Executive Director's Report =========================== 13 February 1997 By Lisa K. Donnelly (execdir@freenet.carleton.ca) Contents: 1. Funding Update 2. NCF Administration 3. Member Services 4. Future Initiatives 1. Funding Update ================= a) Cash Received in January ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ $7,208 New Registrants/Individual donations (291 donations w/ 21 PFAs and 56 separate from registration) $24,278.45 Renewals (contains 24 PFAs) $761 MS Auction $101 Boutique 0 Connection Sponsors $272.91 US Exchange (gain) ---------- $32,621.36 Total Deposit b) Membership Activity: Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The office has caught up from the Holiday backlog and requests are being processed in one to two days of receipt. There was still a processing lack for January as we tried to catch up from seven working days of no mail delivery at the end of December. In addition, we were going through a regular seasonal turn-over in office volunteers which slowed processing. Note how much higher return rate is for February 1 - 12. This is partly due to office volunteers catching up on all outstanding renewals. The project has ramped up and February and March data should show what type of return rates we will sustain through out August. Data for November, December 1996, January 1997 and February 1 - 12, 1997 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sent Rec'd Donors %/Donors Rtrn/mo. Rtrn/cum. Tot/don Av/don Nov. 6,155 213 141 66% 3.5% 3.5% $3,063 $21.72 Dec. 8,560 1,065 666 63% 12.4% 8.7% $15,373 $23.08 Jan. 8,219 1,277 1,136 89% 15.5% 11.1% $24,278 $21.37 Feb.* 4,311 1,442 n/a n/a 33.4% 14.7% n/a n/a *February data is incomplete pending month end. c) Special Projects: The Microsoft Auction ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Auction closed in December 1996 at $5,374. To date we have received $5,113. The remaining $261 may not be collectable. If so, we will add these few items into the Great On-line Auction in April. d) January Connection Sponsors ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Embassy of Spain has sent a cheque for a six month renewal which has not been received yet. We have had one new inquiry. Donation request letters will be sent out to expired sponsors in early March. A multiple connections sponsorship request was sent out this month as well. e) Key Partners ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our February anniversary is always a time to reconnect with Key Partners. Each of them received an invitation and press release for our Birthday event which was held on 5 February. Follow-up calls are planned for this week in the hopes of renewing contacts and reminding donors of current NCF projects and in-kind needs. The Birthday event served several purposes. One of them was for Key Partner Recognition. Representatives from Dantek Computers, Microsoft Corporation, Ingenia Corporation and Netscape Communications Corporation were all present to receive awards. We are still waiting to hear back from several other corporations from whom we have solicited large sponsorships. Given the amount of time that has gone by it is unlikely that any of these applications are being accepted. f) Government Grants ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There has been no grant-oriented activity for January, though a volunteer has been found to assist the Executive Director in writing the upcoming Trillium Foundation grant. g) Funding Administrivia ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The on-line list of donors has been update through 31 January. The individual sponsorship area has changed. It has been updated to reflect donors on a month to month basis broken down by donation level. Stay tuned for an announcement of the next Funding meeting. We will be focusing on the preparation for the April auction. 2. Administration ================== a) The NCF Birthday Party was a Success! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Approximately 200 people attended. Speeches were kept under thirty minutes total. Our Key Partners were happy and interested in discussing future possibilities. FreePlace and all our web services were publicly launched. Press coverage included: -CBO radio morning interview with Lisa Donnelly -CJOH TV news clip played on the evening and morning news -CBC French TV interview with Rebecca Last -Ottawa Citizen, City Life - Metropolis section coverage (Saturday) b) 1997 Board Manual and Orientation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The 1997/98 version of the Board manual is being worked on and we hope to have it ready by the March Board Orientation. It would be nice to have the latest version on line as well. We are looking for a volunteer to either install all the text files - or prepare this for placement in the Public Download Area (PDA). The Orientation is a critical part of creating an effective post-elections Board of Directors. This event will be help on Thursday, 13 March. This places it between the close of the AGM and before the next Board meeting. This is an annual event and all Board members