Executive Director's Report September 2001 =========================== October 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: Aug. Sep. % | Sep. % 2001 2001 Inc/Dec | 2000 Inc/Dec ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ | ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ 1. Number of members: 6,939 6,786 - 2.2% | 8,091 -16.1% 2. Donation Revenue: $8,465 $ 7,286 -13.9% | $ 6,384 +14.1% 3. Percentage donating: 62.9% 80.3% +27.6% | 86.6% - 7.3% 4. Average Donation: $31.35 $ 24.13 -23.1% | $ 21.00 +14.9% b) Top Priorities ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) Projects - HRDC WebMail - Development phase (business plan) - HRDC - Thin Client - implementation phase - IC Smart Capital - modify and sign partner agreement (2) Telecom / dial-up modem contract (3) System reliability - Resolve modem problems (3com RAS 1500's) (4) 2002 Strategy c) Top Priorities - Sysadmin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) HRDC Thin Client - work with IKON on implementation (2) SPAM - research possible solutions to this on-going problem (3) Work with 3com getting RAS 1500 problems solved 2. Administration & Funding =========================== a) Donation Data - New Registrations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The number of new members was significantly over budget in September with 150 new members joining. Revenue was also over budget at $2,077. Percentage of donors was 59.3%. The situation on a year-to-date basis remains relatively the same as last month, with some 1241 new members exceeding the forecasted 882 (+40%), donating a total of $15,796 or 2.5% less than the $16,200 budgeted. (See Appendix "A") b) Donation Data - Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The number of renewals in September was 226; well above (+85%) the predicted 122. Of these, 94% donated a total $5,208, just below our forecast of $5,323 (-2.1%). Year-to-date renewals continue to be strong in numbers but not in revenue. 3,800 members have renewed so far this year, compared to our forecast of 2,890 (+31.5%) Renewal donations year-to-date total $110,130 vs. a budget figure of $126,361 (-12.8%). (See Appendix "B") c) Membership Activity: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Membership declined this month: now standing at 6,786, a decrease of 2.2%. The year-to-date decline is some 804 members or about 10.6% since January 1, 2001. (See Appendix "C") d) Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1 IP web page was 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. It will be signed off once we finalize the partnership agreements. Extended Access II - City of Ottawa: A presentation was made to City of Ottawa IT staff on October 4. They have informed us that a they will contact us in a couple of weeks to outline the next steps to be taken. Thin Client Expansion I am continuing to follow up with partners to obtain required donations of software for the service expansion. Again this is a little more difficult because of the delays in the initial implementation of the service (HRDC Thin Client). WebMail Discussions are continuing with iPlanet (a Sun Microsystems / Netscape alliance) to obtain a donation of the required software for this service. The new Ottawa iPlanet rep has been presented with a document providing justification for the donation. She will be forwarding her comments to her supervisor in Toronto prior to the request advancing within the organization. (ii) HRDC (Office of Learning Technology): Thin Client A project kickoff meeting was held with Andre, myself, and representatives of IKON Office Solutions and Comgate Engineering in attendance. This meetin was held on October 8. At that time we were informed that there were two issues potentially delaying the project further. The first issue is that the recommended processor does not physically fit in the server. This is somewhat disconcerting given the fact both are made by the same manufacturer. Fortunately a replacement processor was obtained but had not yet arrived. The second issue is that one of the software media provided by one of the vendors differs from what was agreed to in the donation agreement. We are working with the vendor to rectify the situation. It is now expected that the service will be available to members by December 1. (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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We installed a patch on August 22 that caused the RAS1500 Terminal Servers to freeze. After waiting for them to figure out what caused this they finally got back us saying they could not replicate this situation in their labs. They asked us to reinstall the patch. Andre did so on October 12 on annex5 and the system froze again within 4 hours. We have informed them of this occurence and have indicated we will explore our options as to what steps to take to obtain satisfaction. c) Telecom / dial-up access contract ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are continuing to work with Carleton to obtain the best deal for our Centrex lines. I anticipate that this situation will be finalized by month-end. d) 2002 Strategy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have begun working with the Executive Committee to formulate a strategy for the 2002 year. I will be presenting this to the board at the November meeting. 4. System Administration ======================== a) HRDC Thin Client ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Andre will continue to work with IKON on implementation b) SPAM ~~~~ More and more members are being inundated with SPAM. Andre is researching methods we can use to combat it. Unfortunately the user identification system in use at the NCF makes us particularly easy targets. Blanket SPAM removal solutions run the risk of stopping legitimate e-mail from being delivered to the intended recipient. 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 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 - (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 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 ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ 2000 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 -(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 133 - - $ 5,813 - - - Nov01 117 - - $ 5,119 - - - Dec01 210 - - $ 11,001 - - - 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 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 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 -- *** Ian MacEachern, Executive Director *** National Capital Freenet / Libertel de la Capitale nationale tel. (613) 520-2600 ext. 8024 -or- fax (613) 520-3524