Executive Director's Report
December 2003
===========================

January 20th, 2003
By John Selwyn
(execdir@NCF.ca) 

SpamFilter has been adopted by over 500 members already electing to use the 
application to deal with spam.  The most common complaints in 2003 had to due 
with the amount and nature of spam and its companion . hidden software 
viruses.  Now the office religluarily receives email from members pleased 
with how effective and easy to use SpamFilter is.  Spam is far from beaten 
but it is now not the problem it was before.  One of the things we would like 
to do is to extend these advantages to the users of text mail.  

To date much of the communication at the NCF has been from the NCF office to 
members or from the members to NCF office.  Recent surveys of members have 
highlighted members' desires to communicate with each other. In the new year 
we will be working on ways to facilitate .many-to-many. interactions.

NCF Development Fund:
The December funding raising drive to raise funds under the Smart Capital 
program for NCF development.  574 members  contributed a sum of $15,343 to 
the NCF Development Fund in December. The contributions will be matched by 
Industry Canada as part of the SmartCapital program and will help make the 
national capital region a better place to live

Donations:
Total donations for December were $13,221, versus a target of $17,472 and 
a year to date total of $170,636 vs $200K in the budget and $152,420 for the 
same period in 2002.  Some of the shortfall was due to an intentional 
deferral until December and January.

Expenses:
Operating expenses for the core NCF service during the period was $14,673 
or approximately 11% below the budget for the period of $16,497. 
Telecommunications over chargers have been corrected  and we should see a 
steady monthly charge from this point forward.  Annually our expenses have 
come through at $186,582 as compared to the budget of $178,050. 

Membership:
Total membership of Freenet has increased to 8,357 which is just shy of our 
stated goal of 8400 members by January 1st 2004.  

Modems:
Dial-up services now stand at 276 modems.   Modem use is increasing with 
the the growth in membership and the higher reliability of the service.  
Daily sessions have increased to over 11,000 and extended sessions are the 
norm at all times except between the hours of 7:00pm to 9:00pm.  Modem 
sharing software is working well ensuring that the modem use is maximised 
while ensuring that busy signals are minimised.  

Email:
SpamFilter is the biggest improvement to email during the last period 
although attention to some of the system details has improved the throughput 
and decreased the mail latency times.  

I sense a real change in the tone of a lot of communications from the 
membership. People are upbeat, enjoying the NCF as it is today as well as 
looking forward to future improvements.  We still have a lot of work to do 
to ensuring that all members understand that it is important for them to 
donate to cover their costs.  We also need to keep raising the awareness of 
local residents to the services that the NCF offers.  

Happy New Year

John