Attachment D

National Speleological Society

Operations Vice-President’s Report

March 25, 2006

Table of Contents:

Operations Vice President
Archivist Committee
Audio-Visual Committee (Slides)
Audio-Visual Committee (Video)
Cave Files Committee
Internal Organizations Committee
Information Technology Committee
Discussion Board Subcommittee
Office Automation Committee
Market Analysis Committee
NSS Library Committee
Operations Manager
Photo Archives Committee
Speleo-Museum Committee

Operations Vice President

Tom Rea; 765-653-4423; tomrea@ccrtc.com

The Department of the Operations Vice President consists of 11 committees, plus the NSS Operations Manager and the NSS headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama. The committee and sub-committee chairmen have provided the information in this report, although, being an editor, I have edited it to my liking. I have listed the telephone number and e-mail address of each committee chairman below. Additional addresses and contact information for all people in this report can be found at:

http://www.caves.org/nss-business/bog/table-4d.html

Progress:
The Dogwood City Grotto (Atlanta) has made a grant to the Society for the purchase of two new computers to complete the update of the office hardware. Bill Putnam shepherded this grant through the grotto. This installation is now completed and the office computer hardware is completely up to date. Bill is also volunteering to maintain and fine tune the computer network at the office.

Problems:
None to speak of right now.

Archivist Committee

J. Reynolds Duncan, Jr; 256-852-4522; reynolds.duncan@worldnet.att.net

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

Progress:
Responded to a few requests for information.

Problems:
None.

Audio-Visual Committee (Slides)

Timothy C. White; 256-508-1908; kd4goc@bigfoot.com

No report recvieved.

Audio-Visual Committee (Video)

David Socky; 540-989-7693; sockydr@cox.net

Plans

See below

Progress

On Line Catalog additions

NSS AV Online Library "What’s New" page. No progress yet.

New videos

A new high definition format documentary featuring caves in national parks has been produced by the National Park Foundation and Discovery Communications. It is called "Caves: The Wonder Beneath". Still need to get this entered into the Video Salon and the Library.

Convert slide programs to CD format

My plan is to work with Jonesy in getting more slide shows converted and into the AV library.

Talked to Jonesy at the NSS Convention. He indicated that he has been converting more programs. I still need to get the ones he has done into the library

Produce New educational video

Tray Murphy has expressed interest in helping with an educational video about caving for children.

No progress

Convert more VHS programs to DVD format

DVD is becoming the format of the future. More and more people are requesting programs on DVD.

No progress

PDF Library catalogue

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

No progress

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.

I have updated a few programs, plus new entries are getting complete descriptions right away.

Problems

none

Cave Files Committee

Richard Blenz; 812-825-2345; rblenz@ucs.indiana.edu

No budget needed.

NSS Cave Files now can access data on 44,687 caves. Some of it is a sentence which gives little data and some is voluminous like Mammoth, Lech, or Fisher Ridge. I have 608 caves with no county known and 90 caves with no state or county known (am contacting people to reduce this number).

Internal Organizations Committee

Keith D Wheeland; 814-238-2057; kwheeland@psualum.com

Progress:

I/O Information on the Web.

The I/O web site at www.caves.org/committee/i-o/ is kept up to date. The general information for Regions, Sections, and Surveys on the NSS website is updated manually by Gary Bush.

I/O - New, Reinstatements, and Inactivations

The following three new grottos were chartered and two reinstated:

Cowtown Grotto (450)(TX) - October 2005

Bryson City Grotto (451)(NC) - November 2005

Great Lakes Cavers (452)(Traveling) - November 2005

SEMO Grotto (107)(MO) - Reinstated as a non-student grotto August 2005

Shady Grove Grotto (443) - Reinstated December 2005

Consolidation of I/O Files

The I/O files that still remain at the residence of Evelyn Bradshaw are slowly being sent to Keith Wheeland. Once the transfer is complete, Wheeland will transfer some files to Huntsville for the archives. He will retain files for active I/Os.

Annual Report Progress

The I/Os were notified via email on January 2, 2006, that the Annual Report is due. The notice was also posted on the Cavers Digest. Three I/Os were notified by mail since they had no active email address to which to send the notice. They were the following:

Mountain State Grotto

Mule Mountain Grotto

Waldo Brothers

Plans:

We will continue to be proactive in making improvements to the chartering procedure, annual report procedure, and resolutions of issues brought to the attention of the I/O Committee. Eric McMaster has continued to make improvements to the online report submittal process.

