General Manager's Report to the Board

April 29, 1999

Review of Survey '98 for Strategic Planning:

The Spring 1998 Member Survey was sent to all Free-Net members and elicited 423 responses. The following findings may be relevant to our strategic planning:

Most respondents heard about the Free-Net through word of mouth.
A majority of respondents dial in directly to our modem pool.
Almost 70% came to TCFN for e-mail; about half that many for community information.
77% said Free-Net e-mail is important to them now, and a similar number said community information is important.

Hiring a System Administrator:

Two candidates applied for the position of TCFN's part-time system administrator. Bob Alberti, Hans Lillejord, Eric Harvieux and I met to discuss the applications and decided to interview Jarrod Stenberg. Bob, Hans, and I conducted the interview and would like to hire Jarrod.

Meanwhile, volunteers Jon Schewe and Shari Hathaway continued to distinguish themselves in the field of system administration this month, diagnosing and repairing persistent system problems. Registrations and quotas were both disabled at the time of the last board meeting, but both are working again now.

New Server:

To date, the capital fundraising drive has raised $3010 from 41 donors. While short of our stated $5000 goal, this is more than enough to purchase a very capable new server. Jarrod Stenberg seems highly qualified to oversee the assembly and configuration of the server, and he could even host it on his home DSL connection.

Fundraising Clinic:

I have been attending the MAP for Nonprofits fundraising clinic. John Beardsley and Ann Treacy will accompany me to the final session next Wednesday. Among the lessons taught in this clinic is the importance of cultivating donors, especially individuals and small businesses/charities, rather than focusing on large grants. I would like to challenge each board member to approach two potential donors this year.

AFCN/CTCNet Conference:

I will be attending the annual meeting of the Association for Community Networking (AFCN), of which TCFN is a member, June 18-20 in Chicago. This year's meeting is combined with a meeting of the much larger Community Technology Centers Network (CTCNet), so attending the AFCN conference means becoming a member of CTCNet as well. The AFCN member discount for membership in CTCNet and conference registration together come to $200. I would like to seek reimbursement for this expense. I will be combining the trip with a vacation, so I will not seek reimbursement for travel expenses.

This site Š1999 by Twin Cities Free-Net.
This page maintained by genmanager@tcfreenet.org; Last Modified 1999-04-27.