Attachment D

National Speleological Society
Operations Vice-President’s Report

February 24th 2004

Table of Contents:

Operations Vice President Report
Archivist Report
Audio-Visual Committee (Slides) Report
Audio-Visual Committee (Video) Report
Cave Files Committee Report
Headquarters Facilities Committee Report
Internal Organizations Committee Report
Information Technology Committee Report
Office Automation Division (IT Committee) Report
Market Analysis Committee Report
NSS Library Committee Report
NSS Operations Manager Report
Photo Archives Committee Report
Speleo-Museum Committee Report

Operations Vice President Report:

Colin Gatland
1151 Crestwood Hills Drive
Vandalia Ohio 45377

937-890-0339
cgatland@woh.rr.com

The Department of the Operations Vice President consists of 11 committees, plus the NSS Operations Manager and the NSS headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama. In this report, I provide the name, address, phone number, and e-mail address of the chair of each committee or organization, followed by their report. The committee and sub-committee chairs have provided the information in this report, although I’ve made some spelling, formatting, and minor editorial adjustments.

Plans:
Shift the NSS web site to a new hosting company

Put the NSS web site on two separate servers, with one dedicated to the on-line library and publications & Adobe e-Content, the other for everything else.

Revamp the NSS on-line Bookstore site, once the hosting company change takes place.

Try to jump start the "Virtual" Speleo Museum and get the beginnings of the online museum with a selection of images and captions from the collection out on the web where the membership can enjoy it.

Progress:
We are about to start a reprint of the "Bats" and "Fragile Underground" brochures. These are very popular NSS brochures and a quantity of 20,000 of each will be printed this FY. White Tiger Graphics will be doing the printing, and Michael Dale, who helped Cheryl Jones with the production of "A Guide to Responsible Caving" will be overseeing and QC-ing the project. This should be completed in early March. The next FY starting in May 2004, will include budgeted funds to have at least one more brochure reprinted as well.

Our less than stellar hosting company, Xeran, should soon be a memory to the NSS. Kelly Prebil, my IT Committee Chairman, has been researching new hosting companies for our website. Things such as a second server for Paul Stevens and his online library project, as well as all the NSS publications will eventually be on the second server, freeing up space on the other server for the rest of the Society’s internet web web needs. We will also have a large increase in available space over what we currently have.

We have learned a lot from the web site outage. One of those things is to make sure that someone other than the hosting company has a full and fairly current back up of our entire site. This way if something catastrophic happens in the future to our site, we can get it back up and running in a minimum amount of time. Kelley Prebil has already made a backup of our site and regular backups to keep things current will take place in the future.

Making headway, via the IT Committee, on who exactly are the "space hogs" on the NSS web site. It is becoming easier to now identify those folks that have paid for "X" amount of space but are using much more. They are now given a limited amount of time to either delete files or pay for the extra space. If one of those options are not taken, the IT Committee will take their site offline.

Problems:
Besides the basic meltdown and subsequent six-day outright outage of our web site and as of this writing things are still not back to normal yet, there are no major problems. The outage to our site, caused once again by the powers that be at Xeran (the third multi-day outage in our web site since Aug) really did a number on us. The bookstore was down for many days, IMO was down along with us as well. Our secure server was non-existent, e-mails using caves.org were also inoperative. The tech support folks at Xeran were less than helpful despite repeated attempts to contact them and try to get things up and running again. When the right folks finally were spoken to about restoring our files, their backup of our system was filled with corrupt files and empty folders. The IT Committee has been put under a lot of stress to try and get the site back up and running to something close to what it was prior to the collapse. Kelley Prebil and Doug Marchant deserve a lot of credit in getting it working again. I know that Kelley had her IT Team members all working hard to take care of the areas that they normally oversee. The whole IT Committee deserves a huge THANKS!…for their accomplishment.

One other notable thing to come out of the web site crashing is that there should have been a quicker response to communicating with as much of the membership as possible as to why the website was down. As with the "library move" ridiculous rumors started to circulate, almost a mass hysteria was beginning to occur, like something from Orson Wells. With this crash, the e-mail wouldn’t work and the discussion board was gone. We did start to send out e-mail announcements to the various caver related listserves, but it could have been done sooner. The emphasis at the time was the immediate attempts at trying to get the site fixed and back online, and less thought went into trying to contact people to say…"we are out due to the hosting company and not a due to some kind of conspiracy" (which I had heard). So bottom line…a plan to have better communication with the membership, should this happen again.

