Virtual Moreland

A people indifferent to its public affairs will have a weak Parliament. A weak Parliament will have an arbitrary Government. An arbitrary Government will lead to a Dictatorship. A Dictatorship is the end of liberty.

Arthur Mee (ed), The Children's Encyclopedia, vol six, Liberalism.

Minutes for 7 April 1999

Attending: Bill McPherson, Craig Silva, Paolo Ricci, Jonathan O'Donnell (minutes).

Apologies: Geri Simm, Rob Brittain, Daniel Pocock, Paolo Ricci

Business arising from the minutes

Moreland Education Expo

Craig is liasing with Daniel to organise the technology.æ Members will meet Daniel at the Expo at 9.00 am on Sunday for setup.

Disabled Motorists Association

Paolo has sent the letter.æ He will follow up in person shortly.æ If they are interested, Paolo will organise it with Daniel.
Craig reported that the Ilma Lever Garden may be interested in a similar deal.æ Paolo will wait until the Disabled Motorists Association are set up before he approaches Ilma Lever Gardens.

Standing items

Skills.net report

Paolo gave us a report on his meeting with the Moreland Council.æ They are willing to help.æ They will write to us, saying what they can do for us.æ Peter Zumpe is our contact, along with Mary Berry.
She will help us to contact organisations to get members and arrange training.

RMIT Art, Design and Communication

Paolo has organised the first class for RMIT Art, Design and Communication, Department of Fashion and Textile Design.æ This will bring in $200. If this is successful, there will be more of these.

Italian Festival

CoAsIt would like us to set up a system similar to the Education Expo.æ We will ask Daniel if he is interested.æ Most of the money will go to Daniel, with a little bit coming to the organisation.

Business of the meeting

Insurance

We are covered for public liablity insurance by the organisations that we work with: CoAsIT, Inca and Brunswick Secondary College.

Nicola said that professional liability was not an issue.æ It is too expensive and not necessary.æ Nicola will talk to Amanda Way from RMIT - is it OK if we get each person to sign a disclaimer?

ARC Telecentre project

We are in partnership with RMIT and CoAsIT in a successful ARC grant to design and establish a telecentre in the Moreland area.

Bill had a chat with Nicola. Docklands is interested in soliciting proposals from charities to set up things in Docklands.æ This will mainly be a matter of seeing if there is any intererst from the Docklands Board.æ We are not the sort of charitable organisation that they are interested in, but we are an interesting enough not-for-profit for them to be interested.æ If the gods smile on the concept, there is plenty of time to develop a proposal with a suitable charity.

Action: Bill will develop a proposal with Nicola to go to the Docklands Authority.

Paolo said that some people who might be interested in the Telecentre are those that don't really know how the technology works.æ They might have a home office, but they don't have a good grasp of the fundementals.

Health Channel

Paolo attended the launch of the Health Channel. The Channel itself sucks, especially if you are using another language.

There is $1 million in the budget for access.æ Moreland Health Centre and VMore could put forward a proposal to provide access from the health centres.

Action: Paolo to chase up with Moreland Health Centre.
æ

Next meeting

The next meeting will be 7.30 pm Wednesday 2 June 1999 at INCA, 352a Sydney Rd, Coburg 3058.ææ All welcome.