Executive Director's Report May 2001 =========================== June 18, 2001 By Ian MacEachern (execdir@freenet.carleton.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 1. Status Report ================ a) Key Indicators: Apr. May. % | May. % 2001 2001 Inc/Dec | 2000 Inc/Dec ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ | ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ 1. Number of members: 7,259 7,184 -1.0% | 9,345 -26.8% 2. Donation Revenue: $ 14,316 $16,093 12.4% | $13,452 -19.6% 3. Percentage donating: 59.8% 64.7% 8.2% | 65.7% -1.5% 4. Average Donation: $ 37.38 $ 34.90 -6.6% | $ 33.38 4.5% b) Top Priorities ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) Renewal numbers (2) System reliability - Resolve modem problems (3com RAS 1500's) (3) Projects - HRDC WebMail - Development phase (business plan) - HRDC - Thin Client - implementation phase - IC Smart Capital - modify and sign partner agreement c) Top Priorities - Sysadmin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) Work with 3com getting RAS 1500 problems solved (2) HRDC WebMail - migrate web server and roll out webmail prototype 2. Administration & Funding =========================== a) Donation Data - New Registrations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The number of new members was significantly better than budget in May with 154 new members joining. Revenue was under budget however, at $1,568 primarily because the percentage of donors was only 42.8%. The situation is similar on a year-to-date basis, with some 760 new members exceeding the forecasted 490 (+55%), donating a total of $8,772 or 2.6% less than the $9,000 budgeted. (See Appendix "A") b) Donation Data - Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The number of renewals in May was 558; well above (+31%) the predicted 426. Of these, 70.8% donated a total $14,525, well below our forecast of $18,620 (-22.0%). Year-to-date renewals continue to be strong in numbers but not in revenue. 2,609 members have renewed so far this year, compared to our forecast of 2,205 (+18.3%) Renewal donations year-to-date total $77,544 vs. a budget figure of $96,424 (-19.5%). (See Appendix "B") c) Membership Activity: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Membership continued to decline this month: now standing at 7,184, dropping 1.0% in the month. The year-to-date decline is some 384 members or about 5% since January 1, 2001. (See Appendix "C") d) Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We added 4 IP web pages in the month 3. Member Services and Future Initiatives ========================================== a) Projects ~~~~~~~~ (i) Extended Access II - RMOC: Met with City of Ottawa IT staff last week. They have new staff in place as well, so there will be a period of adjustment on the part of both sides. Their rep appeared to be receptive to the project. (ii) Industry Canada - SmartCapital: Met with our Smart Capital counterpart at OCRI. We've agreed on a course of action that will hopefully get the contribution agreement signed by early July. (iii) HRDC (Office of Learning Technology): Thin Client Continuing to meet with partners and HRDC regarding donation valuations and project implementation contracts. Met with our HRDC counterpart to discuss their concerns with the delay in the project. Informed them of imminent start of the implementation phase of the project. We've also agreed to deliver an updated business plan later this month. (iv) HRDC (Office of Learning Technology): WebMail Continuing the development of relationships with potential partners. Have completed the migration of the POP server and have installed and customized a working prototype. Currently working on the migration of the web server to Apache. The development stage of the project calls for NCF to submit a Business plan together with a proposal for full funding. This is to occur shortly after the final report is due on July 15, 2001. b) High Tech Directory ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Richard Webb and I met to discuss the proposal and come to a final resolution. We will not be going forward with this proposal. c) 3com RAS 1500 Access Servers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3com has replicated our problem in their labs but has not yet a solution. Andre is continuing to work with them on this issue. d) Renewal ~~~~~~~ A new renewal letter has been written and is being sent out to members as their account comes up for renewal. Initial feedback from those who reviewed the letter is positive but we will have to wait for the numbers to judge its effectiveness. I have received from Ian Allen the database schema and will be doing