Problems and Issues:
This year the start of the annual report process was delayed about a month because the Chairman was out of town. This will not affect the overall process.

Committee Members:

Please address any questions or comments to kwheeland@psualum.com.
Chairman: Keith D. Wheeland. Members: Evelyn Bradshaw (Chairman Emeritus), Gary Bush, Eric McMaster, Esty Pape, and Dave Taylor.

Information Technology Committee

IT Team Chairman: Josh Bailey; 510-303-5287; josh@vandervecken.com

A complete backup of the system as of this week was 2.6GB (compressed), dispatched to the NSS office on DVD (this is over and above the daily backups kept by myself of course). This is up from just on 1GB after the crash restoration - a very significant amount of the lost content has been restored.

Quotes were obtained for restoration of the old disk, which averaged $1,000+ with no guarantee of success. I have decided to keep the disk and explore other opportunities through contacts here should they arise. However we should consider the original disk lost.

Administrative tasks such as adding new users, changing passwords, etc have been scripted and documented, and can be performed should I be unavailable by Doug Marchant and others. There is a web hosting policy document that spells out what technical features are supported and what is not supported (and what the user is responsible for).

There is now a secured SQL web interface so that Wayne Harrison can administer the forums database directly himself, and there is a daily backup of the forum which Wayne has access to and copies off occasionally.

We are slowly migrating from FTP access to SFTP - I am migrating users as they require password changes or upon setting up new users. I would still like to disable FTP altogether and will consider doing this for accounts that haven't been accessed for (say) 6 months. I will re-enable them for SFTP only when access is required again.

I have done some work with the NSS office and Bill Putman to simplify the office e-mail arrangement (Bill has now removed an unnecessary duplicate mail server system in the office). PGP encryption software has been obtained but is not yet operational (Bill found that it conflicts with other software). We have yet to resolve this problem. I need to make contact with Bill again and resume this effort.

There have been efforts to clean up the Salons content (by Alex Sproul) and others. I have been helping by partitioning the various areas of the system out such that different users have access and cannot accidentally "step on" work others have done. I will continue to work with Alex and others on this.

Spam is a big problem on caves.org, and if we lose the server again, e-mail will take a long time to recover. I have recently front ended caves.org e-mail through my mail servers (there are currently three, two in the US and one in NZ). This reduces the load on caves.org, allows me to reroute mail elsewhere if the server fails, and enables me to block a lot of spam. You should see a reduction in spam levels.

NSS Discussion Board Subcommittee

Wayne Harrison; pinecamguy@gmail.com

The current NSS discussion board will have been online for six months on February 1. It has grown to more than 600 registered members since September 1. We have more than 6,700 posts so far, on nearly 900 subjects, with an average of 45 posts made per day on the forum.

Things have been very quiet behind the scenes and those posting seem to be happy with the way things are going. I've made a number of improvements to the forum, to make it more enjoyable for posters. Our current main moderators are: Martha Mills, Phil Winkler, Scott McCrea, and Barbara am Ende. Tim White moderators the rescue and vertical sections of the forum and Glen Mills moderates the joke section (making sure it stays clean). All of the former moderators are now posting on the forum (three are moderators on the new board), with the exception of one.

While the NSS Forum is primarily a forum to discuss caving, I know there are other subjects that cavers like to discuss and we have an active "Open Talk" section where things other than caving can be posted. It is currently the third most popular section on the forum, behind the Vertical and Equipment sections. My intention was to use this to keep cavers hanging around instead of just posting caving stuff on this forum and then going somewhere else to discuss news of the day topics.

Office Automation Committee

Phil Winkler; 302-984-2698; pwink@dca.net

A more complete report on the progress with office automation will be available by the next BOG meeting. The big thing is Bill coming on board and setting our new network up correctly as well as showing us the source for very cheap MS software available for non-profits.

Progress
The new network and workstations are up and running well. They are protected from viruses and other attacks via a firewall. A grant from the Dogwood City Grotto will purchase two new workstations for the library and the bookstore. No special budget requests are anticipated for the next fiscal year.

The coming change in our fiscal year starting month from May 1 to April 1 is easily accommodated by our accounting software. No changes are needed in NSSTrak.

A few changes gave been made in NSSTrak to make daily processing more efficient.

