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On Thu, 28 Sep 2000, Mark Rushton wrote:
>
> The issue of CCN's precarious cash situation was raised at board
> meetings shortly after I came aboard. The response, after receiving
> varied financial statements, was "we're on target, doing fine". The
> fact that we are 'suddenly' at the brink of extinction worries me
> greatly.
We have an entirely new crisis, unrelated to past money woes. The
beginning of this new crisis was recognized two months ago, and it
precipitated Leo's resignation when he realized that if the trend
continued there would be no money to pay his salary. The trend has
continued, and there is no money to pay his salary; fortunately, a moot
point, as he has left Chebucto.
The trend I'm referring to is that both new account signups and renewals
have dropped at an alarming rate over August and September, both text and
PPP, but most importantly PPP because that's our cash cow. I refused to
sound the alarm bell until we had September's numbers, because September
is traditionally our best month for renewals and new accounts, and I felt
there was hope for a reversal of the trend. Andrew has been monitoring
and graphing this trend closely, and has kept me informed on a daily
basis. I have discussed the situation personally with a number of Board
members from time to time over the past couple of weeks, and of course the
Executive Committee has been watching things closely. Yesterday, with
receipt of our Dalhousie statement, which is in arrears, I felt it was
time to alert the Executive Committee, who were eagerly awaiting the news
about which way our revenues were headed. Today Krista brought the matter
to the Board and Communications lists.
> - Have we initiated a renewal scheme for current IPs, and if so, what
> is the status? As has been pointed out before, at a minimum of
> $50/pop, possibly more if the existing IPs express interest in
> migrating to the more expensive membership plan, that could be a
> significant chunk of revenue. Besides, it's something we should be
> doing in any case!
Two weeks ago, Andrew issued invoices for a number of accounts; yesterday
the first payment of $150 arrived. You need to talk to Andrew about the
details.
> - I respectfully disagree with James' assessment of Krista's
idea
> that we ask members for donations. It cannot "irreperably damage our
> public image", as we have no public image. If anything, the outreach
> effort can be undertaken in a way that does not reduce us to beggars;
I agree that a fundraising appeal is a good idea. People expect to be
asked, even if they complain about it. Krista is working on this project,
in her role as Communications Chair. She is drafting a letter of appeal
from the Chairman of the Board to the membership.
> - Additionally, can we PLEASE start doing some sort of advertising,
> whether it be paid, or by harangueing local columnists, reporters,
> etc. to cover us more thoroughly? At the very least, let's get
> some of our pamphlets (the ones with the URL, for goodness' sake)
> into public areas. Let's get something going with local computer
> stores (we DID discuss that, and someone <not me> said that a plan of
> action was coming...)
Advertising needs to be targetted, and without a detailed marketing plan,
we're wasting our efforts. Besides, we have *no* money. However, if you
want to go ahead and initiate something, you have my blessing.
> - Six months from now we will not be broke again. IP and membership
> renewals are continually ongoing. It would be helpful if the office
> could give us a broad indication (bar chart Andrew!) of monthly
> account expiry estimates. That could help pinpoint on which months
> of the year we can expect fewer renewals (and thus a cash crunch) or
> more. It would also assist us in not panicking needlessly.
Yes, we will be broke six months from now, if this new trend continues. As
a matter of fact, we will not only be broke in six months time, we won't
be functioning at all. This trend has not taken us by surprise; it might
very will be indicative of the free web and email services migration that
we predicted last year would affect us negatively within two years.
Other community nets in Canada are facing the same crisis, and some have
already succumbed.
As for predicted renewals, Andrew has that all nicely bar-graphed, but it
is a moot point if people are going elsewhere. We never know until they
decline to renew, and so we can't count on predictions of renewals that
might very well not happen.
I don't panic easily. In my opinion we are not panicking needlessly, we
are preparing for the worst. I harped about this endlessly at the
strategic planning sessions ("Show me the money"), and it is the major
reason that I wanted to push ahead with standardizing procedures for grant
applications and administration of grant monies. With an annual budget of
circa $100K, we received and monitored $200K in grant monies in the last
fiscal year, with a return of only $9000 (the money that was "left over").
If Chebucto had levied an administrative fee on those monies, we would
have an entirely different picture today. That is why we also need to
think carefully about grant applications currently in the works and how
those monies should be administered, if the applications are successful.
> Action items:
> 1/ invigorated IP renewal effort
> 2/ invigorated membership / user renewal effort
> 3/ email newsletter from CCN to members, pushing PLUS,
> renewals and donations
> 4/ Advertise / Public Image enhancement
To that, and to all these ideas, I say, "Just do it." Talk is cheap. What
we really need is a detailed management plan, but in the absence of that,
anything anybody can do -- that is *do* as in "make happen", not talk
about -- is progress, as far as I'm concerned.
My personal action plan, besides issuing a request from the Chair for
donations from the membership: I have a list of the last two months'
non-renewal PPP account holders whom I will personally telephone this
afternoon and tomorrow to (1) encourage them to renew anyway, even if they
hadn't planned to and (2) failing that, find out why they left us, so that
we can get a better handle on the underlying causes of this trend.
I look forward to hearing personal action plans from all.
Sharon
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