General Manager's Report to the Board
March 25, 1999
- System Administration Volunteers
- Bob Alberti, Bob Kierski, Harold Longley, Jon Schewe, and Eric
Harvieux distinguished themselves as system-administration volunteers
during the past month. Bob Kierski in particular saved the day by helping
us install a stable version of the operating system. I had not contacted
Bob earlier because my volunteer database did not show him as a current
volunteer. I will therefore revamp the volunteer database in April, using
a free, cross-platform database engine called eBase and online forms for
data submission.
- Membership Status:
- Registrations are "down" technically as well as relatively. In
March, 76 accounts were deleted, 45 were created, and 26 were registered.
For most of the month, our account creation scripts were not working
properly, and for the latter half of the month, they did not work at all.
Currently no accounts can be created; this has put all outreach efforts on
hold. As many renewals were processed in March as in February.
- Capital Fundraising Drive:
- On March 18, I sent an e-mail message to all members asking for
donations to help us purchase new server hardware and software. This
effort was extremely successful: $1260 designated for the server had been
received from 14 individuals as of Wednesday, March 24. The message also
inspired some members to renew their accounts early and send accompanying
donations. The average donation for the month of March (so far) is $44.26
-- the highest in the Free-Net's history by a $14 margin. Total donations
are also higher than they've been since August 1998.
- Server Hardware:
- A number of bids have been received for server hardware, ranging from
$1500 to $3000. No donors have yet been found. Consensus among the
system-administration volunteers on hardware and software specifications
has been elusive, but we should have a server in our possession within the
month.
- Hiring a System Administrator:
- We will solicit applications for a paid system-administrator in
April, beginning with the TCFN Newsletter, followed by Twin Cities and
Minnesota newsgroups, Linux users' groups, community-networking mailing
lists, and the career-development offices of local universities. See handout for job description. Experience will
be evaluated during interviews. Who would like to be present at
interviews?
This site ©1999 by Twin Cities Free-Net.
This page maintained by
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Modified 1999-03-25.
