Coordinator's Report February 2006

Wow it's been a long time since I've done a monthly report. Good thing I sent out the "Big Report" not so long ago.

General News

For those who haven't already heard, Con, volunteer of more than 4 years, staff member of 3 years, obtained a full time job doing Linux POS installations and support. John Simpson is now filling his role in the WFD program.

To end the year, we had a great day in the park with good food and company. Following on from this we had a well deserved break. Computerbank was closed to everyone for 10 whole days!

January has seen us ease into things, we were closed to the public up until January the 19th. Despite this we still gave out a high number of computers. Many of the computers went to members of the Hampton Park Senior Citizens.

Training started up in the first week of February, this year we are hoping to run more sessions by recruiting more people to help.
Using the funding we obtained from Linux Australia, we are offering small incentives to people who can deliver our 3 hour training sessions. Already Sravan has answered the call, and there seems to be some interest from others.

Lastly, I have been liaising with a plastics recycler who can process all of our plastic waste. The waste gets turned into fence posts, pellets and other long life building products. Greg has been talking to a new e-waste buyer and believes we can get some value for hard drives and other metal. More news about this soon.

Computers Out

2005
November = 34 - Provided a laptop to the Friends of Kolkata for field work in India.
December = 40 - Updated the Community Media Services network

2006
January = 28 - Some computers to CADS and Halls Gap, four laptops sold on ebay and 2 from the shop.
February = 11 TD, 1 sold in the shop.

Waiting List

There are around 43 people waiting for a computer. 30 people are booked into training or are scheduled to pick up their computers.

Donations

We received only a few donations over the past few months. There was a high number of people wanting to give us monitors only. Interestingly enough, all the donors I can remember all start with M!

• Metier3
• Media Monitors (rear Neighbours)
• Melbourne Uni

Plus many donations from individuals.

Projects

Projects currently active include:

• CBV Distro (main build)
• CBV Lean (light build)
• Database Project
• CD Project
• Laptop Project
• Knowledge base Project (new)

It'd be great if folk working on these projects, could write a summary
of where things are at (if they have not done so already).

WFD Project

Our WFD funding crisis is over, we are now okay to have our project roll over for another six months. At this stage it is not known if participant numbers will increase, I hope to hear more about this soon.

The WFD program days have changed to Wednesday/Thursday. So far this is working out well for us. Many thanks to Tony who has been helping out with front desk over the past few weeks.

WFD participants have been busy helping with software builds, recycling,
data entry, testing printers, modems and other devices. They have also helped to count and organise our computer stock. Documentation on how to set up a chinese input editor has also been written.

New Volunteers

A couple of new volunteers have joined us since my last monthly report. Already introduced, welcome (officially) to Royce and Pierce. Also, welcome back to Norm. :)

Finances

November Income  = $1614.30
December Income  = $2707.66
January Income  = $1428.60
February Income = $737.50 TD

Last Thing

Sorry if I have forgotten to mention something, if that's the case, let