General Membership Update: As of the end of January 2004 we have 925 General Members this is an increase of around 56 since October 2003.

Archivist Committee:

J. Reynolds Duncan, Jr.
153 Atria Drive
Toney AL 35773-9515

256-852-4522

Plans:
Continue with the sorting and integration of Archives material.

Progress:
Responded to several requests for information.

Problems:
None

Submitted by Reynolds Duncan
Chairman, Archives Committee

Audio-Visual Committee (Slides):

Timothy C. White
2505A Toll Gate Road SE
Huntsville AL 35801

256-508-1908
KD4GOC@BIGFOOT.COM

No report submitted.

Audio-Visual Committee (Video):

David Socky
6572 Woodbrook Drive SW
Roanoke VA 24018-5402

703-989-7693
sockydr@cox.com

Plans:

PDF Library catalogue

Produce a downloadable PDF catalog of the slide and video library.

Update descriptions in library

Most of the descriptions for the video and slide selections are very terse, and not very helpful. Programs need to be reviewed and better descriptions written.

Work with the TV/Video production Committee

Roberta Serface was recently selected to be the Chair of the TV/Video Production committee. I am a part of the committee and plan to work closely with Roberta and others as much as possible. This relationship can help both the TV/Video Production Committee and the NSS AV Library.

Progress:
None

Problems:
None

Dave Socky
NSS AV Co-Chairman (Video)

Cave Files Committee:

Richard Blenz
8070 W Eller Road
Bloomington IN 47403

812-825-2345
rblenz@indiana.edu

Progress:
Things running as usual. No requests for data much but plenty of newsletters coming in.

Plans:
Keep it going as usual for the last 25 years.

Problems:
I had a problem at keeping up with the newsletters coming in every day what with working 56 hours a week at my two jobs.

Cheers and cave softly,
Dick Blenz
NSS Cave Files

Headquarters Facilities Committee:

Jim Hall
623 Larry Place
Madison AL 35758-1118

256-772-9829
jimehall@compuserve.com

Office facilities Committee nothing to report.

Jim Hall

Internal Organization Committee:

Evelyn Bradshaw, Co-Chairman
5713 Castlebridge Rd Apt 226
Fredericksburg VA 22407-6044

540-785-5361
ebradshw@staffnet.com

Keith D Wheeland, Co-Chairman
2191 Mountain View Ave.
State College PA 16801-7214

(home) 814-238-2057
(e-mail) kwheeland@psualum.com

I/O Committee Report

Submitted by Keith D. Wheeland with input from the Committee members

Progress:
Changes to I/O Status.
Evelyn Bradshaw chartered a new grotto, Southern New Hampshire Grotto (446) dated December 10, 2003. She is working on another new Grotto application. She continues to use her skills to solve problems posed by I/Os.

The Northwest Alabama Grotto (430) decided to become inactive 11/16/2003
The Southern Oregon Grotto decided to become inactive 12/7/2003
The Purdue Outing Club (245) decided to become inactive 12/12/2003

I/O Information on the Web.
The I/O web site at www.caves.org/committee/i-o/ is kept up to date. I/Os (Grottos, Regions, and Sections) can review the status of their 2003 Annual Report at the site. (Dave Taylor processes Surveys.)

The grotto information on the NSS web site is updated by importing data from the I/O database as changes are submitted by grottos. The information for the other I/Os is updated manually by Gary Bush. He is up-to-date with changes.

Annual Reports.
On November 18, 2003, and January 12, 2004, the Committee sent e-mail notices to all I/Os with instructions for submitting the Annual Report. There are three I/Os without an e-mail address. Those three were sent the instructions by USPS on November 18, 2003. On February 1, 2004. the Committee will send another reminder by USPS on February 1, All I/Os were notified that the Committee is trying to save the NSS money and that the Committee will be sending a printed reminder after January 31.

Here is the progress of the submission of Annual Reports as of 1/21/2004. The deadline is 2/15/2004.

I have shown the totals for last year as a comparison of rates submitted via the web.

Dave Taylor has begun to process reports from Surveys.

I/O Updates on the Web

With the help of Eric McMaster, we revamped the website where I/Os can update their information online. At Eric's request, we changed the database structure to improve efficiency. When I re-initialized the online database and changed its structure, I inadvertantly introduced an error in the Contact-1 for a few grottos. This has not caused any problems, except raised eyebrows.

