September Operations Report =========================== By Lisa K. Donnelly, NCF Executive Director Tuesday, 19 September 1995 1) Executive Director priorities since the August Board meeting ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On August 18th, shortly after the Board meeting for that month, the Executive Director's priorities for the next several weeks were sent to the Board and posted in ncf.status.general. They were: - Interview, hire and train a new Administrative Coordinator - Attend, and report on, the Telecommunities '95 Conference in Victoria - Designing a new on-line complaints procedure and submitting it to the Board These three items were attended to and took up the majority of my time over the last four weeks. 2) Overview of the Administrative Coordinator hiring process ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A call for resumes was posted in ncf.announce and ott.jobs on 15 August. Forty-five resumes were received by the August 25th deadline. Twelve of the applicants were interviewed during the week of August 28th. The resumes from the three finalists were reviewed by the Treasurer and Executive Director and a decision was made on Friday, 1 September. 3) NCF's new Administrative Coordinator ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As of September 5 we have had a new Administrative Coordinator, Sheila Currie-Alder. Sheila brings a wide array of accounting and administrative experience to NCF. In addition she has extensive experience with volunteers and non-profit organizations. Sheila can be reached at the NCF registrar account - xx001. More personal mail can be sent to her own account - bw306. 4) Office clean-up and relocation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Due to the change in staff the office requires a good deal of clean-up. Sheila has gotten through training very quickly but will require a few more weeks to be up to full speed. Please bear with her, and with myself, as we go through this transition. Some slowdown in office operations are inevitable. Part of the office clean up is further facilitated by the offer of a larger office in Dunton Tower. Board President, David Sutherland, has secured an unoccupied computer lab for us. The space is approximately 20 x 25 feet and will allow additional phone and ethernet connections. This is a wonderful improvement for the NCF office and should increase the support we can offer to the public. The relocation should happen within the first week of October but is contingent on Carleton University. 5) Second Contact Volunteer meeting held ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A second meeting of all NCF Contact volunteers was held on 6 September. The minutes cover the current volunteer structure and all action items. To access these notes please type "go status" and pick the "ncf.status.general" discussion group. 6) Operational Indicators ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Operational Indicators calculated from Board meeting to Board meeting) June July August September (17Aug.-13 Sept.) Registered Users 43,515 44,735 46,140 47,312 Unique Users (Week) 13,517 13,080 13,030 14,128 Registration Turnaround (Av.Days) 3 4 3 7 days Incoming Registrations (Per Day) On-line registrations 77 70 82 80 Accounts Validated 38 40 43 28* *validations are low due to office staff turn-over 7) Unique user data March 13 to September 11 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ian Allen, NCF System Administrator, processed the past 184 days of user login information using a set of sliding windows that kept track of unique users in the window. The "unique users" entries only count a user once no matter how many times the user logs in during the given window period. The actually data and ASCII graphs can be examined by typing "go sys-design" picking item 2. for the discussion group and then reading article 1282 in ncf.sub.system-design. The window entries tell us information about the quantity and time periods for unique users accessing the system. According to Ian's data: Win01 tells us that 6,684 unique users used NCF on Sept. 11. Win02 tells us that 8,892 unique users used NCF on the two days Sept. 11 and 10 combined. Win03 combines the three days Sept. 11-9, etc. Win63 tells us that 24,826 unique NCF users logged in at least once in the 63 days (9 weeks) prior to this date (Sept. 11). This shows that 31,953 total unique users - out of 47,025 on 11 September 95 - accessed NCF since the stats file started (approximately 6 months ago). >From this we know that over a six month period 68% of our registered users access NCF at least once. Looking at the data further, we see that 50% (23, 513) of all registered NCF users logged in at least once in the past 7 weeks. So, if you put up an NCF announcement, 6,000 users have the potential to read it the first day. The next 6,000 take a further 4 days, the next 6,000 take 16 days after that, etc. You have to leave the announcement there for over 7 weeks before half the NCF registered users will have logged on to read it. Any event that lasts for 2 weeks will only reach about 17,000 NCF users. Extending the event to last 4 weeks only exposes it to 3,000 more users. The conclusion is that even though the number of NCF accounts is growing, the number of actual unique users of NCF is fairly constant. Thus, the number of people who stop using NCF seems to be equal to the number who begin. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lisa K. Donnelly, xx412@freenet.carleton.ca Executive Director, National Capital FreeNet/Libertel de la Capitale nationale -----------------------------------------------------------------------------