Plans
A system description of the office business software requirements is being prepared for the Board. Essentially it will describe our business rules (membership, etc.) and how our software should enforce and accommodate these rules. It is expected to be very exciting to read and a test will be given following the next Board meeting.

A survey wall be conducted of various association management programs available in the market to determine if something better is available.

Problems
None

Office Network setup:

Below is Bill Putnam’s summary of his activities working with the office network:

October 2005

- Used remote login facility to examine configuration of new server. Noted configuration and security issues and reported them to Phil Winkler. Received authorization to make recommended changes.

- Configured system passwords and security features.
- Completed configuration of Windows Small Business Server operating system software

- Installed recommended Microsoft patches and updates

- Obtained and installed Grisoft anti-virus 30-day trial package on server

- Corrected e-mail configuration to resolve e-mail routing and delivery problems

- Configured and activated server monitoring and performance reporting features

- Began documentation of system and network configuration for development of network manual

- Began remote monitoring of server operation and performance

November 2005
- Interviewed David Cruse (installation technician and local IT support) to obtain additional information for network manual

- Standardized and simplified user accounts and email configuration on server

- Reviewed system backup and recovery plan and procedures with office staff

- Examined configuration of server backup system and configured monitoring and reporting features for Backup Exec

- Installed updates for Backup Exec software

- Installed additional Microsoft patches and updates for Exchange e-mail server package

- Configured password policies to require strong passwords, reviewed password security issues with office staff

- Created e-mail distribution group office@caves.org for office staff

- First site visit at NSS Office, Huntsville - 2 days

- Upgraded server to SBS 2003 Service Pack 1 and Exchange 2003 Service pack 2

- Conducted network inventory for inclusion in network manual
- Documented configuration, content, and usages of all office computer systems for inclusion in network manual

- Created network map and corrected wiring and cabling problems

- Installed PGP secure email software for use with web orders
- Moved shopping cart access and website development from old computer to Stephanie's workstation

- Configured older workstations for server and network access

- Installed Grisoft anti-virus software on Windows 2000 workstation and verified/corrected configuration on all other workstations

- Located and organized software and hardware manuals and documentation on the office; copied key documents and placed them in network manual

- Contacted ISP and obtained router and firewall configuration and support information for network manual; modified firewall to allow SMTP service via Exchange server

- Installed new scanner on Stephanie's workstation

- Worked with Phil and Stephanie to investigate accounting system performance problem

- Conducted network security audit

- Installed 30-day free trial version of F-Prot anti-virus software on server when Grisoft 30-day trial package expired before license could be obtained

- Continued monitoring server operation and performance

December 2005

- Helped Stephanie obtain non-profit discounted licenses for Grisoft server and workstation packages

- Installed and configured fully licensed (2 years) copy of Grisoft on server; removed F-Prot package

- Prepared and submitted grant request to Dogwood City Grotto for $1,350 to cover cost of two new Dell workstations (request approved and funded on 13 December)

- Continued monitoring server operation and performance

Plans for 2006

- Order two Dell workstations to replace current bookstore and library workstations (one has already become unusable due to graphics card failure)

- Order Microsoft Office and Front Page applications (estimated cost $100 using TechSoup software donation program)

- Order Windows XP Professional Upgrade for Windows 2000 workstation in library (estimated cost $20 using TechSoup software donation program)

- Modify e-mail routing for office staff to take advantage of Exchange Server anti-spam and virus filtering capabilities

- Work with Josh to resolve issues with PGP software and set up secure e-mail between NSS web server and office

I plan to visit Huntsville in February (or as soon as the new hardware and software have been delivered to the office) to do the following:

- Install and configure new Dell workstations

- Upgrade Windows 2000 workstation to Windows XP Professional

- Install Microsoft Office and FrontPage applications

- Clean up and organize all wiring and cabling

- Continue network documentation

 

Market Analysis Committee

Debra Young; 321-984-0028; suzyoung@bellsouth.net

Plans:

No current projects up for review at this time.

Problems:

No issues at this time.

NSS Library Committee

Chuck Lundquist; 256-883-8926; lundquc@email.uah.edu

Status and Plans

The usual acquisition and service functions performed by the NSS Librarian, Bill Torode, continued normally during the interval since the last report. Acquiring new publications, recording them and shelving them take a large fraction of the available time of the Librarian, who is a volunteer. Servicing in-person or communicated requests for information from the Library consumes the rest of the reasonably available time of the Librarian. Hence, other needs of the Library require identification of additional personnel.

