Report on Activities in the Month of August 2005

Financial results:
Donations  were $15,973.69 against a target of $13,989.00  We have
improved the participation rate to almost 70% of members donating on
renewal.  As encouraging as this is, income still falls well shy of our 
monthly expenses resulting in a further reduction in our savings.  

NCF's general insurance also comes up for renewal with a premium of 
slightly over $7000 for the year.  The cash crunch at this time has
been expected but it makes it no less difficult to weather.  

Expenses for August are expected to be close to $20,000 resulting in a
donation shortfall of approximately $4,000 for the month.

Following the clearing of all cheques, NCF is left with only $6,500.

As of Sept 19th, NCF members had donated approximately 8,600 which puts 
the months target of $13,238 within reach.

Our bookkeeper, has found a new job in Barry Ontario and therefore cannot 
continue to help us out on a monthly basis.  I believe that I have found 
an excellent candidate to take over this very important role.

The NCF services now includes high speed via DSL technology.  Although 
the service has been only available for a short time, 19 members are 
signed up with 13 in service.  To date only one individual has experienced
difficulties in setting up the service.  That member was using an older 
Mac and their problems have since been resolved.  

It seems that our worries of not being able to handle the rush of new users 
was unfounded.  It seems that a steady trickle of members moving to DSL 
is a more likely future.  

We are now using the trade name NCF Internet in our posters and communications.
Posters have been hung in local libraries and new flyers are being printed and
distributed.  Over 190 have been posted at Carleton with the blessing of the 
university.  I am still attempting to get Ottawa University's approval.

At Carleton, Carleton Computing Services is recommending NCF as an alternative 
to EduNet now that it has been sold to a third party.  Having NCF services,
both Dial-up and DSL seems to have been warmly received by the Carleton 
IT community.

Now that NCF has a relatively complete offering of services, dial-up and
high speed access, email, spam filter, personal start pages, online document 
storage and discussion groups, I would like to focus our attention on 
the overall membership and the membership trends.  The posters and bookmarks
are the beginning of a campaign to raise the awareness of NCF's services
among the various communities in Ottawa.  If we can grow the membership I 
believe that we can increase overall donations and achieve fiancial stability.

Monitor magazine has asked NCF to run a series of articles on what we have
done, our philosophy behind it and where NCF is going.  In addition NCF
will be speaking at local user groups to help educate the technology leaders
in our community about NCF and what we have to offer.

Looking forward to seeing you at the meeting.  Remember its at OCRI head
quarters.

Cheers

John