General Manager's Report to the Board of Twin Cities Free-Net

November 23, 1998

MRNet Colocation:
The contract with MRNet was finalized and signed a few days after the October meeting. It looks like the end result will be even more favorable for TCFN than we expected or agreed to. The new dial-up number is likely to be 612-951-6964, but it has not yet been tested.

Office Substitutes:
TCFN now has a post office box, 50503, in the 55405-0503 Zip code. This puts it in the Loring station, which is the most accessible downtown post office by either car or bicycle. I'll get a second box key to the treasurer as soon as one becomes available. Our return-address stamp, brochures, and database-generated mail now employ the new address, and our next batch of business-reply-mail envelopes will use it as well.

Effective January 1, we will have voicemail through Aspen Communications at 651-256-2112. This voicemail box will have an outgoing message of up to 3 minutes, suitable for answering frequently-asked questions, and store up to 50 messages of up to 3 minutes in length, so it should be more than adequate for our needs. I initially set up a faxmail service through Aspen as well, but Nolan found us a much better deal through City of Lakes Transitional Care Center.

A local Microsoft sales representative donated a copy of Office 97 Professional, $500 value. We have been unable to find a donor of a Windows-95-capable laptop, so for the time being I am maintaining the membership database on my own PC. This should work out well for as long as I am general manager. I'll look into the possibility of backing it up to the Free-Net server so that all copies will not be in one place.

The filing cabinet, printer, and office supplies have been moved to my apartment for now. Once the filing cabinet is in order, we may want to move it and the office supplies to a more neutral space so that volunteers can access them when I am unavailable.

The new arrangements cost less than half what we paid Mainstream in rent.

Credit Cards:
The deal I presented to the board last month turned out to be a 48-month lease, not a rental agreement. Much confusion ensued, and we eventually negotiated a rental agreement for a few dollars more per month. This will allow us to evaluate whether accepting credit cards makes sense for us. If the service pays for itself after a few months, we will want to purchase the equipment instead of renting it.

MAP fundraising clinic:
MAP for Nonprofits is offering a clinic this spring with individual coaching for people who want to become more effective at raising funds for their nonprofits. Tuition is $400 to $450. Would the board like to invest in the education of one of us?

Survey Results:
The final survey responses were coded early this month, and the remainder of the month was spent analyzing the results. A Web site on the topic is at http://tcfreenet.org/stats/survey98/.

Media Publicity:
I suggested to Berit Thorkelson of Skyway News that she might do an article on Mark Holtz's project at the Alliance Apartments, and it appeared on the front page. A follow-up article in another paper is possible. I've also submitted solicited articles to the newsletters of AFCN, mini'app'les, Stevens Square Community Organization, and the Minneapolis Consortium of Community Developers.

Volunteer Who-Do List:
By placing a volunteer "who-do" list on the Web, I was able to begin to aggressively recruit volunteers from other volunteer-opportunity services as well as from within our ranks.

TCFN Birthday Party:
A party in belated celebration of the Free-Net's fifth birthday was held on Saturday, November 14. Nine people attended. A good time was had by all.

Public Libraries:
We fixed a problem in ru_shell that was allowing Microsoft Telnet to connect to the Free-Net in ANSI mode instead of standard VT-100, so now library patrons can connect without any complex tinkering.

I have sent brochures to a large number of libraries and other public access sites.

This document created by Ben Stallings, 11/18/98.