The need for additional help in the Library was discussed at the January meeting of the Huntsville Grotto. Now that the 2005 Huntsville Convention is past, several members agreed that they can volunteer reasonable amounts of time to support Library functions. The next step is to match individual capabilities and interests with needed Library tasks.

The tasks selected for near-term attention include: 1) Addition of new acquisitions to the existing online Library catalog, 2) Preparation of back issues of the NSS News (News) and the Journal of Cave and Karst Studies (Journal) for binding, and 3) A review of appropriate improvements to the online Library services and catalog. After these initial tasks are being satisfactorily addressed, further beneficial tasks will be selected. There are, of course, many potential actions that could enhance the value of the Library to NSS members.

Budget Request

During recent years, a budget of $1,000 has been allocated for acquisition of books, journals and documents for the Library. This same sum is requested for the new fiscal year. Such a modest sum is reasonable only because the Library obtains many items by gifts and exchanges.

The NSS News collection is bound through 1975. Thus 30 years of back issues remain to be bound. For the earliest years of this interval, copies for two years can be bound together in one volume or book. An estimated 20 volumes will be needed for each chronological set of the News for the 30 year backlog. Many years ago the policy was adopted that four sets of News will be bound. Thus about 80 volumes must be processed to catch up with binding the News. Before being sent to a bindery, the individual copies need to be examined for flaws, assembled into sets, and an index appended to the back of the volume. This is a relatively labor demanding process, and lack of manpower for it is a reason the backlog has occurred.

There is another problem that must be addressed. The News has been indexed through 1997 and for 1999. Hence indices should be obtained for 1998 and for 2000 and subsequent years before these volumes are bound.

The Journal (under its evolving titles) has been bound through 1976, thus 29 years remain to be bound. It is estimated that 15 bound volumes will be required for each chronological set, and when 4 sets are desired, some 60 volumes must be produced.

Thus to catch up binding just the News and Journal, approximately 80 + 60 = 140 volumes must be done. A typical binding cost per volume is $10 and therefore a $1,400 budget is requested for binding. Of course competitive bids for binding will be sought at an appropriate time.

In summary, the Library budget request is:
Publication Acquisition $ 1,000
Binding the News 800
Binding the Journal 600

Total $ 2,400

Other Observations

The planned review of appropriate improvements to the online Library services and catalog is a challenging task. Many possibilities exist, but resources for their implementation are limited. Therefore priorities must be established and further resources might be identified. These topics may be best addressed by a committee of knowledgeable individuals. The Library Committee Chairman will seek to augment the committee with knowledgeable individuals from the NSS membership. The advice of the resulting Committee will be sought on these and other topics.

In addition to the major efforts discussed above, there are lesser near-term actions that can be accomplished to enhance the Library. For example, the Librarian has noticed that in recent years, few reprints of speleological papers from non-NSS publications have been donated by the authors to the Library. A note for the NSS News will be prepared reminding authors to send such reprints to the Library. The Library has an extensive collection of older reprints provided by authors.

[The Foundation is considering a grant to complete the binding of the I/o Newsletters.]

Operations Manager

Stephanie Searles; 256-852-1300; manager@caves.org

Progress:

Annette and I are enjoying the office computer Windows XP upgrade. Bill Putnam has joined the I/T Committee and he’s helped us, along with Phil Winkler, to work out the kinks! The blood, sweat, and tears were all worth it. In November, Bill visited the NSS Office and took an assessment of our computers, hardware, software, and server. He implemented ways of doing things more efficiently, offered suggestions on how to do things better, and anytime we have a problem or question, all we have to do is call or e-mail him. He even wrote a grant letter to the Dogwood City Grotto and the NSS office received funds from the grotto for two new computers.

By now, members should have received their 2005 Members Manual, American Caving Accidents (2002-2003) and the Annual Appeal (Fundraising Letter). If you haven’t received your Manual or ACA, contact the NSS (phone: 256-852-1300, e-mail: nss@caves.org or fax: 256-851-9241).

The auditor has completed the audit of the NSS FY05 accounting.

If you donated to the Convention 2005 Auction, you should have already received your donation letter.

The damage to the NSS Office roof has been repaired.

