The Lincoln Networks Budget Report

INTRODUCTION

The budget approved for our project was presented in several categories:

• Personnel
• Fringe Benefits
• Travel
• Equipment
• Supplies
• Contractual
• Other
• Indirect Charges

This report presents budget and expenditures from the federal funds and local anticipated in-kind or cash match in contributions and the calculated Match. Detailed materials are on file here in support of the various elements presented. A summary discussion is presented where there are alterations from the budget narrative presented with the initial proposal.

In regard to "project-related activities funded by non-Federal sources," please note:

1. In May, 1996, AT&T awarded GSU a grant of $20,000 for a regional conference on community technology with a primary focus on the emergence of the Lincoln Networks.
2. We are anticipating an announcement of a grant for $34,000 from another telecommunications company in support of the "Voices of Phoenix" telephone networking project.
3. The impact of the Lincoln Networks, through the LincolnNet and through the various projects in telephony, played a major role in the refunding for another two years of the work of the South Metropolitan Regional Leadership Center (for a total of $400,000 over the next two years).

BUDGET REVIEW WITH EXPENDITURES OF FEDERAL FUNDS AND IN-KIND MATCHES:

The Budget Narrative reflects the involvement of a wide variety of personnel at various levels of time commitment.

Project Staff:

In the federally funded portion, we expended funds for the four positions indicated: Project Director, Technical Manager, Training Manager, and Clerical Support. As indicated in our memo of Feb. 14, 1996, there were two changes of significance: a) individual salary amounts were changed due to changes in staff and the integration of the Lincoln Project into the Regional Leadership Center, and b) given the broad "grass roots" nature of the project as it evolved, the Training Manager position became the "Training Team" reflecting the involvement of a number of persons paid to participate as training managers.

Outside Evaluation Team:

Cash payment through Center for Extended Learning.

Technical Assistance:

Technical assistance from throughout the University for technology conferences, videoconferencing, training programs

GSU Faculty/staff Liaisons/Teams:

8 key staff played critical liaison roles within our regional development project, in addition, we have calculated partial participation by other faculty on short term projects

Dean’s Campus-wide leadership:

As proposed:

RAP/2000+ Research Associate:

As proposed with revised budget:

RAP/2000+ Community Resource Teams:

The forms of participation led to significant contributions by five community representatives and four community based "teams." Estimates of times and value of in-kind contributions were calculated for all. This was a revised budget item.

RAP/2000+ Support staff:

As proposed:

The Educational Computer Network:

As proposed:

FRINGE BENEFITS:

As proposed in revised budget:

As proposed in revised budget :

Benefits were calculated as planned, at 20.0% of base salary. Because of the timing on hiring and the evolution of the "Training Team" approach, the expenses were somewhat less than anticipated.

TRAVEL:

As was proposed, this covered travel costs that were local in nature. In addition, these funds were used to cover part of the costs related to participation by the Project Director in the TIIAP Workshop in June, 1996. The local match was used as proposed for meeting related expenses.

EQUIPMENT:

As proposed in revised budget:

As indicated in the covering memo, expenses related to equipment, software, contractual services, and telecommunications are inter-related. In this section, we have identified the major equipment items and their costs as these developed in response to the needs of the project. Obviously, both because of changes in the technologies and changes in the movement of the project, these configurations differ from those originally proposed.

For the LincolnNet we acquired a Sun Ultra 1 -- Model 140 to run the webserver, news-server, mail server, Real Audio server (with the capacity for 80 streams), and other utilities. This has 128 MB memory, 6 GB of disk storage for systems software, user homepages, e-mail boxes, etc. With it is one tape drive which produces 5 GB tapes for daily backup of all user data. This is supported by two terminal servers each supporting 16 modems for dial-in access. All is on an Ethernet network connecting with the University to the Internet. In support of the LincolnNet we have installed and configured four work stations for maintenance, development and data sharing, and for overall support of our regional development activities. These are tied to the Ethernet network and are also used for sound editing and digitizing.

For the Lincoln InfoLine and our telephony networking, we have two on-line systems/servers, and one off-line server for program development. The system/server located in Phoenix for the "Voices of Phoenix" network using 2 (or now 4) incoming lines with the capacity to grow in that community and add service to other communities. The GSU system/server has 12 incoming lines.

Major equipment for LincolnNet:

Major equipment for telephony networks:

Work Stations for Lincoln Networks:

SUPPLIES:

As proposed, this covered basic office and project supplies.

CONTRACTUAL:

OTHER:

Note that the first column is the revised budget numbers from the original budget narrative listed under Contractual and Other, the second column reflects expenses recorded as "Contractual Services" and for "Telecommunications."

As indicated in the introduction, the evolution of the project in meeting the stated goals led to a variety of alterations in terms of the materials, connectivity, software, and other elements needed to build the Lincoln Networks. We found for example that connectivity for the LincolnNet through the University’s systems to the Internet proved to be very adequate, however, there were a variety of connectivity costs in establishing the "Voices of Phoenix" telephony systems in that low income community.

As indicated, Contractual Services costs were intimately tied into Telecommunications expenses and were related to various kinds of equipment costs. Major items included the following:

CONTRACTUAL EXPENSES:

TELECOMMUNICATIONS EXPENSES:

The LOCAL MATCH noted here included cash contributions in the RAP/2000+ operating budget to pay for Telephones and postage and for Publications and data.

PLEASE NOTE: the major expense items outlined include the designation of $6,114 (for the original budgeted amount of $6100) particularly for publicity related costs for regional awareness of TIIAP and the Project.

INDIRECT CHARGES:

As proposed in the original budget, GSU applies an indirect cost rate percentage on all direct cost categories except equipment.

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