are expected to attend. The agenda will include: socializing, introductions, handing out and reviewing the new Board manual documents (1997 strategy, organizational structure, preparation for Board meetings, upcoming Executive Committee elections, etc.). Lastly, we will be reviewing the strategic objectives for the year and asking Board members to work with teams on key projects. c) NCF Staffing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our search for a new Systems Administrator to replace outgoing Roy Hooper continues. Interviews start on 17 February 1997. Roy has moved his departure date up a week and will have his last day at NCF on Friday, 21 February. If we do not have a new person starting on Monday the 24th, System Administration volunteers will be helping to look after the system in the interim. This includes Chris Hawley, Ian Allen, John Stewart and Roy. d) Volunteer Co-ordination Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One of the big goals for the first quarter of 1997 is to revitalize volunteer coordination at NCF. As mentioned last month, we were looking for one more person to add to the team. Outgoing Board member Julie Chahal has offered to assist with getting this area jump started again! A new and condensed list of volunteer teams for 1997 has been produced and will be on line shortly. We are having our first meeting of the new volunteer coordination team towards the end of February. e) NCF is Finally Listed in the Telephone Books ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the past we had trouble getting a listing in the regional phone books as we were affiliated with Carleton University's phone system. This year Administrative Coordinator, Sheila Alder, did get the NCF Help Line number listed in the white pages under National Capital FreeNet and Libertel de la Capitale nationale. We are also listed in the yellow pages under Internet Service Providers. These listings are included in all four books for the region: West end, East end, Centre and Quebec. 3. Member Services =================== a) PPP access to NCF: General Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FreePlace services are active and the number of members using PPP successfully continues to increase. Cumulative statistics show that from 11 November 1996 to 21 January 1997, we have had almost 4,000 members try PPP services. We need to increase this number via outreach and marketing. Subject: PPP Statistics for 1997-02-02 - 1997-02-09 Date: Sun Feb 9 06:13:24 1997 Total Users: 736 Successful: 532 (72.28%) Failed: 204 (27.72%) Total PPP Lines: 169 lines Total available modem time: 28,392 hours (for 7 days) Total PPP Time used: 739 hours Percent total modem time: 2.60 percent Successful Connects Total Connects: 4507 Average Time: 9.81 minutes Failed Connects Total Connects: 302 Average Time: 0.51 minutes To view regularly posted statistics on PPP service usage, see the ncf.admin.stats newsgroup or type "go usage and chose item 10. b) Increasing Francophone Content ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At the end of 1996, several of us agreed on the need to meet in the new year to begin planning for Francophone goals and creation of an action plan. This meeting has not happen yet. When an action plan develops it will be posted on-line. We do have an increase in volunteers helping out with translations. Our renewal and donor thank you letters are all available in French. Francophone committee Chair, Jean-Yves, has also proposed some technical improvements geared toward Francophone participation which will be reviewed with the new Systems Administrator. b) Creation and distribution of Diskettes for NCF Members ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Current data on the usage of our new PPP services indicates that most members are not yet using these services. Configuring a machine for PPP connectivity is not easy. We want to develop diskettes for members to install on the personal computers that would automatically configure their machine for PPP. These could be distributed at Connectivity Clinics at the OPL , our Outreach Centre - or any library. Dave Sutherland is working with volunteer Colin McFadyen to create a PC based version of this and we hope to have it ready by the end of February. c) Search Tools ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are in the process of receiving Fulcrum Technologies Surfboard search engine. Calls are in to our contacts and we are waiting to see if they will also provide installation services. We hope to have this in by the end of the month but it may be delayed by the switch over in Systems Administration staff. 4. Future Initiatives ======================= a) Outreach, Developing FreePlace and Marketing Services January through March is the busiest time of year for NCF. Once we get through the hectic first quarter, we will be focusing the majority of our energy on developing the look, feel and content of our website ( a marketing strategy for our new web services and a series of activities to educate the people of he region in getting connected and using on-line services.