Executive Director's Report December, 1998 =========================== January 16, 1998 By Christopher L. Cope (execdir@freenet.carleton.ca) Contents: 1. Administration & Funding 2. Member Services and Future Initiatives 3. System Administration 1. Administration & Funding =========================== a) Donation Data - New Registrations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 154 new members registered in December, (63% under Budget) bringing our total for the year to 3,488. This is about half (50.4%) of the 6,923 members who registered in 1997. New members contributed $2,232 in December (under Budget by 16%) bringing our total for the year to $35,668 (under Budget by 23%) and about 25% less than last year's $47,395. 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. 356 750 -53% 114 32.0% $ 2,338 $ 4,800 -51% $20.51 $ 6.57 Sep. 256 767 -67% 119 46.5% $ 2,863 $ 4,908 -42% $24.06 $11.18 Oct. 220 696 -68% 119 54.1% $ 3,064 $ 4,454 -31% $25.75 $13.93 Nov. 187 529 -65% 89 47.6% $ 2,321 $ 3,387 -31% $26.08 $12.41 Dec. 154 413 -63% 104 67.5% $ 2,232 $ 2,642 -16% $21.46 $14.50 ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'98 3,488 7,224 -52% 1,499 43.0% $35,668 $46,225 -23% $23.79 $10.23 Avg'98 291 602 -52% 125 43.0% $ 2,972 $ 3,852 -23% $23.79 $10.23 b) Donation Data - Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 585 members renewed their NCF accounts in December, (34% under Budget) bringing our total for the year to 9,697. This is about three quarters (73.27%) of the 13,235 members who registered in 1997. New members contributed $13,630 in December (57% greater than Budget) bringing our total for the year to $156,819 (under Budget by -31%) and about 16% less than last year's $186,716. 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. 310 188 65% 218 70.3% $ 4,722 $ 4,551 4% $21.66 $15.23 Sep. 246 192 28% 214 87.0% $ 5,075 $ 4,307 18% $23.71 $20.63 Oct. 243 174 40% 235 96.7% $ 5,546 $ 4,233 31% $23.60 $22.82 Nov. 318 132 141% 226 71.1% $ 5,045 $ 3,643 38% $22.32 $15.86 Dec. 585 885 -34% 487 83.2% $ 13,630 $ 8,656 57% $27.99 $23.30 ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'98 9,697 10,012 -3% 6,465 66.7% $156,819 $228,388 -31% $24.26 $16.17 AVG'98 808 834 -3% 539 66.7% $ 13,068 $ 19,032 -31% $24.26 $16.17 c) Funding Drive ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Donations continued to trickle in during December even though the Donation Drive ended formally on October 31st. The total amount raised through the donation drive so far is $34,033. No. of Period Donors Donation ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ 30-31 Jul 98 11 $ 300 August 98 267 $ 9,013 September 98 374 $11,711 October 98 307 $ 9,151 November 98 63 $ 1,790 December 98 81 $ 2,068 ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ 1,103 $34,033 (average: $30.85) d) Membership Activity: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As in several previous months, the membership figure 19,682 is somewhat overstated as archiving is not being performed. Based on typical declines in earlier months, membership is estimated to be 16,500. Using this number (16,500) and calculating on the basis of 44 lines at Mitel, our member to line ratio can be restated as 77:1 during evening hours. |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 Aug. 18,867 1.9%|201 94| 356 750 310 - - Sep. 19,130 1.4%|201 95| 256 767 246 - - Oct. 19,343 1.1%|201 96| 220 696 243 - - Nov. 19,535 1.0%|208 94| 187 529 318 - - Dec. 19,682 0.8%|213* 92| 154 413 585 - - e) Member Usage Data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Member usage continued to decline on our main modem pool to 46,080 sessions weekly, by some 6,232 unique users. This is partially offset by an increase in usage of the Mitel lines, but the total at 51,322 is 2.9% less than last month. 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 Jul EA | 34 12 70.8% 25.0%| Aug. 57,236 7,203 | 68 32 68.0% 32.0% | 1.1 Aug EA | 35 15 72.9% 31.3% | Sep. 51,664 7,016 | 71 31 37.8% 16.5% | 1.2 Sep EA | 37 16 77.1% 22.9% | Oct. 50,690 6,746 | 68 27 45.3% 18.0% | 1.2 Oct EA | 42 19 87.5% 39.6% | Nov. 48,758 6,552 | 102 47 54.3% 25.0% | 1.1 Nov EA* 4,100 869 | 44 17 91.7% 35.4% | Dec. 46,080 6,232 | 109 55 58.0% 29.3% | 1.3 ** see below Dec EA 5,242 934 | 44 21 91.7% 43.8% | * EA: traffic on the Extended Access Lines at our Mitel node - weekly sessions are estimated by dividing the total for the month: 22,697 by 4.33 weeks = 5,242 sessions weekly ** This table illustrates that members continue to be able to connect to NCF with only one attempt approximately 