Operations Report for 15 October 1996
=====================================
By Lisa K. Donnelly (am412), Executive Director

1. Administrative Database Nearing Completion
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Board member Jean Wilmot (aa145) is continuing to work with 
Oracle programmer Dave Boswell and the NCF office manager, Sheila
Currie to complete this project. The team met twice this month and 
are hoping for final testing at the beginning of November.

2. Reconfiguring our Bell Hunt Groups
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Board President, Dave Sutherland and Executive Director, Lisa Donnelly,
met with the NCF Bell Centrex representatives this month. The goal was 
twofold: to learn about new services which could impact NCF planning and 
budgeting and to plan for re-arranging our centrex hunt groups.

Dave is waiting for additional data from Bell regarding new services.

Lisa has begun implemention of the reconfiguration which improves access and
supports FreePlan. The total cost with tax will be just under $1,000. The
funds are to come from the US Robotics challenge.

The new configuration will be ready by the end of the month. The set up is 
listed below:

Hunt group#1: 32 lines at 520-1130  (9600 bps)-move 64 lines out
	  #2: 112 lines at 520-1135 (14.4 bps)-add 48 lines from HG#1
  	  #3: 15 express lines at 520-7835 (14.4 bps)-add 6 lines from HG#1  
	  #4: 10 full-PPP lines at NEW NUMBER (14.4 bps) - new hunt 
		 group with lines from HG#1

3. Volunteer Coordination Update
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Volunteer Coordination Task Force held a meeting this month. Re-
organization was the main topic.   The team will be focusing on recruitment 
and support of existing volunteer activities.

4. NCF Outreach Centre
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The NCF our reach centre, officially know as the Electronic Resource and
Access Centre (ERAC), has a tentative drop-in schedule.  We are now looking
for volunteers to be there during these hours to assist members of the
public or  hold NCF-oriented classes for groups of 4 - 6.

Board member Andrew Patrick (aa118) lead the first course there at the 
beginning  of the month.

NCF ERAC Schedule:
Mondays:      10am - 1pm   	      7pm - 9pm
Tuesdays:            1pm - 3pm        7pm - 9pm
Wednesdays:   10am - 1pm
Thursdays:                            7pm - 9pm
Fridays:	     1pm   -   4pm
Saturdays:      11am   -   3pm

5. Corporate Accounts
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The NCF can begin offering Corporate accounts to our Information 
Providers.  A solution that did not require a policy change, is not labour 
intensive for NCF and will meet the needs of our members was developed 
thanks to Board member Chris Hawley (aa654) - and endorsed by Vice 
President Andrew Patrick.  

All Corporate IPs will require an NCF account. The Corporate PFA should 
be made to point to that account only, or to a list of accounts, be they NCF 
or ISP accounts, as designated by the corporation in question.

The UNIX group permissions apply only to information pages for the 
organizational URL and again are designated by the corporation in 
question.

The Development Committee will begin offering these Corporate
accounts in early November when the technical staff has completed the 
work. Suggested donation level for this will be $100 for a corporate PFA 
and $100 for a corporate URL. 

It's very simple:

A) Similar to a PFA, an e-mail name is setup.
        e.g., alz@freenet.carleton.ca

B) We instruct the system to send all mail to that address or a list of
     people, which can be found in a text file on the system. This file can
     be accessed and edited by the IP.

6. NCF Hallowe'en Party
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Second Annual Hallowe'en Costume Party is scheduled for Sunday, 
October 27th.  11:00am to 5:00pm at Spagucci's Marketplace on the 2nd 
Level of the Rideau Centre.  There will be free pizza, a costume contest 
and prizes.

Come on out and have fun! To RSVP or to see who's coming to the party,
type (go boo) at any "Your Choice" prompt.



--
	  **  Lisa K. Donnelly, M.B.A., Executive Director  **
     * National Capital FreeNet/Libertel de la Capitale nationale *
	       Telecommunities Canada, Board of Directors
	       (613) 241-9554 voice & fax (613) 241-2477