Community Development/Outreach

1. I attended a reception for Leadership New Mexico on June 16, 1999 at the home of Mayor Fred Peralta. Leadership New Mexico is a leadership training program for New Mexico community leaders in areas of education, health, local government, business, and social services. As I visited with the participants they were all very interested in the education and training La Plaza is providing for our community members.

 
2. Thom Myers and I attended a reception on June 17, 1999 hosted by the McCune Foundation and Owen Lopez, the foundation Executive Director. There were approximately 60 nonprofit organizations representing Taos County. Mr. Lopez is familiar with La Plaza and encouraged a grant in the next funding cycle in year 2000.

 
3. The Taos Tango III charity golf tournament was held on June 18 and 19, 1999. La Plaza raised $1,550 and we hope to receive $775 in matching funds from the tournament. Once those dollars are received we will develop the 2nd Annual La Plaza computer contest and give away 2 new computers to the winners of the essay contest, "Why I Want a Computer"!

 
4. I have been attending meetings facilitated by the Fred Peralta and Gus Cordova for development of an Economic Development office and hiring a commissioner. This office would act as the point of contact for interested individuals and businesses to for economic development in the Enchanted Circle. The mission of the office has a different venue than Taos County Economic Development Corporation, as they are much more grass roots oriented.

 
5. Nancy Montano hosted the Open Studio artist's reception on June 24, 1999. Twenty-eight artists and their guests attended the party. Also in attendance were two LP Board members, Reva Suazo and Ira Schwartz, with wife Lorraine. The artists are people of both creativity and integrity and are so excited about the classes and learning how to use the equipment, the Internet and the WWW to market their art. This Open Studio project exemplifies La Plaza's mission to both the community and the participants. Nancy Montano has done an outstanding job in the project implementation. If the Board hasn't done so please visit the web page www.laplaza.org and find the Open Studio menu item, you will be very pleased.
   
   
6. I met with Dr. Carlos Abeyta, new superintendent with Penasco Independent School District. I gave a brief history of La Plaza and our association with the Schools in offering public access and education and training to the community through the schools computer lab. Dr. Abeyta assured me La Plaza would be able to maintain presence in the schools for public access. I will present to the School Board on Tuesday, July 20 the contract for Internet access in 1999/00.

Technology

1. Penasco Community: Arnold Lopez, Thos Myers, and I met with the Integrity Networking Solutions engineers on June 22,1 999 and discussed the options for high speed bandwidth service into Penasco for the schools, La Jicarita Enterprises, and the community at large. The Town of Taos has a tower and radios on Picuris Peak used for their 911 calls and we discussed with Gus Cordova, Town of Taos Manager, La Plaza leveraging their tower for service into Penasco. Gus supports the idea; however, we have had to request permission from the property owners, the Weimer Group. We are waiting to hear the response from their attorney, Jim Brandenburg,


If La Plaza is given permission to use the tower, we will be able to provide wireless high speed bandwidth to the Penasco schools and our dial in users.

La Jicarita Enterprises has expressed interest in being included in this wireless project for access at their school to work offices. They are wanting to develop a multi-media program in their career and business development project.
 

2. Questa Community I am meeting on July 22, 1999 with John Dawson, office of General Services Department and head of special projects with Telecommunications. We will begin the discussion for La Plaza to gain ownership of the State equipment in Questa. If some of you recall, Mr. Dawson and Chris Gillespie presented to our Board in October, 1999 regarding the Questa Demonstration Project. If we can gain ownership of the equipment, we can place our Questa dialin users on the wireless system and provide T-1 line speed for their dial in service.

 

 

Mr. Dawson expressed interest in continuing to develop collaborative efforts with the State and La Plaza in all of Northern New Mexico.
 

3. System Administrator I am in the process of interviewing for the position of System Administrator. Mats Wichman is helping in the process by conducting phone interviews to discuss the technical expertise of the candidates. I hope to make a decision within the next two weeks.

 
4. Value Added Services Integrity Networking presented to me, Thos Myers, and Arnold Lopez a wireless service that provides a Committed Information Rate (CIR) of 100K with bursts up to T-1 speed. This wireless connection consists of an antenna and sectorial radios at both La Plaza and the end user. We are discussing this with several businesses in Taos. Once the installation costs are incurred, there is a monthly fee for the Internet access but no monthly fee for a phone line. The wireless service eliminates any interaction with the local exchange carrier and provides for efficient and uninterrupted Internet access.

Monthly Statistics for June'99

1. Public Access Sessions:

Location   Total Sessions Total Hrs  Avg Session
La Plaza         833        725.07      0.87
Penasco          212        231.50      1.09
Questa           431        291.20      0.68

Of the 833 visits to the Taos lab 145 were from registered users
 
2. CLASSES

CLASS TITLE          # OF  PARTICIPANTS
Public Orientation             6
Intro to Email                 7
Intro to WWW                   6
Easy Web Design                2
HTML                           5
Promote Your Web Site          2
Total                         28

Provided training for 11 Rocky Mountain Youth Corp members - intro to Internet, WWW, email and Web Design.
 
3. NEW REGISTRATIONS FOR JUNE' 99

New Primary Accounts         130
New Secondary Accts           15
Reactivated                    6
Total                        151

4. CLOSED ACCTS JUNE'99

Past due balance of >50 days  36
User requested                43
Moving                        16
Not using                      6
Unable to access               9
Secondary accts                4
No reason                      8
Total                        122

5. TOTAL NUMBER OF USERS - as of June 30, 1999 - 2258

 

Judith Pepper, Executive Director, La Plaza Telecommunity