Attendees:
Randy Epstein – Treasurer and Secretary
Michael Costello – Chair
Graham Paul Wooden
Michael Still – Vice Chair
Not in attendance:
Tyler Coates
Savvas Bout
Meeting commenced at 3:03pm Eastern.
Michael Costello moved to accept the minutes from the November meeting, Randy seconded, and the motion passed. Michael Still abstained.
Randy provided a financial update. Bank balance is healthy, additional deposits are pending posting today. Discussion was had regarding how many members pay by credit card vs checks, ACH, other forms of payment. Discussion regarding signing off on legal action against two extremely past due members that are long suspended. Randy will sign and send to legal.
Randy presented the budget via screenshare, and the board discussed various items on the budget. A few adjustments were made. A detailed discussion was had regarding 2026 hardware needs as it pertains to the budget.
Michael Costello moved to approve the 2026 budget as presented. Michael Still seconded, all voted aye and the budget was passed.
Randy received the equipment for the 365 transport solution upgrade that had previously been discussed. This will be installed in the coming week. Also, Randy hopes to get to iM Critical in Miami to install that location after the 365 install.
Randy provided an update on the Arista issue at DataBank Miami. The switch has been replaced, and the Dell is now reachable for the ProxMox migration project.
Michael Still will be shipping Randy a spare OpenGear console server that’s in Atlanta, as well as some spare blue/red power cords.
The board also recorded the eVote that was made to purchase the 365 transport upgrade solution from Smartoptics and Petabit. The total came to $52,550.00, not including tax and shipping for the Smartoptics sourced products, and includes tax and shipping for the Petabit Scale sourced products. All 5 members of the board voted yes on November 25th, 2025. The equipment has since been ordered and delivered.
There will be a future eVote in the next few weeks for some additional Arista switches that are needed that are included in the 2026 approved budget as well as the 2026 Executive Compensation.
Michael Costello moved to adjourn, Graham seconded. Meeting adjourned at 4:00pm Eastern.