Executive Director's Report July 1998 =========================== August 12, 1998 By Christopher L. Cope (execdir@freenet.carleton.ca) Contents: 1. Funding and Public Relations Update 2. NCF Administration 3. Member Services and Future Initiatives 1. Funding Update ================= a) Donation Data - New Registrations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On a year-to-date basis, new member registration were well under budget (-43%). Donations arising from new member registration were not so far behind however, at -12% or -$3,184. During July, the trend which began in June continued, with only about 26% of new members donating compared to 41% for the year. The average donation remained just over $23, but the net average donation for all new members fell to a low of $6.01 because of the low percentage of donors. No. No. % Of Avg. Regist New Budget Regist Memb $ Budget Regist Donat'n Memb. (No.) Var Donate Donate Amount ($) Var Donat'n All New ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ All'97 6,923 2,295 33.2% $47,395 $72,000 -34% $20.65 $6.85 Avg'97 577 191 33.2% $ 3,950 $ 6,000 -34% $20.65 $6.85 Jan. 305 666 -54% 145 47.5% $ 3,308 $ 4,262 -22% $22.81 $10.85 Feb 254 562 -55% 132 52.0% $ 3,246 $ 3,594 -10% $24.59 $12.78 Mar. 242 538 -55% 131 54.1% $ 2,965 $ 3,441 -14% $22.63 $12.25 Apr. 239 526 -55% 117 49.0% $ 3,412 $ 3,364 1% $29.16 $14.28 May 222 442 -50% 123 55.4% $ 3,067 $ 2,826 9% $24.93 $13.82 Jun. 462 512 -10% 153 33.1% $ 3,301 $ 3,279 1% $21.58 $ 7.15 Jul. 591 823 -28% 153 25.8% $ 3,551 $ 5,268 -33% $23.21 $ 6.01 Aug. 750 $ 4,800 Sep. 767 $ 4,908 Oct. 696 $ 4,454 Nov. 529 $ 3,387 Dec. 413 $ 2,642 ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'98 2,315 4,069 954 41.2% $22,850 $26,034 -12% $23.95 $ 9.87 Avg'98 331 581 -43% 136 41.2% $ 3,264 $ 3,719 -12% $23.95 $ 9.87 b) Donation Data - Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ During July, a record percentage (70%) of renewing members donated. Similarly, we had more renewals than what was assumed in the budget, although some of these may be left over from earlier months. The average donation was low at $19.99, so the net revenue from renewal donations remained well under the budget (-25%). While these represent an improved trend, on a year-to-date basis we are some $80,000 under budget or -40% No. % Of Avg. Renwl No. Budget Renwl Renwl $ Budget Renwl Donate Renwl (No.) Var Donate Donate Amount ($) Var Donatn All Ren ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ All'97 13,235 18,000 8,611 65.1% $186,716 $202,500 -8% $21.68 $14.11 Avg'97 1,103 1,500 718 65.1% $ 15,560 $ 16,875 -8% $21.68 $14.11 Jan. 1,544 1,734 -11% 965 62.5% $23,167 $ 27,123 -15% $24.01 $15.00* Feb 1,320 1,470 -10% 869 65.8% $21,415 $ 37,467 -43% $24.64 $16.22* Mar. 1,620 1,601 -1% 899 55.5% $22,759 $ 34,426 -34% $25.32 $14.05* Apr. 1,337 1,616 -17% 938 70.2% $23,555 $ 36,535 -36% $25.11 $17.62* May 1,028 1,336 -23% 653 63.5% $15,838 $ 34,662 -54% $24.25 $15.41* Jun. 670 478 40% 428 63.9% $ 9,410 $ 23,953 -61% $21.99 $14.05* Jul. 476 206 131% 333 70.0% $ 6,657 $ 8,832 -25% $19.99 $13.99 Aug. 188 $ 4,551 Sep. 192 $ 4,307 Oct. 174 $ 4,233 Nov. 132 $ 3,643 Dec. 886 $ 8,656 ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'98 7,995 8,441 -5% 5,085 63.6% $122,801 $202,998 -40% $24.15 $15.36 AVG'98 1,142 1,206 -5% 726 63.6% $ 17,543 $ 29,000 -40% $24.15 $15.36 * previous month calculations re-stated to correct error in formula. c) Membership Activity: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The number of members declined a further 1.4% to 18,517. Since the beginning of the year, we have lost 2,479 members or 11.8%. |Member | Current |To line| Actual |Ratio |Number Forecast Number Number Number # of % inc.| |Of New No. of Members Members Members Members -dec. |Lns :1 |Members Members Renewed Un-arch Archvd. ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~|~~~~~~~| ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ May. 62,877 n/a|169 372| 372 1,831 0 0 Jun. 43,170 -31.3%|169 255| 654 654 18 20,361 Jul. 28,280 -34.5%|169 167| 651 605 103 7,919 Aug. 27,980 - 1.1%|169 166| 484 448 68 7,739 Sep. 22,996 -17.8%|169 136| 467 320 100 6,145 Oct. 21,527 - 6.4%|169 127| 314 248 76 1,870 Nov. 21,361 -0.8%|169 126| 234 529 266 61 501 Dec. 21,125 -1.1%|169 125| 193 413 728 42 421 Jan. 20,996 -0.6%|169 124| 305 666 1,544 16 495 Feb. 20,970 -0.1%|201 104| 254 562 1,320 74 343 Mar. 21,000 0.1%|201 104| 242 538 1,620 13 316 Apr. 20,317 -3.3%|201 104| 239 526 1,337 55 899 May. 19,332 -4.8%|201 96| 222 442 1,028 43 1,255 June 18,779 -2.9%|201 96| 462 512 670 62 1,095 July 18,517 -1.4%|201* 92| 591 823 476 40 911 * 169 lines at Carleton plus 32 lines at Mitel d) Member Usage Data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The total number of sessions was down slightly (-1.7%) on the main modem pool. The number of unique users however, dropped dramatically to 7,470. PPP usage continues to rise now representing about 16% of the sessions on the main modem pool and all sessions on the Mitel node. At present levels, most users will access NCF with just 1 dial. The chart following this, illustrates the results of our "busy-test" software. No. Of No. Of | Max # Avg # Max % Avg.