Attachment D
National Speleological Society
Operations Vice-President’s Report
November 4, 2006
Table of Contents:
Operations Vice President
Archivist
Audio-Visual
Committee (Slides)
Audio-Visual
Committee (Video)
Cave
Files Committee
Internal
Organizations Committee
Information
Technology Committee
Discussion
Forum Subcommittee
Office
Automation Committee
Market
Analysis Committee
NSS
Library Committee
NSS
Operations Manager
Photo
Archives Committee
Speleo-Museum
Committee
Cheryl Jones; cheryl.caver@verizon.net
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, I have edited it as suitable. Addresses and contact information for all people in this report can be found on the Current Personnel Web page: www.caves.org/nss-business/bog/table-4d.html
Progress Highlights:
Office and Bookstore
1. We have hired a new staff member, Kelli Davis. Due to a change in her personal life, Annette can no longer work full time.
2. Cave Conservation and Restoration (CCR) and a reprint of Caving Basics have arrived. Ads for CCR and the NSS Bookstore have been submitted to the NSS News.
3. Fellow pins have been ordered.
4. Convention bookstore sales were $5,025 vs. $14,555 at the 2005 Convention. Attendance in Bellingham was about half that at Huntsville.
5. Awaiting final approval to implement a real-time credit card authorization program on the NSS Web site. This will save us about $2,000 a year in swiping machine rental and other costs, and free up a lot of staff time.
6. The Office has four state-of-the-art workstations connected to the Windows 2003 file server, thanks to Dogwood City Grotto and Bill Putnam.
7. The gift membership flier in the NSS News netted $1,386.00 in new memberships.
NSS Web Site
1. A lot of clean-up work, much of it behind the scenes, has been done on the NSS Web site.
2. Plans are underway to revamp the NSS Web site by creating a template for each web page master to use, and cleaning up a rather tangled web of software and commands.
3. The domain www.NSSBookstore.org was purchased, which redirects to the caves.org site, and is being advertised. The NSS on-line Bookstore is being revamped.
4. Over this last quarter of the year, the NSS Web site is being moved to a new hosting service. Among the benefits, our annual fee will be reduced by about half, better back-up security will be provided, and the IT Committee will be relieved of many of the background admin jobs necessary to maintain the site.
5. By the Board meeting, there will likely be more than 1,000 NSS Discussion Forum members.
Internal Organizations Committee
All files have been moved from Evelyn Bradshaw’s home, sorted, and re-filed.
J. Reynolds Duncan, Jr; reynolds.duncan@worldnet.att.net
Plans:
Continue with the review, sorting, and integration of
Archives material.
Progress:
Responded to a few requests for information.
Audio-Visual Committee (Slides):
Tim White’s situation has changed so that he no longer will be able to work on the slide show digitizing project. He has asked to be replaced.
Audio-Visual Committee (Video):
David Socky; sockydr@cox.net
Progress:
1. New videos
2. Convert slide programs to CD format
My plan is to work with Jonesy in getting more slide shows converted and into the AV library. I will be contacting Jonesy soon about getting more slide programs converted. I will also get the four programs already done into the AV Library
No progress
3. 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
4. PDF Library catalogue
Produce a ‘downloadable’ PDF catalog of the slide and video library.
No progress
5. 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.
No progress
Plans:
1. Try to publish monthly articles in the NSS news about the AV Library. If nothing else, write about some of the different programs available.
2. Make a DVD compilation of the different NSS Convention promo videos that are available and put it into the AV library.
3. I will be producing the 2009 ICS promotional video. This will be distributed around the world, and be added to the AV Library.
Richard Blenz; 812-825-2345; rblenz@ucs.indiana.edu
Progress and plans: Carry on as usual.
Internal Organizations Committee:
Keith D Wheeland; 814-238-2057; kwheeland@psualum.com
Progress:
1. 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.
2. I/O - New, Reinstatements, and Inactivations
3. Consolidation of I/O Files
On September 10, Keith Wheeland drove to Fredericksburg, Virginia, and brought back to State College 18 boxes of I/O files from the apartment of Evelyn Bradshaw. All of the boxes have been sorted and filed. There are ten boxes of material that will be taken to the NSS archives. All current I/O material has been filed.
