Incorporated in August 1990, Public Information Network, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, doing business as RTPnet.

System Administrators: Amnon Nissan and Ron Bickers, of Deltaforce Technologies, are the System Administrators:

Membership: RTPnet Membership, currently 115 active billable members, decreased by fifteen during 2007 — lost 25 and gained 10. See Appendix: 2006 Membership Changes for lists of new and lost members.

Implemented New Billing Software: Under the leadership of Michael Rulison, in January 2007 RTPnet began using phpCOIN, which enables members to maintain their own member information, for member billing.

It’s important to realize that the future is not the widgets (not the tools), but is the engagement of people. Instead of focusing so much on nuts and bolts (and the mechanics of the tools), we need to enable people to connect with each other and to help them learn how to use the tools to do this.

1. A new organization structure:

   ---

   Public Information Network, Inc.
   as an umbrella membership organization for

   NCCommunities	RTPnet
   Community Engagement	Technology and Infrastructure
   Education (in partnership with TechSoup and NTEN)	Web hosting
   Training	Technical support
   Learning	Tool suggestions/vetting
   Webinars	Tool selection
   Many-to-many	Monitoring trends
   Community — online and in person	Suggesting standards
   (difference from TechSoup, etc. is proximity)	"Sandbox"?

2. A new mission statement for Public Information Network, Inc.: PIN makes the work of the nonprofits easier using technology.

3. Goals for NCCommunities:
   • Make it valuable to nonprofits and individuals to be a member in NCCommunities.
   • Have NCCommunities grow to have many more members, both free and for fee — this will enable it to be a center for social networking.
   • Create an online community to find expertise and help with tools for community building and engagement

4. Example tactics for NCCommunities:
   • Free Membership — We need a critical mass of people on NCCommunities to make it active and engaging. Just by signing up and getting a login you become part of NCCommunities network where you can share insights and learn.
   • Premium Paid Membership(s) - charging a small yearly membership fee that offers enhanced NCCommunities access, free classes, discounts with partner organizations (like Tech Soup?), and hosting (as we do now).

5. Goals for RTPnet:
   • Continue to provide excellent technology support.

6. Example Tactics for RTPnet
   • Hosting with RTPnet would be available to members of NCCommunities (at the graded fees, or maybe the bottom grade would be at a discounted fee?), but is not required.
   • Our current RTPnet customers and others who are interested in RTPnet hosting services (which will continue with graded fees), will also become members of NCCommunities at no extra fee.

The Taskforce will finish up the strategic plan by prioritizing and clarifying the tactics and making a list of tasks to bring back to the board.

Membership Survey: During 2006, Marjorie Fowler and Bob Sams conducted a member survey. They completed their report January 25, 2007. Their conclusion:

As the competitive price advantage for providing basic internet services for nonprofits disappears due to the proliferation of cheap/free internet tools (full of extensive advertising), we need to consider ways to develop and maintain loyalty to RTPnet, indeed to make it a selling point. We believe the surveys show that there is still an opportunity for RTPnet to build on what we’re doing right, specifically being mission-driven, local, and community-focused.

The report is at http://computerselfhelp.org/index.php?n=PRIVATEarea.Survey07jan.

Vision, Mission, Projects: Marjorie Fowler and Bob Sams presented to the board "RTP vision and mission statements, goals and projects for 2007: 3/15/2007," which formed the basis of the strategic planning. See http://computerselfhelp.org/index.php?n=PRIVATEarea.Vision07mar.

Website Redesign: There is considerable interest in redesigning the RTPnet website. In March, Mike Rulison appointed a committee "... to consider how the current RTPnet www pages can be renovated, using current content." In June, Mike reorganized the file/folder structure of the website. In July, Marjorie assumed leadership of a re-formed website redesign committee consisting of Alice Denson, Jerry Winegarden, and Amnon Nissan. The Web Committee used the new RTPnet Drupal site for some of its initial communication. They met on August 14 and decided that the website redesign needed to be put on hold, with the website committee members splitting into two groups, one a Strategic Planning Taskforce and the other a Technical Taskforce.

Strategic Planning: Heather Hesketh and Alice Denson are leading the Strategic Planning Taskforce. They held their first Strategic Planning meeting September 20 at MCNC, in RTP. There's an announcement of the plan for the meeting at http://computerselfhelp.org/index.php?n=PRIVATEarea.Plan07sept. On October 3, the Strategic Planning Taskforce proposed Goals for 2008. Several agenda items from the Strategy Committee were on the agenda for the board meeting planned for October 18, which was canceled due to lack of a quorum. Recommendations from the second RTPnet Strategic Planning Meeting, 11/15/2007, in Chapel Hill, are in an attachment to http://www.rtpnet.org/mailman/private/rtpnet-board/2008/000961.html — or see http://rtpnet.org/hallman/recommendations.htm . As noted above, Taskforce recommendations were approved by the board January 17, 2008.

Technical Taskforce: Amnon Nissan and Jerry Winegarden are leading the Technical Taskforce, to continue with the analysis of the current RTPnet website and define a procedure for keeping the website up-to-date. In October, Amnon worked with a freelance web contractor to transfer the existing content on the RTPnet website to a new platform based on open source content management software called Joomla.

Wiki for Operations Manual: RTPnet continues to explore using a wiki (software called "pmwiki") to develop an online operations manual. Board and advisors are able to add to and edit committee and project information, meeting agendas, and the like. Although the site contains a lot of useful information, it is not well organized and comments and discussion are mixed in with other content.

NCCommunities: Judy Hallman, volunteer, has been learning the Drupal content management system and CiviCRM constituent relationship management software with the long-term goal of expanding RTPnet's hosting services to include them. The development site, NCCommunities.org, is evolving as an online community where nonprofits can find expertise and help with tools for community building and engagement. A few board members and Advisors have registered and contributed information. NCCommunities was announced to the email list of members and friends on August 21 as a new RTPnet service, starting off with the Drupal Content Management System and its associated Web 2.0 tools.

Judy and Alice Denson (Executive Director, Orange County Literacy Council) have set up, as a private network, NCLA.NCCommunities.org, as an information exchange site for literacy agencies across the state of North Carolina. The site uses Drupal.

While Judy has not yet developed a CiviCRM site, she has developed skills by migrating and updating the CiviCRM FAQ from an old site to the CiviCRM wiki, reviewing new documentation for administrators and users, creating a section in the documentation on "Using CiviCRM," and creating a couple of demonstrations. In doing so, she has established a good relationship with members of the CiviCRM team.

http://nccommunities.org/site-development contains the project history and status reports.

• Association For Community Networking (AFCN)
• Community Technology Centers' Network (CTCNet)
• N.C. Center for Nonprofits
• Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network (N-TEN)

In November, Judy Hallman signed a Memorandum of Understanding Between NTEN & Judy Hallman, RTPnet. The agreement calls for organizing face-to-face gatherings for the Triangle 501 Tech Club in 2008.

Checking Account Balance on 12/31/06:    $8,042.33 
Certificate of Deposit on 12/31/06:      $5,475.71
Total Assets on 12/31/06:               $13,518.04

Total Income:                           $10,081.82
Total Expenses:                          $6,867.21
                                       
Checking Account Balance on 12/31/07:    $4,995.45           
Certificate of Deposit on 12/31/07:     $11,737.20
Total Assets on 12/31/07:               $16,732.65