[Ccil-user] CCIL's Future

[Chuck Peters]

Here is a message from CCIL's Executive Director Donald Berger.

Hello CCIL concerned CCIL users!

Thank you for caring enough to join this group. The purpose of this
discussion, is to assist CCIL through the current situations, and help it t=
o
recover and chart a course for the future. We are glad you have decided to
join!

As stated in the all-user email, CCIL is facing some crisis at the moment
we need volunteers, technical and non- and we need leaders to help us
chart our future course.

This forum is intended to be a free discussion of ideas and issues about ho=
w
CCIL should be run, and what we should do. Our previous course was out of
touch with the volunteers in our community, and as such needs to be either
revised or totally changed.

We face several challenges right now =96 but our biggest challenges in
choosing a direction for CCIL, and in motivating our own community to
support the programs we decide to become involved with. Additionally, we
face severe challenges in financing our operations long term, as our costs
have been rising faster than our donations.

Below are my personal and professional thoughts on the issues from an
earlier email on this crisis =96 but my thoughts are intended to provide a
starting point for the discussion only. I am hopeful that together, we can
see solutions to our problems, both short and long term, and build a
stronger, more vibrant CCIL for Chester County. I have already tendered my
resignation as CCIL=92s Executive Director, effective May 1st, 2002 =96 and=
 so
add my voice to this discussion only as a concerned volunteer without any
greater standing than the rest of you.

My only request of participants in this forum, it to behave civilly to one
another =96 NO FLAME WARS! It is fine to disagree with someone=92s viewpoin=
t,
but please make every effort to refrain from personal attacks on anyone.
Part of what has brought us to this point is poor communications =96 so let=
=92s
not continue that here!

Thank you again for your willingness to be part of the solution!


When I was hired last October as Executive Director, it was for the purpose
of assisting CCIL in transforming the nature of the organization from
basically a free ISP (which you are all users of) into a social services
technical support organization that also provides free ISP services. This
was the vision given to me by the board, and my sole mandate - and the need
for such an organization definitely exists here in Chester County. Front
Line Social Services organizations need help understanding technology,
accessing technology, and using technology intelligently in order to better
serve our friends and neighbors in need. They don't have the resources, or
the manpower, to do it without help - and this is hurting the people who
they serve - denying them help when they need it.

Programs I have started, or revived, beyond CCIL's core of a free ISP, have
included computer rebuilding projects to provide non-profits and needy
citizens with computer hardware, a corresponding youth training/mentoring
program to teach interested youth computer building and software
installation skills, a program to assist non-profit organizations with
technology assessments required by granting organizations for funding
purposes, and a program to assist new US citizens who are learning English
to also learn how to use computers - both to improve their English skills,
and to integrate into our society by using computers to create their
resumes, and search for jobs. Past programs we have started have
additionally teach and assist senior citizens with using computers and the
web, and have created an online information exchange for homeless shelters
to share information about the availability of emergency beds, so that
people who need them don't have to sleep outdoors. And for over 40
non-profits, we host, and in many cases helped design, their web presence -
helping to ensure that the community has access to information about these
organizations, so they can get the help they need. The value of our hosting
services alone is over $9600.00 to the non-profit communities, and our othe=
r
technical services is easily worth tens of thousands of dollars to the
community. And the conservative value of our Free ISP dialup services is
almost $156,000.00 annually, spread between over 1,300 individuals and 40
non-profit organizations.

And funding organizations are beginning to believe that the assistance we
would like to offer to organizations in our community are necessary, and
worthy of their support. To date, I have approx. $17,5000 in verbal pledges
based on grant requests for CCIL to have the money necessary to maintain an=
d
expand our services (our budget this year is about $40k total, with only
$10k approximately coming from user donations). Following this path, I
believe we could both maintain CCIL's current functions of a free ISP to th=
e
community, and expand CCIL's reach of assistance to organizations that
provide food, clothing, shelter and crisis counseling assistance for our
friends and neighbors in need.

Unfortunately, we do not have sufficient technical volunteers to provide th=
e
services to other non-profits, which range from technical assessments these
organizations need in order to win grant money necessary to fulfilling thei=
r
service missions, to setting up networks, building and configuring
computers, creating and hosting web sites, creating training programs and
instructing non-technical social services workers, often volunteers
themselves, in using some of the more complex communications tools that our
systems offer, such as message and mailing lists.

In fact, many of our volunteers are facing a number of crisis themselves - =
a
lack of interest and motivation in following the path the CCIL board had
directed me to take being one of the major causes for this disinterest, in
addition to personality conflicts between volunteers and board members.