URL - We added the ability for I/Os to update the URL of their I/O websites.

List-in - We added the ability for Grottos to indicate up to three states in which their I/O information may appear. Grotto information is listed by state in the NSS Members Manual and a similar listing on the NSS home page. Potential cavers looking for Grottos near their home have a greater chance of making a match by having Grottos located near state lines, being also shown in nearby states. This enhancement was coordinated with Andy Niekamp (NSS home page) and Bob Hoke (Members Manual), so that the enhancement shows up on the NSS home page, and will appear in the next Members Manual.

E-mail List for I/Os Improved

With the help of Andy Niekamp, we totally revamped the I/O E-mail List. We built on our previous text file that I upload to the NSS site. The old system required interested persons within I/Os to subscribe. The new system automatically uses up to three e-mail addresses for each I/O. The I/O e-mail address, and the e-mail addresses for each Contact. Others may ask to be included.

I/O Charter Document Updated

Evelyn Bradshaw and I have updated the I/O charter document to include a border, to print the I/O name in color, and to include the NSS logo as a sort of watermark.

I/O Duties Documented

I prepared a 28+ page document entitled The Internal Organizations Committee of the NSS. How it Functions. This document includes documentation for using the menu driven system that I use to maintain the I/O records. It also includes sample reports that are obtained from the system. The system that I wrote is written for operation under DOS.

I/O Records to be Saved at NSS Headquarters

In the last I/O Committee Report, I discussed the problem that the NSS office maintains only a few of the I/O data elements that are needed for the complete functioning of the NSS. Working with Phil Winkler, we were able to devise a scheme where the I/O records can be uploaded to the NSS Office and saved there. That solves one of the problems I addressed.

Plans:
Annual Report Process to be Studied

The current process for submitting the Annual Report has been simplified during the past three years. It is still a labor-intensive process for the I/O Committee. I estimate that I spend up to 15 minutes for each I/O. That includes sending instructions, responding to requests for forgotten passwords, explaining that there is an I/O website where most answers can be found, and asking I/Os for their membership rosters (as part of the Annual Report). Then there are the follow-up e-mails (or letters) to those I/Os who have deficiencies on their reports. This amounts to about 63 hours for processing Annual Reports. I will try to get some discussion going on how this amount of time can be reduced.

Integration of I/O data and NSS data

The current system that I use to maintain I/O records is written to run under DOS on my home computer. Before I retire from this position, I would like to have the I/O computer software system upgraded to a more modern technology. I would like to have the I/O system integrated with the current NSS records. I will be seeking the advice of those familiar with the current NSS system to see what is feasible from a security standpoint.

My Plan B is to ask for a volunteer to convert the current I/O software DOS system to a Windows environment. That will make it more portable when I retire. But, that is its only advantage. Plan B does not address the integration which is certainly what should occur.

Problems and Issues:
Archiving of I/O Records

Evelyn Bradshaw has many files in her apartment that need to be sent to the NSS office. She has been sorting through them and separating them. Since she receives periodic requests for Constitutions and Bylaws, she tries to keep a copy on hand.

Co-Chairmen: Keith D. Wheeland & Evelyn Bradshaw.
Members: Gary Bush, Eric McMaster, Esty Pape, and Dave Taylor.

Information Technology Committee:

Kelley Prebil
PO Box 117472
Burlingame CA 94011
Mobile: 650-520-3150
webmaster@caves.org

Information Technology Committee:
IT Team Chairman:
Submitted by: Kelley Prebil

Progress:
Split the budget for the NSS Library (Paul Stevens’ department) with the rest of the NSS IT budget.

Still waiting to hear from Xeran about switching to dedicated hosting. Discussed things with Doug Merchant in person at the Western Regional and we both decide that it’s a great idea. We would like to have a Xeran-assisted move to hardware and software that supports the Adobe Content Server 3.0 that Paul needs for the library.

Xeran was supposed to switch us to a new server, which is done entirely on their end. That never happened though.

Did another report on usage per account on the NSS Server. Some of the sections, who currently do not pay anything, are over the expected 5MB they would take up. The Cave Diving Section is taking up a whopping 55 MB, which we have decided is totally uncalled for. Guidelines for dealing with space hogs should be finalized and enforced as we have limited resources.

