Operations Report 12 April 1995 By Lisa Donnelly, Executive Director 1. Implementation of the two hour time limit In the event that there are no urgent system problems, the two hour time limit will be in test mode as of Thursday, 13 April 1995. If the testing period goes smoothly the application will be activated on Thursday, 20 April 1995. An announcement will be posted a day before activation of the time limit occurs. 2. Individual exceptions for the time limits - the Time Limit Task Force In order to fairly and professionally administer granting occasional exceptions to the daily time limit we are creating a Time Limit task force. The details are as follows: a) A task force consisting of the two volunteer coordinators, Brian Monkman and Natalie Munro, and two other volunteers we are in the process of recruiting, will look at requests for exceptions and make recommendations to the Executive Director. b) Criteria for eligibility will be posted in a specific menu item in the Volunteer Menus (go helpers). c) An agreement must be signed and returned to NCF by any members receiving extensions to the daily time limit. 4. Installation of an updated version of main menu item 1. "About NCF" Item 1 on the main menu, "About the National Capital FreeNet" has been revamped and substantially improved. Volunteer Matthew Darwin, with help from Miranda Gray, did a great deal of work redesigning the area. Our goal was to have an up-to-date area that reflected much of the information included in the NCF Board manual. I have looked at it in test mode and am excited for the actual installation. It will provide one-stop shopping for any member who wants to know about our on-line community. 5. Creation of an Operational Policy area As NCF continues to grow and mature, there is an increasing need to develop Operational Policies. These should be kept on line for the membership to review. A new menu item, "Operational Policies" will be added below the existing Board Policies item. In addition, it will be linked to the newly developed "NCF Operations" menus which have been built into the revamped "About NCF" area. 7. Directors' Liability Policy on the way Our Directors' Liability Insurance is secured for 7 April 1995 through 7 April 1996. As soon as I receive the official policy from our agent it will be photocopied and distributed for inclusion in the Board manuals. 8. Looking into Equipment Insurance In addition to our Directors' Liability we are looking into formal equipment insurance for the National Capital FreeNet. Our agent has yet to find a suitable policy but is continuing with her research. 9. NCF administrative office running smoothly The administrative office continues to run smoothly. As in the last three months, there is little if any backlog in registrations. Our two coop students will remain with us through June. Mike Anderson, our Administrative Coordinator, is looking into regionally sponsored job placement programs for the summer. In the last two months there have been several posted complaints from members who have not had their telephone messages returned by the volunteer help line. These types of complaints have occurred throughout our existence and will be difficult to eradicate until we have a larger office which permits additional phone lines. The office volunteer attendance and commitment remains strong but we are operating under space and equipment constraints that make it difficult to promptly handle the large quantity of telephone calls received each day. 10. Look for a Media Strategy draft in May I have met with Mike Anderson about developing a formal media strategy for presentation to the Board. This will include timelines and public relations plans for individual events, operational policy for handling media inquiries, weekly and monthly external communications plans and additional media related guidelines. We will be refining the draft at the end of this month and plan to have it ready for the May Board meeting. 11. Chris Hawley to be Second System Administrator for Ian! Allen Being the System Administrator for a community network the size of National Capital FreeNet is no simple matter. Ian! Allen, our System Administrator Extrordinaire, is always on call around the clock. To our good fortune, newly elected Board member Chris Hawley, has the skills and has agreed to act as Second Administrator. This means that Ian! can actually take a week-end away from the system sometimes! Chris will receive some additional training the next couple of weeks but is already acting in this capacity and available to take over occasionally upon advance request. 12. We apply for our fifth ONIP installment on 30 April 1995 Our second to the last ONIP installment is for $15,000. It is the total amount we will receive from them this year. Our sixth and last installment, also for $15,000, becomes available on 30 April 1996. 13. Survival Guide being printed "The Official Survival Guide of the National Capital FreeNet" finally made it to the printers! It was received on Monday, 10 April 1995 and is slated for completion by Monday, 24 April 1995. Look for it at your next NCF meeting. Big thanks are in order for Michael Zahab and Mathew Darwin for getting this ready to go. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lisa K. Donnelly, am412@freenet.carleton.ca Executive Director, National Capital FreeNet/Libertel de la Capitale national -----------------------------------------------------------------------------