% | Avg. Weekly Unique | PPP PPP PPP PPP | No. Sessions Users | Users Users Usage Usage | Busy ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~ Sep. | 9.3% 0.7% | Oct. 80,169 | 3.3% 2.0% | Nov. 74,359 10,150 | 39 12 13.3% 6.4% | Dec. 74,816 9,655 | 39 14 20.7% 7.4% | Jan. 74,270 9,683 | 52 19 27.7% 10.1% | Feb. 71,271 9,299 | 52 19 27.7% 10.1% | Mar. 72,417 9,333 | 52 19 27.7% 10.1% | 1.2 Mar.EA | 26 5 54.2% 10.4% | Apr. 65,844 8,576 | 49 19 26.1% 10.1% | Apr.EA | 32 9 66.7% 18.8% | May 64,439 8,235 | 58 22 30.9% 11.7% | 1.1 May EA | 34 12 70.8% 25.0% | Jun 60,643 11,109 | 62 26 33.0% 13.8% | 1.1 Jun EA 4,992 910 | 34 12 70.8% 25.0% | Jul. 59,638 7,470 | 67 30 35.6% 16.0% | 1.1** see below Jul EA* | 34 12 70.8% 25.0%| * EA: traffic on the Extended Access Lines at Our Mitel node ** Results obtained from software to test for busy signals: Connect on 9 attempts: 2 0.1% Average: 1.1 Connect on 8 attempts: 6 0.2% Median: 1.0 Connect on 7 attempts: 2 0.1% Maximum: 9.0 Connect on 4 attempts: 5 0.1% Connect on 5 attempts: 13 0.3% Connect on 4 attempts: 17 0.4% Connect on 3 attempts: 27 0.7% Connect on 2 attempts: 52 1.3% Connect on 1 attempt: 3,808 96.8% ~~~~~ ~~~~~ Total in sample: 3,932 100.0% e) Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There were no new Lines sponsors in July, but one new organizational account was registered: "Issues Network". the number of IPs declined slightly as did the number of member homepages. These reductions are seen to go hand-in-hand with the decline in membership. Org. Org. | Line Line | New Total Free -Dec. | Home of Accts Accts | Spons Spons | IPs IPs Pages % | Page Memb ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~ Apr. | 1 1 | 2 | May. 4 4| 1 2 | 4 | Jun. 0 4| 1 3 | 2 | Jul. 1 5| 1 4 | 2 | Aug. 1 6| 0 4 | 2 | Sep. 2 8| 0 4 | 1 | Oct. 3 11| 0 4 | 1 | Nov. 3 14| 0 4 | +/-300 55 |1,224 5.7% Dec. 0 14| 1 5 | 1 301 57 3.6% |1,205 5.7% Jan. 1 15| 1 6 | 28 329 56 -1.8% |1,310 6.2% Feb. 2 17| 0 6 | -7 322 67 19.6% |1,316 6.3% Mar. 1 18| 0 6 | -1 321 66 -1.5% |1,319 6.3% Apr. 4 22| 0 6 | 0 321 65 -1.5% |1,319 6.5% May 4 26| 0 6 | 0 321 71 9.2% |1,231 6.4% June 1 27| 2 8 | 0 321 68 -4.2% |1,194 6.4% July 1* 28| 0 8 | -2 319 66 -2.9% |1,175 6.3% * New Organizational Account: Issues Network g) Government Grants ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (i) Industry Canada: A proposal, which may include participation related to our Seniors project, is to be drafted by late summer and presented to Industry Canada. h) Public Relations Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FreeNews - monthly is available in text format, at "go freenews" and on the web at: http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/freenews/. Ads were run in both Monitor Magazine and Ottawa Computes. These ads promoted our "Member-get-a-Member" drive. Planning continues for the Bike rally "Harvest Ride", the joint fundraiser with Citizens for Safe Cycling on Sunday September 20, 1998. John Lacharity, CBO Radio's morning host will be Honorary Chair. Sabrina Howe (TeKarae) has been engaged to secure sponsors and donations. The minimum pledge will be $25 per rider with approximately 200 - 500 expected. Complete details are available at http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/ride/. i) Funding Administrivia ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The on-line list of donor files was updated to reflect all July donations. Thank You letters were sent to all donors. j) Outreach ~~~~~~~~ Seniors Internet Clubs: The first meeting of the Kiwanian Alex Dayton Senior's Activity Centre Internet program was held on July 30, 1998 with 20 Seniors in attendance. Meetings will be held weekly throughout August at 1:30 PM. on Mondays. In September, the schedule will be altered to fit the annual program, but will continue weekly. The first meeting of the Abbotsford Seniors Centre Internet program will be held on September 30, 1998 at 10:00 AM. 2. NCF Administration ====================== a) Top Five Priorities ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) Financial: Funding Drive (2) Recruit new Sysadmin (3) Membership Development: - Senior Citizen Internet Clubs (4) Technical - Install new 28.8 Kbps modems (5) Projects: - Pursue Industry Canada funding proposal - volunteer pool party b) Network Upgrades & Performance ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (i) Sysadmin recruitment: The search continues for a replacement Sysadmin. To date, we have received 27 applicants. 