Report for the months of November and December 2006

I am feeling very positive when I look at where I see the NCF today.
I am particularly pleased with my sense that the members impression 
of the National Capital FreeNet has also turned a corner.  DSL 
subscriptions came in an unexpected surge through December and early
January.  Unfortunately this placed a heavy load on the NCF office
staff while I was away.

Donations have continued to track very closely to last years numbers
and DSL service and hardware sales continue to surprise.  As a result 
we find our financial picture - while still tight - starting to 
brighten somewhat.  New dial-up members are still coming to the 
NCF although our overall dial-up load seems to be easing as high 
power users migrate to high speed services. 

Our 2007 budget has been a fairly easy document to construct as the 
expenses are largely fixed, our donations and DSL revenue streams
largely predictable and our general direction well set.  It is 
unfortunate that we cannot borrow to invest because with the NCF's
technical systems operating so well we would benefit greatly from an 
investment in marketing.  I will be discussing this budget further 
at this months Board meeting.

On the technical side, the development team has implemented a web
site "hit" stats for NCF members.  This is quite a powerful package 
that should be a "hit" with many of our members.  With all of the
improvements to email and internet access, its good to see some 
technical effort being spent for those that rely on the NCF for 
web site hosting.  Domain name and domain name based email are the 
next obvious improvements.

In early January our system administrator also made a significant 
upgrade to the hardware of our main servers.  Dual processors with a 
much faster clock speed and a dramatic increase in memory should result 
in a more reliable and consistent performance for our membership.

The Ottawa Public Library continues to provide authorisation services 
for NCF members.  They seem very happy to be associated with the NCF.
There are perhaps ways that we could leverage this association to 
market NCFs' services. 

Another positive note is the most recent increase in volunteers from 
various sectors of our local population.  The OCLUG (Ottawa Carleton
Linux Users Group) have expressed interest in participating and a first
OCLUG member has started helping out in the Office.  The OPERA group of
retired teachers is also keen to provide support and are currently
waiting on my producing a number of job descriptions.  Just this week
three new volunteers have shown up for a first day of training.  

My apologies for not having a more complete report ready for this months
Board meeting but the last week has been positively hectic.

john