an analysis of the membership database and the renewal system to get a better idea of renewal patterns and also to attempt to determine the effect of the disruption in the automated renewal letter e-mail process earlier this year. 4. System Administration ======================== a) 3com RAS 1500 Problems ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ See the note in above 3(c) above. Also, the expansion modules on annex7 crashed meaning 16 out of the 72 high speed modems became unusable for a period of time. They are back up and running. There is a trick to resetting these modules and we know now how to perform this function. b) Migrate POP ~~~~~~~~~~~ This project was completed successfully. There were some unforeseen problems which resulted in a lengthy delay in getting the mail system working correctly. These problems have been resolved. c) HRDC WebMail ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ See the note in 3(a)(iv) above. 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. d) Hard disk crash on freenet10 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The boot hard disk on freenet10 crashed. Andre implememented a temporary solution that enabled users to access the legacy news system until the hard disk was replaced and the files restored. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ Oct. 201 400 -50% 103 51.2% $ 2,047 $ 4,000 -49% $38.83 $19.09 Nov. 260 400 -35% 100 38.5% $ 2,305 $ 4,000 -42% $40.00 $15.38 Dec. 114 400 -72% 65 57.0% $ 1,794 $ 4,000 -55% $61.54 $35.09 ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ 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 - 64 - 2,021 $ 2,500 - - - Mar. 153 98 - 92 - 2,871 $ 2,500 - - - Apr. 115 98 - 66 - 1,620 $ 2,500 - - - May. 112 98 - 59 - 1,707 $ 2,500 - - - Jun. 122 98 - 51 - 1,368 $ 2,500 - - - Jul. 114 98 - 59 - 1,508 $ 2,500 - - - Aug. 137 98 - 55 - 1,691 $ 2,500 - - - Sep. 128 98 - 60 - 1,751 $ 2,500 - - - Oct. 115 98 - 66 - 1,773 $ 2,500 - - - Nov. 107 98 - 61 - 1,667 $ 2,500 - - - Dec. 111 98 - 69 - 1,842 $ 2,500 - - - Jan01 186 98 - 83 - 2,252 $ 1,800 - - - Feb01 141 98 - 88 - 1,996 $ 1,800 - - - Mar01 159 98 - 82 - 2,172 $ 1,800 - - - Apr01 120 98 - 45 - 784 $ 1,800 - - - May01 154 98 - 66 - 1,568 $ 1,800 - - - Jun01 98 - - $ 1,800 - - - Jul01 98 - - $ 1,800 - - - Aug01 98 - - $ 1,800 - - - Sep01 98 - - $ 1,800 - - - Oct01 98 - - $ 1,800 - - - Nov01 98 - - $ 1,800 - - - Dec01 98 - - $ 1,800 - - - 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 ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ Oct. 320 309 4% 207 64.7% $ 4,843 $ 6,300 -23% $23.40 $15.13 Nov. 268 314 -15% 292 109% $ 7,886 $ 6,400 23% $27.01 $29.43 Dec. 405 387 5% 339 83.7% $ 11,200 $ 7,900 42% $33.04 $27.65 ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ 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 - 520 - 19,069 $ 14,000 - - - Mar. 738 647 - 667 - 22,097 $ 16,500 - - - Apr. 598 588 - 430 - 17,358 $ 15,000 - - - May. 501 412 - 344 - 11,745 $ 10,500 - - - Jun. 374 208 - 334 - 11,335 $ 5,300 - - - Jul. 277 157 - 251 - 8,912 $ 4,000 - - - Aug. 214 129 - 215 - 5,948 $ 3,300 - - - Sep. 223 78 - 244 - 4,633 $ 2,000 - - - Oct. 182 106 - 178 - 5,031 $ 2,700 - - - Nov. 298 208 - 296 - 7,467 $ 5,300 - - - Dec. 339 482 - 291 - 10,579 $ 12,300 - - - Jan01 674 395 - 460 - 18,874 $ 17,266 - - - Feb01 451 468 - 364 - 13,597 $ 20,465 - - - Mar01 405 443 - 441 - 17,015 $ 19,399 - - - Apr01 521 473 - 338 - 13,533 $ 20,674 - - - May01 558 426 - 395 - 14,525 $ 18,620 - - - Jun01 295 - - $ 12,911 - - - Jul01 155 - - $ 6,779 - - - Aug01 113 - - $ 4,924 - - - Sep01 122 - - $ 5,323 - - - Oct01 133 - - $ 5,813 - - - Nov01 117 - - $ 5,119 - - - Dec01 210 - - $ 11,001 - - - Appendix B 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 Oct. 10,669 -4.0% |213 50| 201 400 320 309 8 652 Nov. 10,600 -0.6% |213 50| 260 400 268 314 268 597 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 - - - 191 98 899 549 1 217 Mar. 9,924 - - - 153 98 738 647 24 195 Apr. 9,739 - - - 115 98 598 588 19 329 May. 9,345 - - - 112 98 501 412 10 506 Jun. 9,079 - - - 122 98 374 208 12 454 Jul. 8,678 - - - 114 98 277 157 20 515 Aug. 8,344 - - - 137 98 214 129 26 506 Sep. 8,091 - - - 128 98 223 78 28 415 Oct. 7,972 - - - 115 98 182 106 8 252 Nov. 7,755 - - - 107 98 298 208 17 325 Dec. 7,590 - - - 111 98 339 482 3 303 Jan01 7,565 - - - 186 98 674 395 0 211 Feb01 7,495 - - - 141 98 451 468 14 223 Mar01 7,393 - - - 159 98 405 443 5 82 Apr01 7,259 - - - 120 98 521 473 3 255 May01 7,184 - - - 154 98 558 426 31 250 -- *** Ian MacEachern, Executive Director *** National Capital Freenet / Libertel de la Capitale nationale tel. (613) 520-2600 ext. 8024 -or- fax (613) 520-3524