Executive Director's Report October 2001 =========================== November 16, 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: Sep. Oct. % | Oct. % 2001 2001 Inc/Dec | 2000 Inc/Dec ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ | ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ 1. Number of members: 6,786 6,711 - 0.2% | 7,972 -15.0% 2. Donation Revenue: $7,286 $ 6,387 -12.3% | $ 6,804 - 6.1% 3. Percentage donating: 80.3% 72.3% - 9.9% | 82.1% - 7.3% 4. Average Donation: $24.13 $ 23.92 - 0.8% | $ 27.89 -11.9% b) Top Priorities ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) Telecom / dial-up access contract (2) New remote access solution - Replace 3com RAS 1500's (3) 2002 Strategy (4) 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) New remote access solution - Replace 3com RAS 1500's (2) HRDC Thin Client - work with IKON on implementation (3) SPAM - research possible solutions to this on-going problem 2. Administration & Funding =========================== a) Donation Data - New Registrations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The number of new members was significantly over budget in September with 152 new members joining. Revenue was just under budget at $1,788. Percentage of donors was 47.3%. The situation on a year-to-date basis remains relatively the same as last month, with some 1393 new members exceeding the forecasted 980 (+42%), donating a total of $17,584 or 2.3% less than the $18,000 budgeted. (See Appendix "A") b) Donation Data - Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The number of renewals in September was 217; well above (+63%) the predicted 133. Of these, 90% donated a total $4,598 well below our forecast of $5,813 (-20.1%). Year-to-date renewals continue to be strong in numbers but not in revenue. 4,017 members have renewed so far this year, compared to our forecast of 3,023 (+32.9%) Renewal donations year-to-date total $114,728 vs. a budget figure of $132,174 (-13.2%). (See Appendix "B") c) Membership Activity: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Membership declined this month: now standing at 6,711, a decrease of 0.2%. The year-to-date decline is some 819 members or about 10.8% since January 1, 2001. (See Appendix "C") d) Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3 IP web pages were added in the month 3. Member Services and Future Initiatives ========================================== a) Projects ~~~~~~~~ (i) Industry Canada - SmartCapital: A modified Contribution Agreement has been submitted to OCRI. Conditional approval has been received for the Thin Client service expansion and the Extended Access II projects. A motion will be put forward at the November board meeting to approve the agreement and execute the signing of the document. Extended Access II - City of Ottawa: A presentation was made to City of Ottawa IT staff on October 4. They informed us then that a they would contact us in three weeks to outline the next steps to be taken. They have not yet done so. Thin Client Expansion Tarantella has agreed to donate the server software. We are now waiting to finalize licensing issues with Microsoft and once those are cleared up we will be moving forward with the implementation of the project. WebMail Discussions are continuing with iPlanet (a Sun Microsystems / Netscape alliance) to obtain a donation of the required software for this service. We have been informed that the donation request has been forwarded to the corporate VP in the United States. We have not yet received a response from them. The delay has led to OCRI conditionally approving the project. (ii) HRDC (Office of Learning Technology): Thin Client There has been another significant delay in the project implementation due to a serious issue involving the Microsoft licensing agreement. They have indicated a favourable resolution is imminent. Subsequently, Citrix has agreed to upgrade their donation to the latest version of their software. (iii) HRDC (Office of Learning Technology): WebMail See the note in 3 (a) (i) above. As soon as the intent of iPlanet to move forward with the donation is determined we will submit the full pilot project proposal. b) 3com RAS 1500 Access Servers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3com has indicated they will not be able to provide us with a date for fixing the problems with the RAS 1500's. Consequently, they have indicated to us that the units can be returned for a full refund. We are working with them and Keating Technologies, the reseller, to ensure the process for returning the units and receiving the refund goes as smoothly as possible. In the meantime, we are working with some knowledgeable volunteers to come up with a solution that can be implemented quickly and inexpensively in order to maintain the delivery of service with as little disruption as possible. c) Telecom / dial-up access contract ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are continuing to work with Carleton and Bell to finalize the contract for continuing Centrex services. Carleton has asked for and received a letter of agreement formalizing the obligation of the NCF to pay for the lines that Carleton has signed the contract for. I anticipate that this situation will be finalized by month-end. d) 2002 Strategy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A paper outlining the strategy for 2002 will be presented at the November board meeting. Subsequent to that the budget and action plan for 2002 will be presented to the Executive Committee for review and discussion and both will then be presented to the board at the December meeting. 4. System Administration ======================== a) HRDC Thin Client ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Andre will continue to work with IKON on implementation b) SPAM ~~~~ Andre installed a new version of sendmail which provides for better SPAM filtering capabilities. We will be monitoring the situation and continue to research more effective ways of limiting the junk. c) 3com RAS 1500 Problems ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ See the note in 3(b) above. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ 2000 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 - (19m) 45 - 784 $ 1,800 - - - May01 154 98 - (19m) 66 - 1,568 $ 1,800 - - - Jun01 106 98 - (16m) 83 - 1,829 $ 1,800 - - - Jul01 94 98 - (16m) 74 - 1,362 $ 1,800 - - - Aug01 131 98 - (24m) 87 - 1,756 $ 1,800 - - - Sep01 150 98 - (16m) 89 - 2,007 $ 1,800 - - - Oct01 152 98 - (15m) 72 - 1,788 $ 1,800 - - - Nov01 98 - - $ 1,800 - - - Dec01 98 - - $ 1,800 - - - YTD01 1393 980 769 55% 17,584 $18,000 -2% $22.86 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 ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ 2000 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 -(83m) 338 - 13,533 $ 20,674 - - - May01 558 426 -(89m) 395 - 14,525 $ 18,620 - - - Jun01 393 295 -(94m) 349 - 14,195 $ 12,911 - - - Jul01 274 155 -(91m) 215 - 6,474 $ 6,779 - - - Aug01 298 113 -(80m) 183 - 6,709 $ 4,924 - - - Sep01 226 122 -(111m)213 - 5,208 $ 5,323 - - - Oct01 217 133 -(123m)195 - 4,598 $ 5,813 - - - Nov01 117 - - $ 5,119 - - - Dec01 210 - - $ 11,001 - - - YTD01 4017 3023 - 2953 74% $114,728 $132,174 -13% $38.85 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 ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ |~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ 2000 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 Jun01 7,235 - - - 106 98 393 295 25 88 Jul01 7,078 - - - 94 98 274 155 14 268 Aug01 6,939 - - - 131 98 298 113 45 333 Sep01 6,786 - - - 150 98 226 122 55 372 Oct01 6,771 - - - 152 98 217 133 28 209 YTD01 1393 980 4017 3023 220 2291 -- *** Ian MacEachern, Executive Director *** National Capital Freenet / Libertel de la Capitale nationale tel. (613) 520-2600 ext. 8024 -or- fax (613) 520-3524