- MRNet Colocation:
- Negotiations with MRNet have culminated in an agreement which is highly favorable for TCFN. It will not only provide us with expert system administration when needed, it will cost us less than our present situation. In return, MRNet will want to publicize the colocation and to secure representation on our board of directors. Due to existing agreements with Cognitus and Mainstream, the soonest this agreement can take effect will be 90 days from today, or January 20.
I would like to ask the board for permission to personally arrange substitutes for the office amenities: a PO Box, a voicemail service, and a computer on which to run Access 97.
- Credit Cards:
- I talked with two credit-card-processing firms about the possibility of TCFN accepting donations via credit cards. The better of the two offers would cost us a minimum of $66.45 per month, with no setup fee. We would break even after obtaining $68.45 of donations per month via credit card. If we believe the firm's claim that accepting cards will increase our "sales" by a minimum of 25%, that means this would make sense for us in any month when we are currently taking in more than $205.36. All months of the year fit that criterion.
I would like to ask the board for permission to begin accepting credit cards through this firm. Additionally, I would like to ask whether it would be acceptable to conduct renewals via telephone and/or e-mail (i.e. without signatures) in order to facilitate credit-card donations.
- NTIA's Conference
- I have been invited by Judy Sparrow of NTIA to attend a conference she is holding in Washington, DC on December 8-9. There will be a workshop on Evolving Community Networks, which promises, "You will gain new ideas for using networking to enhance your communities and build partnerships."
Would the board be willing to help fund my attendance of this conference?
- Information for Change Conference:
- I attended the Information for Change conference held by The Urban Coalition and MAP for Nonprofits on Monday and Tuesday. Several of the workshops were very useful and inspiring, especially one on getting publicity. I intend to make publicity a top priority for November.
Luther Krueger and I also led a workshop on community networking, which was well received.
- Free-Net classes:
- I taught two classes at the St. Paul Central Library at the end of September: one intro to Macintosh and one intro to Free-Net. Eric Harvieux taught a basic Web class two weeks ago and will teach a second class this Saturday with the goal of preparing volunteers to work on a comprehensive redesign of our Web site. Future classes will be held in locations with free parking, since parking in downtown St. Paul is very inconvenient, and the library's hours are restrictive. At the suggestion of volunteer Rob Root, future classes will also be advertised as costing a minimal fee (e.g. $2-5) which volunteers may waive, the logic being that people value a class more if it has a cost associated with it.
- Survey Progress:
- I discovered, after having volunteers code half the survey responses, that the format we were using was not suitable to the statistical software I intended to use. Volunteer Jean Gettis recoded the responses into the correct format. While volunteers are able to do most of the work, I am finding that proofreading is essential, and that is the major holdup at this point. The SPSS command file is ready for the data, but the data will not be ready in their entirity for at least another two weeks.
I have high hopes for an automated system (Web-based) to handle not only future surveys but also future board elections.
- Organizational E-mail Aliases:
- The new version of sendmail software, installed last month to combat spamming, caused most organizational members' e-mail aliases to stop working. We found a workaround for this problem, and volunteer John Trammell wrote programs to implement it. The aliases are still vulnerable to spamming of the sort that occurred last month. All alias owners were given the option of converting their lists to Caucus conferences, which would be immune from spam, but all declined the offer.
- Free-Net Home Page:
- After months of deliberation, we debuted a new home page for the Free-Net which emphasizes The Neighborhood conversation center and looks better on graphical browsers than the old page did. Text-mode users still see a simple page.
- TCFN Birthday Party:
- A party in belated celebration of the Free-Net's fifth birthday is planned for Saturday, November 14, from 2 to 4 PM in Cahoots coffee house in St. Paul. Board members are most definitely invited.
- Public Libraries:
- We tracked down an eccentricity in Microsoft Telnet that was causing patrons of public libraries to not be able to read our menus after logging into the Free-Net. I suggested a workaround to Doug Guthrie of St. Paul Public Libraries, who distributed the news to librarians in all St. Paul branches.
I am at last in the process of distributing Free-Net brochures to the public libraries. This is something I had planned to do last summer.
- UseNet News
- After four months' loss of UseNet news service, we succeeded in bringing the problem to the attention of GoFast.Net, and service was restored. MRNet has offered to provide the service to us in the future if GoFast.Net does not continue to do so.