[Computerbank] CAI-Vic Report for January /February 2003

[Kylie Davies]

Hello all,

Below is my non-standard report for this month. (I didn't really follow the 
report template) No new members. Not a lot has happened. :) 

Cheers,

Kylie 

---
Kylie Davies
Victorian State Coordinator 
Computerbank Australia Inc 

_CAI Victoria. State Coordinators Report for February 2003._

General News

CAI-Vic has been quite busy this month; we received several donations: a 
"panel van" full  from Wyndham City Council, and a "celica coupe" full from 
the Royal Melbourne Hospital Department of Psychiatry. We also received 
donations from individuals. 

We were successful in applying for another WFD project of 20 participants. 
The new project begins on February 20th. Participants on the old project will 
rollover across to the new one. 

We have decided to commit to another year at Rosslyn Street, the landlord and 
Real Estate Agent has accepted our terms of no rental or CPI increases. We 
still remain on the look out for other suitable premises or storage. 

We commenced Volunteer Induction sessions in February. To date we have had 6 
new people volunteering to help at CAI-Vic.

Systems Out and Training Report 

This month sees us back distributing computers to people, thus far we have 
given out 8 systems. This is way down on our figures for last year. Our 
Saturday training sessions will not start until March, and training during 
the week has also become restricted. I do think the situation will improve 
over the next few weeks as more volunteers / wfd participants assist with the 
delivery of training.

We have spent a great deal of time training volunteers and Work for the Dole 
participants in the use of the Computerbank Victoria KDE / Linux setup and in 
the commandline. 

We are still trying to solve network issues for the Menieres Support Group 
Network build. The Menieres Support Group have been contacted about the delay 
and will be supplied a couple of stand alone systems (due Thursday 20th) to 
use while we resolve the network issues. 

Update on the South Pacific Project

We are still facilitating the placement of ANZ Bank computers in the South 
Pacific and in East Timor. I am having a meeting with ANZ and the ET contact  
on Monday to review how this project has progressed. 

CAI-Vic agreed to assist the ANZ in it's program to recycle computers 
already in the South Pacific to disadvantaged schools. Our roles has been to 
provide the project with: Copies of the CAI-Vic customised debian / kde open 
source software for installation on the computers, training materials for 
users, technical documentation for software installers and volunteer 
technical support via email / irc. 

CAI-Vic has also assisted the project by networking with Rotary International 
groups across the South Pacific. 

The project has resulted in more than 1000 computers being distributed to 
disadvantaged schools across the South Pacific and in East Timor. (exact 
number will be known at the meeting).

Intranet becoming our Internet Home site real soon.

The CAI-Vic Web site will undergo radical changes soon. We are nearly ready 
to go live with our new look ZOPE based site. This site will also incorporate 
all of the CAI-Vic vault of documentation. Thats 120 odd documents and 
growing! Thanks to all our documentation team, particularly Dave and Dean, 
for making this finally happen.

Future Events

Another volunteer induction session is happening on Wednesday 19th of 
February. A CAI-Vic branch meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 26th of 
February at 6.30pm.