Metro*CAN Society 1995 AGM

Chairs' Report

In our minds, our "coming of age" was marked by the "Chebucto Celebrates" event at the VIA station, enjoyed by about 450 and effectively recognizing our sponsors.

Chebucto played an important role in the G7, both by acting as the official Web site, in cooperation with three levels of government (no mean feat!) and by participation in the Media Lounge. This participation not only served our community and raised our local profile but also drew international attention. Just as one example, a Sao Paolo, Brazil newspaper, in an article about the G7 focussed on Chebucto.

Growth over the past year was dramatic by any measure:

• number of information providing organizations grew 600% to 150
• number of phone lines tripled from 24 to 72
• number of World Wide Web accesses grew by 200% to 2.5 million per month
• number of members grew from 1,370 to 3,073
• number of active users grew from 2,065 to 4,681

Our status was recognized in the 1995 Canadian Internet Awards with three awards: "Best Community Site", "Best Development Team" and "Internet Person of the Year".

Of course, this past year presented many challenges, all of which were met and some we have put behind us:

• our name change to Chebucto Community Net
• the switch to a new Internet provider
• the need to educate our users about the necessity of membership support
• the need for additional revenue for capital improvements
• establishing a role for community nets in the eyes of governments
• the constant need for renewal among our hard-working volunteers
• establishment of policies on appropriate use of Chebucto resources

We find ourselves playing increasingly important roles in activities of external bodies. We have worked to establish the Federation of Nova Scotia Community Networks as a provincial voice. We are working with the provincial Department of Education to ensure that anyone who visits one of the public access terminals in provincial libraries and community colleges can also send and receive electronic mail.

We had a voice on the provincial committee which recommends awards to rural communities under Industry Canada's Community Access Project. One successful applicant, the Town of Windsor, will be forming a Virtual Community Net with Chebucto's assistance and infrastructure. We are also working with Truro to help them get established and will do our best for any Nova Scotia community that asks.

Three of us attended the August meeting of Telecommunities Canada. This summer's meeting will feature a presentation on Chebucto Suite, our software package that we distribute to other communities in Canada and elsewhere. We are currently writing a business plan for further development of CSuite.

We can never say enough to thank all those who have helped over the past year. We plan to do a better job of recognizing these contributions over the coming year. We would, however, like to recognize those who have served as directors during the past year who are not re-offering at this time: David Murdoch, Laura Jantek, Kevin Nugent, Renee Davis, David Towers, Carlos Freitas and Gary Floyd.

Here's to Chebucto and another great year!

Respectfully submitted,

Joan Brown Hicks and David Trueman