Our small core of technical volunteers, and most of our other volunteer
based services, focus on CCIL providing free dialup access to citizens of
Chester County - a valuable and worthy service, certainly, which accounts
for the Lion's share of our dollar value to the community. And one that is,
equally certainly, slowly losing its relevance in terms of keeping the
organization fiscally solvent. Looking at our donations levels, and the
rising costs of maintaining our equipment, combined with a singular lack of
interest on the part of most funding organizations to consider providing a
free ISP service as a grant-worthy social service, CCIL will cease to be
able to sustain itself financially without some miracle before this year is
over - IF we remain nothing more than a free ISP.

In order for us to be able to offer services like the ones listed earlier o=
n
a reliable basis to other non-profits, CCIL would have to hire technical
people as resources to be available in addition to our volunteers. The
services the non-profit community needs the most are ones that will, by and
large, be rendered during normal working hours - the same hours our
volunteers are busy earning their livings, and therefore unable to offer
their assistance - even if they were interested in assisting with a
particular project. So as I see it, these expanded services can only be
fulfilled reliably through using paid professional services - and as such,
getting funding for this has been a major effort on my part.

Offering these services does not mean that we have to cease our function as
a free ISP. In fact, I believe that the additional services are what will
preserve CCIL financially to be able to continue to offer our current core
services - and the core services definitely help CCIL to get the funding fo=
r
other projects. However; it does mean that we have to recognize from a
fiscal standpoint, that it is the expansion services which will bring us th=
e
funds we need to maintain our basic services. And it means a basic change i=
n
the nature of the organizations' accountability and structure - as when we
receive grant money to do our work, accountability strings are inevitably
attached - including performance goals, and service ratios, as well as an
increased burden in the actual accounting process. We will no longer be fre=
e
to do whatever we wish with CCIL - we will have to do the things we say we
are going to do, with the money we receive.

At this time, because of the problems we face as an organization, we have
lost all but 4 of our board members. And the President of the Board has
indicated that he will step down in June, after 7 years of service to the
organization in various roles, leaving only 3. No one has indicated so far
that they are willing to step up to the plate to take over the role of
President, soon to be vacated. This leaves us with a board of directors tha=
t
is shattered, and will need to be rebuilt if the organization is to survive=
=2E

Furthermore, the recent problems we have faced have caused many of our
volunteers, both technical and non-technical, to either quit, or lose
interest in doing anything for CCIL. The result of this means that our core
functions, now without direction or firm support from either 'side', slide
into oblivion as we watch. Headway that I have made in gaining acceptance a=
s
a social service technical support provider for our community has been
discredited by our actions, or inability to act. Some upgrade and repair
projects to improve our core services have been stalled. Several potential
funding organizations have declined to assist us, and although they have no=
t
directly said so, I have reason to believe that their attitude is that if w=
e
are unable to reliably fulfill our basic free ISP mission, how can we
fulfill expanded missions? And in a very real way, they are right.

We need to decide what this organization will do. Do we disband, reorganize=
,
or try to muddle through as it is? Personally, I am as tired of all this as
many of you are - it seems that almost everyone in this organization feels
unthanked and unappreciated for their efforts, and like many of you, I have
more profitable uses for my time than CCIL has currently been able to offer=
=2E
However, I feel that the goal I was asked to help CCIL to reach was and
remains a worthy one. Non-profit organizations need help, and the
organization I was told to make CCIL into would be able to help them - whil=
e
at the same time maintaining our current community services, the services
you as a CCIL user are currently using for your email and internet access.
Our organization CAN help a LOT of people in our communities.

While I believe this is the best path for CCIL to follow, to both remain
relevant and viable within the community, it is NOT the only one. I need to
know from those of you who remain, who care enough to answer, what you feel
should be done. I offer the following list of options for discussion; but
there are certainly other options which you should suggest in this open
forum.

Possible Scenarios:

1.  CCIL will remain basically a free ISP only, supported in it's operation=
s
by a core of volunteers. CCIL does not wish to expand into offering other
technical services to other organizations on a regular and reliable basis,
and will continue to focus on providing access and hosting to needy
individuals and organizations. This course, followed by CCIL prior to my
hiring, was tracked by the board of directors as a course that would doom
CCIL to bankruptcy within a short time. My experience with funders, and
review of the fiscal status and history of CCIL, bears this line of
reasoning out - and can be verified with the information on our website
about our fiscal health. However, someone else may be able to succeed where
I can not.