As far as we know all of the I/O material that was in Evelyn’s apartment has been retrieved. Thanks are due to Evelyn and her daughter, Martha Adams, who helped with the work.
Plans:
1. Adding the Affinity Groups to the online reporting process is in progress.
2. Eric McMaster and I also plan to streamline the annual reporting process to tailor reports based upon the category (Grotto, Region, Section, Survey, Affinity Group). This should be less confusing to the persons who submit the reports.
3. Discussions are underway with Phil Winkler to see if it is feasible for most of the I/O processing to take place on the NSS computer rather that the personal computer of the I/O Committee Chair.
Discussion has also begun about using the database service offered by the new Web hosting service, and storing the data on line.
Problems and Issues:
It would be very helpful if I/Os were able to enter an NSS number and determine online whether the NSS member were active or not. I envision the submitter of the annual report verifying that their officers are indeed current NSS members. The submitter would enter an NSS number and the system would return a name and expiration date of the member. This would help the process of submitting the annual report, and may improve compliance with NSS regulations. I don’t see a security risk in doing this.
[We’ll follow up with Josh Bailey and Phil Winkler on this idea after the NSS Web site is moved to the new hosting service.]
Committee Members:
Evelyn Bradshaw (Chairman, Emeritus), Gary Bush, Eric McMaster, and Esty Pape.
Information Technology Committee:
IT Team Chairman: Josh Bailey; josh@vandervecken.com
Progress:
Corrected many glitches on the Web site that had developed through the varied. Alex Sproul has taken on more responsibility on the Committee, and has been a great help.
Mike Harrison has agreed to create a new presence for the NSS Bookstore, and Robert Sewell is creating a new NSS Fiscal page. Mike and Robert are working on a new format for the NSS Web page.
Plans:
Between now and the end of the year, the NSS Web site will be moved piece by piece to Hostica, a hosting service. I envision a short-downtime migration period where content is mirrored on both the new and the old site. The new service will assume many of the background admin tasks that are now required of volunteers, and will provide better back-up security, all for about half of what we’re paying now. Both are very important to the NSS’s ability to continue to provide a quality Web site. Hosting services have come a long way quickly, and prices continue to drop.
Problems:
Only those associated with moving the Web site.
IT Team:
Tom Rea, Society
Business Pages
Gary Bush, Internal Organizations Page
Stephanie Searles, Mike Harrison NSS Bookstore Pages
Dave Socky, AV Library
Doug Marchant, I-O Accounts
Wayne Harrison, NSS Discussion Board
Robert Sewell, NSS Fiscal Information Page
Glenn Mills, Youth Caving page
Additional
Consultants:
Camille Muller
Kelley Prebil
NSS Discussion Forum Subcommittee:
Wayne Harrison; wayne@caves.org
Progress:
As of October 1, The NSS Discussion Board now has more
than 985 registered forum members, making approximately 17,300
posts since Sept. 1. 2005. I've added a forum for the Chattanooga
Grotto at the request of Grotto Chairman Marty Abercrombie. The
Chattanooga Grotto joins the Huntsville and Flittermouse Grottos
with their own sections on the NSS forum. The offer is still out
for other NSS Grottos that may not be able to put up their own
forum.
We had a growing problem with spambots registering on the forum and I have installed a number of software blocks to get a handle on this. One way of doing this is having the person registering answer "Are you a caver?" and requiring them to access a pull-down menu to answer yes. I have also altered the path that is used to register to throw automatic registration software off. It seems the more popular a forum is, the more spammers target it.
Plans:
As the
Discussion Board continues to grow I plan to bring in more
moderators so that we can help keep the board lively and respond
quickly to any problems
Problems:
As part of my campaign to try and cut out the number of
spam registrations, I installed a "banned words list"
to prevent the posting of words popular with spammers. Problems
developed in this implementation and it has been removed.
Our moderators continue to be vigilant in keeping an eye on posts
and moving any questionable posts to our "quarantine"
area, where they can't be seen by registered or non-registered
forum users.