The NSS bookstore was not a presence at OTR 2005, but Emily and Mike from Speleobooks received NSS memberships for the NSS Office. Thanks!

In December 2005, we reprinted Speleogenesis, 500 copies.

Since receipt of On Caves and Cameras in August, the sales for August – December 2005 are 276 copies.

I’ve added new books: On Caves and Cameras and Dunbar Cave to Amazon.com’s website.

In December, I sent a sample/review copy of On Caves and Cameras to Partners Book Distribution, Inc., Holt, Mich. They’ve sent a contract for me to sign. Partners has relationships with most major book retailers from independent booksellers such as Tattered Cover and Joseph-Beth to the chain booksellers such as Barnes & Noble, Borders, Waldenbooks, and Hastings.

Annette and I attended TAG 2005, Oct 6-9 at Lookout Mountain. Thanks to E.T. Davies and Glenn Mills for helping us set-up the bookstore tent in the pouring rain. TAG Sales: $2,415.39.

Bookstore Sales:

2^nd Qtr 2005 vs. 2^nd Qtr 2004

*Includes SERA Sales $1,151 **Includes SERA Sales $1,278

3^rd Qtr 2005 vs. 3^rd Qtr 2004

*Includes Convention 2005 Sales $14,555 *Includes Convention 2004 Sales $7,219

**Includes OTR Sales $1,091

4^th Qtr 2005 vs 4^th Qtr 2004

*Includes TAG Sales $2,415 *Includes TAG Sales $1,941

Plans:

Annette will issue donation letters before January 31 to all members who are in the Stash Your Cash Program (for more info: www.caves.org/donate ). Instead of issuing a letter each month for their donation, we wait until the end of the year and issue one donation letter with a cumulative donation total.

I will complete and mail out 1099s to contractors of the NSS and mail a copy to the IRS before January 31.

By next month, we’ll make contact with all NSS Life Members and have them confirm if we have the correct contact information in the database. We’ll include in the mailing a bookstore flyer offering 10% discount on NSS Pubs.

Complete and issue employee reviews by May 1^st.

It is my desire and goal to revise the NSS bookstore page. First, I would like to take a FrontPage/website class at New Horizons Computer Learning Center.

By next month, I would like to dispose of the credit card machines and save the NSS money by not having to pay these high credit card processing, maintenance, etc., fees. During the Christmas Rush, I put this goal on the back burner. I’m back in contact with NSS member, Mike Hornung, of Northern Merchant Services. I’m interested in their software where Northern Merchant Services will process credit cards for us using ‘real time’ and we pay a small monthly fee, which pales in comparison to what we’ve being paying the credit card company.

Problems:

Bill Torode has made me aware that before we replaced the roof at the Smith House that there was a leak in the Archive Room, where all the grotto info is kept, and the Bulletin Room. Now, there is mold in those rooms. Tom Rea has suggested we have a professional look at those two rooms and make a suggestion on how to fix this.

Photo Archives Committee

Karen Kastning; 540-639-4666; karen@skyhopper.net

Plans:
Long-term plans: No change - My major goal is to establish a detailed database for research purposes. Have primarily been working on 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:
Had correspondence regarding the "Van Swearingen" Collection, but have not yet received this large and valuable collection.

s mentioned in the plans section, a limited amount of progress has occurred in reconditioning (primarily B&W negatives) and storage activities (large format prints).

I've had one request for material for Big Bone Cave in Tennessee, but, as yet, have not located any photographs labeled as being from that cave.

Problems:
Same as recent years: I have not obtained any new photos directly from any cave photographers this year. Tom Rea has obtained a scanner for the Photo Archives, but we have not yet transferred it from Huntsville to Radford, Virginia.

Speleo Museum Committee

Craig Hindman, 410-792-0742; ctider@us.ibm.com

Progress:
Received three more collections.
Four more storage containers were donated - Each is 4 by 4 feet square on wheels - storing part of the collection housed in the garage.

Plans:
Display a representation of the collection at Convention - this will have to be drop shipped.

Once Grand Caverns Regional Park opens their Museum, a representation of caving items will be placed there as a permanent loan, the NSS will maintain ownership and an inventory of the items. Credit will be given to the NSS as the lender of the material and information will be posted on how to contact the NSS.

Problems:
None at this time

The Museum is requesting a budget of $500.
Given the distance to this year's convention, items will have to be shipped to site.

3/2/06