospitality and social programme was outstanding and will make this a meeting which will long be remembered.
Approved - the minutes of meeting 23 with the addition of the text at the request of the UK to the end of section 23.8.2 -
"The UK stated that it could not increase its level of contribution."
Noted - all actions have been completed or were taken up in papers or in the appropriate sections of the minutes.
Noted - the President's report.
Noted - the EARN Office Report. Pakistan is working to establish its connection to EARN. Peter Sylvester will join the EARN Paris Office in January.
Noted - The EARN Operations Report. It was also noted that EARN may use EASINET links provided that both ends of the link agree. In section 4 EXEC83 90 should read BOD60 90.
Noted - the EARN Traffic Report. Attention was drawn to additional and supplementary work being undertaken by the EARN Office to provide monitoring with graphical presentation. The EARN NOG still maintain that the figures cannot be used for accounting purposes.
Noted - The EARN NOG Minutes.
Noted - The Line Sharing Procedures.
Noted - the EARN Development Report. In section 2 the decision not to fund an EARN backbone referred to a private X.25 one.
Resolved - in the light of the changing circumstances with respect to the network technologies used, EARN will set up a Project Group to provide a technical strategy and political direction, including perhaps BOD, Executive and NOG members. The Project Group should report back to the Board electronically concerning its progress and also prepare a written report to the next Board meeting.
Noted - The Amsterdam Centre Report. The requirement for multi-streaming within JNET was noted and it is understood that this may be provided.
Noted - the Liaison Report. The EOC is expected to close by May 31,1991 and any residual functions will be moved to the Paris Office. The DEC finance for lines will be repaid to DEC at their request. These activities are subject to further consultation with DEC.
Noted - by Olivier Martin that CERN is surprised that there was no mention of HEPNET and expressed a wish that, in future active liaison between EARN and HEPnet is pursued.
Noted - It was suggested by Matti Ihamuotila that in future the liaison report should cover all relevant organisations. It was requested that EARN should consider closer ties and possible mergers with related organisation.
Noted - the financial statement. In appendix 3 the "Backbone compens." should be zero for all years. The "Office Automation" refers to the possible purchase of workstations or terminals.
Approved - the Budget for 1991 and the country payments with the removal of 100 KECU contingency, 40 KECU from the intercontinental line and resultant reductions in payments. 17 countries in favour, 5 against (Germany, Holland, Norway, Sweden, UK), and 1 abstention (CERN).
Resolved - in the light of changed circumstances it is no longer appropriate to include the "international country lines" in the budget and forward looks.
Noted - Michael Hebgen expressed his disappointment that, although most of the details of budget items 6.1 and 6.2 are contained in other papers, no details have been provided in this paper although this had been requested in previous Board meetings.
Noted - Michael Hebgen stated that Germany has requested a volume dependent charging scheme and accepted a GNP distribution only for 1990. Accepting that volume charging is technically not possible, Germany did not accept a GNP distribution of part of the costs and wishes all costs to be distributed on EARN/RARE keys.
Noted - BOD64 90 was distributed to the meeting.
Noted - Dennis Jennings requested that the activities of the EARN groups should be made known to new countries.
Resolved - to be informed of how the EARN staff are supporting EARN groups.
Resolved - funding should be made available to EARN Groups which should be based on budgets provided by the Groups and detailing deliverables.
Resolved - to ask the Executive to explore ways of invigorating or initiating activities.
Noted - the Info Report. Also noted was the request for 30000 ECU and that a further document would be provided which will detail the break down of costs. This will be distributed to the Board.
Noted - the Arrangements for INET'91.
Resolved - to hold the Spring Board of Directors meeting in conjunction with INET'91. The EARN Groups will each decide where to hold their meetings.
Noted - Hans Deckers reported that the Network Operations Group had decided to meet in conjunction with INET'91 on the assumption that the Board would meet there.
Noted - the Policy Report.
No new applications are for approval.
Approved - the G-box Ownership paper with minor changes.
Approved - the Updated Charter.
Approved - the Updated Code of Conduct.
Not approved - The Membership Payments Procedures. No further action will be taken. 8 in favour, 9 against.
Noted - the UK requested that invoices should now be issued as soon as possible to allow national payment arrangements to be made to meet EARN requirements.
Approved - the operational procedures for connection of a new country. In the light of the absence of an adequate definition of a "country" the definition of a country, the appendix and the list of ITU member countries were deleted.
Noted - Olivier Martin stated that CERN wished for a loose enough definition of "EARN country" so as to allow international treaty organisations such as CERN to be granted the status of "EARN country" should they request it. This would be in line with the continued presence at the EARN Board of a CERN representative since the creation of EARN.
Approved - the proposal to terminate the membership of the Ivory Coast.
Noted - a verbal request for EARN to meet one third of the line costs which have not been paid by the Ivory Coast to France which would cost EARN 400000 ECU. This will be reconsidered by the Executive when a definitive proposal is received and a recommendation will be made to the Board of Directors.
Approved - in the light of legal advice that the Board was empowered to change the statutes the amendments to the EARN Statutes with the change that an individual could only serve two consecutive terms as President was approved.
Noted - the Secretary General's report. Also noted that contrary to the document the annual report is not yet overdue.
Noted - that the meeting thanked the Secretary General for indexing and making available all the EARN documents and for keeping the paper work in order.
Approved - the EARN Operational Procedures with minor editorial changes.
Rene Florizoone was appointed to act with the EARN manager as tellers.
The EARN officers for 1991/1992 are:-
President Frode Greisen Vice-president Avi Cohen Secretary General Marco Sommani Treasurer Paul Bryant Executive committee members Klaus Birkenbihl, Jean-Luic Delhaye, Stelios Orphanoudakis
No papers have been received.
Resolved - to hold the next Board of Directors meeting June 20, 1991 commencing at 14.00 and terminating on June 21, 1991 at 16.00 at the Hotel Scandinavia, Copenhagen.
A verbal report was given by Marco Sommani on the proceedings of the Routing Project Group. This recommended the setting up of an IP backbone in Europe which would be connected to the USA. This will be considered as a matter of urgency by the executive when a definitive proposal has been developed.
A proposal to hold a joint networking conference with RARE and other participants in Austria was presented. The proposal was welcomed and the Executive will study it and make an early recommendation to the Board of Directors. Austria is seeking government support if this is not obtained the participating organisation may have to guarantee the event.
