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Keep coming back here to find out what links we've added, what programming changes are offered and what's happening with the organization. December 2009 The Genesee Free Net (GFN) Board of Directors wishes evryone a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season. The Genesee Free Net (GFN) is a 501 (c) 3 organization and any year end contribution you would care to make to GFN is tax deductable. This will help the GFN to continue it's mission of providing Internet service to everyone who needs it. Our address is on the Home Page. The improvements on our two new servers is just about complete. The Web and Radius servers are now online and the mail server is in the process of being migrated before the end of the year. The second new server is used as a firewall, anti-Spam, Virus protection and several other features we have introduced this past year. This server is up and running . It's increased speed has solved several problems we have seen from hugh quantities of Spam that at times overwhelm our old server. Our expanded services are in the area of Web Site Development with ease of creating and updating Web Sites with our content management system will allow better more up to date sites. Our objective is to provide cost effective sites that are easy to setup and maintain. We currently have a number of new sites up and running. We have made many improvements service this year and implemented many cost cutting moves to allow continued service to not only the community but other areas throughout the State. We will have additional information for you as we progress into the next year. Also please check our Help Center as Windows 7 has some changes in it's mail client. Larry Porn, Board Chairman July 2009 The Genesee Free Net (GFN) is in the process of making some changes to improve service and expand into some additional areas to allow the future existance of GFN. The improvements include the addition of two new servers which are faster and larger than the current system. We are in the process of migrating to these new servers and upgrading the operating systems to improve performance. The Web server is now online and the mail server is in the process of being migrated as well. The second new server is used as a firewall, anti-Spam, Virus protection and several other features we have introduced this past year. This server is scheduled to be up and running before the end of July. It's increased speed will solve several problems we have seen from hugh quantities of Spam that at times overwhelm our current server. (Slow mail delivery and busy mail server). Our expanded services we are preparing to provide are in the area of Web service for Non-profit organizations. The ease of creating and updating Web Sites with our content management system will allow better more up to date sites. Our desire is to provide cost effective sites that are easy to setup and maintain. Our latest moves of our servers and office in May were based on cost and access considerations to allow us to provide cost effective solutions to our dial-in Members as well as our new Web offerings. Larry Porn, Board Chairman June 2009 The Genesee Free Net (GFN) has completed it's move into the new office and is in the process of unpacking. We had water on the floor because of the four inches of rain in three hours. Thank goodness that does not happen very often. Denny Cavanaugh has stepped down as Board Chair. Larry Porn will assume the Chair and yield the Vice Chair job to Scott Gifford. Denny will continue as Treasurer.
April/May 2009 The Genesee Free Net (GFN) is in the process of moving our Office to Bristolwood Community of Christ at 1158 West Bristol Road in Flint Township. We are also going to colocate with Sectorlink in Downtown Flint. The purpose of this change is to reduce our costs and not require any increase of costs to our membership as modem access fees, co-location fees, and other costs have been increasing. We will also be upgrading our servers at the same time to provide faster response to our mail service. March 2009 The Genesee Free Net (GFN) is looking to move our Office and our Colocation Cabinet in order to save money. We have been losing money each month and our reserves are getting low.
February 2009 The Sunday, February 22nd Parade Magazine stated; “Internet access is increasingly important for everything from homework help, to job hunting, to staying in touch with family and friends, but low-income Americans and those in rural areas, often don't have access” This is exactly the need that the Flint-based GFN fills. Since our founding in 1994, as the Genesee Free Net, we have provided dial-in access for our members. We are in a struggle, just like the other non-profit organizations are, to survive in these economic hard times. We still offer our members the basic dial-in Internet access for $60 a year. As a member, you can use your land-line phone to get vital Internet information and services. We have changed our name to GFN and expanded from our Genesee County service area to serve the entire State of Michigan. We saw the need for rural people who have phone lines , but no Broadband access to be able to “surf the Web”. We have not raised the price of membership in the face of rising costs. GFN members can access their email from home, from the library, or from an Internet cafe. GFN is available for clubs and non-profits to have an affordable website and email addresses for their officers. The email addresses can be transferred with the change in officers to keep your information going to the right person. This also frees the officer's personal email by keeping that for personal use. Please look us up at www.gfn.org for more information. We are a volunteer organization that believes in the people's right to access at a reasonable cost.We are working to secure the future of GFN. January 2009 We are in cost-cutting mode at GFN. We are looking for everything that we can do to get GFN through these tough financial times. We are exploring using PayPalTM for renewal of GFN Membership. This would be paperless, save time and save postage. There will be more information on changes as they develop.
Here is a link to the 2008 Annual Report.
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