91.5% of the time, These results were obtained from the aggregate of [98/11/27 17:51 to 98/11/30 10:57], [98/12/09 17:35 to 98/12/10 13:52] and [98/12/14 18:23 to 98/12/15 16:44] Connect on 9 attempts: 5 0.3% Average: 1.3 Connect on 8 attempts: 17 0.9% Median: 1.0 Connect on 7 attempts: 8 0.4% Maximum: 9.0 Connect on 6 attempts: 17 0.9% Connect on 5 attempts: 21 1.1% Connect on 4 attempts: 25 1.3% Connect on 3 attempts: 26 1.3% Connect on 2 attempts: 46 2.4% Connect on 1 attempts: 1,766 91.5% ~~~~~ ~~~~~ Total in sample: 1,931 100.0% f) Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We added three new organizational accounts this month: Daylight Accounting Services, Woman to Woman Computing, Malico Graphic Design & Internet Development Org. Org. | Line Line | New Total Free -Dec. | Home of Accts Accts | Spons Spons | IPs IPs Pages % | Page Memb ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~ 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% Aug. 2 30| 0 8 | -12 307 75 13.6% |1,184 6.3% Sep. 2 32| 0 8 | 1 308 76 1.3% |1,189 6.2% Oct. 3 35| 0 8 | 3 311 79 3.9% |1,206 6.2% Nov. 1 36| 0 8 | 2 313 86 8.9% |1,206 6.2% Dec. 3 39| 0 8 | 2 315 86 - |1,207 6.1% g) Renewal / Donation Strategy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our "minimum contribution" program is off to an excellent start. As the Charts above show, our percentage of renewal donors is 83.2%, with an average donation of $27.99, which is quite close to our prediction. The net average for all renewals however is at $23.30 however, slightly less than the $24.00 we need. This crop of renewals however includes many members who received notices prior to our December 1st change. In December, no member was refused renewal regardless of whether they contributed. We did not experience a landslide from people who wished to avoid contributing, nor did we experience a massive number of "hollow volunteerism" from members wishing only to avoid cash payment, We did however recruit about a dozen new volunteers, some of whom have been members for several years. Our program served as a catalyst to prompt their input. h) Funding Administrivia ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The on-line list of donor files was updated to reflect all November donations. Thank You letters were sent to all donors. 2. Member Services and Future Initiatives ========================================== a) Scotia Bank - Donation collections ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our program with the Bank of Nova Scotia to act as an alternate delivery service for member donations has proven to be a significant success. We are receiving 15 to 20 envelopes each week with donations enclosed (mostly renewals). b) Government Grants ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (i) Industry Canada (Community Access Program) Industry Canada has approved in principal a small contract for NCF to prepare an Urban CAP roll-out strategy document. Contract details are being finalized and the project should commence in mid-January. The project team consists primarily of Jeff Bossert (au025) and Jean Wilmot (aa145) with input from me. (ii)Industry Canada (Volnet Program) It is likely that an Ottawa consortium will be included among Volnet's "early starters" The consortium will be formed as a partnership between The Volunteer Centre of Ottawa/Carleton and NCF. The plan calls for a Letter Of Intent to be sent to Industry Canada this month with an assessment phase which could commence as early as February. Final implementation of the contract could then begin in April. If accepted, the project could include providing computers, Internet connection and training to approximately 225 volunteer organizations in the National Capital region. Our project team for the initial phases of this initiative are Lyn Shouldice (ah940), Peter Lage (da198) and Pierre DeGuire (eb105) Lyn Shouldice will co-chair the team with me. d) Public Relations Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ads were run in both Monitor Magazine and Ottawa Computes. These ads promoted "Join FreeNet, we make the Internet Easy." The ads included a registration form. e) Outreach ~~~~~~~~ Seniors Internet Program: The first session at the Good Companions Centre, was held January 12, 1999. Jules Lafrance (ab388) lead the team, assisted Robert Young (ab957), Lyn Shouldice (ah940) and Jean Wilmot (aa145. f) FreeNews ~~~~~~~~ FreeNews readership has increased since the publication has been published under the guidance of John Angus (an321). The humorous and at times irreverent somewhat racy style which