Re-coded the IT Members page so that we do not have active HTML links to the e-mail addresses. People will have to copy and paste, but this should hopefully reduce "spiders" from gathering our email addresses.

Re-routed webmaster@caves.org to a separate account on my personal mail server. kelley@caves.org was created to try and minimize the spam that reaches my personal inbox.

Plans:
Still need to come up with a new design for the NSS website as a whole. Still need to transfer us to a dedicates server so we have more space. Still need to create and enforce guidelines for even those do not pay for webhosting to ahede to. Some stuff for IMO needs to be taken care of, which Alex is in no huge hurry for, but wants to make sure that I am still conscious of his requests.

Problems:
Space hogs on the NSS server need to be dealt with. This is getting way out of hand.

Information Technology Committee:
Office Automation Division

Phil Winkler
816 N Washington Street
Wilmington DE 19801-1510

302-571-1156
pwinkler@plmconsulting.com

Progress:
Completed incorporating the IO Committees database into NSSTrak woring with Keith Wheeland. He will periodically (monthly??) email their new data files which will then be attached to NSSTrak for use if required. This project ensures data integrity by having the same data in multiple locations if disaster strikes. Whomever maintains our disaster plan should update it with this information.

Fixed a couple of things in the system.

Plans:
To evaluate the newest 6.5 version of our database software. This software incorporates OleDB as well as Web Publishing capabilities, all in a windows environment. Several officers have for some time expressed a desire for us to have "more modern" windows-based software which is, somehow, supposed to be better. Of course, these terms have never been defined nor the benefits to accrue by doing such a thing.

The new OleDB capability permits us to build a new, windows form over our normal tables. This MAY be a means to slowly migrate to a windows environment or, at least, take advantage of some useful windows features like easier mail-merging via DDE or OleDB to replace the existing exporting methodology.

Acquire and install Win2000 or XP on all machines in the office. This MAY require replacement of existing PCs in the office. Doing away with the present Win98 operating system will make our system more stable and capable.

At Stephanie's suggestion we are investigating changing our procedures for processing renewals and new memberships. Currently, we print pages containing ten NSS membership cards per page. We then print renewal acknowledgement letters and new member letters. The cards are then matched to their letter and stuffed into envelopes for mailing.

Stephanie proposes we purchase paper stock that has an embedded membership card on each page, perforated and laminated, too. With this technique the card, letter and address could be printed for each member and then sent through our folding/envelope stuffing machine dramatically reducing the time and effort needed to process membership renewals/new members.

It appears we need paper stock with the label at the bottom so we can print the address block at the top for proper placement in our windowed envelopes. All of this is currently being researched by Stephanie and Bill Torode.

Problems:
None.

Phil Winkler

Market Analysis Committee:

Debra Young
551 Homestead Ave NE
Palm Bay FL 32907

321-984-0228
suzyoung@bellsouth.net

Plans:
Waiting on our first assignment. I would still like to work on some bookstore issues now that the holidays are over and I am between travels.

Progress:
I have one solid volunteer, Jessica Gribble in Colorado. She works in the marketing department of a publishing company. Her husband has also volunteered. I believe he is a physicist. I did get to meet them when I was vacationing in Colorado a couple of months ago and they seem very capable. I also have one tentative interest in Texas right now. I think he will not take much persuasion. This is good for a start.

Problems:
None so far that I can foresee.

Debra Young

NSS Library Committee:

Richard Downey
380 N 600 East
Orem UT 84097-4843

801-224-6678
cavediva@msn.com

Progress:
Library Infrastructure committee is continuing to update their Index Database. See their report for details.

The Butler Cave Conservation Society has had their index of cave related books and other items linked to the NSS Library Site. These items were donated to the BCCS by Ann Wefer. These items have been indexed by keyword for title, subject, and author. This work has been done by Keith Wheeland. These items, while not a part of the NSS Library, would still be available for in situ use.

I have been test driving some software packages through my work to try to find a system both comprehensive for our needs and affordable.

Plans:
Build the committee with permanent members. Open a dialogue with NCKRI and Louise Hose to determine needs. The Search for software continues.

Problems:
None.

