NCF Operations Report December 2000 =========================== January 29, 2001 Graeme Beckett president@ncf.ca aw958@ncf.ca Contents: 1. Status Report 2. Administration & Funding 3. Member Services and Future Initiatives 4. System Administration Appendices A Chart showing Registration Donations B Chart showing Renewal Donations C Chart showing Membership Activity D Chart showing Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers 1. Status Report ================ a) Key Indicators: Nov. Dec. % | Dec. % 2000 2000 Inc/Dec | 1999 Inc/Dec ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ | ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ 1. Number of members: 7,755 7590 -2.1% | 10,325 -26.5% 2. Donation Revenue: $ 9,134 $12,421 36.0% | $12,994 -4.4% 3. Percentage donating: 88.1% 80.0% -9,2% | 77.8% 2.8% 4. Average Donation: $ 25.59 $ 34.50 34.8% | $32.16 7.3% b) Top Priorities - Sysadmin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) Replace overheating news disk with external drive unit, replace F1 ram (2) Fine tune and modify new access servers & assess change (3) Restore time limits (Modem Server) on reconfigured lines (4) Continue to migrate POP server to new SS20 (donated by Alcatel) (5) Determine with Mitel personel why one modem line does not appear to be working. (6) Install redundant back-up boot disk on Gateways (Mitel & Carleton) 2. Administration & Funding =========================== a) Donation Data - New Registrations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The number of new members was slightly better than Budget in December with 111 new members joining. Revenue was under Budget however, at $1,842 primarily because the percentage of donors at 60.6 % fell well short of the predicted 85%. The situation is quite similar on a year-to-date basis, with some 1,567 new members exceeding the forecasted 1,176 (+33%), donating a total of $19,720 or 28% less than Budget. (See Appendix "A") b) Donation Data - Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The number of renewals in December was 339; this was below (-30%) the predicted 482. Of these, 86% donated and the revenue associated with renewals at $10,579 was $1,721 below our forecast at $12,300 (-14%). Renewals for all of 2000 are slightly above predictions with 5,382 members having been renewed this year, compared to our forecast of 3,964 (+38%). Renewal donations for the year total $137,627 vs. a budget figure of $105,700 (+30%). (See Appendix "B") c) Membership Activity: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Membership continued to decline this month: now standing at 7,590, dropping 2.1% in the month. The year-to-date decline is some 2,415 members or about 24% since January 1, 2000. (See Appendix "C") d) Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The number of NCF menus remains at about 1,812. The number of IP web pages increased by one in December to 485 with no loss of IP's in the month. For the year the number of Information Providers increased by very healthy 217 (+81) thanks in most part to the Volnet program (NCF and Volunteer Ottawa). month. The number of personal homepages endsthe year at approximately 662, continuing to represent about 8.5% of our members. (See Appendix "D) f) Audit Requirements: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At the present time our accountant believes we have provided all the required documentation for the annual audit. g) Press Interview ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ January 12 the NCF President, Graeme Beckett (aw958) had a press interview with Steve Bouchard of "The News", who called from a local community newspaper that has editions for various areas of the Ottawa region. The scope of the discussion centered on NCF and community web pages and what the NCF offers. h) Office Help ~~~~~~~~~~~ Help for our Office Administrator continues to be an elusive but critical element of serving our members, both existing and new. 520-2600 ext 8368 is now used in the Monitor Magazine add as the membership line and office staff and helpers try to answer it as a priority. Our Office Administrator Sheila Alder (xx001) had a meeting on Tuesday January 15 with Social Services Placement. This is a new restructured Social Services representing various regions of Ottawa and there were lots of placement officers as opposed to a single officer. The NCF was one of only two presentations for the group at the time. The NCF has had some great success