John has brought to the publication is certainly the reason for this increased popularity. This approach while popular, tends to move the positioning of newsletter away from the objectives and needs of NCF management and Board. Our current practice of announcing significant items in ncf.announce and in our monthly email bulletin (dubbed the "message from MoM") is judged to be sufficient to inform members of news related to management of NCF. Future editions of FreeNews will be disenfranchised as an "official publication" representing the management of NCF. Future editions will not contain references to our Public Relations Team and the masthead will bear a disclaimer stating that the contents reflect the opinions of the various contributors, and do not necessarily reflect the position or opinions of management. Nonetheless, John is to be commended and encouraged to continue to offer this fresh new monthly feature which by growing its following will grow NCF membership. g) CapitalFind ~~~~~~~~~~~ Richard Bethell (cj434) and his team of volunteers are progressing on CapitalFind and the page can now be seen at: http://www.ncf.ca/capitalfind Richard has prepared a style guide (draft for now) for participants in the project, which can be seen at: http://www.ncf.ca/ncf/test/xx434/guide.html h) Volunteer Coordination ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The minimum contribution program has produced about a dozen new volunteers and on January 23rd, at 9:30 AM, we plan to hold the first in a series of "New Volunteer Orientation" sessions at the Olde Forge Community Resource Centre, corner of Carling Avenue and Richmond Road. We hope to welcome these new volunteers and provide some background and training to make their participation not only valuable, but enjoyable. Following the orientation portion of the program, new and existing volunteers are invited to join us in a Volunteer appreciation pizza-n'-pop luncheon. i) Web-based e-mail as a catalyst for membership building ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have a web-based email client installed in test mode, and expect to be able to offer this service within the next month or so. Having a Web interface for email may offer significant latent opportunity for membership building schemes. Two initiatives which I will explore are: (1) email-4-students Most schools offer web-connected computers. Students currently use services such as Hotmail, Rocketmail etc. much to the dismay of educators and school administrators, who tell horror stories of hate mail, stalking and unsolicited pornography offered through these systems. In fact, the Province of New Brunswick has banned such services from all schools and libraries in the province and have taken steps to prevent browsers in these institutions accessing these URLs. A service which is based on NCF membership, with authenticated users avoids many of these difficulties. Assuming that the schools, or at least some of them buy in to this program, it should be possible to ask the school administrators to act as our proxy in the authentication process although membership will still be voluntary. (2) email-4-everybody Similarly, many Ottawa residents have an Internet connection at their workplace, but might prefer to have an email service which is not connected in any way to their employer. I will investigate ways to market this service, putting the spin on it that our mail is more respected than the commercial services, not only because we authenticate users, but also because we do good things in the community. j) Top Five Priorities - ED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) Membership Building - flyer (2) Membership building - email-4-students/-4-everybody (3) Y2K Issues - System design (4) Kick off new Volunteer events & Strategy (5) Industry Canada Programs: - Urban CAP - Volnet 3. System Administration ======================== a) Daytime Extended Access ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mitel has allowed us to make use of 33 telephone lines in the daytime. Bell Canada has programmed their DMS switch to forward calls to a different number on Mitel's PBX, which in turn routes these calls to our Cisco AS 5100 terminal server. During the evening, the DMS switch is programmed to route calls to a different number at Mitel, where we are able to enjoy 44 lines. b) Connection Problems - Extended Access ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Some members have been experiencing premature disconnection on the Mitel lines, sometimes after only a few minutes of connect time. Our