2.  CCIL will shed its ISP services except for hosting non-profit entities.
Dialup services will be shut down, since their cost is prohibitive for
continued provision. Current dialup users may be offered a subsidized
transition into a new ISP, if they show fiscal need. CCIL will focus on web
development community expansion, and/or on providing technical support to
non-profits in Chester County. This could be a very cheap organization to
fund, that will still provide some very useful and necessary services to
many people in our communities.

3. CCIL can decide to continue with the course of development for which I
was hired and have described above.

4. CCIL can be reorganized in some new way, without the rebuilding of a
strong and professional Board of Directors.

5. CCIL can be disbanded. I will attempt to assist the board to find an
organization to absorb our assets and commitments, to carry on CCIL's work
under a new name and form, if desired; or the organization can simply be
liquidated and its assets distributed as dictated by law.

At this stage, many key individuals are advocating the last solution, eithe=
r
disbanding and disbursing, or being absorbed by another stronger
organization, such as ChescoNet. I think this is despair speaking, and woul=
d
like to help find a way to avoid this end to the organization. Therefore
this wide appeal for help to all the users of CCIL. But for any solution
other than 4 or 5 above, I feel the following commitments must be made:

First, a new board of directors must be formed if we are to survive. Withou=
t
a core of directors who have good access to community resources, and bring
expertise in business, community service and communications to our table,
CCIL will not be able to repair the damage already done to our organization=
=2E
The board must have a strong leader, and must contain all of the necessary
skill sets - from fundraising to accounting to public relations to technica=
l
to volunteer coordination and administrative and interpersonal
communications skills. They must have a vision for what CCIL is to become,
and be dedicated to seeing that vision fulfilled, by offering their service
and resources to our cause. All current board members are encouraged to
remain to help CCIL rebuild - but we need to replace the skill sets lost
with new blood, and get some new enthusiasm infused into the organization.
Our Board of Directors was already 2 seats short prior to this disaster -
with 7 seats now open or soon to be open, we need all the help we can get.
Each Board member should lead a particular functional aspect of CCIL=92s
work =96 volunteer recruiting, social activities, community relation, etc.
CCIL should sponsor the new board for at least a series of board retreats o=
n
how to be board members, and how to team build; as well as a series of
retreats with our volunteer groups designed to make sure everyone
understands how their particular talents fit into the organization, and
again to build team Esprit de Corps. In return, Board members will agree to
serve a certain period of time for our organization's benefit, a time perio=
d
which will need to be determined.

Second, the technical volunteers must be reorganized, and a plan developed
to 'reinvent' CCIL's core services from the ground up. The current
patch-together systems, developed by many different individuals over the
last 9 years and in most cases poorly documented, if documented at all, mus=
t
be replaced with a system built for it's new purpose from the ground up -
one that can be administered and maintained by a cross section of our
volunteers, without having to rely too heavily on any particular volunteer
for integral support. This will probably entail CCIL being offline for a
period of time, while this rebuilding is taking place - and if our
volunteers cannot do it in a timely manner, then we need to contract outsid=
e
professional assistance to get it done. Technical volunteers should be
supported with both team building retreats, and with technology skills
training at CCIL expense, in exchange for a commitment service level that
will need to be determined.

Third, both groups must be committed to being accountable for their
responsibilities - and part of the rebuilding process will be determining
just what those responsibilities are. Although you are all volunteers, for
the organization to survive at all there must be a level of commitment to
the goals, and a corresponding sacrifice from organization's key
volunteers - so if you don't feel you have the time or commitment to the
cause, don't offer to stand in for the key positions. We will have plenty o=
f
useful small projects ongoing, where people can make volunteer contribution=
s
without serious time and energy commitment levels - but we need some
seriously committed folks in order to rescue this organization.

Finally, and most importantly - we need leaders - leaders who can take
charge and inspire our organization to reach for the goals it decides upon.

What we need from interested parties, presuming a favorable resolution abou=
t
the continuation of this organization, is new volunteers to assist with the
rebuilding, and presumably growth, of CCIL. We need programmers, web
engineers, systems administrators, and people who just want to learn. We
need folks who want to work on the social services projects we're trying to
support - rebuilding computers, teaching students and helping particular
non-profit organizations fulfill their technical needs, as well as
maintaining our own servers and adding new services. And most of all, we
need volunteer leaders for our projects - be they technical, administrative=
,
or as a member of the Board of Directors. I hope that together, we can
recover and chart a new course for this organization.

Thank you for reading this, and for your continued support of CCIL. Let=92s
start the discussion, and find our solutions!

Donald Berger
Director@ccil.org