NCF For the months of October 2006.

During the monthof October donations were $14,472 
as compared to the same period last year with $16,346.  This budget shortfall of 11% is
a serious concern to me as the $1,874 is the equivalent to the margin earned on 625 DSL 
accounts.  Falling donations and the low margin on DSL accounts are issues that need
to be addressed in the coming months.

Hardware sales for the month were $6,133 and DSL service revenue was $18,762.  The
total margin from DSL for the month was $3,300 giving a total operating margin of
$17,778 as compared to a target of $18,846.  

Expenses are expected to be close to budget at approximately $35,000 for 
the period.

GTEC was our major marketing effort in October.  It is hard to say how effective the 
show was for us although a steady stream of technology savvy people were through our
for both days.  The total costs of the show were minor, perhaps $100 plus salaries 
and so it is hard to find fault in going.

Andre is making good progress on a series of improvements for our email system.  The 
most significant is grey-listing.  Spammers do not re-transmit email on failure.  
Grey-listing uses this behavior to reduce spam entering our system.  Very significant 
improvements on system spam load can be had by requesting a retransmission while
introducing only a 5 minute delay to email from new IP addresses.  Trusted email
will not be delayed.  Not only does this reduce spam but it also significantly reduces
the load on the email servers.
 
The migration of members to DSL continues with a total of approximately 600 monthly
DSL subscribers.  Dial-up use is dropping providing us with excess capacity on the 
dial-up lines.  Overflow has not been available for the last month due to resource
constraints by one of our suppliers.  This has not been a major concern due to the 
lighter demands on the system however it does highlight an opportunity to encourage
new members on dial-up.  If no extra demand is forthcoming it may be possible to 
our monthly expenses by taking one or more PRI out of service without effecting the 
members perceived quality of service.

The current financials point to two areas that are in need of attention.  Increasing 
the margin associated with DSL accounts and increasing the use of donation based
services.  Bank charges are an obvious area that could be improved. 
Monerius has been charging almost 2.5% for visa and mastercard transactions.
I have recently negotiated a decrease to 2.2% but this still represents almost $0.75
on each monthly DSL subscriber.  Scotiabank charges $30 for failed EFT transactions
which can result in $300 in bank charges in a bad month.  I have been exploring
alternatives such as internet banking and hope to have a solution shortly.  

Increasing the use of NCF services (both donation based and DSL) really speaks to 
marketing, both direct and indirect.  As was apparent at GTEC, our pitch is well
received although our voice is not being heard by enough people.

Assistance funds:  The child poverty access assistance fund is now operating with its 
first couple of families having now provided all of the necessary details.   
This and the members helping members funds are important 
improvements to the way that NCF has traditionally helped those in need 
to gain access to the benefits of the internet.

Membership is static at approximately 8000 members, from those:
	- 4242 members have read mail in the last month.
	- 5083 members used a modem this month.
	- 7759 members have seen start page at least once.
	- 1222 members currently use SpamFilter.

The remainder of the years marketing budget was spent during the month on 
a run of posters and bilingual bookmarks for the libraries and community centres.  
We are also finding that the bookmarks work well when distributed through CCS and 
at Carleton sporting events.

Volunteer numbers are level although the overall quality of the team has 
never been higher.  Permanent parking passes have been issued to two of 
our long time volunteers. Our tradition of providing parking passes was providing 
to be increasingly expensive as Carleton keeps raising the rates 
on day passes.  The two permanent passes will provide greater flexibility 
and cost savings over the long term.

All of the technical systems are working well although we now have 
sufficient dial-up capabilities to ensure a very high degree of 
availability.   We continue to add enhancements to the office tools 
for better accounting and better support of the membership.  Additional 
DSL support tools allow for rapid testing of line sync and unlisted number support.  

The DSL service is becoming more popular.  Initial uptake rates have 
nearly doubled since the start of January.  Initial setup of DSL members 
is more time consuming than we originally expected.  The unfortunate 
side effect of these two points is a growing delay in responding to 
traditional dial-up members’ concerns.     


Cheers

john