stories moving clients to paying jobs and our Help-Desk and office success stories were part of the presentation i) Modem Availability ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mitel is now down from 44+ lines during the day to only 16 from 6 am to 6 pm. Recent reports in ncf.admin indicate that busy signals are on the increase. We are pleased that programing changes to the Mitel PBX has now provided us with 47 working evening lines (6 pm to 6 am) up from approximately 44-46 of the 48 available lines. The 16 daytime lines at Mitel are almost consistantly 100% in use from 9 am to 6 pm. The high speed lines 520-9013 run very close to 100% usage from 9:30 am until midnight. Its difficult to tell 100% usage on 9013 because of the flaws that require the reboot of the 3com equipment overnight. The modems on 520-1135/1130 are readily available during the day at the present time, with use spiking up at 4 pm and heavy usage (near 100%) from 7 pm until 11 pm. Some busy signals are being reported on 520-1135/1130 in the evenings. 3. Member Services and Future Initiatives ========================================== a) Projects ~~~~~~~~ (i) Extended Access II - RMOC: Unchanged: Progress will be contingent on moving ahead with Smart Capital Project. SmartCapital agreements with OCRI almost ready (see ii). (ii) Industry Canada - SmartCapital: At the time of this report we have just received draft contribution agreements for the NCF's SmartCapital project. There are two agreements; (i) a master agreement between Industry Canada and OCRI and (ii) a SmartCapital Partner (there are 14 partner organizations of which NCF is one) agreement between OCRI and the NCF. This project was on temporarily in hiatus, pending Industry Canada's delay in signing the contribution agreement with OCRI, which formalizes arrangements and starts the cash flow once the draft agreements are finalized and signed by the partners and OCRI. (iii) Industry Canada - Urban CAP: Graeme Beckett (aw958) will continue to participate in committee meetings and monitor the activities of the Ottawa CAP Consortium. The Ottawa Carleton School Board pulled out of the CAP program as they were unable to negotiate an agreement with Industry Canada that suited their objectives. This lowers the overall number of CAP sites in the Ottawa region to about 150. The NCF should maintain relationships with the CAP partners as an NCF (authenticated) Webmail project may be beneficial to the CAP partners and in turn the additional exposure may be source of new NCF members. The Next CAP meeting is on January 30 2001. Some of the issues for discussion will include: * Changes in OCC Network representatives * Final locations of approved CAP sites * "Readiness" status of sites * Impact of the Amalgamation of the new city of Ottawa * Inclusion of additional public access networks * Update on OCRI's Think Tank on the Digital Divide * Update on progress of the Technical Literacy Program * Update on sustainability avenues for individual CAP sites and the OCC as a whole * Provision of services for the disabled (iv) HRDC (Office of Learning Technology): Thin Client: We now have the licensing arrangements with Microsoft Canada to use their software and have taken delivery of donated Microsoft software. One of the next steps will be to approach Microsoft and discuss the valuation of the software and a desire to split this donation into two sets of user licenses for Thin Client I and Thin Client II. It was somewhat difficult but very slow process to aquire the initial donation and Microsoft has indicated they may be reluctant to make a further donation because of a shift in policy and who they wish to target donations to. Any changes in the project require approval at HRDC. Shortly before he left Chris Cope (ED) arranged with HRDC to extend the length of the contract because of the delays in aquiring partner aggreements. (v) HRDC (Office of Learning Technology: WebMail We have informed our contact at HRDC of the release of or Executive Director and that the project was proceeding behind schedule and HRDC seems amiable to extending the time frame. b) New Access Servers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Systems administrator Andre Dalle (xx178) will be keeping in touch with the senior engineers at 3Com to continue our efforts of having 3COM find a solution and deliver a firmware upgrade to us for the RAS 1500 access servers. c) High Tech Directory ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mark Mielke (al278) has received all of the documents and communications with Richard Webb (dw413) including the draft contract prepared by Chris Cope (NCF's former ED) and has been undergoing communications with Mr Webb to get up to speed and to further the discussions on the High Tech Directory proposal. d) NCF Modem Challenge Contest ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Contest officially closed on December 14, 2000 with $11,095 raised (more money expected to trickle in) and 237 new members were registered. The NCF Modem Challenge Contest had been extended to December 14th in an effort to reach our target of $15,000. Information about the contest and challenge is available at http://www.ncf.ca/ncf/contest or in text at "go contest" The prize winners are as follows: 1. Grand Prize - John D. Drew (en203) An external CD Burner donated by the Clones Society 2. Second Prize - Susan Beyer (eo444) TDK V.34 data/fax modem PC card (for laptops) 3. Third Prize - Lyn Shouldice (ah940) Motorola V.34R fax/modem (external) for PC's or Mac's 4. Fourth Prize - Adolf J. Kohler (bm563) Softquad's HotMetal Pro 5.0 web designing software e) Seniors Training Programs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The seniors training courses at both senior citizens activity centres Has started up for 2001. We have a new volunteer at Abbotsford Seniors Centre on Bank Street who looks very promising. The Good Companions Centre is also on track with its volunteer. f) Volnet Web Hosting ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are up-to-date on our stats for our Volnet web hosting (October and November's were delayed), and hope to continue hosting beyond March 31, the expiry date of the existing contract. g) Message From MOM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With thanks to Mark Mielke (al278) we now have a new mail script for sending messages to all our members. This script is more automated than the one used in the past and offers a lower load on the system. Further monitoring of it will be required as there were some reports of mail being turned away from the NCF during a MOM, and SMTP went down around the same time. This may have been coincidental as Freenet1 acts up on occasion. The new script will allow us to communicate with the membership in a much more timely manner with minimal staff time! h) NCF 8th Birthday Party ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jessica Cohen and Marissa Bovey and their team of volunteers are making good progress with the NCF Birthday Party planning for February 8! i) NCF AGM ~~~~~~~ The Chair of the AGM this year is Jessica Cohen jcohen@ncf.ca This year, there will be elections for 7 seats on the Board of Directors. The AGM time-line provided by Jessica is as follows: Deadline for submission of motions from the floor (special business): Sunday, January 28th, 2001 at midnight Nomination of candidates opens: Tuesday February 6, 2001 at 8:00 a.m. Nomination of candidates closes: Friday February 23, 2001 at midnight Voting Opens: Tuesday February 27, 2001 at 8:00 a.m. Voting Closes: Tuesday March 13, 2001 at 6:00 p.m. j) NCF Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~ (i) Jim Elder has fixed the renewal log-in message that indicated a members account was 10,000 or so years overdue. Unfortunately the fix created another problem when one logs into the "Legacy" choice on the text system. The login menu has a display problem but does cause any problems with any other of the menus. (ii) Renewal letter: Good progress has been made and the new renewal letter is ready. 4. System Administration ======================== a) Reliability Concerns ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The majority of concerns with the 14.4 Kbps modem bank have been isolated to the 520-1130 modems and annex2. These problems affect 520-1135 as well, because when all 520-1135 lines are busy, calls automatically spill over to 520-1130. The ED offered modemreport@ncf.ca as an email box to reply to after he had a lot of members complaining about the modems during the modem funding drive. Because many members replied back with assorted questions it now has an auto-responder that says in part, thank you, if you need help use "go mail" for text users and for graphical users email help@ncf.ca. We now have a volunteer cg870 to look through the records and a subsequent grep of the downloaded email showed no matches on any of the