NSS Operations Manager:

Stephanie Searles
National Speleological Society, Inc.
2813 Cave Avenue
Huntsville AL 35810

256-852-1300
manager@caves.org

Progress:
Update: "Cave Minerals of the World" price reduction. As of June 1, 2003, the price of Cave Minerals of the World dropped from $70 retail to $45. This strategy was made in hopes of moving the book (increase sales). Total Sales: September 2003 - December 2003 = 39. Total Sales: September 2002 – December 2002 = 44.

Update: "Hidden World of Caves" consigned at Quality Books. In June 2003, 30 copies of Hidden World of Caves were shipped to Quality Books. Year-to-dates sales total 3 copies sold.

Update: "Hidden World of Caves" Special 2003 NCA Convention Discount. David McClurg designed a flyer promoting Hidden World of Caves and other NSS Publications. McClurg sent the flyers and NCA labels to me for mailing and I included a copy of Hidden World of Caves with each packet. The flyer offered a one-time special wholesale discount, special delivery terms of April 2004 and special payment terms of June 2004. The following NCAs have placed their order:

Crystal Caves – Kutztown, PA.
Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park – Preston, MN.
Mystic Caverns – Marble Falls, AR.
Sierra Nevada – Vallecito, CA.
Squire Boone Caverns & Village – New Albany, IN.

NSS Bookstore Sales 3^rd Qtr 2003 Comparison 1^st Qtr 2002

*Includes $7,220.00 Convention Sales
**Includes $2,296.00 OTR Sales
***Includes $2,761.64 TAG Sales

“Big Sellers” at Convention 2003:
12 copies @ $40.00/ea – Beneath the Cloud Forests
10 copies @ $16.50/ea– 2001 National Cave and Karst Symposium
(Includes 2 CD-ROM $8.50/ea)
17 copies @ $15.00/ea – AMCS Bulletin# 10 Golondrinas
22 copies @ $12.95/ea – 2004 Speleo Project Calendar
40 copies @ $23.00/ea – 2002 Speleo Digest
7 copies $33.00/ea – On Call hardback
4 copies $25.00/ea – On Call paperback
13 copies $9.00/ea – Hidden World of Caves.

The third Membership Renewal Special Flyer (10% discount on advertised NSS items for those members that renew their membership and purchase any item from the flyer). We began mailing the flyers in March 2003 and ran out in November 2003. Sales to date: $1,432.55 / Quantities Sold: Living with Karst – 7, Hidden World of Caves – 21, Caving Basics – 17, Speleogenesis – 12, On Call PB – 6, On Call HB – 4 and several symbolic items (mostly stickers). Scott Fee came up with this promo when he was OVP. I think it’s a great way to keep the NSS Bookstore in the minds of the NSS members.

Plans:
Avis will attend SERA in May.

Start preparing for Convention 2004 in Michigan! It’s never too early to prepare for convention.

Problems:
Micca (p/t bookstore assistant) is without a printer. Of course, I went and purchased a printer for her workstation, but it was a USB printer and the database we use will not support a USB printer. Most printing companies are not making printers with parallel ports and the printers that have a parallel port are much more expensive than the USB printers. I have a printer on order for Micca. Phil Winkler and I have discussed upgrading DataEase to version 6.5, which is a windows version.

Photo Archives Committee:

Karen Kastning
PO Box 148
Radford VA 24141-0048

703-639-4666
karen@skyhopper.net

Fall 2003 Report of the NSS Photo Archives Committee
Submitted by Karen M. Kastning
(additional committee member, Ernst H. Kastning)

Plans:
Long-term plans: To establish a detailed database for research purposes. A slight bit of progress on this over the winter: Primary activity is in cleaning of old negatives that were received by the archives in VERY dusty and often mildewed condition. Work is quite slow due to the need to wash each negative/strip one at a time - while taking care not to scratch or further damage the work.

Short-terms plans and activity: Same as last time: work continues to progress (slowly) at putting sleeves on the large-format prints, sorting them into appropriate categories, and filing them.

Progress:
As mentioned in the plans section, some progress in reconditioning (primarily B&W negatives) and storage activities (large format prints).

Problems:
Same as last fall: I have not obtained any new photos directly from any cave photographers this year. On another note, I still need a HIGH QUALITY slide/negative scanner. It might make some of my reconditioning work easier, as some of the repairs may be tackled easier with photo-editing software/tools.

Speleo-Museum Committee:

Craig Hindman
7600 Pindell School Road
Fulton MD 20759

410-792-0742
ctider@us.ibm.com

No report submitted.

3/8/04