Greetings VCN members,

The VCN help desk will be moving to 333 Terminal Avenue between Thursday, April 26th and Monday, April 30th. During this time the help desk phone number, 604-257-3811, will be temporarily disconnected so it can be moved to the new office. An alternative number to reach the VCN help desk is 778-724-0826 (778-724-0-VCN). Both 604-257-3811 and 778-724-0826 will be active after the phone lines have been moved.

During the move the VCN help desk will still offer support via email and phone. Please expect response delays between Thursday, April 26th and Monday, May 7th as we setup the new office. Until the new office is open to the public, in-person support will continue to be by appointment only. An appointment can be scheduled at 778-724-0826.

Cash and cheque donations should be made at 280 – 111 West Hastings St. Please call 604-257-3804 to make sure someone is available to take your donation or drop by Monday to Friday between 10am and 3pm.

All other VCN services will remain fully operational during this time and are not affected by the move.

Thank you for your patience.

On Good Friday, April 6th, VCN and all other Community Access Program (CAP) networks across Canada received word that the Federal Government has decided to cease its funding of CAP. They have determined that they have "successfully met their objective to bring computer and Internet technologies to Canadians across the country", and have decided that this program was not a priority while trying to balance the budget.

While the letter indicated that the CAP Youth Internship (CAP YI) program will remain funded, it is still unclear how this will happen without federally funding CAP sites.

VCN and other CAP network administrators across Canada are hoping that CAP funding will be reinstated over the coming weeks, but given the current political climate we need your help to make that happen! Some of the other CAP networks have launched websites to aid our endeavours, which you may be interested in visiting and/or contributing towards. Please visit the following website to find out more about how you can help save CAP.

The Nova Scotia CAP Association has begun an information and advocacy website to save CAP: http://www.savecap.ca/ The Pacific Coast Network Association has begun a survey to gather feedback from CAP users about why CAP is still very much needed, which will then be used to advocate for the funding to be re-instated: http://forms.pcna.ca/email.htm

Greetings members!

The Vancouver Community Network would like invite you to a free event at which VCN President, Jim Sayre, will be speaking next week.  Please join us to learn how Bill C-30 is a violation of our privacy and measures we can all take to stop it in its tracks!

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:: There's Still Time to STOP Bill C-30 ::
A public forum on internet surveillance and your privacy.

WHEN: Wednesday, March 21 2012 at 7pm
WHERE: W2 @ The Woodwards Building (111 Hasting Street West)

Moderated by Libby Davies, with special guests:

* Jasbir Sandhu (NDP Public Safety Critic)
* Lindsey Pinto (Open Media)
* Jim Sayre (Vancouver Community Network)
* Michael Vonn (BC Civil Liberties Association)

Find out how the Conservatives' Bill C-30 violates our privacy and what YOU can do to STOP IT.

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