Executive Director's Report =========================== 8 April 1997 By Lisa K. Donnelly (execdir@freenet.carleton.ca) Contents: 1. Funding and Public Relations Update 2. NCF Administration 3. Member Services and Future Initiatives a) Education and help b) On-line and system services 1. Funding Update ================= a) Cash Received in March ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ $5,512.50 New Registrants/Individual donations (260 donations w/ 8 PFAs and 52 separate from registration) $31,229.42 Renewals (1659 donations w/ 26 PFAs) $137.80 Boutique 0 Connection Sponsors $220.07 US Exchange (gain) ---------- $37,099.79 Total Deposit b) Membership Activity: Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As of 26 March 1997, NCF started putting older unrenewed accounts into a ten minute 'hibernation' mode. This phase will last for two months. We may see many members renewing their accounts when this phase begins and are collecting data for reporting on a full month of hibernation and how it impacts renewal rates. We have also been updating the "Renewing Your NCF Account" menus. Improvements include a menu item with a tool which allows members to display the renewal date for their NCF account and more answers in the FAQ. FAQ topics include: Can I renew in person by going to the NCF office instead of mailing the form?; Will I have to send identification every year?; What determines when an account will be up for renewal?; How much time do I have to renew my account?; and Why is NCF hibernating and archiving unrenewed accounts? The full cycle for account renewals allows five months to renew from first notice until an account is archived to free resources for active members. Here is an example of how it works: 30 days before renewal due date First letter 15 days before renewal due date Second letter Renewal due date Third letter 60 days overdue Fourth letter; start of 'hibernation mode' 120 days overdue Account will be archived (recoverable) Data for November, December 1996, January, February, March 1997 --------------------------------------------------------------- Sent Rec'd Donors %/Donor Rtrn/mo. Rtrn/cum. Tot/don Budget Av/don Nov. 6,155 213 141 66% 3.5% 3.5% $3,063 $5,000 $21.72 Dec. 8,560 1,065 666 63% 12.4% 8.7% $15,373 $7,000 $23.08 Jan. 8,219 1,277 1,136 89% 15.5% 11.1% $24,278 $31,000 $21.37 Feb. 7,846 2,331 1,495 64% 29.7% 15.9% $33,163 $31,000 $22.18 Mar. 8,889 2,190 1,659 76% 24.7% 20.5% $31,229 $31,000 $18.82 c) March Connection Sponsors ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We did not receive any connection sponsorships in March. For the first quarter of 1997 we have been unsuccessful at making our budget projections. Revenue is strong from the renewals and registrations so we are still depositing the total budgeted amount though. Andre Ouellette, fully recovered from acting as coordinator for the AGM, sent out Connection Sponsor renewal notices to the following list. Invoices were sent to six Connection Sponsors in March. Also, negotiations are underway with a media outlet to form a contra arrangement for advertising in exchange for connection sponsorships. d) Government Grants ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Trillium grant is now being finalized. We had hoped to send it on 31 March but are shooting for 18 April. Jeff Bossert, NCF Treasurer, will be helping volunteer Denise Skrypkar and the NCF Executive Director on the final application. The focus is on obtaining funds for outreach and training. e) The Great On-line Auction Delayed ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The auction was scheduled to open on 30 April. We have not made adequate progress in arranging solicitations and it is now unrealistic to have the auction so soon. Arranging an auction like this requires a dedicated individual over a three month period. Given our limited resources, we have decided that it is not realistic to duplicate the labour intensive Great On-line Auction. Instead we need to capitalize on more value for labour invested. A better model to duplicate is the 1996 Microsoft Auction. This means obtaining the bulk of items from a few donors, then we can add in five or ten general solicitations. Michael Mason and the Executive Director will create a plan and time line for this approach. The date will be set for the Fall when the renewals cycle will have ended. f) Public Relations Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The NCF Newsletter "FreeNews" is now being created monthly! See the April issue - now on-line in the Public Relations menu area (go public-relations). Contents of this Issue 1. Jobs, jobs, who does the jobs? . . . . A Who's who on NCF 2. SIGnals (By Donna Shaw (aq652) . . . . New SIGs on NCF 3. Pass "go" ...collect . . . . . . . . . Where to "go" on NCF 4. Notice "Board" . . . . . . . . . . . . News & comments from & about the BoD 5. Get Connected . . . . . . . . . . . . How to connect to NCF 6. NCF Mailing Address . . . . . . . . . Where to send your Mail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Over one hundred names are now on the FreeNews mailing list, including a number of non-members of NCF. Our message is going out to the on-line community. E-mail xx766 to be added to the list. (Subject: Add FreeNews) g) Funding Administrivia ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -The on-line list of donors has been update through 31 March and the thank you letters have been sent out. -A system alias and xx account were created for funding issues. The alias is funding@freenet.carleton.ca which directs mail to xx035 (NCF Funding). -Test menus have been created to combine and update the Funding & Development menus. 