present set-up at night utilizes 15 ISDN channels, with overflow on 33 copper lines. During the daytime, we use only the 33 copper lines. It appears that the connection failures relate to the copper lines, but one or several of our modems may be causing problems. Mitel is assisting by providing detailed log information on the use of these lines. c) Install Plaintree switch - Reconfigure modem dial-up lines ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Plaintree has donated a 1018 Ethernet switch to NCF. This switch will be installed on our network so as to provide the greatest bandwidth to those of our servers with greatest traffic. At the same time, we will be installing approximately 50 28.8 Kbps modems. Our Xylogics annex terminal servers can be configured to re-initialize the modems after each disconnect. This configuration needs to take in to account different initialization strings for the several different modem types installed. Once these changes have been completed, the final stage will be to have Bell reconfigure the hunt group line assignments so that all high speed modems will be accessible from 520-9013, with the remaining 14.4 Kbps modems accessible through 520-1135/30 and 520-7835. d) Webmail ~~~~~~~ CWMail is a likely candidate for webmail, although several alternatives are being tested. Currently, a trial version of CWMail has been installed on freenet4 for testing. e) Modem Sharing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jim Elder (aa456) is making great progress in his software to manage modem usage for members connecting to NCF using a PPP connection. Ian Allen (aa610) has been working with Jim on the Freeport side of things, to achieve the goal of implementing a universal resource-sharing scheme which will come in to play, regardless of the method of connection. Members logged in in PPP will be able to surf to a webpage, which will detail their current session details: Start time, Modem pool status, Session limit (if any) and Peak time used etc. The plan is to allow members to stay connected longer than one hour provided that the modem pool is not busy. Similarly, when a member has already used up all of his peak time allotment, he will still be able to connect, but if the modem pool is busy, the connection will be broken in a few minutes (5 minutes is currently planned), otherwise the member will be able to stay logged in. The new software will allow us to implement a new "modem sharing" policy, replacing the current "time limits" policy. A draft of the new policy follows: Modem Sharing Policy: To promote sharing of NCF modems, modem usage may be limited as follows: 1. Sessions may be limited to one hour. If your session is ended, you may dial in again for another session. Taking a break gives other people a chance to use the modems. 2. The sum of session times during "peak period" (noon to midnight) may be limited to 2 hours. Usage outside of the peak period is not limited. 3. A session may be ended if the modem is idle for 10 minutes. Comments: - You may "telnet" from the internet to NCF or use web pages at NCF any time from the internet. Sessions not involving NCF modems are always as long as you like. - Even after you've used all your peak period time, you may still connect for short sessions (or longer, if the modem pool is not busy). - Sometimes modem connections break due to line noise and other problems. - You can conserve connection time and share modems with others by working offline if possible (composing email, etc), and then connect when you need network access. f) Bandwidth - Carleton's Pipe ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Carleton expects to complete their installation of a 5 Megabit ATM switch, connected to OCRInet and CAnetII by the end of January, 1999. We will enjoy considerably enhanced performance on completion. g) ncf.ca ~~~~~~ NCF email has been configured to utilize the domain ncf.ca. Now, email will be correctly delivered, whether sent to @ncf.ca or @freenet.carleton.ca. Outgoing email is unchanged at this time, and will continue to show @freenet.carleton.ca. The initial response to this change has been excellent, particularly among IPs and those with PFAs. Something like "ccope@ncf.ca" is so much easier to tell people. g) Top Five Priorities - Sysadmin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) Resolve connection problems on Mitel server (2) Webserver upgrade - possibly re-locate to f1 (3) Install Plaintree switch; 28.8 Kbps modems & configure Annex terminal servers (4) Implement a webmail interface (5) Install & test NCF listerserver