Phil Winkler; pwink@dca.net
Progress:
Bill Putnam completed the installation and configuration of the two new PCs donated by Dogwood City Grotto. The Office now has 4 state of the art workstations connected to the Windows 2003 file server. Anti-virus software was installed and updates itself daily. A secure password policy has been established and implemented. Bill has also made it possible for the NSS to receive Microsoft Office upgrades at a very inexpensive price for non-profits.
Plans:
Apply to Adobe's Software Donation Program to acquire
several of their titles for use by the NSS. Stephanie registered
the NSS last year and will follow up on applying to ask for Adobe
Acrobat and Illustrator CS.
Debra Young suzyoung@bellsouth.net
No Activity, but ready and willing to take on a project.
Chuck Lundquist; lundquc@e-mail.uah.edu
Library activities are progressing routinely. Summer vacation postponed most activities. Expect to pick get back on track this fall.
Stephanie Searles; manager@caves.org
Progress:
1. I hired a part-time employee, Kelli Davis. Annette had to reduce her hours due to family obligations. Annette will be working on M/W/F and Kelli will work on M/T/TH and other days as needed.
2. Kelli began her new adventures at the NSS Office on Monday, 9/25. Kelli is a graduate of J.F. Drake Technical College. She has an Associates Degree in Office Administration. She is efficient in Excel, Microsoft Word and Desktop Publishing. She has superior data entry and customer service skills. Please welcome Kelli to our family by e-mailing kdavis@caves.org or call her at 256-852-1300.
3. Annette and I attended Convention 2006 in Bellingham, Washtington. Despite bookstore sales being down from last year’s convention ($5,025.33 - 2006 vs. $14,555.05 - 2005), it was an awesome convention. Hats off to the 2006 Convention Committee!!
4. Cave Conservation and Restoration finally arrived on 8/23/06! I had to hustle and fill back orders and make contact with those who placed a pre-order, but whose credit card expiration date had expired. It sure was a lot of work but we’re finally getting to the bottom of the back-order folder.
5. Not counting the free copies to the editors and contributors, as of 9/28/06, we’ve sold 137 copies. The price of Cave Conservation and Restoration is $37 members - $39 non-members. If you haven’t ordered your copy, yet, please do so at www.NSSBookstore.org or call us 256-852-1300.
6. We’ve reprinted 500 copies of Caving Basics (Third Edition). Due to the cost of paper, the new price is $17 members / $19 non-members. We’ve already sold 100.
7. Randall Hunt, CPA/Auditor for the NSS, is completing the audit for fiscal year 05/06. He made visits to the office on 9/6, 9/7, and 9/13 to conduct random samplings of our accounting files. I’ve provided him with all the information he needs from the NSS Office accounting files and I completed the Financial Reporting System questionnaire.
8. Gift Membership Form in the NSS News returned a total of $1,386.00 in membership sales.
9. Water heater replaced at the NSS Office.
10. Bookstore sales
| Month/Yr | Orders | Prd $ Total | Month/Yr | Orders | Prd Total | Order Variance | $ Variance | ||
| Jul 06 | 86 |
$ 6,061 |
Jul 05** | 553 |
$22,003 |
(467) |
($15,943) |
||
| Aug 06* | 368 |
$ 15,223 |
Aug 05 | 145 |
$ 9,981 |
223 |
$ 5,243 |
||
| Sept 06 | 143 |
$ 6,647 |
Sept 05 | 95 |
$ 6,099 |
48 |
$ 548 |
||
| Qtr Total | 597 |
$ 27,931 |
Qtr Total | 793 |
$38,083 |
(196) |
($ 10,152) |
||
| *Includes Convention '06 Sales | **Includes Convention '05 Sales | ||||||||
11. Strategies to increase bookstore sales:
- Continue running NSS bookstore ads in the NSS News. Ads have been created for Cave Conservation and Restoration and these and the Christmas insert have been submitted to the News.
- A new bookstore domain (URL) was created www.NSSBookstore.org, which redirects to www.caves.org/service/bookstore/index.htm, where the Bookstore home page is located.