2. Administration ================== a) National Volunteer Week ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ April 16th begins National Volunteer Week. NCF would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members who have volunteered at NCF. Each and every one of you make a large contribution to NCF and your efforts are appreciated by the Board, staff and the membership at large. Thank you! b) NCF Board Manual ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The 1997/98 version of the Board manual is completed and will be distributed to Board members at the meeting. Please bring your Board binders to house the new version. The paper and electronic 1997-8 Manual was expanded from last year and serves as a Board and organizational archive. Chris Hawley has volunteered to put it on-line this year. 3. Member Services =================== A) Education and help ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 1a) Marketing the Nepean and Ottawa Monthly Meetings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Speakers team is moving forward with ideas for marketing the two monthly public meetings. The team met recently to review their annual report and plan for improvements in 1997. The topics and logistics for the May and June meetings are planned and can be found by typing "go speakers." General topics focus on introducing people to NCF, advanced FreeNet topics, FreePlace and Web tools. Goals include creating a regular cycle and range of topics, drawing a more homogenous audience, increasing marketing for the meetings and obtaining a LCD panel. 2a) Volunteers are Ready to Lead Classes and Drop-in Times at NCF ERAC ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Last month's orientation night for volunteers was very successful. Ten volunteers were able to attend the Train the Trainers session at the NCF Electronic Resource and Access Centre. A new coordinator has been selected for this team. Her name is Charline Cormier (aw595). This team will be working closely with the Speakers team to the benefit of NCF members and to those who are about to discover NCF this year. To see a list of drop-in times, find out the ERAC address and hours and learn how to sign-up for visiting the NCF ERAC, type "go outreach." 3a) Progress with Auto-install Diskettes for PPP Connectivity ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The progress for creating the PC version of this has hit a snag. We are unable to use trumpet winsock and are looking at other software. The Executive Director will continue working with volunteers Colin McFadyen (PC diskettes) and Andre Vellino (Mac diskettes) to complete this project by 25 April. 4a) Updated Guide to the NCF ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Five Minute Guide to the NCF is a two page hand out with detailed instructions on getting connected to NCF. This guide was very out of date, but volunteer Charline Cormier (aw595) re-wrote and translated the guide for 1997. We have had 2000 English and 1000 French copies made and are distributing them at meetings and libraries. B) On-line and system services ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 1b) NCF Search Engine in Test Mode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At the end of April Yannick Gravel, NCF System Administrator, installed a test version of the search engine WebGlimpse. We plan to go live with this on 11 April. Additional research is being done on a longer term search engine such as Netscape. Once the best product is determined we will ask for a in-kind donation. Because obtaining donated software can take some time we will move ahead quickly with WebGlimpse in the meantime. To try it out go to http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/ncf/wgindex.html 2b) Adding the PINE Mailreader ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Many community networks offer PINE as a mailreader and members report high satisfaction with it. We now offer PPP mail but many members prefer to stay in text mode. These members will find PINE a nice addition to the NCF suite of member services. We plan to install for testing on 18 April and if all goes well announce the service to the members on 25 April. 3b) Adding Memory for Performance Improvements ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are working on a network upgrade plan for 1997 - but in the meantime we really need more memory. We plan to purchase and install 64 MB this week which will help system performance prior to additional network additions and improvements. 4b) First Corporate Accounts to be Released ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now that our new Systems Administrator is getting up to speed, we are ready to do a trial on our first two corporate accounts. Board member Nadia Diakun-Thibault, who is an Information Provider for two organizations on NCF, will act as our test case. Yannick plans to have the first two accounts in test mode on 16 April.