16 of these clearly had no qualifications. we have eliminated a further 8 candidates on the basis of insufficient knowledge/experience, or inappropriate salary expectations. This leaves 3 candidates (2 new today) whom we have yet to contact. A print ad has yet to be placed, but we continue to post to various electronic forums weekly. (ii) Power Outage: A power outage at 7pm on Sunday Jul 5th, took down all the FreeNet systems, as well as all of Carleton's. Most services were re-instated within a few hours, but it took several days to clean up all damaged files so that all machines would run. (iii) Web Server Upgraded: The Web Server was upgraded from Netscape Enterprise 2.0 to Netscape Enterprise 2.01 on freenet4. This fixes a whole bunch of bugs, and Ian Allen suggests that our looping problem might be among them, which will give this server considerably better reliability. Certainly, webpages load more quickly now. (iv) Non-peak hours extended: As of July 22, 1998, the non-peak hours to have been extended to a new window of: "12 midnight to 12 noon each day" During this period, one-hour sessions will continue to be enforced, but time will not be accumulated against user's daily quotas. (v) Search Engine: Yannick did one last refresh of the index for the search engine. This process must be attended and will bit likely be performed again until we engage a new Sysadmin. (vi) ncf.CA: The domain "ncf.CA" was registered. (vii) Gateway machine: On July 28, Carleton suffered air conditioning problems in their computer room. The following morning, a CCS staff member discovered that the NCF gateway machine was running extremely hot and that the fan in the machine wasn't working. Losing the Gateway machine took down all NCF systems. The power supply fan was replaced and the machine restarted within about 3 hours of the initial trouble report. c) FreeNet Next Generation Project ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Development of this and all other new projects will be suspended until a new Sysadmin is hired and is up to speed. 3. Member Services and Future Initiatives ========================================== a) Member-Get-A-Member Campaign May 8th, 1998 to July 5th, 1998 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The contest closed with 1,403 new members registered and $10,446 in donations registered at the final tally. The grand prize will be drawn at the next Board meeting on August 18th. Given our need for fresh new members, the contest was certainly worth doing and consideration should be given to running a similar event again. If repeated however, the process of entry should be simplified. Similarly, we may not want to dedicate such large volunteer effort to on-site registrations such as the Myers showroom sessions, as these did not seem to fare as well as expected, notwithstanding the significant amount of effort to man the booth. b) Funding drive ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cash projections suggest that at our present donation/expense levels, we will exhaust the cash reserve in November. On order to encourage members to provide an incremental donation or for those who donate nothing, to provoke them to donate, a funding drive scheme has been developed. The program has three main elements: The first element is to foster discussion in online forums such as ncf.board.speakers-corner. The second element, a login screen message indicating the need for an additional $40,000 was installed on August 3rd. The final stage, an e-mail message to all NCF members will be sent out shortly (as volunteer sysadmin staffing permits) and then repeated at regular intervals throughout the drive. Since the login screen was installed, we have received 46 donations which are neither renewals nor registrations. Most come with notes saying something like "don't quit, I like it, here's my contribution" The dollar total for this group is $1,503 with four $100 donations and 42 others averaging $26. -- *** Christopher L. Cope, Executive Director *** National Capital Freenet / Libertel de la Capitale nationale tel. (613) 520-2600 ext. 8024 -or- fax (613) 520-3524