Executive Director's Report
La Plaza Board of Directors Meeting
July 13, 1998
Proposed Projects
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La Plaza has been invited by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to participate
in a project titled Environmental Images Digital Library Project: Earth
Day 2000! that is being proposed to the National Science Foundation, (NSF).
The purpose of the project is to build a self-sustaining national system
of community-based environmental image digital libraries. They envision
community residents, and especially K-12 students, would contribute environmental
images to our virtual library. As La Plaza has an existing virtual library,
and various community members have been trained on using the Internet and
WWW, the partnership with Oak Ridge National Lab will enhance the community
training and content for the library. The initial focus for the project
will be Earth Day, April 22, 2000. The goal is to have in place the technology
and other arrangements for people to contribute images of their communities
and immediate and surrounding environments captured on that day. Technical
challenges involve developing software, augmenting digital cameras with
devices to automatically add environmental data, and how to structure the
meta-data that will accompany the images. (These challenges will solved
by ORNL!) I sent a letter of support and participation to ORNL for the
proposed project. Should the project be approved, then we will be meeting
with Dr. Bruce Tonn, project developer with ORNL, for specific levels of
participation. La Plaza will receive national recognition, state-of-the-art
digital cameras, and a project for community development and awareness.
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Rocky Mountain Youth Corp requested La Plaza participate in a USWEST RFP,
Widening Our World (WOW). WOW is an opportunity for economically disadvantaged
populations to participate in technology based learning. RMYC will develop
the proposal as a training grant to train some of their clients and La
Plaza will provide the accessibility and technical consultation. It is
a $50,000 grant with dollars for staff, training, hardware, and connectivity.
The RFP is due July 15 and the response from USWEST will be the week of
October 1, 1998.
-
The National Cancer Institute has issued an RFP for research applications
on health communications in cancer control. La Plaza contacted American
Medical Center, AMC, a research center or think tank, in Denver to consider
being the lead agency on the RFP and La Plaza being the implementation
agency. The RFP is designed to create models to enable people to assess
individual risks more appropriately and to make informed decisions about
primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of cancer using information
technology. The research would examine use of networks of communication,
automated response systems and other technologic advances for use in behavioral
change programs. Also the effectiveness of the World Wide Web and the ability
of the new media to reach specific population segments in reaching objectives
related to cancer control. As La Plaza conducted the Department of Commerce
grant using information technology to train health care providers and consumers
to access health information specific to diabetes; we felt the NCI grant
is a perfect avenue to further our technological infrastructure and to
continue training and access specific to cancer to the community members
in Taos County. Our infrastructure would be enhanced with equipment, public
access sites, and T-1 line installation. Again, there will be national
recognition and then the educational impact to our communities of learning
how to access health information on the Internet and WWW. Barb Hau, Daniel
Pruitt, and I had a conference call with AMC on Monday, July 6, 1998. AMC
is very interested in the RFP and in partnering with La Plaza; however,
as AMC is purely a research facility, they had questions regarding population
size of Taos County meeting their requirements for control groups. AMC
will be contacting LANL to determine possible partnership with an NTIA
Department of Commerce grant hosted at Northern New Mexico Community College
in Espanola. Our hope is La Plaza will be able to participate in a proactive
way with the NCI grant and AMC. A letter of intent is due July 9, 1998
and as AMC would be the lead agency they will submit the letter. As the
project is a research project and requires evaluation of data by Ph.D.
Principal Investigators, it is not appropriate for La Plaza to apply. Our
role would be that of implementation of the technology and training of
the community members in how to access and use the information.
Community Development
-
Nancy Montano has been assigned to development a Volunteer Recruitment
program. Nancy has developed a list of jobs and requirements for volunteers
at La Plaza. She will be notifying the public and begin interviewing for
placement the end of July. This is a comprehensive volunteer program which
includes placement at the Help Desk, but is not limited to just the Help
Desk.
-
La Plaza will hold the first annual computer summer camp the second week
of August. There will be space for 8 attendees, ages 12 - 14, with two
scholarship spaces. The camp will be Monday though Friday, 9:00 to 12:00,
and the participants will learn the basics of the computer, Internet, WWW
and will create their own web page. This camp is a pilot project and will
help La Plaza determine the community interest and need for youth and possible
adult computer camps. Nancy Montano and Loretta Suazo will be the facilitators
of the camp.
-
I met with two women community members and discussed possible interest
for Board nominees. I notified Thom Myers of their interest and Thom has
contacted and discussed with them Board responsibilities.
-
I met with Bill Swann, Chamber of Commerce Business Chair, and we
discussed the application to W.K.Kellogg Foundation of the Managing Information
in Rural America MIRA) grant. If you recall, this grant provides for 6
- 10 community teams being developed from the small rural towns in Taos
County. These teams will be trained with the new information technology
and then each will development a community project to be completed within
12 - 18 months. La Plaza will not submit the RFP, but will offer technical
advise. If the RFP is approved, then La Plaza will submit a proposal to
be one of two Community Organizations which assists the teams with their
community projects. The1999 RFP will be published in August and must be
submitted in October, 1998. La Plaza will work with the team of community
members in developing the RFP.
Membership
-
Daniel Pruitt and I met with Ira Schartz, Thom Myers and Marty Meltzer,
members of the Membership Committee, regarding implementation of the new
membership requirements. Once the Committee refines the Rights and Responsibilities
section, the new and approved Membership policy will be placed on-line.
We will also notify the existing users and members of the new policy and
where to find the policy documents on our Web Site.
Accounting
-
Pamela Alfred, CPA, has taken a job in San Francisco and will be moving
the end of July. She recommend Nesbit Hagood & Associates in Santa
Fe as Mr. Hagood has experience with accounting methods for nonprofit agencies
and Federal funding. I have an appointment with Mr. Hagood to discuss our
accounting needs and annual audit.
-
June Financial Statements: See Attached (not published on Web site)
Personnel
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Mike Ortiz, Help Desk Assistant, has resigned effective July 10, to pursue
his academic career at Santa Fe Community College. Loretta Suazo and I
are interviewing applicants to replace Mike.
June Monthly Statistics
Public Access Users
Location |
# users |
# hours |
average |
La Plaza (Taos) |
1073 |
1073 |
1:00 |
Penasco |
233 |
668 |
2:52 |
Questa |
334 |
202.15 |
0:37 |
San Cristobal |
n/a |
|
|
Classes
Class |
# participants |
Easy Web Page Design |
7 |
HTML |
10 |
Promoting Your Web Site |
7 |
Public Orientation |
13 |
Intro to Email |
7 |
Intro to WWW |
8 |
Total |
52 |
Kellogg-sponsored teacher training began with inital classes
held in Penasco (5 teachers) and Questa (14 teachers).
Registrations
New Primary Accounts |
57 |
New Secondary Accts |
25 |
Reactivated Accts |
14 |
Free/Scholarship |
1 |
Total |
97 |
Telephone Statistics
Category |
# calls |
Tech Support Calls |
391 |
Billing |
87 |
New Accounts |
47 |
Hours |
22 |
Classes |
30 |
Web Site |
2 |
Voice Mail |
23 |
Other |
230 |
Total |
832 |
Dial-in Statistics
Location |
#Users |
#Dial-in |
Connect Time (hrs) |
Taos |
1099 |
52944 |
19,359.18 |
Penasco |
56 |
1802 |
|
Questa |
92 |
3763 |
|
Total |
1597 |
1221
(76% of total users) |
|
Respectfully submitted,
Judith Pepper, Executive Director, La Plaza Telecommunity