ports. The Systems administrator continues to reset hung ports and look for defective modems on 520-1135/1130. b) Extended Access - Mitel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mitel has done an analysis and restruturing of of its phone systems As a consequence they removed the analogue lines the NCF was using during the daytime. We still have digital access but only 16 lines from 6 am to 6 pm Monday to Friday. From 6 pm to 6 am and 24 hours a day on Saturday and Sunday we thankfully retain 48 lines. Stats show only 47 lines maximum in use. Our contact at Mitel indicated that annex at Mitel seemed to be doing something odd, as if it was attempting to dial out after each call. The PBX has been fine tuned and at peak 47 lines (when available) is better than we had before when approximately 44-46 lines appeared to be functional. Usage graphs are showing all 16 lines fully in use Mon-Fri 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. The actual line restructuring on Mitel was done on January 19, and ncf.admin has now received several complaints of busy phone lines. c) Migrate POP ~~~~~~~~~~~ Alcatel has donated a Newbridge 'ATM Routing Station'. It is in fact built on a Sparc20 with a Newbridge chassis. We have relocated the Sun parts into a Sun Xterminal1 chassis. This will be the final hardware setup for the replacement POP/IMAP server: SS20, 256MB RAM, SM71 CPU, and a 4.5GB disk for mail folders. Once operational, this system will be more robust and considerably more efficient and should be capable of handling POP and IMAP loads much better than our current arrangement. Update: The main drive and boot disk transfered to the Sparc 20 failed and with no backup available for the system the sysadmin had to rebuild from scratch, a major setback but significant progress has eventually been made. d) Webserver & System Architecture ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The files System architecture needs to be modified and cleaned up before we proceed with the planned changes for an updated webserver. Once all files and importantly, the webroot, the search engine as well as the configuration of software redirects and virtual servers currently being served by the production webserver have been moved to freenet9, the Apache server currently running there in test mode will be implemented as the main web server. Update: The failure of the disk drive in the Sparc 20 has delayed this work. e) Overheating on freenet9 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Seagate disks in the UltraSPARC system have been overheating, causing SCSI errors and problems accessing newsgroups on occasion requiring forced reboots The Sysadmin has purchased for a very nominal fee a used dual-drive SCSI case as a solution. The case has just been tested in advance of installation. Downtime could be fairly long as the data will need to be transfered from the drives in the Ultra Sparc to the drives in the new SCSI box. Freenet9 and the drive box use different SCSI types. At the moment Freenet9 has 4 hard drives and cdrom in a small case. A pair of 5.25" disk mounting assemblies with triple-fans on each assembly have been purchased and will be used to much improve airflow in the UltraSPARC. f) System Backups ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One of the NCF backup groups is now too big to fit on short 8mm tapes and the other backup group runs only because a couple of NCF file systems have been moved into CCS backup groups. John Stewart of CCS has asked us to purchase 20 long (160m) 8mm tapes for Carleton. A box of 20 8mm tapes has been ordered and should arrive in DT402 on Monday January 29. g) Archivals ~~~~~~~~~ During December the Sysadmin un-archived 3 accounts. Fourteen more await un-archiving. h) Freenet1 ~~~~~~~~ On occasion Freenet1 seems to do some odd things. As an example, SMTP has without warning gone down (infrequent). Freeport, PFA's and a number of other things run on Freenet1. During the next downtime the memory in this machine should be exchanged with some spare memory. i) Bell Internet link Failure ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On January 12 and 13 Bell had a major Internet link failure in Ottawa that at most times times was completely down. Both Carleton ONET and Mitel service was affected. Appendix A Registration Donations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No. No. % Of Avg. Avg. New Budget Regist Memb $ Budget Regist Donat'n Memb. (No.) Var