NCF For the month of January 2006.

During the month January donations were $30,449 compared to last years and budget 
mounts of $27,043.  In addition DSL sales were strong in January with total service
revenues of $6,457 against a forecast of $4,800.  Hardware sales of $8,878 were
also better than the expected $5,000.  All told this resulted in banner month for 
the NCF with the revenue exceeding expenses by something in the order of $10,000.
 
 
Total membership remains constant with a continuing growth in DSL subscribers to 
a current total of 235.  The rate of new subscribers has fallen off in recent weeks.
A new MOM is ready to go out to the membership highlighting the opportunity to 
share a DSL access subscription however I am holding off sending it until
our support materials are ready.

Efforts are underway to automate the DSL subscription process in large part
to lessen the workload of our core volunteers.  We are also building tools to allow
DSL subscribers to view their bandwidth use in much the same manner that dialup 
access users can view their modem use.  This is a critical function to support 
NCF members that choose to share their DSL access.

We are also building some of the support pages and discussion groups to support 
members sharing their expertise in problem solving.  Given the limited volunteer 
team that operates the NCF help desk, its is unrealistic to assume that they could
expand their services to enclude members home networks.  However if we are to
encourage NCF members to share their DSL connections there must be some way for 
the NCF members to be supported in configuring and maintaining LANs.

I currently believe that providing good help pages along with a discussion group
to encourage members to help members in their LAN support is the best approach.  I
do not feel that this will be sufficient as we currently receive a relatively high
volume of support calls for PC problems unrelated to NCF services.  Encouraging 
members to share their connects will only increase these requests.  Therefore I am 
attempting to vet local companies that offer technical support with an eye to 
giving NCF members a choice for LAN and PC support.

Carleton Alumni services has agreed to partner with the NCF to offer internet access
to Carleton alumni.  Carleton would advertise the services through its flyers and
magazines and in return a small commission will be paid to Carleton for each Carleton 
grade that subscribes to NCF's DSL service.  



Cheers

john