Board report for the month of February. The National Capital FreeNet continues to make progress on most fronts. With the lead up to the AGM there is always a sense of excitement. Although my daily activities keep me very busy when I do touch on matters associated with the AGM I cannot help but be impressed with what the NCF has created and continues to operate. If only all elections could be this fair and open. Kudos to all of the people who are volunteering their time to continue this program. I am told that the NCF AGM pages receive many hits from outside organizations looking to see how it can be done. On a financial front the NCF seems to be ahead of budget for revenues and on track for expenses. For January and February we are approximately $8,000 ahead of budget. Expenses during the same period were $102,485 versus a budget of $100,805. The extra expense mostly due to the faster uptake of DSL services by NCF members. As expected the winter months are when the NCF strengthens its financial position. During the two months ending March 1st our total equity has improved from $41,726 to $50,967. Cash flow continues to be strong with the growing DSL membership base. Our overall cash position has also strengthen to $40,109 in our ING saving account. All of this positive financial news needs to be taken in light of a budget that with full staffing (full time system administrator, executive director, DSL technician & office manager) results in a $30K deficit for the year. This is a large staffing load for the NCF members to support and this has resulted in some staff either volunteering time or working part time in previous years. We are currently operating without an office manager although it leaves the team with little spare capacity to handle sickness or vacation. I am in the process of recruiting an office assistant to replace the budgeted office manager position. Of the three pillars necessary to support our community and our membership(access, email & web hosting) the first two are in very good shape. We are now looking at various technologies and building a road map to add significant functionality to our web hosting capabilities. See you Tuesday night john