Donate Donate Amount ($) Var Donat'n All New ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ YTD'99 2,521 4,200 -40% 1,198 47.5% $28,153 $42,000 -33% $23.50 $11.17 Avg'99 210 350 -40% 100 47.5% $ 2,346 $ 3,500 -33% $23.50 $11.17 2000 Jan. 162 98 65% 73 45.1% $ 1,743 $ 2,500 -30% $23.88 $10.76 Feb. 191 98 95% 64 33.5% $ 2,021 $ 2,500 -19% $31.58 $10.58 Mar. 153 98 56% 92 60.1% $ 2,871 $ 2,500 15% $31.21 $18.78 Apr. 115 98 17% 66 57.4% $ 1,620 $ 2,500 -35% $24.55 $14.09 May. 112 98 13% 59 52.7% $ 1,707 $ 2,500 -32% $28.93 $15.24 Jun. 122 98 24% 51 41.8% $ 1,368 $ 2,500 -45% $26.82 $11.21 Jul. 114 98 16% 59 51.8% $ 1,508 $ 2,500 -40% $25.56 $13.23 Aug. 137 98 40% 55 40.1% $ 1,691 $ 2,500 -32% $30.75 $12.34 Sep. 128 98 31% 60 46.9% $ 1,751 $ 2,500 -30% $29.18 $13.68 Oct. 115 98 17% 66 57.4% $ 1,773 $ 2,500 -29% $26.86 $15.42 Nov. 107 98 9% 61 57.0% $ 1,667 $ 2,500 -33% $27.33 $15.58 Dec. 111 98 13% 69 60.6% $ 1,842 $ 2,500 -26% $26.70 $16.59 ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'00 1,567 1,176 33% 775 49.5% $19,720 $27,500 -28% $27.78 $13.96 Avg'00 131 98 33% 65 49.5% $ 1,793 $ 2,500 -28% $27.78 $13.96 Appendix B Renewal Donations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No. % Of Avg. Renwl No. Budget Renwl Renwl $ Budget Renwl Donate Renwl (No.) Var Donate Donate Amount ($) Var Donatn All Ren ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ YTD'99 6,587 8,892 -26% 5,554 84% $149,521 $181,400 -18% $26.92 $22.70 AVG'99 549 741 -26% 463 84% $ 12,460 $ 15,117 -18% $26.92 $22.70 Jan. 741 580 28% 441 60% $ 13,453 $ 14,800 -9% $30.51 $18.16 Feb. 899 549 64% 520 58% $ 19,069 $ 14,000 36% $36.67 $21.21 Mar. 738 647 14% 667 90% $ 22,097 $ 16,500 34% $33.13 $29.94 Apr. 598 588 2% 430 72% $ 17,358 $ 15,000 16% $40.37 $29.03 May. 501 412 22% 344 69% $ 11,745 $ 10,500 12% $34.14 $23.44 Jun. 374 208 80% 334 89% $ 11,335 $ 5,300 114% $33.94 $30.31 Jul. 277 157 77% 251 91% $ 8,912 $ 4,000 123% $35.51 $32.17 Aug. 214 129 65% 215 100% $ 5,948 $ 3,300 80% $27.67 $27.79 Sep. 223 78 184% 244 109% $ 4,633 $ 2,000 132% $18.99 $20.78 Oct. 182 106 72% 178 985 $ 5,031 $ 2,700 86% $28.26 $27.64 Nov. 296 208 43% 296 99% $ 7,467 $ 5,300 41% $25.23 $25.06 Dec. 339 482 -30% 291 86% $ 10,579 $ 12,300 -14% $36.35 $31.21 ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'00 5,382 3,964 36% 4,211 78% $137,627 $105,700 30% $31.73 $26.40 AVG'00 449 333 35% 351 78% $ 11,469 $ 8,808 30% $31.73 $26.40 Appendix C Membership Activity ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |Member | Current |To line| Actual |Ratio |Number Forecast Number Forecast Number Number # of % inc. | |Of New No. of Members No. of Members Members Members -dec. |Lns :1 |Members New Memb Renewed Renewed Un-arch Archvd ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ |~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ 1999 | | Dec. 10,325 -2.6% |213 48| 114 400 405 387 22 411 | | 2000 | | Jan. 10,005 -3.1% |213 47| 162 98 741 580 13 323 Feb. 9,992 -0.1% |213 47| 191 98 899 549 1 217 Mar. 9,924 -0.7% |213 47| 153 98 738 647 24 195 Apr. 9,739 -1.9% |213 46| 115 98 598 588 19 329 May. 9,345 -4.0% |213 44| 112 98 501 412 10 506 Jun. 9,079 -2.8% |213 43| 122 98 374 208 12 454 Jul. 8,678 -4.4% |213 41| 114 98 277 157 20 515 Aug. 8,344 -3.8% |213 39| 137 98 214 129 26 506 Sep. 8,091 -3.0% |213 38| 128 98 223 78 28 415 Oct. 7,972 -1.5% |213 37| 115 98 182 106 8 252 Nov. 7,755 -2.7% |213 36| 107 98 298 208 17 325 Dec. 7,590 -2.1% |213 36| 111 98 339 482 3 303 Appendix D Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New Total | New Total | IP % | Member % Org. Org. | Line Line | New Total Free. Inc. | Home Of Accts Accts | Spons Spons | Menus Menus Pages /Dec | Pages Memb ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~| ~~~~~ ~~~~ 1999 | | | Dec. 2 65| 0 8 | -20 223 223 32.7% | 841 8.1% | | | 2000 | | | Jan. 0 65| 0 8 | -5 218 268 20.2% | 848 8.5% Feb. 5 70| 0 8 | 5 223 273 1.9% | 850 8.5% Mar. 3 73| 0 8 | 1 219 274 0.4% | 845 8.5% Apr. 2 78| 0 8 | 1 1,794 414 51.1% | 831 8.5% May 0 78| 0 8 | -3 1,791 439 6.0% | 794 8.5% Jun. 4 82| 0 8 | -426 1,365 390 -11.2% | 763 8.4% Jul. 1 83| 0 8 | -721 644 404 3.6% | 745 8.6% Aug. 1 84| 0 8 |1,158* 1,802* 463 14.6% | 704 8.4% Sep. 5 89| 0 8 | 0 1,802 445 -3.9% | 683 8.4% Oct. 1 91| 0 8 | 7 1,809 486 9.2% | 676 8.5% Nov. 0 91| 0 8 | 3 1,812 484 =0.4% | 662 8.5% Dec. 1 92| 0 8 | 485 | * IP web pages: Sureway added, none removed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---