Executive Director's Report
April 9,1998
  1. The W. K. Kellogg supplemental request was approved. The funding amount is $64,457 and provides for training classroom teachers to put class lessons on line. Approval was received from the school districts in Taos, Questa, and Penasco.  The letter of approval and check should be here before May 1, 1998.
  2. The budget has been amended and as it involves personnel issues, it will be discussed in Executive Session.
  3. Remote site costs for Questa and Penasco will be assumed by La Plaza beginning June 1, 1998. The $850 monthly costs were provided for in the Kellogg grant and the hardware is housed in the high schools in each community. Both school districts have given permission for the hardware to remain after the grant is ended.

    4. If the Penasco and Questa technology plans are approved for the Universal Service discount, and both districts are meeting all time lines for documentation, then they will qualify for the discount from the FCC. Both districts have written for  point to point T-1 lines and US West has stated the lines can be installed from La Plaza to the schools. If and when that happens, the schools will be taken off the La Plaza 56 Kbps lines and services will be more efficient for the general user in each of these communities.

    The public access sites will remain open after May 31, 1998. As the sites have been open periodically during the past year there is money available for Community Outreach Trainers in Questa and Penasco. Mike Garcia, acting superintendent in Penasco, will be requesting permission from the School Board on April 21 for the high school computer lab to be made available for public access this summer. The Questa Youth Center has hired a director and the public access is now available on Tuesday and Thursday from 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM. The Community Outreach Trainer offers Internet training and public access on these two days.

    Once the schools know what the FCC Universal Service Rate will provide financially, then La Plaza needs to develop a plan to increase phone lines for dial in service, particularly in Questa.

  4. Monthly Data:

    1. Public access:
      Location  #Users  #Hours Average 
      3/2-3/31 La Plaza
      3/2-3/30 San Cristobal
      3/2-3/31 Penasco
      Questa - no data      		 1194
      74
      214      		 1193.06
      77.05
      332      		 1 hour
      1.05 hours
      1.55 hours

    2. Classes
      11 Classes were offered and only 1 class had enough registrants to be held. We feel this is due to the warmer weather and class attendance will increase after folks have enjoyed being outside for a month or two.

    3. Web design classes:
      Easy Web Page Design - 5 classes with 27 participants
      Learning HTML - 3 classes with 13 participants
      Promoting Your Website - 2 classes with 11 participants

    4. Member Information
      Total members - 94
      Renewals - 3
      New members - 3

    5. New Registrations - 167
      New Primary Accounts - 89
      Secondary Accounts - 40
      Reactivated Accounts - 35
      Scholarship Accounts - 3

    6. La Plaza Dial-In User Stats

      • Total # accounts - 1505
        Total # Dial-in - 1135 (75% of total users)
        Total connect time - 26821.52 hours

      • Average Num Sessions: 53
        Average Ses Length: 26.58 minutes
        Average total connect: 23.63 hours

      • Penasco # users - 49
        Penasco # sessions - 2372
        Penasco total time - 2609.10 hours

      • Questa # users - 76
        Questa # sessions - 3464
        Questa total time - 3080.37 hours hours

      • Taos # users - 1039
        Taos # sessions - 54716
        Taos total time - 21132.04 hours

    7. Website

      We had 28,500 hits on the La Plaza home page. The ten most popular places are:

      1. Search page
      2. Services and support
      3. Carson National Forest
      4. Business and Employment
      5. Visitors Section
      6. Arts and Leisure
      7. Media Section
      8. Taos Pueblo Environmental Office
      9. Native American Diabetes Project
      10. About La Plaza

  5. Daniel, Mark and Loretta have developed on-line registration. Once the Board approves the Acceptable Use Policy and Learning Center Policy, it will be added to the on-line registration and we will publicize the added service.

  6. I have contacted and sent follow-up letters to 3 corporations for corporate support with our public access sites.  I have met with one and am waiting to learn the level of support with which they will participate.

  7. Loretta Suazo met with the Ancianos Center and began the training for the staff in Internet access. She will assign a volunteer to train the senior citizens. The staff and seniors are very excited with the public access computer.

  8. " Why I Want a Computer Essay Contest" ended on March 31, 1998. Nancy Montano received 94 essays, 83 from mid-school students and 11 from high school students. The panel of judges will meet April 7 and develop judging criteria. They will begin reading the essays and the winners will be announced on April 24, 1998.  Kudos to Nancy for the essay idea and to Mike Bearden and Mark Nettleton in getting the computers ready for the contest! The panel of judges are:  Carol Rael and Cynthia Rael-Vigil, Questa; Chandler Barrett and Joyce Romero, Penasco; Dr. Linda Sonna, Bob Romero, Frank Suazo and Christina Martinez, Taos; and advisory judges Peter Stazione and Debbie McCann, La Plaza Board of Directors.

  9. As I stated in a post to the Board, Elizabeth Manny declined the invitation to Historian for La Plaza. Ms. Manny is unable to donate the time required in developing the history of La Plaza.

    Judith Pepper
    Executive Director