- We’re enclosing a Bookstore flyer ad in the membership renewal notices. Members receive a 10% discount when they order any NSS Publication and renew their NSS membership.
- Big Bone Cave Advertisement appears in Outdoor Adventures Fall 2006 issue.
- New Bookstore URL (www.NSSBooktore) was placed on the membership renewal notices (front and back pages).
- A memorandum of understanding between the NSS and Mel Turner (of Premium Press America-PPA) has been created. Mel will be an outside sales rep for the NSS by promoting and selling NSS publications. Mel is stationed in Nashville, Tennessee, and has outdoor specialty shops accounts in Tennessee, Florida, and Georgia. PPA recently celebrated their 20th anniversary promoting, marketing, and publishing books. I sent Mel promo copies of On Rope, On Call, Caving Basics, Dunbar Cave, and Big Bone Cave. For every book order he sells, he’ll receive 15% commission.
- NSS Member Mike Harrison was appointed to create a new, improved format for the NSS Bookstore.
12: TAG Fall Cave-In Bookstore and membership income: $4,229.60
5 new regular
1 new family regular
1 new limited
1 life member
Plans
1. Prepare for the bookstore Christmas Rush! Hopefully, there will be a rush.
2. Train Kelli (our new employee).
3. Have NSS banners and flags made for use at the traveling bookstore, at Convention banquets, and the like.
Problems
It’s a huge adjustment for office operations and scheduling when a full-time employee goes part-time. It’s a relief to hire a new employee but it takes time and effort to train a new employee and get her up to par.
Karen Kastning; 540-639-4666; karen@skyhopper.net
Plans:
1. To show the two historic Skeets Miller films (about Floyd Collins and Sand Cave again at the Indiana Convention, because this is the closest the convention has been to Kentucky in several years.
2. Long-term Plans: No change - My major goal is to establish a detailed database for research purposes. This is a two pronged goal: first to protect and second to inventory. To accomplish these goals I need to:
4. Short-term plans: No change: to continue to put protective sleeves on the large-format prints, then sort and file them.
5. To develop several methods to obtain information about many of the unlabeled photos (cave name, location, approximate date, photographer, subjects in the photograph, etc.).
Progress:
1. Storage: Making progress in reorganizing the storage (especially for the large-format prints). All prints are now out of the over-sized boxes. The prints have been sorted by size and filed in archival quality boxes that are the correct size. Most of the 16 x 20 prints/mattes are also in individual protective sleeves.
2. Arrangements have been made to interview a cave photographer over the next couple of months about his photographic materials in the Photo Archives (a couple of dozen large-format prints). This will allow me to establish his work as a separate collection within the archives, as I have done over the years with a few other photographers' works.
3. Thirteen photos were provided to Dave Hughes for him to scan for his book (these were John Meenehan's prints of the Culverwell Art); the prints have been returned to the Photo Archives; the other prints Dave requested were not located in the archives in spite of a very thorough search.
4. Dean Snyder has received a Russell T. Neville photo with a "trip report" that he has offered to dupe for the Photo Archives (not yet received).
5. Prints that were donated via the 2006 NSS Photo Salon have been received.
6. To solicit input from others in identifying details about the photograph(s), several black-and-white prints have been selected to feature in issues of Flash, the Photography Section’s newsletter, and in exhibits at NSS Conventions. If these methods are successful, this will be continued in order to expand the number of useful photos in the archives.
Problems:
The Photo Archives budget was cut in half this past year and I do not have sufficient funds to buy additional archival storage materials.
Same as recent years: I have not obtained any new photos directly from cave photographers this year due to concerns over copyright issues.
Craig Hindman, ctider@us.ibm.com
Progress
Two new collections were received at Convention
Plans
I am working on taking custody of a third collection
Ideas for alternate storage for the museum items were discussed at Convention, as well as ideas for a photo documentation program. Either presents a major challenge for the NSS.
Problems
The airlines lost the display that was to be exhibited at
Convention. It was recovered, but not in time for display as it
arrived on Thursday. It was send back via UPS and arrived safely.
10-23-06