January Operations Report Tuesday, 23 January 1996 By Lisa K. Donnelly (am412), NCF Executive Director 1. The NCF Birthday Party Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The plans for the Birthday party are completed and it promises to be fun as well as a good public relations event. To read more about the details and to auto-RSVP, please type "go birthday" or "va fete." We currently have over 60 people signed up to attend. The RMOC has been very accommodating to us in making our arrangements. Sheila has been responsible for coordinating this event and Gordon is taking care of donor recognition during the brief speeches. Special thanks are also in order to Andre Ouelette who has worked with the RMOC and the staff to arrange many of the details (including donation of the space and security). 2. NCF Office Status ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The turn around time for processing of accounts has recovered from the Holidays. We are currently validating within one day of receiving a registration into the office. We are looking for a new Co-op student to replace departing Co-op Anthony DeMarco (cj487). Thanks are in order for Anthony who has been the NCF Registrar since September. 3. A new Projects Coordinator is hired ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After a long interview process, we have hired a new part-time Projects Coordinator to start work immediately. James Wilkinson (da957) is new to NCF but very familiar with volunteer coordination and community work. He has worked as a volunteer coordinator for the City of Nepean, where he designed and implemented a volunteer database, and for Quebec Easter Seal Society. In addition, he has participating as a volunteer in many community organizations. James is functionally bi-lingual and holds a BA in Leisure Studies as well as a college certificate in Community Recreational Leadership Training. Both of these educational expereinces focused on 850 hours of volunteer work and courses geared toward evaluation, planning and delivery of community programs and needs. 4. Update on our new System Administrator ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Roy Hooper (ad016) continues to train with Ian! Allen. He is currently working out of Ian!'s home but will begin to work out of the NCF office in Dunton Tower in February. Roy knows a great deal and learns quickly. We are happy to have him on board...and he claims to really enjoy being part of the Freenet family! 5. Ian! is now interim Technical Director ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With the addition of Roy Hooper, Ian! can now take on increased management of technical projects. As part of this, Ian! will produce a report for the Board, staff and members for February. This will cover a system/hardware update and current and optimal deployment of hardware. Ian! has yet to complete the Personal FreeNet Address programming. The Coming of Age campaign cannot be kicked off until this is completed. The Hamilton and Chebucto FreeNets have given Ian! shell access to their system. Ian!, Dan Trottier and Dave Trueman are working together on the Chebucto Suite (web application for freenets) so as to move quickly and not duplicate efforts. We are looking at cooperating with other freenets in the event that we will chose this as our platform. 6. Technical News ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The NCF "who" command has become significantly faster thanks to some programming by Roy. We have a reprieve from worrying about running of Unix IDs (UIDs). Ian has reworked the accounting routine so that we can use all spare internal numeric UIDs. We now have a total of 12 thousand UIDs available whereas we only had 4000 available previously. This should hold us for another six months during which time our System Administrators will be working on another solution. We have turned on mail authentication protocol. We are now verifying the accounts where the mail comes from. This allows us to track mail forgeries more easily as well as keep records of mail traffic for reporting purposes. 8. Set-up of annual reports ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The majority of the NCF annual reports are ready to be posted. These reports will be sent to Matthew Darwin (aa673) for installation within six days. They will be housed in the AGM menus. Big thanks are in order for Matthew - again! 9. Purchases Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The ordering of the new terminal server and lines is now waiting on Carleton University. John Stewart will notify me when he has the computer room prepared to accomodate the extra equipment and Bill Ferguson will order the new lines by the end of the month. -- Lisa K. Donnelly, Executive Director * National Capital FreeNet/Libertel de la Capitale nationale * Telecommunities Canada, Board of Directors (613) 241-9554 voice & fax (613) 241-2477