Coordinators Report for April and May

General News

Busy, Busy, Busy! This is now a normal state for us. It is amazing to see so many people coming in these days. I've been in on Saturdays when there have been up to 10 people in the shop. It is really important that we have extra help at the front desk.

We have some new shelves in the shop. They look pretty good and allow us to put more computers on display. We have also been able to keep monitors out of the hallway! It looks so much nicer.

Big thanks to Jan for upgrading our web site and hosting it on her server. I know Jan felt like she was wrestling with this at times. I'm glad she stuck it out, the upgraded site looks great and has a few extra features.

I gave a short interview with a journalist who was writing a piece for the Age Green Guide - Livewire. He was writing about computer recycling projects that benefit people in developing nations. I talked about our work in that area as well as the work we do locally.

It is great to see the database team working so enthusiastically together so as to tweak the current database and then build a new one. Many thanks to Jan for motivating the team.

Linux Australia has set us up some @computerbank.org.au emails. These all have forwards on them.

It looks like we'll hold Software Freedom Day at the town hall again. All this will depend on whether our application for the town hall is successful this year. Stay tuned to hear more news about this on our mailing list.

Once again big thanks to Jan, Allan, Greg, Jessica, Rob, David, Barry, WFD folks, and Darce for doing great things across donations, documentation, websites, database projects, front desk, build room, user support and the training area. We'll miss Allan while he undertakes training for his new job, we hope to see him pop in on the occasional Saturday if he can.

We'll also miss Con as he jets off to the UK at the end of May. He plans to stay involved remotely. He plans to visit us on IRC. We'll have a goodbye drink with Con after our meeting.

Computers Out

April: 53

Includes 10 computers given out to a Victorian Community Network Services in Brunswick, 1 computer given to the Somali Womens Development Association and 1 MAC sold in the shop.

May: 37 to date

Includes 1 MAC sold in the shop.

Year to Date: 256; Last year at the end of May we had distributed 167 computers. This is an amazing increase.

User Support

Lots of internet configurations. Hello. Netbay. ADSL. Cable. Cable/ADSL connections usually just work after the user enables the network card (K>System>Start-Stop Network>Start Network).  An ADSL/Cable modem must be ethernet style.  If another computer uses the ADSL/Cable modem it might need resetting at the wall when the Linux computer is plugged in.

Lots of printer configurations. We are configuring the HP F370 multifunction at this time. So far we have had one unit that has been faulty (DOA). There is a how to over at http://doc.vic.computerbank.org.au/support/HP_PSC_Guide/

We still have a lot of users plugging the mouse and keyboard in the wrong way. It might be worthwhile using a permanent marker to label the ports M for mouse and K for keyboard.

We had one user come back with a very big user.log file. Another file was also large. Adam updated the system so it would only keep 1 week worth of logs (instead of 4). We will apply this to the master clone. The users hard drive was full, the last message to be read out by the system advised there was no space left on device (something to look out for). The desktop could not load.

Occasionally our connect to the internet script times out and reports the wrong thing to the users. This is confusing users. John advises we should edit pon.sh in /root so that the time out is increased.

There have been some minor tweaks to the Darebin network to make it more secure. Adam is helping out over at the network on Mondays. He is also delivering training to people.

We have a few more people stopping by on IRC for help. This is great to see, even though we can not always help instantly. Many thanks to people helping out here.

Donations

Donations came from regulars including Monsanto, ARUP, MECU. We also received equipment from FPK and as well as many individuals too. We've also been taking a lot of jobs involving a bit of e-waste and some good stuff.

At the moment we are still unable to take large amounts of computers as we are quite full and have regular donors giving us good equipment. We are also (still) expecting the Red Cross computers and there may be another large donation coming up too. Our information about accepting donations has changed, check our website if you are unsure about this. See http://vic.computerbank.org.au/donations
There may be times where we have to say no to equipment and refer it elsewhere. Front desk folks should touch base with me each week to check our capacity.

Projects

Projects currently active include:

* CVI Distro: New maintainer: Barry. We thank John for all his work and special tweaks to the distro to date. See the wiki for reports on this.
* Database Project: Jan/Con/Michael. Jan is managing this. The team has been very active and enthusiastic. See the wiki for reports on this.
* Distro Testing Guide Project: Barry. See the wiki for reports on this. 

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

The project is progressing well. We have a full project with some very helpful and enthusiastic participants. The warehouse is looking good, as is the buildroom. Participants are keeping the surplus store stocked with a range of computers. In the last few weeks we have been busy with the large amount of equipment coming through the door. We also seem to have a high amount of absenteeism. One of the participants helping with front desk has now got a job, he will be missed a lot.

New Volunteers

We have a few new and returning volunteers this time around. Michael, Susmita and Wendy will be popping in on Tuesdays and Fridays to help tweak the current database and develop a new one. Michael, like Wendy he has been a volunteer at Computerbank in the past. Welcome back folks and a big Hi! to Susmita.

Finances

March Income = $ 7172.81 (Banked) + 113.21 ING Interest.
April Income = $10,463.51 + 160.03 ING Interest (and $22,096 in WFD grant funding)
May Income (TD) = $ 5886 + 154.05 ING interest TD. In may ING interest is being paid at 6.25% rather than the usual 6%.

Account Balances as at 21/05/07:
ING = $45,331.79
WestPac = $3515.23

Total: $ 48,847.02

Outstanding Accounts:
E-waste + Equipment Invoices: $ 2500 + SRS 

Total: $ ~ 2500


Sorry if I have forgotten to mention something, if that's the case, let me know what it is, and I can add an amendment to the report.